Progress.

I ran away from work early and got to the barn while the feeder was still watering the horses. I succeeded in getting him tacked and out the door before the feed/hay started. I knew I'd have a fight on my hand if there was grain in his feeder and I led him away.

I lunged him for almost 20 minutes. He did pretty well. Still working on both his abrupt stopping and his out of control take off, but he was quite obliging to my commands today. I even got him to stop IN LINE (not turning in) and to walk off again a bunch of times. I don't know if he'd ever been taught voice commands for lunging, but I've been using them. He does what I say sometimes, sometimes not so much. He almost always listens to whoa but I've been trying the gaits, too.

The ride was good. A little distracted at points because a few other horses came in and there was a horse making noise outside. Overall he did really well, though. Towards the end when there were two other horses working he was really stubborn about bending properly so I made him counter bend for a while. Then I made let him cool down at a walk and we practiced our neck-reining.

We walked long enough that he was totally cooled down. I kept him tied while I groomed him, put his blanket back on and put all my crap away. He was totally cool so I figured it would be safe to let him eat.

Now I have a headache that started just as I finished the ride. I'm planning to ride tomorrow, but I have plans on Friday so he'll get a day off.