A lunge into training...

I would like to point out that this particular experience that I am writing about now is a recent one. Just occurring last night. We have many other exiting moments in the past that I do plan on writing about in time. However, I would like to talk about our excitement from last night.

I have been delaying the attempt to teach Siren to lunge for a while now. I do not want to put too much strain on her mind or body at too young of an age. I feel that she is ready now to slowly begin working. Especially with the poor weather impeding on her accessibility to the pasture on a regular basis, she needs some mind stimulation. With this said, last night I had her in the indoor and decided to try something new. I put the lunge line on her and held it so she was only able to go in a small circle. She, as expected, did not understand what I was asking at first and just stopped and looked at me like I was crazy. I clucked to her and tapped her on the rump with the end of the line. Se got the hint and began to walk around. From me leading her, she has become not only familiar with my voice, but voice commands. She knows walk, trot, and whoa. So as I half expected her to recognize them on the lunge line. I never in my wildest dreams to do so well! She is so intelligent! She, with a few glitches of stopping or tugging on the end of the line, picked up the concept of walk, trot, and canter in just a measly 10-15 minutes! She seemed to enjoy the job. She really enjoyed the scratches and praise she received afterwards! She obviously was not perfect, but I never would expect her to be. I do plan on continuing working with her but not too often, like I said, I do not want to strain her. I would rather her just run and frolic, having fun with her youth. I am so proud of her!