Re: show analysis

pictures:

I think we didn't do anything wrong in the context of riding. We had a good session on Thursday, and Friday was light work, not so he lost his focus but sort of just a reminder. Saturday there wasn't really a reason NOT to mount up in there, why shouldn't he be able to handle it?

What we didn't factor in was his energy level and focus. He'd been a little tired on Thursday, but not on Friday, and I didn't work him hard on Friday. Last Friday-before-show Robert drove him a few miles and he still had plenty of go the next day. He hadn't been driven for over a week, I think. I was riding him every day I was there, which was most of them, and Robert said he'd drive him on the off days but predictably didn't. We also went straight from the trailer to the ring, which he more or less understands that it means FOCUS. Circling around when there are lots of things going on around him doesn't count as needing to focus.

And to be clear, I wasn't that upset I fell off him, it was that no one was hanging onto him anymore. Falling off happens and I was fine, so eh, but loose stallion with lots of horses and an open gate out to the road is a bad plan. I was sort of upset because I had told myself that you do NOT fall off Luca. Now he knows that he can do that and then he'll do it whenever he decides he doesn't want a rider anymore. It's entirely possible he'll be distracted enough by what he did afterwards that he'll forget it, but I wouldn't bet on it. That's what I'm unhappy about falling.

I am pretty sure I didn't do anything wrong. He started motorcrabbing to the left. Usually asking for a left turn ends it. This time he went vertical. I think I'd smacked him once that day, either for bucking or rearing or motorcrabbing. I was really tense once I got on him because I felt that he was ready to explode, but I figured it was just my show nerves. That may have contributed to the explosion, but I wasn't all that nervous beforehand. I'd come pretty close to coming off when he'd started bucking earlier, and I was expecting to come off, but then he stopped for some reason and I thought, foolishly, that he was happy to be there with me.

Oh well. We'll figure it out.

Gillian's conclusions and future directions

Before I begin, a note to Alyssa, this isn't directed specifically at you. I went into more detail on some of these points than would be neccesary if you were my only audience, but this is sortof a core dump of my thoughts so theres some extra stuff in there.

So, after reading the comments on this blog post:

http://verylargecolt.blogspot.com/2008/06/could-i-have-your-attention-please.html

and thinking it over, I now have some more definite thoughts about what we learned from Saturday. First off I'd like to list some differences between the last show and this most recent show. At the first show we:

• Rode in the arena at home before the show
• Had driven him some the week before
• Hadn't been working as much on leading and standing well
• Got there with barely enough time to do much
• Tied him to the trailer
• Didn't really ask him to stand still for tacking up (and he didn't)
  
• Had Alyssa mount him outside the parking lot
• Went straight to the arena (where he bucked some but mostly did the test pretty well)

At this most recent show, by contrast, we:

• Didn't ride in the arena before the show
• Hadn't driven him much or at all the week before
• Had worked on standing better, with much success
• Got there with a lot of time and had him stand in the trailer for 20 min w/o hay
• Held him for tacking up
• Asked him to stand still for tacking up
  
• Had Alyssa mount up right away, in the parking lot
• Rode around the parking lot for a while

Robert thinks that one problem was that we were over correcting him with the crop. After thinking it over I have to agree that this is true, but we didn't give ourselves much of a choice. We assumed that he would be able to behave himself, since he's been to a lot of shows before, seen lots of mares in heat, and wasn't lunged before going. There are, however, a lot of differences between these foxfire shows and the shows Robert goes to. Allow me to list some:

• Luca is typically trailered a long way to these shows, which is tiring
• Luca has hay for his journey and up until Robert takes him out of the trailer, which is calming
• Robert rents a stall and tacks him up there, not around other horses
• Luca is always either in hand or in cart the whole time, never under saddle
• Reno is frequently there (I dont know if thats calming or not, but its true)
• He's always driven pretty heavily in the days leading up to these shows

My main point here is this: he comes to those other shows mildly fatigued, having had plenty of energy spent in the days before, with plenty of things to keep him busy, with minimal distractions and kept in an environment where he tends to be much more focused. (That last one is to say that he really gets down to focus in the cart.)

I'd like to spend a little time on that last point, about the cart. Luca knows how to focus in the cart. He knows that failure to focus in the cart results in a lot of trotting around the fields. Furthermore, the number of things he can do while hitched to a cart is fewer, he can go fast, he can stop but he cant spin, he cant sidepass, only an extreme amount of rearing or bucking changes his situation perceptibly (ie the driver's position doesn't change, not much changes with the reins or other aids.) He just generally has more experience in the cart. Finally, to top it all off, that cart is heavy. Pulling it requires more work, most forms of disobedience are more tiring.

I think that what happened on Saturday could have been prevented but not by anything Alyssa could reasonably have done under saddle. (and anyone who disagrees with that last part is wrong. I'll be happy to explain that to them if they are unconvinced, but they're wrong and thats all there is to it.) In the week before and much of the day of the show we set him up for failure. At a minimum he needed to be worked much harder in the days before the show, that means some cart time at this point. I think the least we could have done for him if he had to sit in the trailer for 20 minutes was to give him some hay to distract him. He should not have been ridden in the parking lot with a lot of unfocused horses there as temptation. Working horses wont pay any attention to him and he's less tempted to pay attention to them. We put him in a situation where he was too hyper and distracted to control himself, and lo and behold he was out of control.

As I said before I do think that we were over correcting him at the show. We didn't have a choice at that moment because we hadn't taught him what he needed to know (or remember) and we hand't given him the opportunity to learn. We were using the same correction for almost every form of disobedience, regardless of the severity. Swinging his quarters towards someone definitely deserves a resounding smack, and he understands that. Nuzzling someone or otherwise touching them with his nose deserves a swat on the nose, and he definitely understands that. Swinging his quarters when there's no one there, calling, and looking around probably cant all be corrected with a swat to the shoulder as we had been doing. I dont think he understands that very well.

I think he needs to be tied when we tack him up, not held in hand. Any pulling when tied to a trailer is much more self correcting since the trailer is quite immobile. With the number of people we had there we could position someone on either side of him and then the quarters swinging would be less tempting, faster to correct and easier for him to understand. Most importantly though, he needs to understand that he has a choice, and he needs to have the capacity to make it.

When he's hyper I doubt he can focus long enough to stand still. This starts a vicious cycle. He does the wrong thing, he gets corrected but he cant really help himself so he does it again, or he redirects his excess energy elsewhere and gets corrected for that too, and in the same way every time. Soon I think he feels like the only way to keep from getting corrected is to try to avoid the correction. He's sortof right too, if he doesnt have the capacity to stand still then the only good way to avoid correction for it is to move away from the punishment, or worse, fast enough towards the person to make it difficult for them to get him.

That being said I think there are some things we need to do differently, not just before show days but on a regular basis. In the cart one of the principal corrections for bad behavior is getting worked really hard. In the cart that means trotting for miles and miles. I dont think that this is practical in the arena. And I dont think any one of us could canter or even gallop him until he was good and tired.

I agree with Robert that what he needs is lunging. First, he may need to be lunged before being ridden, at least at first. This would give him the opportunity to focus, and it would allow him to spend some of his excess energy. That means he's more inclined to be good in the first place. Second, when he does the wrong thing, Alyssa is quite capable of correcting the behavior. The thing is that sometimes if he gets enough energy up, its probably worth it to take what Alyssa can dish out.

You need the nuclear option. Thats the lunging until he wishes he could stop. In the cart, at home, thats seemingly always and option, it requires no special preparation, you just go. Under saddle we need to keep that option available more often. If there is a saddle around then there should also be a halter, lunge line, lunge whip and gloves, always. Robert doesn't always bother to run out a horse for every instance of misbehavior, but he could and everyone knows it. I wont expound upon why the nuclear option is such a good training tool but I could.

I know he doesn't lunge well at the moment, but that needs to be fixed!

I also think that we should take up some more diverse, appropriate and proportionate corrections for various standing misbehaviors. For one I think he needs to be on a more restrictive cross tie that way the pushing and the pulling will be self correcting. When we're correcting it I think a firm "HO" should be the first line of defence. A jerk on the lead line for going forwards, and a gentle pull on the lead line for when he goes backwards. This would gradually increase in force until he moves forward. We can just point his nose back to forward when he wants to go gazing around the place. The gazing in and of itself isn't a particularly severe problem in and of itself. It leads to problems. So I dont think its anything to get too excited about, just quietly fixed.

I think we learned some really important things from that show. We learned things that I dont think can easily be learned any other way but by seeing the consequences of different actions. We didn't have a good estimate of his capacity for self restraint before this, and now we do. We didn't have a very good measure of his respect for a rider when things get tense, now we do. I'm just grateful Alyssa didn't have to get hurt too badly for us to learn this lesson. Please add things to the comments if you have other thoughts. I'm still chewing this over, but this is what I currently believe.

All the excitement without the hilarity

So today was show day! Ian drove us out to the barn, which is good because I overslept and wouldn't have made it out otherwise. We got luca out, we loaded into the trailer, and we were "wheels up" as Robert likes to say, an hour before we needed to be in the ring. Just as we planed.

We got there and parked, Alyssa wanted to get on a little under 1/2 hour before her test, so we had about 20 minutes to wander around. We got Alyssa her number, we found some water, and mostly I went and drooled over this gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, grey arabian mare. Alyssa watched me drool and we chit chatted with the owners a little. Then Luca started pawing in the trailer, which made it rock up and down on its wheels. I looked at my watch and it was time to go tack up.

Having the three of us there made it faster to tack him up. We didn't want to tie him to the trailer because there was another horse pretty close to us. So Robert held him and we got the saddle on him. Luca was really fussy. One girl brought her horse in our general direction. I think that was the point where Luca looked, Robert brought his head back and luca pulled back and reared up. Robert asked the girl with the horse to give us some space. Then he turns and says to me "gosh, some people they just walk right up to any strange horse." She really didn't get all that close, maybe closer than I would have gotten, but I'm paranoid. Anyway, Luca was reacting to everything but he was all ready to go and Alyssa got on him there in the "parking lot." (they had us all park in one of the turnout fields)

I didn't envy Alyssa the task of trying to walk Luca all the way to the gate past all the trailers and people coming and going. Last time we went to a show we had Alyssa get on outside so that she wouldn't get muddy out in the wet pasture. This time she just hopped right up. It wasn't really a planned thing I think. We just always had her get on at the hay barn where we tacked up. She was standing right there so up she went. Luca was being a pill but she kept him fairly well under control and Robert and I took lots of pictures. (It was Alyssa's camera I was using so its on her to get them to the blog.)

Alyssa stoped and wanted some water, good plan, I always approve of water. I was holding Luca when Robert whacked him for something, I wasn't paying as much attention as would have been good. Anyway, Luca drew back, I went with him and when he started to slow down I backed him up a little more. Then we led him over to Alyssa to get on him. She was now vocally nervous about it "Oh, now I have to get on him, dont I?" or something like that. It was all smiles from the ground crew, dont be nervous you'll do great.

He was even worse than before. I was fidgeting with something, maybe putting the camera away, and I was listening to him fighting with Alyssa. They were pretty far away so I didn't really worry to much about it, Robert pointed out that I shouldn't turn my back on them. So I turned and watched and he went to put his camera away. Luca tossed his head and then up, up, up, he went. Alyssa up on his neck clinging gamely to his mane. I'm not quite sure what I was thinking about at that moment but when Alyssa slid off him I was really relieved. 1) Luca hadn't fallen over with her and 2) She fell straight down, on her butt/back and hand't stayed on him long enough to be bucked off headfirst or slammed into something.

I started to go after Luca, and was going to check on Alyssa when I'd caught him. Then, after taking about two steps in his direction (where he had stopped to sniff some poop) I thought to myself, "No, to hell with that, there are plenty of people here and Alyssa just fell off a horse!" So I went over and she was on her knees curled up in a little ball with her face in her hands. She looked at me, no blood ergo no need to run for the first aid kit that Robert has in his truck. (Slight twinge of disappointment that I didn't get to use the first aid kit, followed by larger twinge of guilt for that thought.)

I told Alyssa she'd done well, and she said to me, "No I didn't, I fell off him." Sometimes Alyssa says/believes stupid things. She'd just fallen off a horse and was still shaken up so that attitude didn't surprise me. Nor was I surprised that she wanted to go catch the horse. Something about that being her job or responsibility or something. This is where I put my foot down.

I had decided previously, after much reflection, that when you fall off a horse, the proper thing to do, by default, is to stay down. I really regret getting up and trying to walk back to the barn after falling of Colonel. I could walk so I did. Bad decision. It was many minutes before I realized the extent of the damage that had happened when I fell off. I was concussed and I should have stayed down. When Alyssa had her accident with Colonel she should have been forced to stay down. No way in hell was I letting her go gallivanting off after Luca, getting frustrated that she couldn't get him, getting angry, aggravating any injuries she may have incurred, etc. etc.

Her job #1 was to keep herself safe. Keeping others safe is good, keeping Luca under control facilitates that but it is not the job. If she happens to go and ride him in the dressage test so much the better, but thats not her primary job. Fortunately she was shaken up enough that I could bully her away from the scene of the crime and over to the truck to rest and get some water. I completely shut out all thoughts of dealing with Luca. In the periphery of my mind and vision I noticed Robert running after a bucking Luca, lots of people getting near their horses in a protective stance.

The gate was open and Alyssa wanted to get it. Barring that she wanted me to get it. I wanted to get her water. As we were arguing about this I got her the water (It took four seconds or so) and started after the gate to keep her happy. Somone else had already gotten to it by the time I took my second stride. So, back to bugging Alyssa.

She had her water, she got her jacket off and the helmet off. She was occasionally willing to rest at the truck but clearly unhappy that Luca was still on the loose. I have to say, that was kindof embarrassing. So I meandered over to help corral the stallion. Someone offered us some carrots. Robert initially refused because he was pissed, then he agreed because he finally realized that he needed to get Luca and it didn't really matter how. Luca was not going to learn anything constructive from this experience, we needed to accept that and move on.

Robert got him just as I was getting close too. I suppose I was planning on driving Luca back towards Robert if he turned to run in my direction. I didn't really think that would help a whole lot. You dont corner a running horse when you're on foot in an area that size. Anyway, Robert got him and I turned around and was grateful to see that someone had meandered over to talk with Alyssa. Although her shoulder was hurt Alyssa was, predictably, still trying to do things. Robert wanted the saddle taken off, Alyssa started to do it, for example.

Then Robert asked me to scratch Luca. I was rather confused why I was supposed to pet him. After walking over there to go comply with instructions and rub Luca's neck or something Robert said "go scratch him from the class." Oh, Ok, that makes more sense. I run over there, they've been looking for us, I tell them we're scratching and, just like that, all the administrative stuff is dealt with.

Robert took us out to breakfast and we spent a lot of time debriefing and analyzing the situation. I'll post my thoughts on the whole thing tomorrow. Alyssa was looking better and better, which surprised and pleased me. I expected a lot more brooding and visible feelings of undeserved guilt. I guess I'm just a pessimist.

We got back to the barn and unloaded Luca and the trailer. I loaded Star into the trailer just for practice and she did fine. She's not calm about it per se, but she's reasonably casual, no extra spooking, no snorting, so thats good. We cleared the jumps out of the field. Alyssa got done with the job of hunting for poles in the field, which does not require the use her injured shoulder, and started to try and get a jump. I tried to stop her but she was less shaken up now, and she was less easily bullied into taking it easy. So I didn't push my luck, and fortunately the shoulder hurts enough that I dont feel much of a need to fuss about it anymore.

I didn't really feel like riding, so Alyssa and I went out to survey places to start making a trail up the hill. I brought some tools, just in case I felt inspired. Well I brought her to one place I was thinking about, it didn't have very many trees in the way but it had tons and tons of blackberry bushes. I wanted to test how the machete handled that so I took a swing. It worked satisfyingly well so I took another swing.

Before I knew it I had cleared part of the path. So I asked Alyssa to supervise me, you know, compress the wounds I inflicted upon myself, call for help if necessary, etc. So I cleared lots of berry bushes in a zig zagging path. Then I ran into trees and called it quits. Robert looked at it and agreed that it was a great start and we talked about bringing a chainsaw out and cutting some more path. So that was good.

We were very very tired. Alyssa made up feed with her one good arm, which might have been one of the most awkward things I've seen in a while. I cleaned the mirors in the arena and loaded the cushman with hay. We told Vic that we were going home early and he said he'd tell Robert and help him feed. Alyssa fell asleep on the bus, periodically waking herself up when her head tipped too far in any one direction. It was cute.

So she'll be off for a week while her arm heals and I'll be off for at least a week visiting my family in California, and job hunting some more.

Friday I overslept and took a later bus to the barn. I watched Gillian and Sam graze goats, then Nicky threw a fit in the arena. Then I rode Luca! He was completely distracted by the pony campers, mostly by the horses calling because clearly they were calling DIRECTLY TO HIM. I just kept working at various things, we have a decent halt and a decent free walk. In this arena, with few things going on around him.

Most of the day was prettying up Luca. We bathed him and shaved his whiskers and tried out the french braid. Gillian took out Star and I pulled Keno out. She said he'd be sore from yesterday so I put a saddle on and took him out! to the field!. He was not sore. He wanted to GO GO GO. So I let him trot for a while, and then I even cantered him on purpose. We didn't go all the way around the field, just kept turning and going back, since I didn't know if his anxiety to go fast was related to going to the barn or not, and one of the goals of taking him out is to make him stop jigging. Only one buck, and that was as much a flying change as anything else. He did walk back to the barn. It took a lot longer than I wanted-- if he'd walked calmly around the field once, I would have put him back, since that's what we want him to learn. Oh well. Now I have taken the two easiest horses out on the trail. Yay me.

When the bus got to Clackamas Town Center and Gillian didn't get on the bus, I thought, aha! I beat her today!

And then I got there and she'd been there for an hour already. Damn.

Saddled up the Gold Brothers and went out, both are happiest being in the lead. Reno pranced the entire way around and got real pissy that I wouldn't let up on his bit enough for him to have his head. This is because he didn't walk. Somehow the release when he walked didn't catch on. He got extra pissy when we parted ways with Keno to trot around. We did the world's slowest, rocking-chairiest lope for a few strides when we got to the curvy part, but since Gillian and Keno were tearing through it we tried going off to the middle path. The middle path and curvy path are separated, apparently, by a large number of very prickly plants. Reno was not thrilled and I admitted he had a point. We pranced back to the barn.

I think then I decided to take Dylan out, while Robert was busy with Imp. I said before that I crosstied him by clipping one on and running a long lead through the loop of another. This turned out to be sort of a good thing, because when I put the surcingle on he spooked, ran, and whirled. I caught the end of the lead so he wasn't loose, but he finished breaking the quicklink that Papillon started. We put everything on and he was calm, but he did manage to rip part of my finger up. Somehow. I don't know how. He was excitable while lunging, probably because there were three other horses in the arena.

As I put Dylan back Gillian went by and said something about "Robert might have you ride Luca in twenty minutes, but he also might...." and I lost it at that point. So I wandered around and talked to Cari and read the dressage tests again. Whenever I did eventually ride Luca, he was good. Sluggish, so we did some transitions and he remembered what was going on. No real fits that I remember. We did! canter about halfway around the arena. He's forward and really powerful and I need to remember to contain my fears that he's going to try to kill me. Oh, Gillian and Star were out in the field, and he absolutely could not stop watching them. It was annoying and made me pretty antsy because he was getting really tense. I need to relax. Relaaaax.

Fed. Ian came home. That was interesting.

Rode hard today

The day started out pretty mellow. I brought lady out and she was limping slightly at the walk. Ok, cleaned her hooves and put iodine/formaldehyde on them. I was curious if she was any better and she was looking sound at the walk/trot so I figured I’d hop on her. Saddle and bridling went fine. She did one head toss and earned a smack. Under saddle she was OK but she felt a little off. I thought about going outside to do some straightaway work so we headed outside. Lady was pretty sure this meant she needed to trot. She was rather off at the trot and not doing a whole lot better at the walk. I wanted to hop off her but I couldn’t do it while she was fussing like that. Eventually she walked long enough for me to 1) realize she had walked enough and 2) actually get off her having made that realization.

Alyssa and I got Keno and Reno ready to go out on a hack. It went well most of the way. We crossed the water and the bridge. Keno walked well as long as he was in front. Reno kinda walked too. When things started breaking down we went our separate ways. I wound up doing a lot of trotting and cantering around. I was pretty pleased with myself. I even worked up the nerve to canter towards the barn when Keno had bucked in the downward transition (thus forcing me to keep going.) So, a lot of running around, Keno was thrilled. This was not really the plan. So I decided that I needed to work him at something that was harder for him than it was for me, I went back to my old standby: canter serpentines. We did other things too. We cantered in small circles when we were going to fast and in larger ones when I was happy with our speed. Also we switched directions every time keno dropped his shoulder into the circle. I did not drop my shoulder, I checked, so I feel no guilt. He is going to be sore tomorrow, I suspect.

I might give in to the temptation to do the same thing with Reno. He does beautiful flying lead changes. The problem is that he makes me very angry when he doesn’t listen. I’m definitely not riding him in that stupid leverage bit. I want reins, actual reins, that can be pulled on to communicate something other than just STOP.

Mostly I want to work on Star. I rode her for over an hour and half today. A lot of that was standing around trying to cross the bridge the other direction and the creek the other direction. I was reasonably happy with her, not as happy as yesterday but what we did today was harder. To get to the bridge she had to walk over ground that made a squish squish noise every time she lifted a hoof. She doesn’t like that. The actual bridge wasn’t bad at all.

The creek on the other side is a very steep grade. We worked on getting down there for a long time. Eventually I got her pointed straight at it and then she walked over it pretty well. She stopped in the middle to sniff the water, which I think is a strange habit of hers. Then she ran up the other side which I wasn’t really expecting since she had walked last time going the other direction.

We discovered that we DO NOT like the sprinklers that the neighbors have to water their shrubs. We discovered, furthermore, that if you turn and run away, your head will get stuck to one side and you can keep running but you only get your head back if you stop it and hold still. This was very enlightening for Star. The first time we encountered the sprinklers she turned and turned and turned. The second time she turned once and then remembered, “oh, right, I can just stop.” I was pleased.

We discovered that when we go places outside, we like to GO. She had this huge trot that I was too absolutely incompetent to sit or post. Very upsetting for me. Mildly upsetting for Star but she ignored it mostly. We trotted towards home, which star decided meant cantering. She wasn’t really pleased about cantering, or something, because she bucked a lot. It didn’t really feel like bucking, it felt like jumping. Its like there were three bounces set up and we were jumping them. Anyway, I did go ahead and ask for a canter towards the end. It was dumb considering that I didn’t really have the whole trotting thing under control. The first few strides was more bucking, then we really went went went with these huge smooth strides. She can really cover some ground. I’m going to have to take her out there tomorrow and not bother with the bridge and creek and stuff and just work on our trot and canter.

Alyssa rode Luca, who was being sortof sluggish. Robert asked me if I could have star doing a dressage test by September. I think I could. I told him as much and he said that Gloria would be thrilled. I think it would be really good because she would have some experience that might make here more saleable, plus it gives me something to shoot for. Getting her to stretch down I think is going to be a job for the clicker training. She has learned to lower her head off of pressure to her poll. She doesn’t throw it up in the air nearly as much anymore. She’s slowly oh so slowly loosing that ewe neck look.

I watched Bella’s owner try to teach Bella to lead better. She was remarkably inept. Bella wasn’t really being all that bad but her owner wanted her to lead next to her. That’s a worthy goal. You are never ever going to convince a horse to walk next to you by pulling or backing them up. You cannot drag a Belgian cross up to your shoulder. She was holding a whip too. She was holding it upright. I thought about saying something but Robert is working with her so I’ll let him try to teach her. I think I’m going to get Bella out tomorrow and make sure she’s not developing any bad habits. She’s big enough to get dangerous faster than your average not gigantic horse.

If I’m going to get Bella out and work with her on her leading I need to get Papillon out and do the same. I let that horse get away with murder for no good reason. She mostly just likes to charge ahead of me, but she’s not as respectful of my space as she should be. Lady has been better since our little heart to heart out in the field but turning left she doesn’t want to step out of my way. I don’t really want to do much about that until I’m sure she’s sound. She doesn’t need to be choosing between pain/pride and getting in my way. Pride is already enough of a handful without pain in the mix.

You're putting *what* under my tail?

The goats are now contained in a stall. Apparently they managed to get out of the turnout into the open area. I told Robert I hated goats!

Pretty average day today. Bella is in weekly lessons with her person. She is learning to lead/lunge. She basically bowls over her person.

Then I lunged Dylan, with plans to start longlining him on Thursday. So I put the equipment on. He was fine with the bit, and stopped chomping on it nearly as much. Surcingle he could have cared less about, and he was okay with the crupper, but damn his face was priceless! He lunged pretty much perfectly again. The more we put on him, the less he wants to go flying around on the lunge. He's probably ready to start being really crosstied, but I'm either too soft with him or reasonably paranoid about crossties, so I usually clip one tie on and then run a lead through the other side, and either casually hold onto it or drop it.

I had half an hour after Dylan before we scheduled Luca, so I got on Reno and walked and trotted him around the outside arena. Then in a fit of bravery we went over the culvert and trotted almost the entire way around the field. I let him walk for the last bit to cool off, though I suppose he didn't really need it, and during the twisty bit he tried a little canter. I might let him, next time; it depends on how I feel. I was holding him back pretty hard, but I think he just wants to have fun and go fast.

Then Luca. He was, predictably, very good for leading and tacking up, and stood still for me to mount but spun off as soon as I was done. I let him warm up at the trot for a while, asking for circles and softness, and he was pretty good. We also did the test B, and I need to remember this: he halts better coming from the left. It shouldn't matter and I don't know why it does, but I need to remember that for our first salute. Robert dragged Lil in to watch and she thought it was lovely (and apparently has a very good eye for judging), and Shana also got to see. At that point Luca's attention was wavering pretty badly. I got two cuts to the left, and the first was a bit of a surprise but the second I'd already known I'd lost him. He was good for as much as he could focus on, though, and I didn't want to punish his good work by making him refocus. We did get a couple good lateral movements, a nice sidepass to the left and a very nice turn on the forehand.

I played with minis and new harness for a while, then helped tack up Rocky for Sherri the rescue lady. She'd brought her 9-year-old grandson with her (named Dylan apparently) and so I entertained him for a bit by showing him the horses. Then I made feed, and fed, and watched drill for a while. And then I went home.

Feeding time excitement

We had quite a time feeding. As may or may not have been mentioned before, Robert recently got some goats. They are curious about people but they dont trust them. Alyssa went to feed them but they werent in their run (we've got them in a horse stall.) We weren't quite sure how since there were no visible weak points in the fence. Alyssa wanted me to grab a lead rope and we would grab them and lead them in. I wasnt really sure how we were supposed to catch them in the first place, plus there wasn't another lead rope. Alyssa went out into the other run and found, much to her displeasure, that the goats were not there anymore. She went into the other run and shook the grain at them and I went out to watch. They weren't interested so Alyssa walked out there and boom, under the fence they went. So now we knew how they were doing it. I went out and crawled under the fence which piqued their interest in me quite a bit. So much so, in fact, that they wanted to come sniff me more than they wanted to go to that scary lady with the grain. I sat there to guard the hole in the fence and Alyssa wound up chasing them into the stall.

I went into the empty stall to get back to the aisle way. In the time it took me to open the outside door, close the door, open the inside door and then walk through and close that, Alyssa was gone. I checked the stall I thought was the goats' stall. (For some reason that barn disorients me something awful.) No goats, no Alyssa, outside door was closed. Checked the next stall, definitely not the goats' stall. So I shouted for Alyssa. I thought I heard her voice coming from outside, but if she was outside where were the goats? As much as I felt like I would look silly assuming the goats had escaped I decided to grab the lunge line belonging to Bella (which has a loop in the end for convenient slip knot assembly) and go outside and try to figure out where her voice was coming from.

As I approached the main barn I saw Reno rearing up surprisingly high in the air, while Imp stared at him. I found that the main barn (not the hay barn) had the front door closed. As I approached I heard Alyssa shout "careful careful careful" I peeked in and saw the goats standing there looking at me with interest. I slipped in and went to sit down to see if they'd sniff at me. I sat down and this spooked them a little. Alyssa and I tried to get them but they got past us to the other end of the barn.

Alyssa and I walked over there to try again. This time more slowly. We stood there watching the goats and contemplating what to do next while the goats stood there and did the same. Alyssa laughed and pointed out that Papillon was absolutely going nuts in her stall. While some of the other horses were a little nervous about the goats, Papillon was not, she was filled with a clear and intense desire to get the goats and get them the HELL OUT OF HER BARN!!! I knew Papillon didn't like dogs in her field. I still cant slow her down if she decides that she needs to run after a dog thats in her field. Once its out then she's back to her normal, mostly controllable, self. We used to go out and chase coyotes together and she was absolutely riveted. Apparently goats next to her stall are dramatically more enraging than dogs in her field. She was snorting, she was kicking, she was making the goats pretty nervous. She was making other horses pretty nervous. I have never seen her so full of what I can only describe as blood lust. We told the goats that they'd better cooperate or else we'd let Papillon out to get them.

Then we heard it. I big thud and a huge rush of water. Papillon had broken her water pipe above her water dispenser. Importantly she had broken it above the cutoff valve, not that I was especially keen on going in there and getting soaked while Papillon bucked and screamed like a mad thing. Alyssa and I lunged for the goats, Alyssa caught one. I was excessively dedicated to getting one with my slip knot, otherwise I would have grabbed the collar like she did. Anyway she got it and was off after the other goats.

I needed to deal with Papillon before she killed herself. I didn't think I could shut off the water from her stall. Lady was out in the run but given the choice between what those two were likely to do to each other in this tense situation and what Papillon was likely to do to herself I chose the former. I kept close to one wall of the stall. Papillon wanted to get close to me, she knew I was there to solve her problem but she stayed back like a good horse. I started to open her door and she really really wanted to go out the gap I had created. I decided I really needed the whole door to be open because she might hurt one of us on her way out the door. I turned and looked at her, got ready to have to really intimidate her to keep her from barreling through me. She looked at me and i could see the whites of her eyes all around. She rocked back like she was getting ready to bolt, looked at me one last second and then flung herself around to the side and let me get back to opening the door. I got it all the way open and I started to move away but quickly had to press myself hard against the side of the stall. Papillon avoided me, and not without some effort on her part, I think. She went through the door as far away from my side of it as possible without scraping herself. The stall was filling up with water.

Alyssa had grabbed the other goat so I opened the door and ran to get Robert. Alyssa makes fun of me for shouting for Robert but water had started to spill over into the aisle way and who knows how much damage could have been done. Plus I was pretty excited about the whole thing, I've never seen two goats getting loose cause anything like this. I got to the house, Lil had heard me and was telling Robert I was at the door. I told him that Papillon had broken her water pipe and we needed to shut off the water. He got his shoes and he and Chuck were shuffling out. Robert called to me as I was running back to the barn "which barn is it?" and I couldn't think of the name of the barn (the all have names but no one uses them) so I shouted back "the one that Papillon's in." I think I heard Robert say "Oh," in kindof an oh right, kind of way.

As I was running to the barn I realized I thought I did know how to shut off the water. The water to the arena is shut off via two valves in holes covered with a green cap on either side of the arena. I had noticed such a cap outside of the barn one day. I ran to it and opened it up but there was nothing but dirt. I started digging and sure enough the red handle to turn off the water was buried in the dirt. I had my gloves on and I kept digging. Robert got there and saw that it was buried but thought I had gotten enough free to turn it. I tried but I couldn't, Robert tried and agreed that it was really buried down there and asked for a stick. I got him one from one of the dead shrubs behind the barn so he was digging away. Chuck was just standing there watching everything, looking bemused by the whole situation. Alyssa had come back from putting the goats away. Water was coming out into the aisle and was pouring out the door of the stall into the run. Lady was looking concerned and Papillon was on high alert. Robert managed to turn the water down but wanted to make sure that it was this valve that was doing it. "Stand back," he told us as he turned the water back on and a mighty rush sent Papillon, who had come back to investigate now that the water had stopped, flying and bucking in her run.

With the water flow stopped Robert went out to get something to fix the water pipe. He told us we did good and agreed that we needed to put Papillon in one of the other empty stalls. I went out through Lady's stall, which had started to flood as well but only around the side nearest to Papillon's stall. I got Papillon who was pretty happy to see me and looking, to my eye, to be calmer although Alyssa laughed at this assertion. I led her out through Lady's stall, of course, and into the empty stall next to Colonel's, this way she could still have a familiar face to bite at out her window. I took off her halter and started to step out and she followed me very closely, some more white showing in her eye again. "Oh God dont leave me here, Oh God Oh God," Alyssa mimed from the hallway.

I slowly closed the door and looked over to see Lady sniffing a very very excited Luca. Lady had walked out of her stall where I had absentmindedly forgotten to put the chain back up to block it. I looked at her, she looked at me. Alyssa went to try to get her back into her stall. Lady resisted and broke out of Alyssa's grasp. They were both turned towards the partially open barn door. They both looked at the door, they both started running at exactly the same time. My appeal to Lady to halt went completely ignored. She ran out the door, pretty pleased with herself. A moment passed. She ran back in the door when she realized that it was feeding time and some other horse might get her grain if she wasn't there to eat it. I just pointed back to her stall as she ran by. Lady stopped to sniff and potentially bite Moonbeam but was easily shooed back into her stall.

The goat's grain was still sitting in a bucket on the floor of the barn. So we went back to feeding. I fed Papillon some grain right away. There was no bucket in her stall at first so I just fed her straight out of her feed bucket. She started to calm down and Alyssa brought a feed bucket and all was basically back to normal. All but the ridiculously flooded stall still draining slowly out into the run, and the pool of water on the aisle. Robert had come back and fixed the pipe already so all the horses had water again. We fed all the horses, closed their doors, gathered our things and were leaving for the day. We walked out to the bus stop and as we crossed the far pasture and I was thinking about finding that weedwacker to cut ourselves a better path through the grass I heard an enraged shout, "FUCK YOU, GOATS!!!" Her animosity was returned by the quizzical stare and calm chewing of the two goats, now back out in the neighboring horses' run. Their door open by only the tiniest crack. I just fell on the ground laughing. After all that we hadn't even managed to get them in from their run.

Gillian's "boring part" of the day

So I'll start at the beginning as I usually do. Cari had been talking to Alyssa about working Lady on straight lines mostly. The field is the obvious place to do this. So I took her out and hand walked her in the field to see how she would do. Lady and Papillon dont lead as well as they should. Leading becomes very very important outdoors and also in scary situations. Today Lady got a little reminder how it was. There were people blowing leaves and people mowing grass next door. Lady was breathing hard the whole way. She kept getting her shoulder close to me or even bumping in to me. I made it my mission to remind her who's scarier. Its me.

Every time her shoulder was behind me it got a smack with the lead rope. Every time her shoulder was next to me and too close it got elbowed. When she bumped into me I just went totally nuts. I'd turn around, lunge at her waving my hands and jerking the lead rope until she backed up. Touching me is NOT OK. I discovered that its best with Lady to keep her moving. Star and Papillon both like to stop and investigate things. Lady thinks that stopping is what you do when you cant keep moving because the thing in front of you is dangerous. Good information to have.

I put Lady away, by which time Alyssa was done with Dylan. We went in and talked to Robert and Lil a little in the new house. Dylan's owners were coming that day so Dylan was going to be taken out again. There's a show this coming weekend so Alyssa was going to ride Luca. Alyssa and I went out and got Luca, who led quite nicely for Alyssa. We tied him and after getting smacked a few times for trying to nuzzle with us he stood fairly well. While I was brushing him on either side he swung his quarters into me. This also earned him a pretty good smack. Mostly though, he stood there and I pet his neck while Alyssa was tacking him up. When Alyssa went to get on him Robert was already on the other side of Luca. I positioned myself next to his quarters and when they started to move towards me I had my glove in my hand and I smacked him with the glove. He stood still for mounting. I went to the arena and watched him be pretty good for Alyssa, except for the part where he tried to kill us. Robert scooted out of the way. I have a policy that horses get the hell out of my way. If he had had his quarters as close to me as they were to Robert I probably would have decided that discretion is the better part of valor and scooted off to.

I got bored of watching Luca after a while and I went and tacked up Star. I forgot to take a whip with me to go to the hay barn and suddenly everything was extra concerning. After smacking her with the rope didn't work, (it never does with her) I turned around and got a whip and went back. She still balked which surprised and pleased me. Pleased me because thats what I like to call a teaching moment. Sometimes shit happens and there's not much to do but deal with it. Sometimes shit happens and you have the perfect setup to teach the horse that this behavior will be punished. Usually when I have a whip she just walks right up. Today she got smacked for being an idiot.

I thought I would be done tacking up before Alyssa was done. It didn't work out that way so Star and I scurried into the aisle adjacent to the main hitching spot. Star was freaked out. This place was dark and small and scary. We stood there and she sortof calmed down. I'll have to take her back in there and tie her later. The reason she stands so well in the hay barn cross ties is that we've stood there for a long long time. We can do the same in the aisle way of the hay barn.

I didn't put the running martingale on her today, because I wanted to get out of there fairly quickly. Alyssa and Luca had the girth I normally use so I used a slightly longer one. It went up to the top hole on either side. It was still loose but tight enough for mounting. I just had to stay on my inner thigh or else! That actually went OK. It was really good practice actually, and I even managed to keep most of my muscles pretty relaxed.

We went out on the trail with minimal fussing. She didn't want to walk on the road. I'll have to deal with that. She was fine to cross the culvert and walked along nicely past the trailer. She stopped several times to stare at the blue barrel thats out in the grass. She was really pretty good until we got to the purple lupins. I thought they were very pretty. Star thought they were out to get her. We went back and forth in front of the lupins for a while. She started to walk through and then as soon as she passed the half way point, she bolted. Bolting is NOT OK. I don't mind if she stops, I don't mind if she backs up. I don't let her turn but I dont punish her much for it either. Bolting I dont tolerate. I had her go back through the lupins. She walked that time so I let her keep walking away from them for a while. I wanted to go to the stream crossing though and she wasn't going to want to walk on the partially inundated path so after a while I turned her around and we walked through the lupins again without much fuss at all, just some snorting.

When we got to the creek crossing she was less than thrilled. I have a system with her. I squeeze with my legs, I keep squeezing progressively harder and harder and harder and I keep squeezing until she takes the tiniest step forward and then I release all the pressure. She knows this game. She knows that early in the game she's even allowed to back up but she'll have to walk all that way forward again anyway without any rest. If she takes a step forward right away we rest for a little while and then take another step. We played this game all the way down to the bank, about 6 m of this. Lots of backing up, some attempts at turning and running away.

Then we sat there at the edge of the bank. At that point the game changed a little. Any backing up would escalate immediately to kicking by me. We sat there for a long time. I had a long sleeve shirt on which protected most of me from the sun. The long sleeve shirt has a hole in it where my neck sticks through. All around there I got pretty badly burned. Eventually we walked through the water.

Usually horses like to trot up the opposite bank. As a reward for going through the water I was going to give her a loose rein for a little while. I grabbed mane and waited for the rush that never came. She walked very calmly up the opposite bank and proceeded to step around the deep wheel tracks left in the dried mud. We walked on a loose rein for a while and then we stopped so I could put my bat back in my half chaps for safe keeping. I hardly ever use it with Star but I did once during the creek crossing.

We walked around behind the creek and then came to the bridge. Previously the bridge has been a big balking point for her. She used to only step on it in hand if I stepped on it first. I had taken her out there before and she stepped on the bridge before I did which was nice. Today she balked a little. We walked up to the edge of it. I let her eat some grass. She's fairly good about only eating grass when I let her. Not great but she doesn't pull on me when she encounters resistance so I call that good enough for now. So she nibbled some grass, put her front feet on the bridge and then walked across it. She did one sidestep in response to something. I dont know what it was.

We walked straight home from there. She broke into the world's smoothest trot a few times but came right back down with the application of a little seat and rein pressure. We came to the hay bales. I asked her to step over to the other side of the wheel tracks we were following. She walked past them but eyed them cautiously the whole time. We walked across the culvert and on the path, I got off while we were still on the path because I like her being on the path and because sometimes she likes to trot when we get to the grass arena so I didn't want to give her the opportunity to misbehave. I am very very pleased with how well she did yesterday, there may be hope for her as a useful animal yet.

Alyssa was getting done with Dylan by the time I got back. I untacked and Robert was leading Reno up to go for a drive. I put Star back and when Reno was on his way Alyssa suggested taking Papillon out for a hack and I'd ride Keno. Keno has been a little bit disobedient out on the trail and I think he just needs to know that he can work hard out there or he can relax. I thought Alyssa did a really good job keeping Papillon about as relaxed as she gets outside. We walked around in the grass and they looked very picturesque out there with the grass coming nearly to Alyssa's toes. We need to get all the jumps and poles out of there so that Buzz can cut hay when it gets hot enough. Alyssa put Papillon back, having done a nice excursion out of the outdoor arena.

I took Keno out to the back forty and we cantered around a little. Then we galloped down the long side of the field, or at least about 2/3 of it. I discovered that galloping down the side of the field where I feel off Colonel is really pretty terrifying. Keno thought it was great. At some point I need to take him out and run him until he's sick of it. I guess I should practice a good galloping seat, maybe the eventing saddle would be good for that. So we stopped when I got too terrified to keep going and we walked a little. When he started to jig we took a circle. He didn't like it. He expressed his displeasure by jigging some more and we took another circle. He got the picture. We walked, sometimes a very huge aggressive sortof walk but clearly a walk.

We walked almost to home and he started to trot. I turned him around and we galloped down the other side of the field away from home. He was having a great time. My stirrups were too long. I was less happy, not that it wasn't fun but it was scarier than I like. So we stopped and I shortened my stirrups. Keno was happy to walk for a while and we walked nearly to home and he was tossing his head, which irked me. So he tossed his head one more time and I turned him around and we cantered. Or at least I tried to hold him to a canter. I didn't want to just canter the long side again. I wanted to do something more tiring for him. So we did canter serpentines. He does OK lead changes but man was he pissed by all this direction changing. We circled like a barrel racer sometimes. Or at least thats what it felt like. Keno was pretty calm coming back, he did one little attempt at trotting but some rein and seat pressure brought him back and I called it good enough.

Lady had been really pissed when Alyssa took Papillon out. She was running around and bucking in her run. I figured she wanted to go out so I brought her out and I had her trot in hand. She looked sound so I saddled her and bridled her. She usually tosses her head for bridling. I had been ignoring it but today I decided that had been a bad idea. So, you guessed it, I smacked her for it. She stopped after a couple of times. Under saddle she was great. No head tossing only one proper spook. She was walking so calmly I decided we would trot. She was off at the trot but enjoying it. We only trotted down the long side of the arena. I tried it each direction, she was happy but lame on her left fore. After that she had one big spook at the end of the arena and then she was limping at the walk but still happy. Alyssa made fun of me for my "well, she's still happy so I can walk her some more" attitude and I got off her. Its easy to forget how gung ho she can be sometimes. Still it was a nice ten minute ride for her and she seemed happy. Her frogs are still pretty cracked so I put on some hoof dressing, now affectionately known as "snake oil" for its ineffectiveness and dubious usefulness in the first place.

We sat around for a while feeling good about all the horses getting worked today. Then we fed... but that is another post...

The boring part...

I'll let Gillian go into the fun part of our day, but the rest wasn't bad. I got there early to work Dylan-- he was distracted by the horse outside, but wasn't awful. I decided it was too cold to clean him up much and put him back. We talked to Robert and he said he had to call Foxfire to see if they'd still accept our show form, and we'd do Luca when he finished the call. So while he was doing that we got Luca out. He led fairly well. In the crossties he was a veritable angel after we smacked him twice. Robert came out to see him standing quietly and seemed impressed. He saddled up pretty quietly as well, and I actually mounted for the first time without someone holding onto him! He was a little wiggly but he did wait until I had my seat and my stirrups, which is more than I can say for some horses (Papillon...). He wasn't at all bad except for one part, asking for a trot at C going towards M. The way the arena is set up, the gate is at that corner. Gillian and Robert were sitting at C and talking. I was sort of doing a test backwards and asked for a trot at C, and he nearly ran them over. We did it again and he did the same thing. I smacked him a few times and he did a tiny buck. We'll need to work on that, preferably when no one is sitting there. It annoys me that he thinks just because there's a gate there that he can be a bastard. When we came out there were four mares milling around, which got some sideways glances from Luca but he seemed pretty focused on me overall.
Dylan did really well for his owner. He wasn't listening outside but was all business in the arena. We did some basic showmanship stuff, circles in either direction, stopping, backing, all on a loose line. Then I figured he was doing well enough, might as well show him off a little, and tossed the lead over his neck and did the exact same thing, and he did the exact same thing too. It was nice. We also lunged him, just at a walk, and he was super quiet and never tried to trot. His whoas were fantastic and his reverses were good too.
Gillian and I planned to take Keno and Papillon out on a hack but that fell through for me because I couldn't deal with it. I was really tense, slightly dizzy, and when I stopped freaking out over the horse I felt like I was about to cry. Papillon wants to go go go so she was prancing a little. If I can convince my body and brain that she just wants to go, preferably with me on her, and she's not just trying to spook and bolt at everything, it will be better. We just walked around the small "arena" outdoor, and Papillon and I did a few quick forays into the unmown jump arena, but I was freaked out by her and the "wilderness" and also the jumps hidden in the field that I didn't want her to trip over. I wanted to cross the culvert and go into the back forty but I was too nervous. I should get on Reno, ride him for a while in the indoor, and then go out again.
I thought braiding Luca's mane for the show might be nice, so we collected the short pony with the long mane, I brushed it out, and Gillian braided it up. We got Robert's approval.
I lolled about the place and then we fed.

woohoo!

Today was a pretty sweet day. I got there and Robert and Chuck distracted me for a while with goats. Then they took Nicky out so I swept the aisle and took Dylan to the arena to stand and watch ponies dragging things. He didn't actually get to see it, but I took this time to let him explore the Things in the arena. He was curious about the chair and sniffed it. I was about to move it for him to spook at, but then he stuck his head in up to the eyes between the armrest and the seat, realized he was stuck, pulled back, and the chair lifted for a minute with him and then bounced onto the ground. He regarded this as a "huh. Cool." experience. I love this horse! I bitted him and he was not terribly happy about it, but he lunged as well or better than he normally does.
I think we took Keno out then? Keno regarded us with sad puppy dog eyes because we were going to torture him. I ground-drove him with just the single tree attached, and he was slightly unhappy but mostly okay with it. While we were attaching the tire to the tree, he got squirrelly and started dancing, and ended up getting a trace between his legs which was cause for alarm and a minor freak out. Everything was okay though, and we went off. He tried throwing a fit and killing Robert, but did not succeed. I noted that Robert did not drop the leadline and run for safety like he told me to do.
Then it was lunch for Robert, so I applied anti-tail-rubbing magic to the four front boys (Reno, Keno, Imp, and Dylan). It's supposed to be good for fungal infections, so I gave some to Lady's bald patch. Imp is seriously stressed out over life. He didn't want to come into his stall to see me, which is unusual, and every time I touched his tail/hindquarters he flinched. I meant to come back to currycomb him a little but didn't get a chance. He shakes every time we hitch him up, too. I wonder if he still thinks Robert and Jerry are too heavy to pull, or if Jerry is unpleasantly different on the reins than Robert?
I still had time before Robert came back so I saddled and lunged Lady. Cari was there and watched her lunge. She's off on her left front, which is the more crooked of her legs. She's avoiding the turn and just going straight. Cari's suggestions were to either lunge her in a frame with side reins or to do lots of straightaway work, like in the back forty next to the driveway, and maybe that would build up enough muscle that she could take turns. Also, she asked if Lady was spooking before turns or indiscriminately-- before turns might mean she just doesn't want the pain that she associates with corners.
Also, it's a week before the dressage show. So Robert thought maybe I should ride Luca. I agreed. He was good about leading, good about tacking up, and pretty good for mounting. He was good for riding, too! We put the pad under the saddle. He acted up a little-- was a little stiff in his turn away from Moonbeam, whinnied a few times when someone called first, and would occasionally motorcrab slightly to the left, but he was a very slow motorcrab. No bucks, no rears, etc. He still doesn't halt straight or square, and we need to work on his free walk, and I need to work on my geometry. But he was good, AND he got a little sweaty. Robert credited the pad for all of it. I credited the pad, improved leading skills, three weeks since being ridden, the weather, no other horses in the arena, and possibly the show so he realized there was a point to all this. He grumbled that I had a point.
And we worked Reno, just walked him around the field twice. He was pretty thrilled about all the grass. Less thrilled when we smacked him with the reins/whip for eating it. We were clearly offering it to him by driving through there.
By the time I got done with Reno it was 3:30. I decided to sit and read through the dressage test booklet Cari had brought with her, and then I watched Cari and Sammi do their tests. Xsarena kept trying to walk towards me because I let her lick my hands, but Cari asked me to bring a dressage whip and when I went towards them Xsarena squealed and did a mini-buck. She seemed to forgive me, though.
I fed, had to chase Bella into her stall, as well as the goats. Nicky was much better though I did have to smack her once. I wasn't going to make the 4:30 bus. So I sat down, realized I hadn't eaten since breakfast, and got the trail mix. I'd shoved two handfuls into my mouth when I remembered that Robert had told me Dylan's owners were coming to visit tomorrow and we should pretty him up tomorrow. Since Dylan didn't really lead when he got here, I figured he probably also wasn't a big fan of baths. So I acquired Dylan and walked him to the wash stall and showed him the Magical Hose of Acid. He was highly suspicious, and then interested, so I sprayed his hooves and legs, while he decided to stick his nose straight into the spray. This was okay. I led him back to his stall and he seemed intrigued and confused as to why his legs were wet but not the rest of him. Hmmm.....

Tomorrow I'm planning to get there around 9, I think, so I can work Dylan and at least spot-clean him before his owners get here. The deadline for the Foxfire show was today, but Robert said he could turn it in tomorrow. He wants you and Papillon to show him the test so we can decide whether or not you should go (I'll read it to you). He agrees that spending a lot of time with her on trailers is a good idea. "She trailered here fine--" "and when was that?" ::sheepish:: "....seven, eight years ago?" I looked at him. "...Yeah, it might be a good idea." I'm scoring a lot against Robert these days. I meant to hack Papillon out today because she is giant and black and it was hot, but I didn't realize how fast time went today until it was 3:30.

fjordfjordfjord

I didn't get as much accomplished today as I wanted to, for two reasons. One, I overslept and came in at noon instead of 11. Two, I went to go see the Fjords today. They were super cute, mostly I love their manes. I rode Bonnie. As we pulled in, Cari cautioned me, "she's an alpha mare, she won't act affectionate or anything towards you at first." She likes to test her riders and will stiffen her neck and act like she's going to bolt. Mostly I was riding her because I canter well, no one besides Cari has cantered Bonnie well, and she wanted to watch. The ride went pretty well, she definitely abuses that Fjord neck. The two mares got in a fight a few days ago and are still a little sore, so the canter and bending weren't nearly as good as they probably should have been. As soon as I dismounted she started lipping at my leg, so I guess I pass the test. Cari has offered to teach me lateral work if I'll keep riding Bonnie. Lateral work is definitely my weakest point, and since Bonnie moves a lot like Luca, this can help me with him a lot too. I'm very happy about this. Also squeefjordmanes.
We drove Luca, he was good, definitely stood better and even led better, though he did grab a mouthful of grass as Robert was leading him to the hay barn.
Dylan was super good! The last three times he's stood perfectly still for haltering and unhaltering. I didn't crosstie him today, but we went up to the hay barn and there were a few snorts but no real hesitation. Robert scared him when he walked into the arena behind Dylan, but it was mostly a spook-in-place (while he can walk on top of a cone and not even be aware of it. Dumb pony.). He got the message yesterday that I wanted him to walk, and reversed very well. He still trots a little fast and needs work on his whoa, but all in all I think he's pretty set. We'll put the bit in tomorrow, and Robert thinks he'll be longlining by the end of a week or two.
Keno was pissed, as he is about most things, about longlining and pulling the tire. I had to lead him and he tried to kill me once. Robert got a little upset that I was defending myself instead of running away. I kind of forgot that Robert was also attached to the horse and I try not to let horses loose when I can avoid it. We only did about two circuits around the arena, but he was really tired by the end.
The goats have ventured outside, finally, and let me pet them while they ate their grain. Cotton Candy stood up when it was feeding time to watch me through the grate and make sure I was going to feed them.
We did a repeat of yesterday with Nicky, but she learned faster and kept her who me? face up the entire time as I was closing the door, as far as I could tell.
Luca turns into a young teenage boy when I try to take hay/branches out of his forelock. Quit it, mom! It's pretty adorable.

Ian's mare gave birth last night. Stillborn, sadly. But at least he has Leya, which is the foal he was going to keep anyways. I don't know how Maya, the mare, is doing.

New Boss Mare

It was slightly less nasty out, so I felt slightly more motivated. I worked with Dylan twice. The first was just crosstying and leading. He was very nervous about the hay barn, so we took our time, and after the first he only hesitated once. The crosstying is good in that he feels the pressure and either yields or doesn't pull more, but bad in that he still doesn't quite understand that he isn't supposed to follow me when I move around to get another brush. Then Jessica came around and talked to the horses and opened their stall doors ZOMG and that was a little scary, and then a trailer came around and that was pretty scary too. He was moderately reactive to everything, but listened to me as soon as I asked him to back or move his hind end. His front right frog is a little terrifying, but he's good on all his feet-- the backs he pops up really quickly but I don't think he's trying to kick. A couple hours later I took him out to lunge and he walked up to the hay barn no problem. We started out with the I MUST TROT syndrome but after yanking the lunge line a few times he decided it was much easier to walk. He definitely knows the "trot" command, and we're still working on down transitions and reverse. He was good though.

I saddled and lunged Lady, no problem with saddling (barely even any dancing) but she's still lame. Did her hooves and put her back.

I saddled and worked Papillon, who was sound. I trotted her a fair bit and then gave her some bute with dinner, and did her hooves too.

Robert came in to distract me at various points throughout the day, because he was doing some contracting work all day and he would get frustrated and come out to the barn.

Oh, and Nicky is Robert's brother's little POA mare. She's sweet as can be when it's not feeding time, but bluffs when it is. She'll pin her ears and turn around like she's about to kick you. Chuck and Robert said she didn't do that with them, and that where she used to be she had all the women cowering in fear of her. So for dinner I came in with a crop and after a few smacks, whole new attitude! I smacked her when she was acting aggressive and she fled her hay and grain to stand outside. She wouldn't come back in until I'd stepped far away from the door. When I was closing the door she thought I wasn't looking and made faces at me, so I opened it up a little and pop! went her ears forward. Who, me?

The goats have a run full of grass to eat, but the grass might be wet so they won't step a foot out. Everything nearby them was stripped, though. Bridget let me pet her head and seemed to enjoy it, while Cotton Candy is much more reserved. I am trying to like these goats.

ETA: Pam and Breeze were out today. She was talking to me and saying she'd read something that went something like this: the trick to a good seat is not bouncing. I laughed and SEIZED the opportunity to ask her to try tilting her pelvis forward so she's not in as much of a chair seat. I don't know if it helped, though.

Hibernation...

I really didn't do anything productive today. I should change that. It was cold and wet and windy and was not a fun day to be out.

Lunged Dylan, he was feeling uppity so I tried running him out a few times. A few times because (well, Gillian thinks it might not be the way to go and she's probably right) I tried to not run him too long, since it's bad for their joints and it was cold so I didn't want him sweating too much. Inevitably he behaved perfectly, and then as I was letting him walk to cool out, he'd start acting up again. He did get the general idea of moving in a consistent circle. Eventually when he behaved, I stopped him and just handwalked him. Much better. Crosstying is still a little difficult for him. Whenever I step back, he tries to follow me. Then he hits the tie and stands there staring until I walk back. It is pretty cute though.

We have goats! Two Pygora does. One is 3/4 angora, 1/4 pygmy, and has a short coat. Her name is Cotton Candy. Another is 1/2 Angora, 1/2 Pygmy, and she's named Bridget. CC just had her babies weaned off her, and Bridget has a pretty typey coat but is barren. I really have to say I enjoy goats for this reason: I'm bigger than them. I led Bridget out of the wagon and she tried pulling after CC, so I just stood there and let her. It's wonderful compared to horses, who you have to use a little more coercion with. Robert says I can train them to drive. I'm psyched.

I have a lunch date with a Fjord on Friday, which I am equally excited about. This will be, I think, the best-trained dressage horse I've ever ridden.

Lessons

I had a thought the other day. I think we would benefit from establishing weekly lessons with each other. I'm thinking basic lunge line type lessons, saddle but no stirrups and no reins? That part is just details. Robert thinks that more than ten minutes without stirrups is excessive. I'll ask my mom, she's got some sports medicine training.

Anyway, I think the key here is that we actually set a day that we do this. Not "oh, yeah, we should do this sometime," but rather: "thursday, we do this." At the barn I think that things mostly get done if we make the time, rather than waiting for it to come along. The example of thursday is hypothetical but seriously, living life without some kind of horse riding lessons isn't a good way to go.

There is also the question of which horses to use. I think I'd do mine on Papillon, she lunges well and is generally a good girl in the arena. I have mixed feelings about you and Keno. His trot has two modes: dinky and rushed. Neither are very instructive. On the other hand, he is generally well behaved. Star and Lady both have the disadvantage of being randomly disobedient on the lunge line. Especially the spinning and facing lunger feature is disadvantageous. The other thing to consider is using BJ? Or Bella? We'd have to check them out but they may turn out to be a good temporary fix to our riding lesson grade horse deficiency.

For non lunge line lessons anybody would work fine I think. I really want to spend some time on the lunge line though. Balance Balance Balance! thats what I need in my riding. I'm beginning to get the impression that everything else in riding flows from a deep, balanced, and relaxed seat.

Fell off a horse today

I had a pretty productive day today. I took Dylan out and lunged him near the gate. He pretty much ignored the gate, which pleased me. We wound up continuing to work on staying out on the circle. He thinks that trotting is done on a big circle and that walking should be done on a smaller circle, so he likes to come into the center a little bit when he's walking. Fixing that but then bringing him to a walk was annoying, but it went pretty well I think. Robert wants to have us put a bit in his mouth and lunge him with it. 

The trailer was still hooked up from the show last weekend. (Luca got 5 firsts, some seconds and a fifth I think, anyway he's got enough points for his supreme in halter, but he's going to keep doing halter classes to try to get high point champion in halter again. He's a few points away from his registry of honor in driving, next stop supreme!) I decided to do some more trailer loading with star. I took the machete and cut a bunch of grass. She came right in the trailer and I decided it was time for her to learn to stand tied in the trailer. I let her eat more grass for a while. I ran the lunge line through the loop in the far end of the trailer. After a while I brought her head up so that it was at the same level as the hay bag still hung in the trailer from the show. She sniffed the hay, looked around suspiciously. I left the trailer slowly and I just stood there. I dont know how long I stood there. I got back into the trailer, planning to let her out. Robert came up behind us just at that moment, of course. She did her usual terrified of robert thing. Then Lil drove her car past us. That was apparently pretty scary too. Still, she didn't pull on the lead rope at all. When she had calmed down more I asked her to come out of the trailer. She didn't want to, which is odd, but I kept asking and she backed out of it well. 

Cari arrived and so I decided that was plenty of witnesses to get lady out. Lady was just barely off, so I decided I'd ride her. I also decided not to lunge her. I think my laziness:fear ratio is a little off. Lady was very very spooky in the arena. She tossed her head sometimes, jigged, and ran sideways a little. Mostly she spooked at the world. In her defense it was pretty windy. Also Robert drove his truck with the trailer on it by the arena. He was on his way to clean out the trailer in the field. Lady apparently disapproves of trailers in her line of sight. Also she doesn't like them driving past the arena. She also spooked at some stuff at the far end of the arena. She spooked at a tree, I think. I have a hard time telling sometimes what that mare is concerned about. She did one little tiny rear, when I asked her to go forward and she didn't want to because of the tree; or something. we walked around the arena for a while, spooking, jigging, head tossing continued. She didn't seem to be angry per se, just nervous. Eventually she was calm for a while and I got off her. She was sweating a lot harder than she should have been. Not sure what was up with that. Maybe a nervous thing?

 She really wanted to trot. Cari says that I should just trot her in 20 m circles until she's calm enough to walk. I have mixed feelings about this idea. She clearly would like to trot. I think it might even be true that trotting in circles would calm her down. On the other hand, she's not totally sound at the trot. Also, I'm not sure what I think about the attitude of trotting so that she'll walk better. I think she should walk well and be rewarded with some trotting. Plus an inability to walk calmly doesn't bode well for the trot, in my opinion. I think she needs to spend more time in that arena, so if she got lunged while I was away job hunting, that would be super. Even better if she got ridden but its not necessary.

I got Papillon out and Cari worked her over with her hands, showing me some pressure points and she confirmed that her right shoulder is hurting her some. She was talking about massage too, and she really reminded me of the importance of currying. I had just been doing it to get the dust out. I know its good for circulation to the skin and that was another motivator. I hadn't really thought about how it feels on the muscles. So I curried pretty hard and watched Papillon. She seemed to approve. 

Cari also told me about what she likes to do when a horse is being disobedient and trotting when they shouldn't.  She likes to have them sidepass or circle or shoulder in or some form of working harder. Every time they trot, have them sidepass then offer them the chance to walk straight, they either do, or they sidepass some more. I tried this with Papillon. In so far as she was willing to listen to my leg, it worked pretty well. Sometimes my leg didn't mean all that much to her. Next time I'm bringing a crop.

The last horse I worked was Keno. I've been meaning to hack him and work on his jigging too. I brought a crop and put the western saddle on him. I walked him around the outdoor arena a little. Trotted a little. After I asked him to trot coming down to the walk didn't go as well as I wanted. He pranced some but settled down when I really insisted. The walk started out nicely enough out on the trail. Then he started prancing and I shoved him to one side, then the other side, then he was willing to walk. Repeated this a couple times on our way down the long side. I decided to cut down the middle of the field so that I could go back to the mowed part to work him harder now that he was warmed up. About a quarter of the way down the field he started prancing, and I tried to shove him to the side. He refused, I cropped him, he reared up. I jerked his rein to the side and I leaned forward and to the side. The side leaning was sortof instinctive and I'm not totally displeased with the instinct actually. Anyway, he went past 45 degrees which is my personal threshold for serious rearing. In the middle of all this I sortof zoned out thinking about other rearing situations. I was thinking about that video on youtube and I was thinking about the Walter Farley books. I slipped off the side. I dont know if I would have regardless of whether or not I was paying attention. Anyway, it was perfect falling off a horse weather. It was raining yesterday but not today so the ground was soft but not muddy. I did a nice tuck and roll sortof landing, jumped up and grabbed keno's reins then cropped him on the chest as he was reaching for grass. I tightened up his cinch and I grabbed mane and the pommel part of the saddle right next to the horn and jumped back on. 

He was a little more docile after that, or at least for a while. He jigged again, I sidepassed him, he refused, I cropped him and he reared again. This time not as high, also, this time I was pretty sure thats what he would do so I was pretty far forward pretty fast. That made it more work to rear than he was interested in, I think. I took him over to the mowed spot furthest away from the arena/barn/home. We did some trotting, some transitions from trot to walk and I discovered that he really really likes to rush towards home. The transitions helped with that. We picked up a trot circle, about 20 m I think. Thats what I was shooting for anyway. After several minutes of trotting we picked up the canter. On the first half of the circle he was pretty good. As soon as he was pointed towards home he ran and he bucked. I spun him and I kicked him when he wasn't spinning hard enough for my satisfaction. I took a breath, he took a breath, then we went right back up into the canter. He was pretty good after that, a little fast towards the arena but slowed right back down on the other side of the circle. Then I pointed him down the long side of the field towards the back creek. I only ran about a third of the way down because I was loosing my stirrup and tired and didn't feel like falling off twice in one day if he decided to do anything stupid. I dont know why I couldn't pick it back up from a canter. Stupid western stirrups, thats my excuse. 

We walked after that. He was pretty happy to walk most of the way. We still did some sidepassing exercises but he was a little more docile for them, even when I cropped him for not moving. He needs to be worked more out there. He was so happy to be running, his cute little ears were perked forward, very nice. When I'm out again, I want to start working on doing one whole loop around the field at a canter. I think Keno would be a good horse for that project. Right now its a little muddy on the far side for that. Also, I want to do it in the dressage saddle, I feel really stiff in the western saddle. 

I fed and it came up that I didn't think Colonel was safe. He wasn't super thrilled to hear this. I think if he can get Colonel leading well I will re-consider, but it doesn't count if he's tired. He needs to lead well even when he's full of pep. He just doesn't display any regard for my personal space or even my location. I think he sometimes runs into me on purpose and nothing I've done has dissuaded him from doing it again. For me thats sufficient, he should know better. He doesn't act like it. I'm sticking to my guns here: he's a time bomb, and I'm not getting near him. 

 

Doing surprisingly little, yet keeping somewhat busy

Its been a sortof slow time around the barn. We've completely abandoned the project of rehabilitating Colonel, which I should talk about some other time. I rode Lady around to see if she was opposed to being ridden even though she had a slight limp at the trot. She seemed fine with it, but she wanted to kill seabreeze. I'm not going to ride her again I think, until I can trot her around to take the edge off her. She likes to flip her head a lot. Ian (previous rider) had been using a running martingale do deal with this. God (and everyone who's read some of my previous posts) knows that I don't have any problem with running martingales. However, the fact that Ian used it is probably by itself a deterrent to me. Plus, Ian used it and she's still doing it. She did it with him in it too, but then she stopped. Still, every day she flipped her head at him, sometimes she'd flip it more. Papillon flips her head when she wishes I would let her trot. I think that with consistent work Lady would stop, the same way Papillon does (I swear, Alyssa, with consistent work she stops doing that sort of thing, mostly.)

I rode Papillon for 3.2 miles yesterday at a walk. Not that this caused her to be any quieter when we came back. I cantered her around in the outdoor arena. This wasn't the smartest thing I ever did but I figured she would realize that she wasn't interested in working as hard as she thought she was. What actually happened was that she slipped in the mud, scared herself, and was quite content to walk after that. Walk fast, but a walk. That wasn't really the teaching moment I was hoping for. This possibility occurred to me, of course, and so I'm declaring this a net-gain-ergo-no-foul sort of situation. Papillon was basically sound today, although she got a bute yesterday so its not quite as surprising or encouraging. Still, its at least a little surprising and a little encouraging. 

I havent done anything with Star. I thought about lunging her over a cavaletti, mostly for entertainment. Turns out all of our cavaletti's are broken. Great. For actual under saddle jumping it doesn't matter, we have jumps we can set pretty low, but for lunging it sucks. You can do the thing where you use another pole to guide the rope up over the jump. That doesn't really work in this situation, for a variety of reasons. I'll have to nag Robert.

Also, I passed the torch on to Alyssa. Rather, I passed Dylan. Alyssa adopts these guys so fast, its really heartwarming. Dylan is cute, but I like my mares. She taught him to crosstie today. I can just see them riding around together. I suspect he'll be riding before he's driving. I think that its easier to train a driving horse once they've been ridden, and we can help more with that than we can with the cart stuff. Robert has basically finished the house now, so he'll have oodles of time, right? If I had a dollar for every time he used the phrase "as soon as I get this house finished..." let me just say we wouldn't be riding the bus to the barn. 

There are two new arrivals at the barn, an appaloosa (Spot) and a belgian/paint/arabian cross (Bella, looks like a shrunken down belgian) have arrived. We've got permission to ride them. Their owners are, um, less experience horse people. I think it would be fun to try out Bella. We've got the owners blessing, but we have to build a bridle for her. Shouldn't be too hard. Spot is too skinny to be ridden right now IMO, this doesn't stop them but Alyssa witnessed this and I didn't so she can say more.

I will be coming to the barn on Monday to do stuff, but starting Tuesday its all job search all the time. Plus a little housework and I'm taking over the kittens from Alyssa. Mostly job search. Once I've got a job I'll start coming back to the barn. With a different schedule, obviously. Eventually though, maybe I'll have a car, which means our schedule will look very different. 

I should be sleeping...

Friday was as I expected-- worked Reno and Luca (rode Reno, he was eh, decent, doesn't respect a snaffle as much as the curb), bathed them, cleaned the cart, cleaned harness.

Gillian declared Dylan to be lunging competent and gave him to me for a test run. He did pretty well-- he understands what I want him to do, it's just a matter of how much he wants to do it. And as Gillian said, when he whoas and stands, you can tell that every fiber of his being but one wants to come into the circle and be loved on. That other fiber says "remember what happened the last time you tried to do that? Bad things happened. Bad. Stay away from the scary lady with the whip."

That was Friday. Saturday I got up at 7 to get to the barn by 9:15 (leave house at 7:30, get on bus 7:50, get on next bus 8:30, arrive at 9:15) to clean stalls, since Robert had left to go to the show at an ungodly hour. 7 is pretty ungodly for a college student during the summer, but 4:30 is the time where you just stay awake all night for it. Got up, cleaned stalls with Gillian's help, managed to not run myself over with the tractor.

I took Dylan out twice today and was very pleased. The first we lunged, and he did very well. We've been lunging him in the very back of the arena because he wanted to stop and pull towards the gate at that point every circle, and it got stronger and stronger the closer you were to the gate. That's obviously something he needs to get over. So today, as we were walking and trotting around, I would move us a little towards the gate. We were solidly in the middle of the arena today, with no stopping due to gate (he did fall a little in love with Jade, the chestnut Arabian). His trot is still very forward but he's kept it to a trot thus far. He slipped once but that was because he was in a muddy spot, and he didn't get at all upset.

Because I'm dumb and feel like pushing my luck (also he's dirty and half white) I decided I wanted to brush him. The first step to that is learning if he crossties, because that's the only good way we have to secure them. So I attached one crosstie to his halter and ran the lunge line through the loop of the other clipped up crosstie. He tested it, pushed, felt pressure and gave to it. Yay! I stepped back about ten or fifteen feet. He was a little more restless, and kept looking around. He stood still for maybe half a minute, so I went up and scratched him. Oh!, he said. This is the game. I don't move and you pet me. I went back away from him. He stood still and looked directly at me the entire time. We played this game for a few minutes. He's very very focused on people, and aware but not spooky. Once he gets a concept, he gets it. It's a little weird to be so clearly the center of this horse's world.

I decided this was a good place to stop for now and put him back in his stall. He still needs work on haltering and unhaltering, but he's getting better. I pulled him out a couple hours later to actually brush him. I put him in the wash stall, which he was highly suspicious of, but walked in without a problem and turned around and stood without more than a few snorts. Again, crosstied one side and just ran his lead rope through a ring so I could release pressure if he started getting worried. Xsarena, a Trakehner mare, was being groomed next to him, which helped, but that horse did not move a single foot for about fifteen or twenty minutes while I curried and brushed. It was fabulous. I put the other crosstie on and he didn't even notice. He did get a little worried when she left, and started getting antsy, so as soon as he stood still for several seconds I called it good and put him back. I am really liking this horse.

I think I like getting them at 5 years old and barely halterbroke-- he's sensible, smart, and has an attention span. I'm pretty sure that Gillian and I could do most of the basic work on this boy by ourselves. I wouldn't, but I think we could get him broke to w/t/c under saddle fairly easily, and I think we could get him pulling things and tolerating carts on his back. I've seen most of Robert's process and with such a nice horse like this I think I could probably do it. Again, I won't, or at the very least I would do it with Robert's supervision. I have knowledge of the process, but I don't have the techniques I would need if anything even slightly out of the ordinary did arise. It'd be worth it to see the look on Robert's face though if he showed up one day and we were driving him around the field.

Rode Keno, he was alright but a bit of a pain. I used my close contact saddle and man, it uses different muscling than the dressage saddle does! I need to ride in it more.

I spent a ridiculous amount of time talking to Cari, a trainer at the barn. She's an ex-eventer and now does dressage and lessons. She's very nice and absolutely full of information.

Ooh, we got two new horses on Friday-- an Appaloosa and a Belgian/Arab. We called them Spotty and Drafty. Their real names are Spot (we were close!) and Bella. Bella is fat, and Spot is at least 100, probably 150-200 lbs underweight. Bella may go into driving training, and Spot is here for some badly needed weight gain. They're both broke to ride and we have permission to ride them. Bella doesn't have a bridle, though, and there's no way in hell we'd ride Spot right now. The girl was riding him(?) though. Without a helmet, and I'm pretty sure she's under 18 (insurance). She's pretty big, and Spot is not, especially in this condition. She asked him for a trot and almost fell off, she's got a little of the chair seat. I decided I could not find a tactful way to tell them they were hurting the horse, and as a representative of Stoneybrook I sort of had to be tactful if I was going to say anything at all.

Incidentally, I tend to pick a horse and label it MINE for a period of time. In this period, I gush about whatever he may have done right this day no matter how unimportant. This horse now appears to be Dylan.

The kittens have learned to climb legs. Lovely. Three small things on your jeans, not so bad. Gabe decided that he'd try this too. OW. One adult male cat (with extra toes no less) clinging to your legs with only breeches between? Not so cute.

I ride Keno a lot

Really, that's about all I did on Tuesday and Thursday. Wednesday I went to the lab and did brain surgery (no, really. On a rat, but whatever.). Thursday I came out again and was generally useless. I watched Gillian break her "I don't ride lame horses" code to walk Lady around and was slightly amused. I watched Pam bounce around and lean wayyy behind the vertical at the canter, and got to tell her "I don't know if you're doing this on purpose, but you're leaning back and that might throw Breeze off balance," as well as how to tell which lead is which while you're on the horse. Yes, really. I helped harness up Reno and told Robert that his hands weren't even, and Reno magically improved. I unharnessed Reno. I finally called Robert on Luca's leading problems and got to watch that, and then got to harness up Luca. Very very shortly afterwards, I got to untack Papillon and unharness Luca.

Then I got to hold an axe with a broken handle while Robert hit it with a sledgehammer to break concrete. Eventually I got gloves and then, even better, safety glasses.

I put pairs reins on minis. I fed horses. I tacked up Keno and warmed him up. A little girl used to take lessons on him a few months ago, but one day he spooked and she fell off and broke her arm. After she healed, she'd been driving a little POA. A week or so she said she wanted to start riding again. So just to remind him to behave, I pulled him out when he'd finished his grain (he doesn't get that much of it, it's okay) and did lots of "pick your damn shoulder up and bend" work.

I need to ride in a close contact saddle more often. Keno is being put in one for the little girl so that's what I put on him. And, um, ow. The seat's completely flat and there's no padding. Which is fine, I rode in one like that all summer, I actually like that. But the twist is way too narrow. My seatbones were barely in the seat, and I felt like you could see air between my hip joints (there's no good way to describe that portion of anatomy, is there? I remember an old instructor for which English was not a first language, and we had to coach him on words. He was very, very hesitant to use the word "crotch." It was kind of adorable.) and the saddle. I got sort of used to it, but I noticed something I actually learned from Centered Riding, which is that I post off balance, with more weight in my left. Something which is noticeable when I'm using my stirrups but not when I'm not, like Western or dressage saddles. I'm not used to having my knee angles close that much, and it feels weird. I like wrapping my legs around the barrel.

Tomorrow will be basically the same-- we're working Reno and Luca, cleaning the cart, and cleaning both of them too for the show on Saturday/Sunday. Maybe I'll take Star out for a spin.