Ace is starting to get fit, and I’m starting to see a new horse emerge.

The wooly, pokey, grumpy faced horse is turning into an energetic, interested, flashy mover.

When we started doing lunging working a few weeks ago to start building up some fitness, Ace was seriously grumpy with me. He did it, but definitely not with a good attitude, and definitely not with a lot of personal motivation. But I’ve kept at it, gradually asking for more and more trot work on the lunge or under saddle.

Last night I didn’t feel like riding. And since it had finally thawed enough to get the 22 foot line out of the frozen-shut trailer, I decided to ask for just a little bit of canter on the lunge.

Imagine my surprise when my resistant-to-forward horse jumped into a trot when I started him on a circle and had only asked for a walk. (I wasn’t about to stop him for going faster than what I asked when he usually requires a lot of pushing!). I let him trot around once or twice and then asked him to come to back to a walk. He was moving out nicely, tracking up and looking energetic without any encouragement. That was a first!

After a little walk warm up, I raised my arm and told Ace to tee-rot. Imagine my surprise when I did that and promptly discovered a brand new horse at the end of the rope.

He stepped right into an energetic trot. He was tracking up. His stride was long and sweeping. His back was swinging. His ears were up. He was reaching under nicely with his hind end.

I just watched him with my jaw hanging open. There was a little spark in him that I’d never seen before. I saw a little bit of star power getting ready to come out.

It occurred to me then that of course he’s been lazy and making me work for every step. He’s out of shape. It’s uncomfortable. I would feel the same way. But now he’s starting to get fit and he’s feeling better and starting to decide that this is actually kind of fun.

After some walk and trot work both directions, I decided it was time to ask for a little canter and see if he would give it to me.

I just expected him to stay on the circle, pick it up, and go. I didn’t expect him to stop, face me, back up, get confused (despite the high likelihood of this reaction).

From a nice trot, I raised my arm, said “cannnn -teeer!” firmly, gave a swing of the whip in his direction.

And he stepped right into it!

Not only is my horse getting fit, he’s also pretty athletic. And he has beautiful canter transitions and stride. He went right into it like we’ve been doing this for years.

And if I thought his trot was nice last night, his canter was nothing short of beautiful.

On top of that, Ace is very responsive to verbal cues on the lunge. Down transitions are immediate, and he’s getting better and better about up transitions.

I didn’t much feel like doing anything last night, but I made myself go out and do something with him and boy did it pay off!

To make the spark and the canter and the response even better, Ace seemed to thoroughly enjoy every minute he had with me. It’s so much fun to see that love, respect, and trust developing.