I arrived at the barn about 5:30 with a mission in my head. I slipped his halter off the stall hook and rummaged up a lead rope from one of the eye hooks attached to the wall. I looked at my halter in disgust as it is completely covered in dirt and muck, but eh, it still works. I slip it over my shoulder and then the lead rope gets coiled in my hand and I start the long walk to the back field where all the horses are.
Memphis could spot me 15 miles away (ok not that far away but close enough) and stood there completely motionless as I approached. Once I got within 10 feet of him he goes off at a full gallop trying to avoid this whole work thing. That's fine as I was prepared for that and turned my direction to match his and kept on walking towards him. He ran back and forth through the field with me never getting above a walk; I am not exactly new to this game of not wanting to be caught. So I stared at the trees, the ground, and the other horses around me as I walked him down. This didn't exactly take long and he gave up within 10 minutes.
I had a talk with him while I got everything ready. I told him quite loudly that I was tired of his crap and tonight was the night he was going to understand that. He started yelling towards his buddies in the field and I silently mumbled "that's fine". He saw the saddle and started pacing on the lead rope he was attached to but I had no time for his crap and quickly got the pad and then saddle on him. My attitude tonight was not one of sympathy that I usually have to some extent, but one of a job that needed to get done. Surprisingly, Memphis picked up on this pretty quickly. (ok, maybe not too surprising there)
I did not bridle him tonight at first, we needed to work on some lunging first. I got the lunge whip, lunge line, and took him out to the arena. From here we started standard lunging. All I asked for was a walk from him, I swear that was it. Every time I lunge though, he takes off in a rack right off the bat, so I let him do that if he wanted but he had to play my game then. This new game was called "ok" in my head and it goes something like this: the horse decides he wants to do something and I say OK and make him do it till he doesn't want to anymore and I make him continue no matter what. He quickly figured out it wasn't fun to keep up like he was and by God he walked on the lunge line like I asked him to!!!! This is a absolute FIRST.
Once he figured out I meant business I took him back to the barn and gave him a second before we started part two of my plans for him tonight. Part two was riding and so I bridled him and then walked him out to the arena again. Hopped up on him and decided to see if he would just walk out for me around the arena. HA! He thinks the gate means exit which also means barn and here is where I played the game "ok" again. I started letting him gait right next to the gate at a pretty good clip. The barrels were set up in the arena so I did huge figure eights around those all the while letting him act like a fool next to the gate.
Eventually he slowed down and started to walk and I pushed him forward into gaiting again. I told him when to walk and I chose what gait we went. We ended this when he went the speed I said when I asked.
Now, couple things that are totally different about what I've done so far. Number one was I stayed out of his mouth and let him move. I only guided him instead of being in his mouth the entire time and he was allowed to have rein the entire time to move with. Two was the fact I was unafraid of him tonight even with him moving at a super fast rack and a pace a few times. I was catching some serious air and my butt stayed glued to the saddle despite this. Three was my no bullshit attitude I wanted with him; he totally felt out that I wasn't taking his shit today and in accordance to that he did as I asked him to.
I am VERY please with this ride. I actually felt him and I formed a little bit of a closer bond than we had before.
I plan on riding again Saturday unless we go to the lake. So I'm a little excited. :)
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