My work day was super busy today. Like to the point I really had to talk myself into going to the barn tonight. I knew once I got there I'd wake up and be ready to work, which is exactly what happened :-)
I groomed and tacked Alex all ready to lunge him and put in a good ride. Too bad the indoor already had two occupants, one of which was working on the lunge. There was just enough light left to lunge him outside in the cold which I did for a while till it got dark. Considering the circumstances he was actually pretty darn good about that. I walked him back to the indoor and they were done lunging so I figured I'd go on in and ride for a bit. Of course the presence of not one but two other horses in the indoor, after a very brisk lunging session outside, made Alex very alert. He immediately went into giraffe mode and could not take his eyes off the other horses even when they left the arena. So I decided to lunge him some more. When he finally stretched a bit and gave up I figured I'd better go on and ride. At the walk he thought about a little rear... I immediately put the nix on this by urging him into the trot. Although there were intermittent moments of nice stretching, he was mostly anxious and fussy in all gaits. Grrrr...
Now keep in mind that 6+ months ago, he probably would've come out of his skin with anxiousness about all that "activity." Tonight he didn't do that, he just wiggled and fussed. He has made a lot of progress, but as with most "promise filled" horses, it's not going to be easy or quick. Nothing about training a horse ever is.
Someday he will get over himself and the world around him, but today was not that day kemosabe.
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