Lungeing Orion

By now, I'm assuming you've read the story of, or at least seen a referral to, my experiences lungeing Orion.  Yeah.  The first time when Liz was helping me was great, but since then it has been an abysmal experience.  It started with him not wanting to go out into the circle and away from me...then progressed to rearing when I tried to get him moving....then to bolting in the opposite direction. I've learned my lesson about trying to stop a running horse (see picture from mentioned post).  But that doesn't make it any less frustrating that he won't do it for me.

Anyway, Saturday evening, Liz and Chris and I went out to the barn and before I actually rode (insert excited squeal here) we lunged him.  I had a lot of help from Liz because all Orion really wanted to do was go back out to his field.  See that gate in the background of the first picture?  That was where he ran to every time he took off.

And you can see in a couple of these (here and further down) when he tried coming back to the middle to avoid doing more work.  Liz made the observation that he did it when I started to slack.  I didn't realize I was starting to slack, so that will be something I'll have to start working on more.  It's probably a big part of the problem, because he goes mostly fine for her.

And then there were the stirrups...Since my "saddle" is really a contoured bareback pad, the stirrups swing more easily than real leather ones would.  And after a minute or two, Orion had an "OH MY GOD WHAT ARE THESE THINGS ATTACKING MY SIDES?????????!!!!!!!!" reaction.  Buck, kick, buck, kick, all while running.

Below would be after another getaway attempt.  He was trying to look all innocent - "What? I've just been standing here eating this whole time!"  Yeah. Okay, Orion.

Escape attempt #2.  Or was this 3? Hmmm...

Let's try that again...

With Liz manning the whip this time so that I could concentrate on my posture.

Orion: "Can we stop nowwww?"

Freak out #2

It was definitely an interesting session. lol

He was about the same on Sunday, running to the gate every time I tried to get him moving.

I decided to try join up with him after that, which I will leave you to wonder about until tomorrow. :)