One For Nothing in the Round Pen

This evening I took One For Nothing to the round pen to play a little.  He had made himself quite sore running his fence line the first few days he was here, and he is just now looking more comfortable walking around in his paddock.  Because we have our "post purchase exam" with my veterinarian tomorrow I wanted to make sure he was going to behave himself in hand and see if he knew much about lunging.

I do these intake exams for each of the horses that come here for training, to make sure that I'm preparing them for a job in which they will be comfortable and stay sound.  Regardless of origin, most horses have some kind of jewelry from their life before Bit of Honey Training and I'm comfortable working within whatever restrictions a horse might have.  There is always some sort of career that will be suitable, but I always have my veterinarian go over the horse carefully to make sure my plans are a good fit and so I can alter career paths as needed.  I'm not expecting any issues with One For Nothing, but I always feel better when another set of practiced eyes takes a look at a new horse.

Turns out he was a nearly perfect gentleman to be led to the round pen and for getting in and out of the gates, but he was sort of confused about lunging.  I free lunged him a bit first just so he could run and get his jollies out before I asked him to really focus, and got a few cute photos.

I first led him over the little jump made of poles and barrels so he could get the idea that he might hop over it if he wanted, and he decided that could be pretty fun when I turned him loose.  I have high hopes for tight knees over fences once he figures out this jumping thing!

This horse sure knows how to use his haunches!

One For Nothing didn't really understand what I wanted him to do when I set up the lunge line.  I asked him to go in circles around me, and he mostly turned and looked at me with a big question mark expression on his face.  Mahzi the dog helped a little and got him going the right direction, and as soon as he figured out what I wanted he was happy to oblige.  If he got confused he just stopped and looked at me again.  He has cute gaits, a snappy trot and excellent canter.

We're still working on a barn name for him.  Generally I like to keep the horse's Jockey Club name if he is to be a resale horse as a nod to his racing career especially as he begins competing in sport horse disciplines.  His racing home mostly called him by his full name because it really was something that a horse got named One For Nothing!  However, One For Nothing is kind of a mouthful around the barn and is long to write on the marker boards, feed tubs, charts, etc.  I've had a whole thought process about this.  Some options are For, Nothing, Not, Note, Noteworthy...  I'm leaning towards Noteworthy as a show name and Note around the barn, because it more accurately depicts his value than Nothing and would sound nice over the loudspeakers at a show.  We'll see what he decides on, it may take a little time for his gelding personality to really come out after his surgery, which is just a little over a week away.

On the other hand, it would be great fun as we gallop out to start a cross country round to shout, "Here goes Nothing!"