You can tell by the smell of the wind

It's cooling off, finally, and you can tell that autumn is in the air! And you know if the people notice it than the animals definitely notice it and that was certainly the case today when I came out to visit Gobie.

Bonnie is on vacation so one of the long-time boarders is looking after all the horses. I said hey to her when I arrived, but she left to run some errands which left me to the horses. With the cooler weather I was excited to do some actual work! The stuff I had ordered from online had finally arrived, too which meant I had exactly zero excuses for dragging my feet on doing some novel training with Gobie.

Gobie and the rest of the gang were down in the far pasture hanging out under all of the pine trees. When he saw me coming he started heading over, so it was an easy job of putting the halter and lead rope on. Walking back to the work area took a little time, since he wanted to stop and challenge being lead a little bit. I think that was the first clue that his change in routine--that is having someone other than Bonnie around feeding and telling them all what to do--had him out of his regular mood. But we made it up to the work area and I left him off the rope.

As soon as I did I could tell he was feeling a little wiggy. Usually when it gets cooler the horses start feeling a bit silly and energetic. I don't know if it's the more comfortable temperatures, or just the change of seasons or what. But he was definitely on high alert, his brain preoccupied with the crisp air and rustling leaves. I decided that today wouldn't be the first time to try out the new equipment: a surcingle and bitless bridle. Instead, I thought it'd be better to channel some of that energy into lunging instead.

First, though, we started out with the usual yielding exercises. It's no good trying to anything without establishing the "you have to listen to me" rules. He went through the motions well--backing up and turning on the forehand quite well.

Then it was on to some despooking. I thought we might as well since it was a little full-of-it as it was. He ran around a little bit, more than in our couple of last sessions, so it was a good refresher. Soon he was mindful enough to do a little lunging.

For the first time I remembered to actually bring the proper lunge line so he had enough length to really get going. And it helped that he had a bit of run in him anyway. We worked through going clockwise and counterclockwise pretty well, and stopping. I didn't work too much on his "gears" per se--that is telling him to walk, trot, etc. Since I've always been horrible at lunging it was more of a refresher for me on "can I get this horse to move in a circle." And I did, if somewhat ungracefully. Hopefully kinks we can work out as we practice!

We ended the session with a good grooming, and then I let him out with his pals. We socialized a little over the fence, too.

All in all a good visit! It somehow lasted almost two hours but don't ask me how that happened. I hope the weather stays nice and we're able to get some consistent sessions in.