#double longe

[sugarcubes-and-apples]

I tried long reining with Riki today! It was a first for the both of us, but I think we managed pretty well.

I dabbled slightly with long reining before with a trainer who competes in driving, and he showed me some basics on his own horse, but I never tried it with my boy and never alone. I expected that he might freak out about the lunge line going over his back or behind his legs, so we spent a couple days on desensitizing that just in case, but he didn't seem to mind it at all even once, other than being a bit confused about the aids. He was well started by his first owner so I can't say I was surprised with that.

He figured what he was supposed to do in literal minutes and I was amazed by how he seemed to take everything in stride! He is such a hardworking little guy and quite an overachiever! What a golden boy ❤️

Video coming soon! 🎬

[herrschimmel]

the vet can’t come today as there were some dire emergencies and she has a doc. appointment for herself as well. But so funny, it turns out I know her. She’s a friend of a good friend of mine and used to work at a vet service a little further away but now she’s working for my vet. But yeah made an appointment for first thing tomorrow morning. I went to the barn and did some double longe work, only for 15 minutes or so. The cough was not to bad as yesterday but still there. I did see some pretty good movements though, upper neck and back muscles as well as the hind legs were nicely engaged and his walk has seriously bettered so much. I also never tried double longe in the round pen, only in the big arena but I realized today, that the round pen walls help him keep his balance on the circle line better. Which is not REALLY a suprise but yeah in the big arena he always started speeding and being frustrated and pulling himself closer and closer todether because he drifted outwards and away from me. The walls prevent that so he wasn’t so tightly wound and I will do that again soon.