Yesterday I rode Shunka for the second time this week. This time my new approach to getting him to move forward worked. I had been standing on the ground next to the stirrup and pressing lightly on the stirrup leather about where my calf would be and saying walk. When he took a step or two I clicked and treated him. We had also practiced backing and yielding on the hind. So yesterday when I stepped off the fence into the saddle I asked L. T. to stand at his shoulder and let me try what we had practiced. It worked. Shunka took a few steps twice. Of course L. T. was also urging him forward but I'm pretty sure the ground work was what turned the tide. I think in a week or two we will be going off around the round pen on our own. A red letter day for Shunka!
I worked L. T.'s Thousand also. I started out in the pasture with basic shadowing and then asked him to circle me. He walked off so I did what L. T. does I tossed the end of my throw rope at his hip. He circled me nicely a time or two but when I tried to turn him the other way he walked off around the pen and into his stall. I could not allow that so I took him into the round pen. That's when the problem really made itself known. He began circling me instantly. I had not even cued him. I just stood there with my arms down and my head down and repeated the command for him to stop. It took the longest time to get a pause then I clicked and treated him and off he would go again. The only time I gave him a cue was when he got too close to me, kicking distance- though he never kicks, then I would lift the rope and flip it again to get him out to the fence. He would gallop then for a round or two and I would go back into my no pressure mode. We worked quite a while that way till I finally got him to stop and back up on cue a couple of times. So I learned that control is what we lack when it comes to lunging. He did not at anytime challenge me. He just trotted or ran  on and on. He is a hot horse, perhaps with a lot of Spanish or Arab in him as when he runs his tail is up in a flag and he can float at a trot seeming to go on tiptoes. So we had a Red Letter day for Thousand too.
Pony was the last to train and we were on day three or four with the surcingle and a saddle blanket on him. After a little nervousness at first he settled down and went through all his ground schooling exercises just great. He'll soon be under saddle. He is so mellow. So it was a Red Letter day for all of us.

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