My brilliant boy!
Max and I had two mini sessions today and I could not be more pleased.
I took him into the indoor school after the morning at the office, but before my yard shift, for about half an hour of working on the lunge. Mostly trot, a bit of canter, downward transitions and then up again. He was poetry in motion and I told him so. Often! Just moving freely, relaxed and natural. Max at ease is a beautiful thing to behold.
Then rather than letting him out into the field for the afternoon, I kept him back in his box munching hay until after I'd finished all the mucking out. I'm working, but it's nice to have him there where I can see him and stop for a chat. Lovely too, to look up and see him watching me, then a little whuffle when he sees me looking at him.
"Hey there! Done yet? Hay here?"
We then went for a short but courageous session of long-lining around the yard, then down the lane and back in his Dually halter, with me packing my trusty bottle of pebbles to shake if he attempted grazing.
Just Max and I, nobody leading but Max, no back up Ent to support us. We manoeuvred round passing motorists and a couple of motorcycles (where does the traffic suddenly come from?!) and some scary children bouncing up and down, up and down on a trampoline in their garden.
"What the devil... They fly? Flying small people? What a world!"
Max watched, his head nodding with each bounce, his eyes attesting to him being confounded and dumbfounded.
But on we went, with a rattle of the bottle and and shake of the lines.
Max was absolutely superb!
We got to the farmhouse and then turned and Max trotted for home on request like he was a proper driving pony, high stepping and single minded.
The one unfortunate thing about that trot, with me running behind, was that the plastic bottle rattled as I ran, which caused Max to break into a few steps of canter. Difficult for me to keep up with him, dragged along behind imploring "Max! MAX! Steady! Whoa!"
I managed to transfer both lines to one hand, hold the bottle steady in the other hand so it didn't rattle, and then we got back to a more sedate pace.
We were only at it for about 15 minutes or so, but considering the confidence and bravery he needed for this little expedition, he did extremely well and earned his liquorice treat when we got back to the yard.
We will work on this slowly, going a little further when Max is ready, then further again when he is ready for more. I'm not going to overthink this or push Max too far out of his comfort zone; no point in that, and no need for it either.
We're in no hurry and have nothing to prove to anybody, including each other.
“His name is Max, and he's a Norwegian Fjord X Arab. He’ll be four in June. I have about a month to see if I can make it work and make him mine. Have to see if he chooses me too, and whether I'll do him justice.” (1st May, 2006)
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- maczona
- The diary of a young horse and a not quite so young novice. What happens when you decide to return to riding after years away from it and suddenly find yourself buying a horse, and a very young horse at that? Who teaches who?
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