Lunging the naughty pony.....and float training!

Got Diesel out again a few days ago and thought I would lunge him to see how he behaved.....well I am glad I was only lunging him and not riding him!!! He was a total naughty little twit....spooking at his shadow, leaping around and bucking, being an idiot. I was not impressed and again was going along the lines of 'What am I doing??? Why do I have a young horse???? Will I ever enjoy riding him without worrying??? etc etc etc and again felt very defeated :o(

I think part of it was due to the fact that I left Chevy in the paddock with us, we were in a taped off arena so Chevy was on the other side and Diesel kept veering off to be with him. I feel that I really expect too much of Diesel, I want him to be perfectly behaved 100% of the time and in reality he is a young, newly broken in horse that has not had much asked of him in recent years! He is going to have his moment of madness but are these going to be too much for me to handle????

After making him work pretty hard and for the first time in his life get up a decent sweat I took him back up to the yards to cool off. As it was already pre-planned I hooked the float up to do some self-loading training with him.

I am taking Diesel to see Tommy Berhns this Saturday and will more than likely be doing it by myself so need to be able to float him alone. Well, I shouldnt have worried. He walked straight up to the float and just went straight on, stood there like a trooper and waited for my next instruction! I had put a small feed in there to encourage him but to be honest I dont think it was needed.

I then unloaded him quietly and one step at a time and once off reloaded again for another couple of times and all of the times he was great. Chevy was in the bottom paddock nutting off, whinnying and galloping along the fencelines and Diesel didnt even care so that was a relief....

So we had some good and also some bad. I dont really know where we are going to end up, and if Diesel is going to be my forever horse like I planned and hoped all those years ago when I brought him but in the meantime, until a decision is made, we will keep doing little milestones and working things out in our own little way......