I lunged Harry twice in the last week. I think we had our best session today, although he improves with every session. He's learning to stay calm which means not as many pop and stops. It seems he does these without anger. For all the encouragement I've given him with the lunge whip, he's never offered a hip in my direction let alone a kick. When I have to brush him with the lash he just goes forward. So, I think his stops are just a bit of "are we done yet?". No, we're not done.
I'm working better with him: keeping him close to me so I can rest my whip on his rump and be ready to bop him when it looks like he's going to 'pop'. He's doing very well on his walk/trot/walk transitions. I'm not really working on loping at this point because keeping him close in makes his circle quite small. He's giving me some nice western jogs.
After all this ground work and the progress we're making, I feel like we'll really be a team when I get back to riding him. We're learning a lot about each other and how we think and work.
Today, I clipped his bridle path. He was an absolute doll for it considering he's not real sure people should do this to horses! He even lowered his head so his 'Dad' could do some clipping...at waist level, no less.
Harry thrives on all the attention. He really likes being around people so much that even 'work' isn't work for him. When I put him back out in the pasture, he hangs around the gate for a while. He's so contented after he's worked a little and so easy to love on.
When his other mother said he loves people, I thought I understood what that meant. But, this guy would rather be with people than horses. He's such a sweetie.
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