I'd been busy with finals all week but went out late Friday to grab my riding stuff at the least. I chatted with Robert for a while. He suggested turning ponies out in the arena to stretch their legs.

So I grabbed Reno and we death marched to the arena. He got the saddest look on his face when we stepped into the slush, dropped his head down, and trudged. Poor pony. He couldn't believe EVERYTHING was wet.

I turned him out and he was pretty cute. There was the normal galloping up and down, a little bucking, and then.... cantering. He did very cute twenty meter canter circles down at the western end of the arena for probably ten minutes, very nice bend around the open side. When he had walked for a few minutes and stopped huffing and puffing, I went out to go catch him. He started up his canter circles for a while, getting smaller and smaller as I got closer, then bolted "past" me to the gate. He stood there in the corner til I came up to halter him. He looked a little uneasy, but he figured he had trapped himself in a corner and if I was gonna eat him, so be it. He was really full of himself walking back, he barely noticed the snow.

Next up was Keno. He came in without me having to go in the mud (yay!) and threw a bit of attitude in the arena at first. I'm not dumb, I grabbed a lunge whip before I let him go. He was lazier than his brother but did some galloping up and down. He started to charge me once but quickly decided that would end worse for him than for me. So he contented himself with cantering into the gate corner, stopping, trotting out of it, cantering back in, etc. There was a mounting block in the way, so instead of avoiding it he would swing his legs around it. Predictably, he wasn't paying attention when he was cantering out of the corner, smacked his legs on the block, and tripped. He was pretty sure it was my fault.

When I caught him we did a little mounting block work and he was fine. It's probably different when he has tack on and thinks he might get ridden, so I should do that someday when it's warmer.

At this point I was unconvinced I still had feet or hands, so I put him back and went into the trailer for a while. I came out when Robert came back with bedding and swept the aisle, then helped him unload the bedding. We had a bit of time before we fed and turned Luca out.

That pony is an athletic little thing. Watching some of the bucks he threw, I think he was being kind to me when we were riding. His movement's gorgeous, he put in some nice rollbacks too. Robert was tossing cones at him to get him to run a little more, which Luca was thrilled with. I really want to ride him again. There's a saddle fitting at Mt. Hood at the end of January that we're going to go to, and at least get an idea of what size saddle he needs so we can restart him. The other option is driving him hard earlier that day, then riding bareback later, which I'm not opposed to. He's got a big barrel so I can grab on, and he's also not very far from the ground (shh. Don't tell him that.).

Robert tried to catch Luca and Luca ran. I cheated: Luca went to the manure bucket and started sniffing, so I walked up and grabbed his halter, then walked over to Robert with him. Robert said it figures he'd let a girl catch him. I think Luca was just playing with Robert. That pony and I get along pretty well generally, though, so who knows.

I've been having a strange urge to just hop on ponies in the arena, with or without a lead rope attached to them. It's a dumb urge and other than Star I've managed to resist, but holy crap is it ever powerful. You have no idea how much I wanted to do that when I caught Luca. We could go galloping from one end of the arena to the other, and then I could go headfirst into the wall when we did a sliding stop. It'd be awesome.

Late post from a cold cold day

So we were out Saturday at the barn (a week ago?). The big driving trials had been canceled due to the weather. Robert decided it was too cold to do anything, so he stayed inside. As a result Alyssa and I had the place all to ourselves. It was very cold though, so we were disinclined to do much. Alyssa decided to turn Star out in the arena, I went to take Colonel on another one of our walks. As I approached the arena I heard hoofbeats and flying sand. Colonel was getting a little nervous (shocking!) but he basically kept to the rules (non-sarcastically shocking.) We came around the corner to see Star blowing and snorting her head high in the air, her tail curled up and over like a Husky's tail. She was prancing as though restrained by her interest in Colonel. Momentarily Colonel had calmed down when he saw all the commotion was from a horse, then he panicked again when he saw it was from a crazy horse. Star's interest in Colonel could no longer hold her and she galloped at full speed down the arena, bucking occasionally as she went. We watched her run crazily around the arena for a while and then Colonel and I moved on. Apparently turning your back on a crazy horse is a no no in Colonels mind. When Star came galloping up in our direction still blowing and snorting Colonel threw his head up in the air and started to bolt, then he stopped, it looked as though he had run into a wall (and I know what that looks like I've seen him do it.) I'm thinking maybe I had just witnessed self restraint, because in my book bolting away from Gillian is a serious, line snapping offense. In some ways I think that bolting is one of the most severely punished crimes Colonel ever commits. Not strictly by design (although its way way up there, a notch down from rearing, right around there with biting.) When he bolts though, I snap the line hard, and his running off provides a lot of the force. So there was that progress anyway.

Moving off again we walked over the bridge, he was pretty receptive to moving back when I wiggled the line, so we didn't have to stop, I could correct him en route. Then we turned back around and did the familiar dance, step, Colonel rushes forward and is stopped, Colonel is backed up and is displeased, Colonel has to stand there until he lowers his head and/or sighs, repeat.

It gets a little tiny tiny bit better every day.

As we were walking back I saw Alyssa sitting on Star and was extremely pleased that this was working OK, and wanted her to quit before I was given a reason to be unhappy with Star.

We turned out the old girls and they behaved as they usually do. Then I suggested that this would be a good day to give Mike (alyssa can provide background) his first riding lesson. I suggested Star because she likes to pack around the arena, and she'd already run around plenty today. I rode her around a few times on a loose rein and she was going pretty well so I hopped up and, having been given the usual first ride talk, he got up into the saddle. I walked along with Star but she was doing her ground-covering walk and didn't feel like slowing down for me, so I took the inside track and walked along. Mike is a pretty good natural rider. He's very athletic and he also keeps his joints relaxed and his posture is great. A good combination.

They had been going around quite nicely when Star started to cheat in to the inside of the arena going towards Alyssa, then trotted, then cantered off at a pretty good pace deaf to our calls to slow down to a walk. No obvious reason. Mike held on admirably, I was kicking myself for not teaching him a one rein stop, but, eh. Eventually he came off, did a nice roll when he hit the ground and claimed to feel fine. Probably true.

So now it was punishment time. We tightened up the cinch on the saddle (western for a beginning rider) and after two laps of long trot we cantered. And we cantered. And we cantered some more. Star wanted to stop pretty quickly so I kept my leg on her. We went for quite a while, and it was actually really fun. I havent really had a reason to force myself to canter for a long time and Star is a really fun ride once she's going. One thing that was very comforting was the certainty that if I asked her to stop she would stop. No fussing or anything. Eventually she got tired and refused to canter anymore. I whomped on her with my legs, she reared and bucked trying to get out of it. I won a few more canter strides and then decided she'd had enough. I wish I had had a crop because she's not stupid, she knows that quitting time was heavily influenced by when she started to fuss. I'll have to fix that at some point.

I gave her back to Mike and Alyssa walked around on an inside track. Even huffing and puffing she still has a huge stride. Mike seemed to be un-traumatized and after about three laps each way he got off and we put her back. She had traces of sweat by her ears and girth so I was pleased with myself. Its not every dry, cold day that I can do that to her.

I'm hoping that she learned something from this session. Certainly I learned that she should be worked pretty hard and then given to the beginner, even though she's a good packer for me and Alyssa. Mike was very gracious and said he had fun. I'm thinking Star should be his mount again for his next lesson. We'll do walk-halt transitions. She stops quite nicely, as I said.

I wont have a lot of barn time for a while, Jesse and I are getting a dog, we have one picked out and its young so I want to give it some time to make sure its housebroken and whatnot. Eventually I would like to take it to the barn and do some agility stuff over the various jumps out there, plus its a nice place to walk a dog. Maybe someday it will get barn dog status and he can run around on his own. Papillon and I could chase him ;) (kidding, of course, mostly.) Maybe I could have him run along with me and Keno (or Star someday?) Fun stuff but it will be a while before he's mature enough to handle it. I might just stash him in an empty stall some days, or leave him with Mike in the trailer.

Right, this thing....

Keno's been doing pretty well. We went to a dressage show and did wonderfully in the warm up arena. The first test, Intro B, we got a 45%. He was really nervous and hollow and did NOT like the bleachers. We managed to school in the show arena before our Training test and pulled a slightly more respectable 49%. We would have done much better if the following things had happened:
a) I'd remembered the test and picked up the canter between H and C instead of C and M
b) Keno hadn't tried to take off bucking around the right lead canter circle, and
c) I'd remembered we wanted to trot the last quarter of the circle, leading us to fight a bit

But, we got around the whole thing without any major incidents. Keno was very worried while we were hanging out and left him in his stall. Lots of whinnying and kicking. Oh well, I was pretty pleased that he only reverted to his Keno-ness once while we were riding, and no spooks.

After that we started doing mostly bareback riding because I decided my seat was terrible. He'd been bucking right lead canter for a while, but I'm pretty sure it was because the farrier had had to miss a cycle. They normally get trimmed every 6 weeks, but this rotation it ended up being 9. The day after the trim he threw in a buck or two, and then quit it entirely.

His canter balance is getting better. We got some nice walk-canter transitions from a slight outside leg and a kiss, but he ends up getting hyped up. He also decides, after we canter, that trotting is for losers and keeps trying to pop up into the canter. It's pretty cute, I'm not gonna lie, and he's definitely using his back end to transition so I don't want to hinder that, per se, but it's not a good habit for us so I can't encourage it.

Recently he's decided to be a jerk about mounting. The only logic I can provide for this, is that he's used to being a jerk about the girth, and since there hasn't been any girth, he has to be a jerk about SOMETHING. It doesn't show any signs of being a pain issue, since he's pretty perfect when you're on him, so we need to get the idea through his skull that this is the wrong thing to do.

I'm hoping to start doing little jumps with him. I'll be thrilled if we can canter a course of any jumps, and ecstatic if we can do up to about 2' without any drama.

BUT, I don't know much else to teach Keno. I can ask for lateral movements, and kind-hearted horses who are well schooled will do them decently. But I don't know how to teach them, and I'm not precise enough in my aids to feel comfortable trying. So that's 25% of why I want to teach Keno jumping, the other 75% is because I really miss jumping.

Gillian is pushing me to take Star on next. I probably should, especially since she's not getting out much lately.

I turned out Star yesterday in the arena and watched her run around reasonably unlike an idiot for a while. Then I decided I wanted to sit on her. So, of course, I caught her (she walked up to me), clipped the lead line to the ring under her chin, flipped the line over her neck and ran the end through the clasp of the line. It stuck well enough that if Star was responsive to rein aids she'd turn fine, but I couldn't actually pull or I'd be screwed. Meh, I said to myself, and hopped on. No helmet, of course, seeing as I was just turning a horse out in the arena.

The first few seconds of being on Star are always terrifying for me, because she feels so unbalanced. Keno's a solid citizen, not to mention much wider, and can handle the weight. Star's more erratic and just plain hot. When Keno walks off I sigh and stop him because it's the thing to do, not because I feel unbalanced or uncertain. With Star, because I'm used to Keno, I feel like she's about to either fall over or take off.

That said, nothing really happened. She didn't turn well, unsurprisingly, but she was fine with it all. I'd tell her to whoa and she'd stop pretty promptly. Gillian, holding Colonel outside the arena, told me I was smart. I shrugged. We walked around a little more and then I hopped off and we went back to the barn.

So that went well enough that I could probably handle riding her more frequently, maybe even going outside. I just need to figure out exactly how to get her head down and her back muscles engaged. It's an entirely different problem than with Keno. Keno had the head down conformation and training from his Western days- the whole problem revolved around acceptance of the bit and dropping his shoulder.

For that, the solution was lots of open reining and circles, though the big difference came when I started using inside leg and outside rein. Which, yes, is how you're supposed to do it, but I'd never had a sufficiently schooled horse who knew that was the way it was done. I guess there's a reason for why things are done that way- maybe because they work.

I guess I'll start off with that- lots of circles, but I'll have to keep higher hands to do the straight line from the bit to the elbow. Add in trot poles until she'd rather jump than do another trot pole. Long-lining until I'd rather jump her than put a surcingle on her again. If I don't see anything by, say, a month after starting, I'll re-evaluate.

I'll have to ask Claire while I'm home, what she would do. I'll listen to the parts that don't involve draw reins, because I feel really uncomfortable using them. On some level I understand I'm a decent rider, but anything anyone says needs an experienced rider I instantly believe I don't have the abilities.

Here's a picture from the warm-up arena at the show. Look how not-broken-at-the-3rd-vertebrae we are! Please don't look at how low my hands are. Thanks.

Pas de deux - cancelled

We had to cancel our pas de deux because Reno was lame. I didn't notice it while we were walking around, but he was massively flipping out all the time. This wasn't helpful for Keno's mood either. Vicky pointed out that he was limping on his right hind sometimes, and indeed it was really hurting him. I guess it should have been a clue that he wouldn't take a treat this morning without it practicaly being forcefed to him. Anyway, the recital was fun to watch, the baked good were excellent and I got a picture of me in a doctor's buggy.

Its not as though we had actually practiced our routine anyway. So maybe it was a good thing. All I know is that I shudder to think what Reno would have done when we trotted through an 150 degree turn to the right. Or through that canter serpentine.

I guess its back to business. Colonel has been ever so slowly improving on leading around outside. I still want to hitch Star to a singletree next time I get the chance. That will be thursday I think. It feels strange to be doing so much groundwork again. Especially the leading outside work, how long has it been now since I last did that? Two years? Maybe it would be fun to teach Colonel to drive, or rather, fun to have him for a driving horse. I could tire the crap out of him on a regular basis without feeling bad for having to keep him in a circle all the time. Pipe dreams are fun.

Feeding Goats

Oh, I realized I forgot to write about feeding time on Friday.

I went in to give the goats their grain, and noticed that not much grain had been eaten since the morning. Then I noticed that the submissive goat was the closest to the grain, instead of being pushed out of the way by the dominant goat. Then I noticed a round fluffy object lying next to the door to the outside. Even when it got up on its goat legs and tried to flee, I still couldn't quite believe it was a goat I was looking at. I also had a hard time believing that it was really stuck. Those things could wedge their little heads through anything, but, as it turns out, therein lies the problem.

In an attempt to eat grass Cotton Candy (the goat in question) had wedged her little head in between the door and the floor of the stall. Pushing the door out a little. Gravity pushed the door down, and the top of her skull was above the lower edge of the door, she had no way to simultaneously push the door out and pull her head back in. The perfect one-way goats-head valve. So I walked over there slowly, and oddly enough when she struggled and I said "easy, easy" she relaxed. I would not relax in this situation, but then, who knows how long she had been there, getting used to her helplessness.

Vic came in and saw her and decided the solution was to open the door. He accepted absolutely no input from me and gave me very little himself, both of which turned out to be a serious problem towards the end. He went around to the wrong stall, and then to the correct one to get into the pasture outside the door. He started trying to unlatch the door, which I was pushing on the door to see if I could just get her out the way she came in. As you might imagine its hard to do both at the same time. When I gave up on it he managed to open the lock, and with hardly a word to me, started sliding the door open.

In order to trap a goat's neck in something, it turns out you have to apply a lot of pressure, which the door was doing. When it started to slide I noticed that Vic wasn't lifting the door at all while he slid, so the door was just scraping across Cotton Candy's neck. Vic couldn't see this from his angle. So I used one hand to push the goat down, and one hand to try to lift the door just a little bit to take the pressure off. The door was open a little ways and we stopped to see if we could drag the goat to the opening rather than the opening all the way to the goat. No dice.

Vic pushed the door open some more, I continued pushing down on the goat and up on the door. We were nearly to the end before I noticed that the metal side of the door came down way past the last board in the door. A while ago the bottom board must have fallen out. (This board probably would have prevented this whole issue in the first place.) So now Vic was doggedly pushing this thin strip of metal towards the goat, whose head was braced on the other side by the doorway. It was a little like when the slow moving laser is headed for James Bond.

I shouted for Vic to stop, but he either didn't hear me, didn't understand me, or thought I was talking to the goat. I shouted and shouted until the edge of the metal was a finger's width from its victim. Vic still didn't stop. Fortunately, I had my gloves on, and fortunately ornery ponies have pulled on me enough times that I can handle a pretty good amount of force with one hand. So I was restraining Vic with one hand and shouting at the same time. It seemed like forever before the laser finally stopped.

After discussing the situation Vic and I together lifted the door and then pulled it out and away from the goat. It wasn't much, but with some coaxing it was just enough to get her head free from the door. Now, I dont usually describe goats as looking indignant, since I dont attribute a whole lot of dignity to goats in the first place, but thats the only way I can describe how she looked when she shook the bedding off her coat, glanced at me and then walked calmly but quickly over to the grain and ate ravenously.

Goats bring so much joy and excitement to feeding time.

Confidence

So I've been working with Reno for the pas de deux. He's starting to figure out that he isn't allowed to lean on my hands, and that when I say slow down, he should slow down or else. Its just a lot of repetition. Its not what I'm used to but in a way its kindof nice. You know what you're going to be doing and you do it, over and over again. Particularly once you find something that you know is or will work, thats almost relaxing to just do the same correction over and over again.


I've been thinking a lot about what to do with Colonel, what his deal is and why various things haven't worked. Robert mentioned two things about confidence that have inspired me in my latest approach. One, he observed that Colonel lacks self confidence. Two, that Star had developed confidence in me and, subsequently, in herself. I also drew inspiration from this post.


Basically, thinking back on what I did with Star in the early days, I remembered spending a whole lot of time just walking around in the field de-spooking her. The occasional in-hand jump. Going over the bridge. Slowly slowly slowly getting her used to all the new objects. When we rode, I wasn't an especially strong rider so I frequently just avoided pissing her off. After any kind of good fight with her, once I'd won, I often had her stop and I caught my breath, then we'd do a little casual walking around. Lots of quiet time. The effect of this seems to be that she seeks the quiet times as a reward, and she seems to have faith that all the excitement and conflict happens for a reason, and will end when I win. She's also seen a lot of scary scary stuff and discovered that she lived through the process of coming up to it one foot at a time, sniffing it, and then eating some grass. She also learned that even when its scary, when I pull on the lead rope, the pressure isn't coming off until she at least does a tiny tiny step forward. I think this taught her that she still has to listen to me, even when there is scary stuff around.

Colonel could use a healthy dose of that. When we're riding, after he's been good and gotten a little tired, we stop, we just sit there. We take lots of time just being quiet. I've been trying to keep my corrections less confrontational, keep him calm so we can get back to a quiet place. I want him to know that there will be calm after he behaves himself. Right now his happy place involves moving forward, the effect of the racing blood in him, no doubt. He doesn't like to be taken out of that happy place by being contained with the reins. When he gets frustrated, even if he's frustrated about being tired, he wants to run to make himself feel better. I want to bring out the lazy in him again. Put a really nice stop on him before doing anything more sophisticated.

I've taken him on two of my field walks like I used to do with Star. The first time we set out, it was like walking a dog. He put his nose to the ground and took big, violent snorts, sniffing everything. He kept up and he kept his head in the correct spot while we were walking along. He stopped when I stopped and just kept sniffing. I led him up to some jumps and he couldn't care less. Finally I found something that scared him that we could work through. The burn pile. I started leading him forward towards it, he stopped sniffing the ground and pawed. He took off at a trot, immediately turning away from the burn pile, it was a sharp turn and he pushed against me with his shoulder. Not perceiving the danger, I stood my ground and was promptly knocked to the ground, face first. I dropped the rope when I hit the ground, and Colonel continued to run off. I felt the rope slide underneath me and without getting up I scrambled to get my hands out from underneath me to grab the rope. When I got it and held, at first it just pulled through my hands. (Gloves are very important for field walks, Star taught me that.) I pulled the rope toward me, my body moved a little, pulled by the rope, but I hung on and Colonel whirled around to face me. He backed and dragged me another couple of centimeters. I pulled on the rope and held it while I got off the ground and dug my heels in for another good yank on the rope. That turned out to be sufficient to get him to stop. I led him up to the burn pile, he snorted hard at it, but quickly decided that he could eat grass and snort at the same time. Eventually he relaxed and we moved on.

We crossed the bridge and he became agitated again. I found a nice tree to stand next to, hoping that it would keep him from crowding me and/or knocking me over again. Colonel braved the dead tree branches, snapping them with his shoulders as he pushed his head through towards me. He was totally unfazed by the sticks that poked him in the face. I asked him to back up by shaking the lead line and telling him "back." He backed up, paused and then immediately came back in under the tree. Eventually he calmed down enough to graze and we got out of there. I let him graze in the field a little, standing behind a driving hazard fence. He trotted around a little bit, trying to get next to me, but again, calmed down and ate. The whole way walking back home he kept wanting to walk ahead of me. Every time he got ahead we stopped, and I calmly asked him to back up. None of my you-did-the-wrong-thing attitude, just corrected the behavior. And continued. There were times when I couldn't take a step without him charging ahead of me. Stop. Back. Continue. Over and over and over again.

With Star a firm correction showed quick results and it would be quite a while before she would re-test any particular rule. Irish ran into me with his shoulder once and I whirled around and made him think he was going to be eaten, never did it again, ever. Colonel just shuts down all thought when treated that way. He panics and does whatever he can to get away. Like I said, his happy place is moving forward. So working with him is a pretty big paradigm shift for me.

I took him out yesterday and led him to the burn pile. Nothing, I led him to the bridge and over it. Some agitation so I found myself a tree. He snorted and tried to trot around a bit but much more quickly this time he calmed down. He found himself an apple on the ground and ate it. We stood there for a while, I ate an apple myself. Could not get that boy out of my face the whole time I was doing it. He makes Reno look altogether disinterested in food compared to his begging face. Still, his begging face is a calm face, so I was pretty happy with that.

We went off in search of an apple tree with yellow apples instead of red apples. Failed on that front, and as we were walking around Colonel became more and more agitated. So we stopped. It was a long time before he nibbled a few bites of grass. So we walked a few steps and again, very agitated. So we stopped and he anxiously checked the horizon in all directions. Snort snort snort!!! He pawed, he paced. I had him practice backing up off of the shaking of the lead rope. Ever so slowly he calmed down and we went over the bridge again. Same routine walking home, he charged ahead of me, we stopped and backed. I added a new requirement for moving forward. His head needed to be lower than mine.

Star always needed to be sacked out to various objects. With Colonel its more like sacking a horse out to life. He doesn't care about trees, or bushes or rainbow tires. He cares about security, he gets tense when we stop moving. I dont know how long it will take to teach him to deal with standing still, to teach him to take control of his own mental state and keep his feet where they belong no matter what. Too bad there's nothing to sit on out beyond the creek, this could take a while.

Equine Recital

Alyssa and I have been practicing for the equine recital on Dec. 6th. (Anyone who has ever heard Robert talk about Luca for longer than you thought possible is invited, by the way. You know who you are.) Every trainer gets 30 minutes to show off what their students are doing. Alyssa and I are doing a pas de deux (or pah dee dough, depending on who you ask) with Reno and Keno. While Keno is successfully forced to behave beautifully when I'm looking, Reno is having trouble with the whole for-God's-sake-stop-trying-to-bite-your-brother,-you-bastard! concept. We dont actually have a plan, or music yet. Still, I'm optimistic since they do have a pretty well timed pace and Alyssa and I have been getting pretty precise with our riding. Next thing up is coordination.

Robert is very pleased with us. I'm pretty pleased with us. Robert and I are both enjoying the faux competition with Cari. She might be doing a pas de deux with these two very cute fijords. So Robert and I get all secretive about our plans, and whisper when Cari's around. I've explained to her the joke so hopefully she wont suffer too much being the straight man for our entertainment.

I had a decent ride with Colonel the other day. It occured to me that I had previously just been focusing on the ass kicking part of the training. Thats the part that tends to make faster, more obvious progress. Thinking back on Star though, I spent a lot of quiet time with her, walking around the field sniffing stuff, sitting quietly on the wall, walking and trotting without too much worry about precision or straightness. So I'm going to try to slow it down with him and have a little more compassion for his fear and lack of self confidence. It always seems like bullshit to me when he gets all "oooh, I'm skeered of something or other so I'm going to pitch a fit now" but Robert thinks its not and he would know. Apparently Colonels mother was a spooky creature.

A new working student canditate is coming to the barn today. Very exciting.

Spookfest Show

I'm behind on my posting so I'll just do the highlights. I'll write more later.

The costume was completed and I'm very happy with it. Star tolerates it, mostly.


















Here is Keno and Alyssa in the warm up arena. Alyssa has all the actual test photos.

I'm in Maryland now, but Thursday I came out just to ride Kenopony. We tacked up okay and warmed up, but when we hit the canter he would. not. pick up the left lead without me holding him together, asking at the exact right instant, etc., which isn't bad for my riding per se but is highly unusual for him. So we worked on that. I got the impression that he wasn't doing it to piss me off, but I also got the impression that he wasn't in pain from getting that lead. I did get the impression that this was not a day he really wanted to work, though moving out was fine. So we did a little real work, and then a lot of loping around in circles. Neckreining, in our dressage saddle and bridle, and me in breeches and field boots. It was good stuff. We did a good walk-canter transition, and he didn't try to kick Xsarena. We went out in the field on Saturday, which was high stress for both of us, and I guess we haven't had a day off in a while. So I'm happy he pointed out to me that we can, in fact, do low-key things and enjoy ourselves just fine. I was very on edge on Thursday, which was pretty apparent, and I'm even happier he didn't decide to pull shit just because he could. Maybe he's growing out of his weasel phase..... nah.

I think I'm getting a dressage lesson while I'm home on someone, which will be nice, and Claire will show me how to braid. I borrowed a helmet and hopped on Sunny. Sunny is enormous. Like, ten months pregnant enormous. He lives on pasture and doesn't get any grain, but Claire put a round bale out last week and I guess he went to town. The girth I used all summer '07, four holes on each side, now fits two on each. Between not getting ridden and being a pig, after a couple circuits around the dressage arena at a trot I'd let him walk and he'd be huffing and puffing. Poor guy. He's also dropping his shoulder horribly, not bending at all, and very stressy, so we worked on relaxing. And not bucking when we pick up the canter. He may be fat, but he fills up my leg pretty good. ;)

Zilch, Zippo, Nada

I got no horsey stuff done today. I got to the barn and cleaned stalls. No one was around so I attempted to lure some kittens out of hiding. I ran into Lil and asked her to show me how the sewing machine works (for working on Star's Halloween costume.) I spent the rest of the day pinning and sewing and re-setting up the sewing machine. I emerged to help vic to feed and to get a signature from Robert for a show entry form, then I went back and sewed some more.

So Sore, and its gonna get worse

Its been too many days to do this in proper chronological order so I'll organize things more thematically.

Robert has been on a mission lately to spruce up the barn. Tons of garbage (literally?) and wood and miscellaneous stuff is being hauled away to be burned or stored more neatly. He also fixed the big green training cart. Niki, Chuck's little pony, broke one of the shafts. I will say though, she had a lot of help from many many many horses pulling that cart around for who knows how many miles over all sorts of terrain. Still, she made the final break and she should be proud.

We've got barn kittens again! I'm guessing they're around 7 or 8 weeks now. Closer to 7 probably. So they are little and fluffy but they're able to toddle around under mamma's supervision. The new mamma is less feral and more careful about where she puts her babies. So the plan is to try to get them semi-tame through the use of canned cat food. First we get them hooked on the stuff. Then we sit closer and closer to it while they eat. We've decided to call the three kittens A, B, and C. 'A' is already eating the canned food, and 'B' has had some as well. 'C' is pretty reclusive. If we can get these guys sortof tame I think we might be able to get them into a container and have them all fixed.

Star is hoping to convince me that she doesn't really need to be doing any work. We cantered around and she was constantly on the verge of trotting. We had a lesson with Robert yesterday doing trot poles. She was displeased. Not that she has any problem with poles, she walks over them just fine, the problem is with work, I think. Maybe I should work her outside more, she is usually more energetic outside (for better or for worse.)

I've done another two rides with Colonel now. The first one I still didn't lunge him enough and he was sortof barely under control. Really liked throwing his shoulder out and his head down. I didn't have time or energy or confidence at that moment to deal with these things. The next ride I wanted to figure out if he was putting his head down in order to buck. I strapped a western saddle to him after a pretty vigorous round of lunging. I lunged him some more and then hopped on. You just cant tire this horse out, it seems. Anyway, it seems he likes to put his head down when he feels contact on the reins, but he's not trying to buck. He was rather surprised to be corrected on the shoulder thing. I gave him fair warning with my outside leg, he ignored it, he got smacked. Things got better pretty quickly.

As per my current plan, basically all the under saddle work has been done at a canter. Colonel's been cantering pretty fast, though not as fast as he sometimes does. Telling him "easy" gets me a slight, temporary reduction in speed. A half halt on the outside rein gets me either a lowered head or preparation to stop. These may be related, I'm not sure. Anyway, I guess I'm going to keep cantering him around and I'll start having him circle when I'm unhappy with the speed and I'll let him straighten out when I become happy again. I'm debating what to do about the head thing. I think I need to get more time on him before I decide on a course of action. Who knows? it may just go away on its own.

Alyssa is out of town for the week and I'd like to put some time in with Keno. If the footing works out maybe we'll go outside and run around some. I can work on my dependence on the western saddle. It makes me feel safe but it makes my riding less precise and I cant jump in it. (I ruined a brand new bra figuring that out.) Keno's a great horsey for this sort of thing, and just generally a fun ride.

I feel bad about not getting Papillon out lately, but I just haven't had much time. I see some practice dressage tests in her future. I turned Lady out in the arena. That was quite a thing to see. She has an even poorer estimate of her stopping distance than Papillon. Fortunately no boards, horses or people were broken during any of her stunts.

Tomorrow I'll be out early to clean stalls, we'll see how much I can get done.

A new beginning?

So I finally got back out to the barn. I'm going to be out most of next week, which will be nice. I decided to use this stretch of time at the barn to get started on a project I've been thinking a lot about recently: Colonel. I'm not sure how its all going to work out, or if its even a good idea, but I've learned a lot in the last year and Star is coming along now such that I can probably get Alyssa to ride her at least half the time. Mostly though, he can jump and he's usually sound so thats big motivation to get him rideable again. Colleen, Robert's daughter, mentioned to me that Colonel wasn't spending so much time sitting in the corner of his stall facing the wall. (He spent much of his time this way basically for the last year.) This was about a week ago that we talked about this. I'd been scheeming ever since, going over in my mind everything I'd read, and everything I'd seen and everything I knew about Colonel. I formulated a new plan.

I got to the barn around noon having goofed off all morning and missed the bus I wanted earlier. Alyssa was tacking up for a lesson with Robert and Cari was in the arena with a lesson too. My main mission that day was to execute the plan in so far as was practical, but there was no good arena space for me to do it. Instead I piled all the hay that had been scattered on the hay barn floor into one pile for Robert to put into the manure spreader. I also gathered up all the equipment I would need later.

Robert had another lesson in the arena but Cari was done, leaving plenty of space for me to lunge Colonel. I took my gloves and the lunge line and headed off for Colonel's stall. These days Rocky and Colonel are out together so I found Colonel in rocky's stall. He was very well behaved, minimal attempts to shove his nose into my face and stuff like that. I totally forgot about the whole double turnout arrangement and left the door open as I left. Alyssa tells me that Cari fetched Rocky and put him back for me.

I ignored the fact that he was walking further in front of me than I wanted, I repeatedly moved him out of my space but I didn't bother to escalate in an attempt to make it stick. I'm following my new conception of geldings as not so much defiant as stupid. Or at least, with the memory of a gold fish and the impulse control of a three year old boy. Colonel though, is probably also pretty stupid, as horses go.

Colonel was very excited to be outside but he was holding himself together pretty well. Better than in previous trials. For lunging he has always been pretty cool, and I took him straight out to the arena so he stayed pretty cool. I didn't ask him to walk or to go out but as soon as I assumed the position he was headed for the circle. I ignored that too. There was a lot of clenching of teeth from me. Usually I'm a very not-a-hair-out-of-place kind of lunger with a horse his age and with his training. As he walked his right fore seemed a little stiff but Robert said it didn't seem to be causing a problem, and that we'd see at the trot. He wanted to trot right away but I asked him to walk and he did. He protested by flipping his head up and down. Sortof funny since the net affect was to send waves through the line to me, and then reflected back to shake on his own halter. I looked really hard and though I still think he was short strided on the right fore he wasn't bobbing his head. I decided that this meant I should work him more to the left so that the pressure would stay off his right side most of the time.

When he started trotting with more impulsion I said, quietly, "aand canter." He sprang forward like a coiled spring unleashed and proceeded to run furiously but he kept his distance, neither pulling nor crowding. Robert shouted from across the arena "that leg don't seem to be botherin' him much." Colonel galloped around, bucking and snorting. People who claim that a horse cant buck while they're moving are full of shit, by the way. I just watched him go, he was having a good time and he hadn't been out in a very long while.

It did seem to support the assumption I had made while planning all this: Colonel is not lazy except in so far as all horses are lazy. He likes to run, needs to run even. I am also nursing the pet theory that part of the reason he is so chill on the lunge line is that he almost always gets to run on the lunge. He's calm because he knows his reward is coming, he will get to run eventually.

When he was cantering calmly, with minimal cool-down, I took him back to the hay barn. He had worked up a healthy bit of sweat. Alyssa helped me brush epic amounts of mud off of him and I saddled him up and put on his bridle over his halter and wound the reins up for lunging again.

Alyssa and Robert came out to supervise and I sent Colonel out on the circle again to lunge. He did a calm twinkle-toes trot, he extended it when asked, he did a very calm canter. I should have lunged him longer than I did, he was still holding the canter too long when asked to come down but I didn't want to keep people waiting .

With zero cool-down from the canter I took him over to the mounting block, took off the lunge line, took off my gloves, unwound the reins, donned my helmet and protective vest, picked up the crop and got on. Robert told me "now remember, this is no time to be a hero." I reflected on those words briefly, because I hadn't told him what I was planning to do next, but I didn't tell him because I didn't want to be talked out of it, and I certainly wasn't going to be talked out of it at the last minute by some generic one-liner.

So, I gave colonel a squeeze and asked for a trot. Immidiately he wanted to do a little shoulder in across the arena. I didn't worry about this to much, I just put a little extra inside leg on him and turned him towards the other wall to begin our "circle." I knew I needed to ask in the next few seconds or it might not seem like nearly as good an idea, so I squeezed again and asked him to canter. No dice, just got a rushed trot. I didn't care, I just kept telling him "canter, colonel, aand canter" with a pretty meek squeeze from my legs. I didn't really want to press the issue, I just wanted a nice relaxed canter. About half way around the circle I got it. I gave him a loose inside rein but I had already grabbed mane with my outside hand and that rein wasn't going anywhere.

There was significant tension, for both of us. Colonel at first didn't seem to be sure he was doing the right thing, and seemed to be anticipating a correction. When he didn't get one he picked up a little more speed but it was still a good pace, especially considering what I know he's capable of. He was trying to stretch his head down and although I had told myself I was going to give him a loose rein, I couldn't resist thinking he was putting his head down to buck, so I used the inside rein to pull his head up a little and then dropped the rein again. The outside rein, as I mentioned before, was fixed, and was fixed a little too short, but he could still go straight and I sure as hell wasn't letting go of his mane. I think I probably didn't need it. I certainly didn't use it for any side to side stabilization. I just pulled up on it to give myself a feeling like I wasn't going to go anywhere/was ready for anything.

He was heavy on his forehand and was giving plenty of lift with his back, both of which make me nervous, but he still wasn't speeding up and since he wasn't going very fast he wasn't leaning into the circle very hard. I'm not sure how many times we went around the half of the arena. I think we were going for at least 45 seconds, maybe a minute. Maybe Alyssa knows, I have no sense of time. However long it was, I started to relax, he was either relaxed already or he relaxed too, I'm not sure, but I decided that was our quitting moment. I picked up the inside rein, asked for a walk and with minimal pressure from rein and seat, got it. Walked over to where Alyssa and Robert were sitting, stopped, got off, and I took him back to his stall. Done. Next time I'll do some cool down, but I just wanted to send him back calm and having been a good boy.

He's got two days off to think about that, and so do I. On tuesday I'll try the same maneuver again, but this time I'm going to try to truly have him on a loose rein. I'll grab mane when I start to feel unstable, rather than at the outset. I might go a little longer at the canter, but I'll definitely cool him down before putting him back. Thats the plan anyway.

Show

First, the major dork: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2148807404315053547&hl=en

The show was lots of fun, Keno was tolerant and we beat many preteenaged girls. We did the whole course of itty bitty crossrails without incident, though Keno stopped caring towards the end. He let me mess around with him and do the games, which we owned. Take that, tiny girls and 43 year old pony!

Total haul: 1 blue ribbon (tied for Combined Test), 1 blue ribbon (tied at trot-a-pole egg and spoon), 1 blue ribbon (egg-and-spoon race), 1 red ribbon (tied for 2nd in overall dressage scores, I think)

Not bad for a grade horse, huh?

I was only at the barn for a couple hours today. I visited with Robert, grabbed an unhappy Keno and went out to warm up for a bit before Robert came to give us our lesson.

Cari was in the ring working with Xsarena, and she had the radio turned onto a classical station which was really nice to listen to. We warmed up on a loose rein, but I didn't plan as well and so we didn't have enough time before I asked him to start coming together. He wasn't thrilled about it, but we did. I did notice his long-rein canter was a little less downhill than usual, which was intriguing. He kept making faces at Xsarena when we passed by.

I think we had a really good session, I think next time I will warm him up outside instead of in. It's probably just because of the smaller-sized arena, but he self-balances better. It could also be all the boys (and Bella) watching him make him strut his stuff. I guess Xsarena isn't so interesting anymore. I also think that he likes the flash. I didn't tie it shut, so he can still chomp, but it does stabilize the bit, I guess? And he seems all for that. Our transitions aren't great but they aren't bad. He was doing trot-walk transitions on his forehand, so Robert asked me to hollow my back and lift my chin just before I asked, and that helped a lot. I'm really happy with this pony.

Cari mentioned that I should take Keno to the Mt. Hood Equestrian Center dressage schooling show on Nov. 2. I said it sounded exciting, but unless there was a way to trailer him, I didn't see it happening- even if it's not far away, it's potentially a long time in total, and that's a huge chunk of Robert's day gone.

But I mentioned it to Robert and he said yes! This is a good idea! And wants to take me and Keno, and Gillian and Star. At least we'd have a full trailer and moral support. So I hope this happens. If it does, I probably have to wash my show shirt and find nicer breeches. My boots aren't tall enough, but whatever.

Fed, clipped Gloria's horses and Luca for their shows Saturday, went home. Luca didn't want to get caught, but gave in and stood pretty still until people started going in and out of hay barn and making high pitched cooing noises to horses.

I think I might have a problem.

Currently I have a Keno and a Star bridle in my possession, returned upon the next visit to Stoneybrook (Thursday).

I arrived just in time to miss cute pony, but did meet nice people who owned cute pony. At least I theorize it's a cute pony- I never actually saw said pony. But it's a pony. Robert and I sat down and chatted about our mutual realization that me trying to do two horses would be madness all round. Robert suggested that, if we don't have a better idea and if Vic's stuff is all moved out, we could stay in his old trailer Friday night.

Robert also suggested we longline Keno to help him come through his back. He also added side reins! There was really a huge difference, Keno was pretty upset about it all but his only forms of rebellion on the long lines are going very slow, and not wanting to halt.

The minis had gotten there, so I harnessed up Pepper and helped them get attached to the cart, then I went off and finished feed and put my splint boots on Keno. It was cute. Reno and Star were absolutely convinced that he was getting treats (absorbed through his feet, I guess), and Star was very upset. Reno alternated doing cute things and trying to bite Keno through the bars. Keno was also convinced he was going to be getting treats, and was disgruntled when surprise! He was getting ridden instead. Minis were still in the arena so we worked in the small outside one.

Robert told us that we should warm up for twenty, thirty minutes before we came in, so we did that. I let him go through walk trot and canter on a loose rein, and then started trying to collect him when he was cantering freely. I don't know what part worked the best- whether it was the extensive warm-up, the long-lining, the side reins, or what- but he was really nice to ride. We really got our canter together for the first time in a while. So much so that I kind of forgot how long we cantered. I felt him really stepping up behind (it took me until just now to figure out that was what that was, actually) and let him walk, and looked. Oh hey, he's sweaty. And oh hey, I'm also overheated. We did a little bit of trot in frame and then walked. I got off and got a drink of water, and led him to his stall to see if he wanted something. Sometime between getting on the horse and getting off the horse, it had gotten warm and sunny, and neither of us were prepared for it.

I have to say I really, really like the flash on Keno. Normally he's busy chomping away on his bit, expressing his displeasure with the world, but now he can't!

Robert was likewise impressed with Keno and I. The only thing I'm going to try and work on in the course of riding on Thursday is his tendency to jig when I pick up the reins after a long walk. Keno was very tired and placidly followed us around the ring, occasionally sighing. I asked Robert to set up a small crossrail and we trotted over it twice. Both times were pretty relaxed and he came right back to me afterwards, so I said we were done. I was really happy with him.

I talked to Cari and she said we could do one horse each, so I picked Keno and I figured you'd pick Star, Gillian. Thus I am cleaning those bridles, I think we can do saddles on Thursday (or Friday) if we want to- many fewer pieces.

I'm excited for Saturday, not least because Cari is getting a 13.1 Welsh mare in for Avalon to try out. I *generously* offered to ride her if Cari was uncomfortable doing so, because Cari is pretty big for that sized pony and she'll probably still be a little hot for Avalon.

Also I want pretty ribbons. Robert said he'd give me the one Reno and I won at the Fair, since Gloria never got to receive them, and I'll get one from Cari too. I think Keno and I will do the cross rail division because otherwise there will only be one team entered, and they'll be bumped down because there's no point in having one team in a division. Even if it turns into a mess, we can stop and it'll all be okay.

Birthday post! Wooo!

As I was going out to the barn along 224, I saw the signs for the Civil War Reenactment at McIver Park. I hope you had lots of fun, Ken! Who did you bring?

I got to the barn just in time to see Robert and Buzz going out with the Shires. Robert informed me that there was one of Cari's shows next weekend, and we should have a horse ready for that. He suggested Keno. (internal dialogue: Yes! I can jump him out in the open now!) He asked me to drive Reno, ride Keno, and work Dylan somewhere in the period of time I had today.

So I drove Reno. We got almost all the way down the blacktop before I realized we didn't have a whip, and so we turned around and got it. We executed a pretty nice back up and fan turn to get back on track to the back forty, if I do say so myself. He got pretty hyped up over the curves and I ended up not being able to control him for long at the trot. I tried trotting him up and down the stretch with the driveway on the other side of the fence, but he kept finding things to spook and canter at. My hands couldn't take it, they kept cramping up, so I settled for backing him up whenever he pranced. He may or may not have gotten the message. I need to get him out more, I guess. He's much lighter when I've been driving him, I think because I'm weaker than Robert. If I'd been brave, and hadn't been planning on doing anything other than massaging my palms the rest of the day, I would've taken him back, put his reins on the lowest shank, and gone back out. Oh well. He wasn't too bad, and he was mostly listening. So I put him back just in time for the Shires to pull up. Robert said he'd be out in a few minutes.

I grabbed Keno and lunged him just long enough to help him remember that it was a good idea to listen to me. We tacked up without much drama, other than flyspray, and headed out. Robert wasn't extremely useful besides telling me I was off the center line and didn't have a great free walk. Keno was resistant and angry that I was riding him, but at least he didn't drop his shoulder or try to buck me off. We did an okay test, but I'm planning on riding Tuesday and Thursday to remind him what he's supposed to do. We worked on how he was using himself for months, I don't want it all to go to waste just because I haven't ridden him for a couple weeks. Thankfully the only dressage test offered is Intro A, because his canter still isn't where it's supposed to be. He's not an obedient horse, it goes against the fiber of his being, but I was hoping to mold him into more of a dressage horse. We had a few nice moments, I'll give him that, where I squeezed with my inside leg and my outside rein and he gave to me. We did trot poles too, which went fine. I'd like to do cross-rails but I admit he's more likely to buck me off than anything else, especially as we haven't jumped in over a month.

I pulled out Dylan. His butt is itchy enough that he's rubbed off most of the skin on the dock of his tail, and I wish I knew what's going on. So when I put the crupper on, and asked him to walk, his reaction was to buck most of the way around the circle. We worked that out pretty easily. Robert had set up two parallel poles to help me get on the centerline, and I asked him to trot over that. I thought it was a good exercise because, well, entertaining for me, but for another, he had to think about what pace he wanted, how far out he wanted to be, and where he needed to put his feet. He clearly thought about it for a couple circles, and then he got it and kept it up pretty well. I didn't ask too much of him because it was pretty obvious that his dock was bothering him a lot. I started scratching and he nearly fell over from glee (no, really, I stepped back and he completely lost his balance).

We fed. Robert had mentioned a black bridle that had been bought for Lady and never used, and might look good on Keno for the dressage portion of the show. I draaaaagged Keno away from his hay and fitted it. Wow! If anyone ever has to sell him, they could totally slap that bridle on him and call him a sport horse, especially with the flash attached. It actually made his head look cute. It didn't hurt that he was looking exceptionally pathetic. That's basically his reaction to Robert, because Robert makes him do bad things, like work.

Robert also wants me to show Papillon. Is she sound, we wondered? So we saddled her up quick and took her out for about fifteen minutes before I had to go catch the bus. I didn't do the test, but she warmed up pretty well and trotted pretty well, though her trot's still strung out. You could tell she was a little disappointed that Robert wasn't riding her, and very disappointed that she didn't get to go jump things. Apparently John the farrier said that her shoulder was the most free he's ever seen it, so I guess something's being done right.

My reflection upon the bus is that I can't show both horses. Robert is going to be out of town that weekend, so I'll need to get there and clean stalls. I think Gillian won't be there either, so that's about doubling the time (and work) for me. I'd be showing them both in the intro A and trot-pole division. To do well, Keno needs a fair bit of warm-up, and so does Papillon, not to mention where I would put them while I was working the other-- everyone does their dressage tests first, then we put up the course and either do crossrails or trot poles. I could theoretically put Keno in the crossrail division, because he's a cute jumper, but he starts crowhopping after each fence.

I know I won't have time to bathe both horses-- as it is, I'll probably be getting up at 4:30 in the morning to catch a bus and be there at seven. I won't have the energy to clean stalls and properly work both of those horses. The probability that I will end up taking bridles and possibly a saddle home to clean them is astoundingly high for someone without a car.

I'll be out Tuesday for a while, and I can be out Thursday for about two hours before feeding, so I can still ride both and make a decision. If Robert was here it wouldn't be a problem, but he'll be at a show. As it is, I'll be helping make sure they have everything they need for the show that Stoneybrook needs to provide, doing stalls, and trying to do a horse or possibly two if I'm exceptionally dumb.

So what's the best plan of action (hint: comment!)? My guess is this:
7:20- Arrive
If horses are fed, then I bathe Keno and tie him in his stall.
8-ish- If the show doesn't start for an hour or more, clean as many stalls as possible
When it's about forty minutes before my time is called, I should saddle up Keno and start warming him up, do the test
If there's a fair bit of time before I have to trot him over a pole, untack him and clean more stalls, otherwise hang out until we've trotted a pole
Clean more stalls
Eat food
Clean more stalls
Clean more stalls
Take the tractor out (maybe successfully this time)
Feed
Collapse

I don't have any particular interest in doing the games, since competing against kids half my age isn't a lot of fun, so there's that saving grace at least. I just hope that I don't freak any horses out with the tractor.

Canter Canter Canter!

I feel like I have my mojo back. Maybe I never had any in the first place but either way, I feel like I've got some now. Robert said that I should play with Star, take Reno out, and have Keno pull the tire if I wanted to work on his cart training. So I started with Star.

I forgot to put on my riding boots this morning and apparently dont have any riding pants at the barn right now so I rode in a western saddle (I was going to do that anyway) and jeans with half chaps. I have never felt so stiff in my own clothing but I got it all straightened out such that I could get my legs into the right position if I were so inclined. (I try, but, you know.) I also put on my body armor because I always feel basically invincible in a western saddle and body armor. I took a bat and put it in my half chap just in case.

Star was terrified of something basically as soon as we got out in the field. I couldn't figure out what it was. She was nervous about it most of the way around the field. I kept looking for the source of her distress so I could decide how I wanted to deal with it. Finally after coming out of the curves and going halfway down the field I saw Jessie and Bella (chunky but nice looking belgian x arab x paint). Apparently she is really scary. I decided I didn't want to go over there, in case seeing that it was a horse opened another can of worms I wasn't interested in today.

There are some barrels set up on the east side of the field, Star always likes to head towards them when I'm not paying attention. So we went over and started circling around the barrels at a walk. I'm wondering if she wasn't used for barrels some time in the past because she stuck to them pretty well if I put some outside leg on her. Then we did it at a trot and she was a little confused at first but then did a pretty good job at a trot too. She was still pretty distracted but she was getting the idea that there would be working happening now.

I pointed her down the path again and we trotted on our merry way. I decided I was going to sit the trot and try to keep her to a comfortable speed. She tends to see posting as licence to speed up so we'll have to tune that a bit. Anyway, she eventually noticed that when she slowed down a little I didn't bounce in the saddle. (I probably could have put more effort in and not bounced even at the pace she was going, but I was feeling lazy and self indulgent.) That was nice to trot around in the field again. There has always been some reason to not do it, the footing, my mood, my fatigue, my chickening out. In my invincibility gear it seemed like a great activity. So we trotted along for a while and when we got back to the east end of the field we did some more barrels and then we found a spot that was free of rodent holes and we did some cantering.

Star went through several phases in her thinking. First few seconds she was just a horsey doing what she was told, that was nice. Then she picked up a little speed because she was having fun. Then she did some sort of hopity bucking thing when a car came by but I pushed her back into a canter. (Gillians tip for ornery horses: if you want to buck you can't also throw your head in the air at the same time, it just doesn't work well, you have to pick one or the other.) Pushing her back into the canter was difficult and once we got going I was too distracted to breathe properly, but I got enough oxygen to function so it all worked out.

We got to a nice break point and I pulled her up so I could rest and so I could walk over and talk to Jessie. She has a horse in training with us, I think the current plan is to train her on the cart but Robert had somehow never taken Jessie out in a cart. Just the wagon, which really isnt the same, especially if you're sitting in the back. Ok, got that done, she would go for a ride with me and Reno when she was done working with Spot.

I spent a little bit of time meandering around looking for some berries I could induce Star to eat. That entertains me. Total failure there. Even when I found a nice spot Star just wanted to eat the grass.

Ok, so bored of that, I decided we should canter down the long side towards the barn. I wanted a repeat test of the whole not rushing for home phenomenon. She was really good until about 3/4 of the way down the field and I could feel that she wanted to stop and do her half rear thing but I pushed her on and she was cooperative. I pulled her up before we got to the culvert and contemplated going and cantering some more on the other side of the field.

I was really enjoying running around, and really pleased to be enjoying running around. However, I also wanted to end on a good note so that later I could continue to enjoy running around. The compromise was to take Star into the arena and practice cantering our bad direction, the left. We walked once around, trotted twice around and then picked up the canter. I think Star was getting a little tired, and it was hot out. I was feeling no pain and no sympathy so when she broke gait I tried to push her on. When she refused I cropped her. The problem with the bat is that its offensive but not all that convincing so I hit her several times with it before deciding that I would probably have better luck with my legs. I dont like whomping on a horse with my legs, its imprecise, throws my seat off, its a nasty habit, but I didn't have any better options. Anyway, that worked and we went around (all the way around, I was so pleased, we cut off no corners or pieces of the arena) a few more times before I decided this was a quit while you're ahead moment.

I looked down, having been very conscious of and somewhat successful in maintaining my upright head position, and saw sweat. Not just the little bit of sweat that makes a few of her hairs curl, real sweat, that lathered where the reins touched her neck. I was pleased. Star was somewhat less pleased. Dramatically less pleased when I hosed her off. (Oh you should have seen the mud that came off her when she got wet.)

I turned her out for a while and then when she started pacing the fenceline I brought her back over to her buddies. They look pretty cute there the three of them (Nickie, Jade, and Star) gathered as near to Jade's stall as they can get. I staggered into a chair to finish eating the lunch I had started while Star was turned out.

So I still didn't canter the entire circuit of the field, but I'm getting close. I'll need the dressage whip. Its harsher but you only have to use it once, and thats why I like it. Maybe tomorrow, who knows?

In Memoriam

On September 5th Gloria Anderson, WWII military police officer, champion of women's rights, and avid horse woman, died in the hospital whilst recovering from her surgery there. She was 78.

As far as I know Star was the last baby foal to be born to one of her mares on her property. I wasn't sure Star and I were ready for a dressage show, but we went because we wanted Gloria to see how nicely Star was coming along, maybe even get a ribbon for her. Gloria loved winning ribbons.

On September 6th we took Star to the show. The night before she had been clipped and bathed. The morning of she had loaded and trailered very nicely. We were the first entry in the show, and we tacked up and warmed up without incident. We did our test and completed every element, which was all I had originally wanted. We took third, with a score of 59 and a shiny yellow ribbon. We took some pictures with the ribbon, but Gloria always keeps her horses' ribbons, and Robert says he has plans for this one.

We got a 7 on our free walk; and Robert said that even Gloria would have laughed to learn that the judge had described Star as "calm and obedient." But she really was. During our warm up we checked out every anomaly in the arena with suspicion, but then it was over. Horses were passing us, we were passing horses, no attempted kicking or biting, and towards the end she didn't even bother to pin her ears.

With a little convincing and a lot of apples she got back into the trailer and we went home victorious, albeit with heavy hearts. Robert says Gloria was very happy just to hear that Star would be going to the show, so I know she would have been as proud of her little mare as I am, maybe more so. We dont know yet what is going to happen to her now.

The ribbon she won says, "A place to begin" and I think thats appropriate.

Ooopsie-Daisy

When I got to the barn Imp and Luca were just finishing up a lesson doing some sort of pas de deux thing. Luca wasn't sweating much (Imp was) so I thought maybe Robert would take him out into the field afterwards, and maybe I could mooch an opportunity to do some more Luca driving. No such luck but Robert told me to hop in and he'd give me a ride back to the barn. I didn't have a helmet but it was such a short ways back to the barn so, I let it go.

I stepped in the cart, Imp left the arena, Luca tried to walk after him, I lurched a little in the cart, Robert gave Luca a forceful halt cue, Luca slammed it in reverse the way he sometimes does, inertia bit me. Yup, my head stayed roughly where it had been before and the cart slammed into my shins. I flipped over and landed on one of the tugs but I was too far over to get back in the cart. I was clearly going to fall off and Luca was starting to wiggle with all this weird stuff happening so I tucked my knees a little, pushed myself off and as soon as I hit the ground rolled away from the cart, most importantly, rolled away from the wheels. I got up and brushed myself off. Robert was startled by the falling but also impressed by my quick rolling action.

I stepped back up on to the cart. Of course, Luca starts running backwards, but this time I stuck my arm out and braced it against the front of the cart. It was actually a close call which irritated me. Then there was a little bit of classic me-Robert dialogue
Robert: I was going to grab you...
Me (interjecting): I'm sure you were
Robert: but I wasn't sure where to grab you.

Robert asked me to longline Dylan, so I got him out. He was OK on the long lines. The reins I picked out were too short, so that was problematic. I think that Dylan's problem is that he doesn't really notice a lot of my cues, and he also thinks that as long as he also does the thing he's told he can go ahead and do whatever else is on his agenda. So, I say walk and he walks, then he sees some manure, so he stops to sniff it. He sees no problem, he did what he was told. I see a problem, he failed to do only what he was told. Robert wants to introduce him to the cart tomorrow. Its been over a year since I helped Robert put a cart on a horse, but I think this will be very different than with the two pony bit... I mean, mares.

I spent a long time getting the rein stops on star's bridle despite the fact that I wasnt going to be using a martingale today. Robert put one on using more brute force than I would have let him use had I known that was his plan. The rein with the buckle wasn't going to be conquered with brute force so I took my 50 cent rein stopper and drilled into it with a power drill until the opening was wide enough to slide over the other rein. Its not on as tight as the other one, but it really doesnt matter at all.

I got star out and she walked up to the hay barn without balking! I have no idea why. I didn't have a whip or a carrot so maybe we both got distracted and we just walked right up there without incident. Anyway, I started brushing her down and vast vast quantities of dirt were coming up. Not off mind you, just sitting there on top of her fur. Some of the dust had blown away mind you, but there was just an astonishing amount of dirt.

That got me thinking about how I was going to clean her for the show on saturday. (how is it september already?) She is pretty scared of being washed so I dont really want to go through all the soap and stuff. Its bad enough that I'm going to put her in a trailer, close the divider and the door and then drive off with her still in it. I dont really want to pile on more distressing things. So I decided this was a good time to introduce her to the vacuum cleaner. The thing itself she wasn't too worried about. I held it up and she dutifully sniffed it and then went on looking out at the horizon. Then I brushed her with it still off, she didn't care about that at all, it felt just like a brush I'm sure. Then I turned it on. That got a little attention but I had moved out onto the blacktop. I tried to vacuum some of the dirt off myself and Star watched with interest. I brought it to her and she decided that this was the sort of thing best sniffed from a distance, so she opened her nostrils really wide and took deep deep breaths. She tolerated being brushed with it for short intervals so I just brushed until she calmed down about it and then stopped. Then brushed some more. One pass with the vacuum is insufficient for most of her body, her hindquarters particularly but she'll accept it on both sides now so I'll do it again tomorrow, on friday and on show day. Hopefully that will suffice.

I tacked her up and took her out to the arena. Seabreeze and Sue were in the arena. We stopped and chatted, Star and Breeze were perfectly friendly with each other even though they were standing pretty close. Sue is going to the show on saturday also, but not as early as I am so we wished each other luck and she left. To warm up star and I walked through all the movements in the test. Walk down the centerline, halt, salute, walk, etc. It took star a while to get the idea behind the free walk. We dont go diagonal across the arena much at all. To practice having her reach her head down I had two piles of manure directly on our line of travel. I didn't do it on purpose, obviously, but it wound up being of some help. It had its detriments, she was being allowed to sniff it so she wanted to stop, on the other hand, she put her head all the way down.

Our circles at the walk were pretty nice, from what I could tell. My turns down the centerline were excellent, I was pleased with us. She stopped reasonably square I think.We ran through the test a couple of times and the first few went OK. It started to break down after a while, maybe she got bored.

The big problem isnt in the free walk, its in the trot circles. She, predictably, wanted to canter on these circles. She's always liked to canter rather than trot on circles but that really really needs to be fixed. It was a nice enough canter really. And as I asked her to stop she was quite resistant but gave me progressively slower and slower canter strides. Towards the end, oh, she was so smooth and collected I wanted to let her go but I restrained myself (and her.) Anyway, it was really difficult to convince her that we were supposed to be trotting. I think she associates circles + me paying attention to my position and her bend, with cantering.

Tomorrow I'm going to try to ride her twice. In the morning I want to slap on a western saddle and the running martingale and take her outside. After some warming up, going across the creek, etc. We're finally going to spend some quality time cantering around the field. If she gets so fast that it makes me nervous we'll do an ~20 m circle. That does seem to slow her down a little, but she's been really lazy lately so I think it wont be a problem.

Ride number two will be shorter. Dressage saddle in the arena, we'll work on our test. Robert will sit behind the judges table and critique. Both the table and Robert will scare Star but thats fine, thats the point. I'm debating whether or not to use the running martingale at all, and if so whether to use the one thats too big for her, or try to fit the other one too her and try it out. I dont really care if she looks all cute and on the vertical but I do care if shes tossing her head to evade the bit while I'm asking her to stop cantering

The fair: Monday

I got to Stoneybrook at 7:00 am on saturday. I came in to find Robert preparing feed but I also found that the cart was not finished! It didn't have wheels, or a singletree, or a seat cushion. So I fed while Robert worked on the cart. Then I got back and I held the cart up while Robert tightened the wheels. Chuck came with materials for the seat and Robert build the seat while Chuck put the singletree on. So we got everything slapped together and ready to go.

The trip there was amazingly painful for me. I sat in the back so that it wouldn't be so obvious that I didn't feel like talking. Chuck offered to sit in back in my stead, which was nice. I realized to my dismay that I was going to be sitting in an enclosed space with a smoker. It wound up coming in waves, first the smell, then the next few breaths I got used to it and then it snapped back into my consciousness again. Eventually the periods of being used to it got long enough not to be too bad.

I enjoy a good argument, and I enjoy even more a good discussion, but an argument will do. Chuck has a reputation for being argumentative, and I'll grant you he is contrary but thats not the same. Anyway, over the course of the trip we talked about some things, I enjoyed watching Robert come in and defend my position, often drawing directly from his own experiences making an argument unassailable by those without his same level of background. Robert can be very articulate at times, its nice. I was a little annoyed to watch Chuck then repeat his exact same point, and having proved himself right Robert left it at that.

Once we got on the highway I tried to sieze an opportunity to play one of my favorite games. It goes basically like this:
Take a fairly simple idea and express it with as much precision as possible. You can play it with a more complex idea, but it takes longer and you usually dont finish, which is fine too.
I like this game because in the process of honing in on exactly exactly what you mean you learn a lot by what you have to exclude and how. Its good practice communicating, defining your terms, thinking about the abstract concepts behind ordinary things.

I knew this game would be harder with someone who wasn't used to speaking in this way. It would be harder for me and harder for him but I picked something so simple I thought it wouldn't be a problem. I was wrong. I wont go into the gruesome details but in the end Chuck was shouting at me that what I was talking about was totall bull shit (a quote, by the way) and I was just doing it to be argumentative, that I understood exactly what he meant, agreed with him, etc. He said this several times, got a little louder each time.

I was depressed (and irate). This all seemed to demonstrate that I was only very rarely ever going to be able to play this game again. I've graduated and I wont be around reedies without making a special effort. They'll all be in class and wont have as much time. Later Robert told me that it wasnt worth arguing with Chuck because if you didn't say precisely what you meant he would pick it apart. He's very logical... I dont remember the rest of what he said because my brain started bleeding. Thats what it felt like anyway. As the imaginary blood started diffusing through my cerebral spinal fluid I think I said something to the effect of thats not true, or something, but the aneurysm wiped most of it from my memory. Robert decided I was beyond his ability to help, which was true, and left it at that.

We got Luca into his stall and then discovered that our first class was coming up a lot quicker than we expected. So we got the sawdust out of Luca's mane and brushed him, harnessed him, and they were off. I had to change right away. I was given the impression that I was in much more of a hurry than I actually was. As I was changing and fixing my hair in the bathroom I discovered that there was a dressing room upstairs. Too late! Or so I thought.

I went over and discovered that there was a lot more time and I went back and found the dressing room and fixed myself up some more. I had on very dramatically red (thats how I'm putting it anyway) lipstick and a black strapless gown. Everywhere I went I heard people say to each other "is there a costume contest." One girl in the dressing room asked me if I was going for a title. It took me a second to figure out what that meant but I answered no anyway. She said that she had been her counties princess and that it sucked. She showed me the rest of the dressing room facilities and wished me luck.

The dress was long enough that it trailed a little past my feet. Higher heels would have prevented this but I wore my more comfortable work shoes, black but basically no heel on them. I've walked through mud in high heels, it goes poorly even with my giant feet. What that meant was that everywhere I went I needed to be holding my dress up, so I held my dress in one hand, my duffel bag in the other and my helmet under the arm that was holding my dress. I passed the duffel back off to Chuck. I still didnt have the use of my hands but now my arm wasn't at an awkward angle. It was too hot to don the black velvet helmet and I sat around for a while. Except I didn't sit, what with the dress you know.

There was a bit of excitement for us because with this new harness we had forgotten a noseband. Apparently that is required. Coleen saved the day by finding a childs belt, and we flipped it over to the black side. Cut it off at the right spot and poked a hole in it. It didn't look as bad as you might think. By the end of the day I had forgotten it was there.

Eventually it was my turn in the cart. We had a lot of time to practice driving around. Everyone was very nice to me, told me how nice I looked, etc. It was very soothing since I had been pretty wound up before.

I had watched luca in two of the classes before and was relieved to find that he was behaving allright for me. In the previous classes he had been calling and wiggling and generally making a fool of himself. Robert said that usually at a show he has lots of halter classes first which helps tire and focus him. Anyway, he was being pretty good except that he kept calling to all the belgian drafts in the arena. He and Robert have a lot in common I guess, they both have a thing for the redheads. He was also spooking at the machinery in one end of the arena but mostly he shied away and it wasn't too bad.

Then came the minis. They kept coming and coming and soon the arena was filled with minis. Some were plodding around at speeds only a mini can plod at. Some were zooming around, fast enough to make it hard to keep track of them but not so fast that luca didn't easily outpace them. To my knowledge I didn't squish any, but there were some close calls. One time I was going to turn into the center and started to cut off one of the minis that had been coming up behind us. That was greeted with curses from the driver, who was the same one I nearly ran over a little while before. I smiled and apologized and made a mental note to check behind me, and low to the ground behind me, before making any more turns. One of the things about minis is that they are harder to hear I think. Plus you cant see them in the periphery of your vision like you can a larger horse. I never came even close to running into the belgians, for example.

As it got close to time to go in we started circling near to the gate. It was a lot like a sailboat race, everyone needs to keep moving but everyone wants to be first in the gate. Well, maybe not everyone but we had a special need to get in first. I didnt want to have to pass anyone and Luca was going to go way faster than any of them. Finally we did what you cant do with a sailboat and we stopped as close to the gate as we could without getting in anyones way more than we were willing to. I was chomping at the bit to go in already, so was Luca. Finally the steward waved us in and we were off!

Luca was doing a nice working trot with a minimal reining in. We were circling constantly to keep a good distance between us and the minis. About one small circle for every lap around the arena.

I had been given only two instructions before going in: do what they tell you and have fun. I've heard time and time again Robert stressing to his clients the importance of smiling at the shows. I plastered a big grin on my face and set out to make it as obvious as possible that I was having fun damnit! Its well known that you cant pretend to have copious amounts of fun without actually having fun. I'm no exception. In addition to the grinning I was looking at all the people, nodding at all the ones that made eye contact with me, looking at the lights, looking at the float in the middle, just generally being a tourist. I accidentally dropped the grin a few times at first when Luca had an unexpected surge of speed, or when I realized the reins had been slipping through my fingers. Mostly though, I kept it up. Robert thinks that lip syncing to the music while rocking my head slightly to the beat was going too far. ("...where have all the cowboys gooone?")

Luca threw one buck during our extended trot. The judge didn't see it. They asked us all to line up and I picked a spot on the end of the line like Robert had told me before. Luca stood beautifully after a couple of initial reminders. Although my face was getting tired I kept grinning. Robert told me it was fine, encouraged actually, to talk to the judge. I told her it was my first horse show and that I was pretty excited. I bounced a little in my seat. I was laying it on thick and without shame.

She asked us to back up and I picked up my reins and asked. I didn't ask as loudly as I should have, but normally Luca throws it into reverse with little bidding. This time he didn't, he had been told to stand and stand he was going to do. I kept smiling and brushed him with the whip. Nothing. Kept smiling and tapped him with the whip. Nothing. "Oh, I'm so awkward with this whip sometimes" I said in what I hoped was a bashful voice. Tap Tap Tap until he backed up. Pause then we stepped forward and back into line, I kept smiling.

The judge asked us why our reins were on the furthest hole down on the bit. Fortunately Robert answered before I did because his answer was better than mine. The one on the tip of my tongue was that he hadn't been out for a while. Robert said this is a stallion, and although we use a very light rein on this setting we like to know its there in case there is trouble. She said agreed that we were using a light rein (really?) and she appreciated our concern for everyone's safety. She pointed out though that he is sometimes behind the bit and it gives the impression that the bit is excessively severe. We nodded and she went back to the float. Luca stood with minimal wiggling.

The announcer called out "Ceader Hill Nimrod Luca!" and when I saw the steward standing there with the first place ribbon it occurred to me that was my horsies name and we had won the class! Fortunately for the standing around part I had relaxed into just a pleased smile so I was able to break out a big grin as we walked over to claim our ribbon and little clock and exit the arena. I was still processing what had happened and why as we walked back to the warm up arena. We walked around for a while longer. Took lots of pictures. Apparently I beat Jerry in that class. I'm still not totally sure what that means but I think it was the woman in the antique cart with the sweet, section D, welsh cob. I dont know if luca was better behaved than the others, if we were turned out better or if I just seemed to be getting the most pleasure out of driving in the pleasure driving class.

I changed back into civilian clothes but I had no makeup remover so the long lasting lipstick stayed. Its actually really great stuff, if you keep gloss on it then it doesnt dry out your lips, it didn't come off on the dinner we ate later, didn't smear when hair got stuck to it and then was brushed away from it many many times. The interesting thing about it though was that then I was really really recognisable. When I say this stuff is dramatically red, I'm not kidding, it startles people who know me as a normally-pigmented person.

I was in one more class, I didn't drive but it was the picnic class with one other woman. This woman looked like the most adorable grandmother there ever was. Her cart was antique, her little mini was slightly plump and totally adorable. She even had a shawl that she probably crocheted herself. She had grey hair and the very traditional grandma up-do. I listened to the contents of her picnic basket being read aloud. It was all great grandmother-type stuff. Roberts little wine basket is very nice, no question. The cheese still in the plastic wrapper with the pricetag still on it, thrown in the wine basket seemingly as an afterthought was not stellar. The carrots for the horse idea was cute, the safeway assortment of fruit, still in its plastic container that I held on my lap, apparently didn't measure up. Robert told the judge that I was there because a picnic was no fun without a girl. She said she liked his style and then inspected our picnic basket.

We took second in the class of two. Which was fine, now we had a second place ribbon to complete our collection of the top three ribbon colors. (we also had a 5th place form before we got the "noseband" but no 4th). Luca got just enough point to get his honors in driving. He needed 30, he got thirty. If we make sure to get Alyssa and myself registered as members of the OHA. Robert, bless his heart, thought that the judge just didn't like Luca. Later he found out that the judge thought our cart was supposed to be painted and thus wasn't finished. She wasn't wrong when she said it wasn't finished. Also, not all the floorboards were flush with each other, and a couple of other things that would be nice to fix up.

Pictures will be posted as soon as I get them.