Worked Newt and Magic on the lunge with a little ground poles to negotiate. Newt was very concerned that the cows were in the back pasture. It made him very alert. He can cross two ground poles in a big trot. He paid no attention to the poles. He decided the cows were a serious threat. I did not get on his back. Magic was not concerned about the cows in the same situation and did a normal workout on the lunge with the addition of the ground poles. I rode him to the arena. We rode the needlepoint and oval exercises. He did good. He paid attention. We rode the circle at the walk and trot just so we would be in position to start the canter on the correct lead. We rode on the right rein and he took the left lead at the canter. It was a little awkward evolving our path to a left rein round in the arena but we did it. I just rode down the long side and then back to a trot. Magic has a good canter and does not get real excited because we are cantering. Initially my objective is to get him to start the canter and keep it up for a little longer each time. I want to be in a situation where it does not matter which lead he takes, just that he does transition to a canter. I am trying to teach him a cue to start the canter. Once I get that accomplished, Julian Westall suggests that I can use ground poles and a little jump will put him in the correct lead. Right now just starting the canter is not clear. To Magic, it is the same cue to trot bigger and faster and he goes into a canter because he cannot trot any faster. We rode the trail around the Oak pasture. Magic did very good. He would walk so fast that he would start to trot. He does not have a habit of going faster than I want, he just wants to go. I will be able to develop the habit of walking fast without breaking into a trot. When we got to the pond dam, I dismounted and led him across the dam. He had to cross the running spillway that was carrying enough water to make considerable noise. He had some reservation but did what I asked. Once we got past the gate and the end of the dam, I mounted. We went looking for the cows and found them. They were beside a fence. I took advantage of the fence and had Magic follow the cows along the fence line. (A fence is an advantage for starting cow work because the fence takes care of 180 degrees and the horse or dog only has to control the other 180.) Then I walked him ahead of them and turned and headed them back in the other direction. Magic pays attention to cows. We had to get pretty close to pressure them to move back in the direction they just came from. One of them made an evasive move and Magic made a very fast counter move. It looks like Magic has lots of interest in cows. That will be interesting. He seems to naturally move off of his hindquarters when he is working cows. I have trained one cow horse. We had a need for a cow horse and Lady developed into a very good cow horse. I don’t know how to train one unless it’s OJT (on job training, i.e., a job to do.) But there are some cows in the pasture and we can move them around and see what happens. It was an enjoyable ride.
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