Slowly, slowly...

I have to say, working with a young, unbroken horse is extremely rewarding.

I have on occasion - and I'm sure I will in the future - had thoughts that I'm just not up to the challenge of giving Blitz the best possible start to his ridden career.  

I've ridden very green horses and well schooled horses, but never started one of my own.

At the moment I'm working with Blitz only once or twice a week, but he improves so much each time I really don't feel the need to do more.

Today I took him into the carrière to do a bit of lunging. Considering it was blowing a gale, with odd squalls of rain, things blowing around and the YO putting together the base of a new storage shed he did really well.

Lots of things were different today, e.g. he hadn't been out in the field first, so he was a little on his toes at first and didn't want to walk. 

He has taught me so much about lunging, and I'm learning a lot about anticipating his movements, and especially when he's going to try something new.

His major improvement today was on the right rein, which is his difficult side. Some days working on the right side has produced some impressive explosions, pulling away and trying to run away or me over. Today I managed to anticipate and head off two stops not he right rein, and focused him on moving forward.  After some nice calm steps we switched back to the left in and worked on some trot/walk transitions, which he did really well.

After 15 mins or so we halted and Becky got on to sit on him a while.  He amazes me how well he stands for mounting.  He will follow me on the  rein without any issues, so I just wanted him to get a little more independence, and work away from me a little today. He did really well, and we managed a few circles around me, rather than right by me.

After 5 mins or so, we stopped for the day.

An excellent days work for Blitz :D