Toler and I had another good day today, though a little unexpectedly. I went out with the thought of long-lining him--that is, using long lines attached to the bit run through rings on a surcingle to school from the ground. The idea is that you use the lines much in the same manner as the reins when riding, without actually riding. (For my non-horsie blog readers, Equine Ink has a pretty good post about it, including photo and video.)
I haven't done long-lining with Toler in *years*--though, to be honest, I'm not sure we ever did it more than once. Judging by Toler's reaction to it all, I'd say definitely not. I attached the lines to the bit through the surcingle, took up my spot just off of his inside flank to start the circle, and Toler started spinning, effectively wrapping the lines around himself because I couldn't run around him fast enough (or get him to stop, for that matter, mostly because I was laughing too hard). When he finally stopped--he couldn't move, after all--he looked at me with these big, pouting puppy-dog eyes.
I thought, well, that's okay, we'll just start on the rail and maybe it'll be easier for him to figure out. So, I let the lines drag as I led him over to the arena wall, positioned him next to it, and tried again. This time, he started to spin, hit the wall, then started wriggling every muscle in his body, truly perplexed.
It took us at least ten minutes of fussing and constant reassurance (on my part) until he got it figured out that I would just walk behind him and use the reins to steer. At that point, I had already decided to take it really easy and just ground-drive around the arena. Not even one lap around, and Toler had it all figured out--and I could tell the exact second revelation came to him. There was this big sigh, then he stretched out his neck into the contact, and responded perfectly to the slightest of cues and voice commands. It was a lot of fun. We trotted some, did some halt exercises, then worked on turning and figure-eights. I might even go so far as to say that my little moose would make a great combined driving horse. *wonders if they make those carts big enough*
