Bit of Honey Training: Training Progress!

Friday, July 17, 2026

Training Progress!

Son of a Lynx is making good progress in several ways! Here at Bit of Honey we like to use holistic methods for helping a horse learn his new job after racing, whether that was on the flat, steeplechasing, pacing with harness racing or trotting. That means using the knowledge the horse already has from his first career, and also incorporating things like diet, tack fitting, social skills, and living situation with turnout and friends.

The under saddle work is coming along nicely. We do quite short riding training sessions, usually less than a half hour, but we don't need a long time since Lynx figures things out quickly. For example, we started trot work earlier this week, and he began by pacing. I encouraged any little effort he made to do the right thing, so he's now trotting with just a little pacing to start. Once he catches his balance and goes over a ground pole (he's trotting those well now too) he switches to the trot.

Future jumping horse in progress!

Good boy!

Mahzi is such a good coach!

Getting a few canter steps in occasionally!

Mahzi and Note are supervising this ride.

Still reviewing standing still for mounting. Photo credit Lena O'Brian

https://youtu.be/y8zW1QKZqVE?is=IUCAuc5iLIMblk7M

We've also had some friends and fans come watch his training this week. One friend isn't super familiar with horses, but wanted to see what I've been doing with him. She noticed he was different when going faster, so I explained about horses' gaits. Most regular horses have a walk, trot, canter, and gallop. Because Lynx is "gaited", that means he also has a "pace", which is kind of between a trot and a canter. It's a lateral gait, so both left legs move at the same time in nearly the same way, then both right legs move at the same time in nearly the same way. Interestingly there are only two other animals who move with this gait- cats and giraffes!

This video shows him pacing when I first started riding him - look for the left legs moving together, then the right legs.

You can see in the videos more clearly his pace and his trot, by looking to see whether both left legs are moving at the same time, or whether diagonal pairs of legs are moving at the same time (for example left front and right hind together). He usually starts with a few strides of pace, then switches into the trot over a ground pole.

Lynx has been going out with my horses a bit in the mornings, and has had a chance to socialize and roam around with the herd. There have been some arguments, mostly between him and Note, and the first day Miss Pea would chase him off if he was at all rude. Highboy wants to be friends with everyone and isn't sure why anyone WOULDN'T want to hang out with him.

Highboy is just hopeful for a new friend

Some initial arguments with Note. While it looks dramatic, they were mostly posturing about who was going to be in charge. Little did they realize that Miss Pea, my mare, is actually the one who runs the show around here.

While I do have one chestnut, mostly it's become "baywatch" around here. They all graze together now.

Eventually the horses sorted out who was going to play what role in the little herd. Miss Pea came into season and suddenly the new boy is really cute. My horses are still pretty clear with Lynx, though. If he's at all rude, they all walk away from him and he's left alone. Herd animals need the protection of the group, so this has worked pretty well to teach Lynx that he needs to be respectful.

We went on a little field trip today after our training session. I'm planning to take him to a small local schooling show next weekend, so I needed him to be current on vaccines and have a negative Coggins (a blood test that shows he's negative for EIA, equine infectious anemia). We hauled to the vet since appointment times were scarce. That meant traveling in my mirrored horse trailer, and once at the vet clinic, standing tied to it while seeing his reflection.