Only managed to get around to riding today by 1 pm. No shock there I
guess, but I really should try to find a way to get to the barn
earlier in the day.

Anyway, I finished warming up star right at the stroke of 1, which is
perfect for my new mission. (Nobody roll their eyes now.) I need to
stop riding for such short periods of time, so I'm trying to keep
track of how long I've actually been riding, rather than how long it
feels like. So I'm implementing kindof a parelli thing (again people,
no eye rolling) where we start our post warm-up with incrementally
more amd more continuous trotting. We're working up to 30 minutes in
five minute intervals. Turns out my attention span is about ten
minutes, so today we did fifteen. In theory you go straight from your
trot to whatever your real work is that day. Transitions, cantering,
circles, patterns, lead changes, whatever. I'm not totally clear on
the specifics.

So for us today we did our fifteen minutes one way, then we just did
fifteen minutes the other way and then quit. I vow to go longer in the
future, but I'm pleading sleep deprivation on this one. There was,
however, a little twist on all this trotting. We did all of it in the
field on the west side of the indoor arena. Turns out, that field has
a non-negligible slope to it. Definitely enough to be beneficial to
muscle development. It took quite a while to convince star that we
werent planning on doing the jumps in the field there. She did
eventually calm down and switch over to the project of trying to
convince me that a nice lazy pony ride was the way to go.

Still, I think I managed to get some good work out of her. Especially
when we were headed up the slope.

I hand walked Papillon around the field. Sleepwalked is more like it.
She loosened up by the end but I didnt ride her.

I took Libby out to lunge and she tried once to change directions and
she pulled more than I like and rushed more than I like but mostly she
was fine. After a short lunge we worked on mounting block standing. We
walked around the block and sniffed the block, and then came the
exciting part. I started scratching her whither and then stepped up to
the first step, then the second. She was too engrossed in expressing
her enjoyment of the scratching to notice. I stepped off and stopped
the scratching. I stepped back up and she shied away, but I reached
out to scratch her anyway. Stepped down, moved mounting block, she stood there suspicious but anticipating her scratchies.

I went to put the mounting block away and I stood on it one last time so she could look at me, but she walked over and presented her whithers for scratching. Score. I knew I was going to like training an itchy horse.

Brrrr

Tuesday it was cold, very cold, but I pressed on. I took Libby out, because I could take her out with my coat still on. :) She was hot but reasonable for walk and trot. I decided to ask for some canter, which she dropped after less than a minute. I didn't have a lunge whip on me, and in the process of chasing her around like an idiot trying to get her to pick up the canter she pulled me over and I scraped my knee. It was a nice little reminder that I was being an idiot and should stop. So I stopped. Libby looked pleased with herself, or was it my imagination? Anyway, she was less pleased when I got the lunge whip out, and we did a little canter. She really doesn't know how to canter on a lunge line very well. Kinda sad really.

Speaking of cantering poorly. I took Star out after Libby, and continued to fight my impulse to declare us "done for the day" after only ten or fifteen minutes. We practiced cantering Star's bad direction. In the northwest corner of the arena she consistently decided to stop and rear rather than take the turn. Eventually I got her to stop doing that by make sure we did a big easy turn there. The little rat picked up on my habit of quitting after overcoming something like that and wanted to stop on the long stretch. So we kept going until I couldn't stand it anymore. This didn't take long, but instead of stopping and walking, we trotted. This was displeasing to her but she did it. I found I can catch my breath just fine sitting the trot. Particularly since her trot was a little lethargic after cantering around. So we cantered and then trotted and then cantered again several times.

There were traces of sweat on her neck and obvious sweat around her ears and under the saddle pad when we quit. I'm trying to make a point of quitting only when she's actually sweating, so I succeeded in that, at least. I think that maybe I need to get Alyssa to lunge us at the canter to help her get used to actually cantering on turns and help me get used to compensating for her leaning into the turns. We might also spend some time just working on canter transitions off of a kiss. I need some split reins with a knot, so I can whack her with them without hitting her with a buckle.

I hand walked Papillon for ten minutes and then later on I rode her. She was quite stiff. I never really got a good trot out of her. When she was engaging her hindquarters properly her walk smoothed out, but that was it. Worrisome.

Colonel is looking less lame now, and slightly less skinny. The farrier dug out an abscess in his right rear hoof and he's walking on it now. Still wont stand on it, but thats OK. His weight is getting better thanks to lots of sweet feed. When I fed him he dug through his regular grain to get to the sugary stuff. Picky little goof ball. Star is going to get me a better seat and improve my endurance so by the time Colonel is back on all four feet I'm going to kick his butt on a regular basis until he behaves himself like a good citizen. Thats the plan, anyway.

Prequel

Whoops. I got leapfroged. No matter. Tuesday:

I was feeling quite silly so instead of longlining colonel with a bit I decided to get out a longeing caversson and use the rings on it instead. Turns out those things are complicated. Colonel stood more or less patiently while I tried to figure out what goes where. There was some kind of throatlatch thing that was either too small for colonel or else I just couldn't figure it out. So I took it off. Anyway, longlined as usual and it was the same with the bit as without. Which is nice to know, thus maybe justifying my ridiculousness? Meh, Robert didn't catch us, so he didn't have an opportunity to react, and thats what matters.

Much later I got around to tacking up Star. I set up a really pretty little crossrail with ground poles on each side. She was a little worked up having Niki in the arena, she was a little worked up about the jump, but she eventually calmed down to what I considered to be suitible levels. Then we worked on the jump.

I have this fear that she will forever and ever stop and look at a jump before she goes over. I have some reasons to fear this. She still has to look at the bridge when we go over it for the first time that day. Lord knows I cant quite get her to the hay barn most days without her stoping or at least slowing down.

The short version (which I may update later, but probably not) is that I kept turning her around when she stopped instead of letting her think and then go over it. I did this under saddle and on the ground. The times she went over it under saddle, I let her think about it instead of turning around. On the ground, only after Alyssa came in and reminded me what we learned with nicki, did I let her stop and think about it and ask her to go over, and pop, over she goes. So, I learned my lesson. Star learned nothing or maybe worse. Hopefully just nothing.

Late start but productive

I had a late night and couldn't drag myself out of bed in a timely fashion, so I arrived at the barn around 11. Robert was fixing stuff today so we sat and chatted for about half an hour. He told me to do horse stuff. Poor Brandon had gotten there at ten and managed to sweep and cut some weeds down, but was having problems with allergies and his chest started hurting, so Robert sent him home before I even got there.

So I dutifully went onto horse stuff. Grabbed Keno and tried putting my dressage saddle on him (still too tight in the shoulders, I'll have to find something to pad it up with). We went out in the field with him being way more snorty than usual, and something by the Morgan pasture made him spin and bolt and dance. I am not so much with the confidence so I hopped off and made him work on the ground (mini lunge circle, leading, etc) until he was not so jiggy and high-headed. Then hopped back on and walked home. We worked in the outside dressage arena until he was willing to give me his head. There was a lot of unauthorized trotting and bucking. He was basically a jerk and it was highly frustrating. I took his bridle off and put him in the crossties and then went to go see kittens. Alef and Dalet were in the forklift seat as usual. Mamacat emerged from behind the hay and let me pet her! She hasn't let us do that for months, since Robert nearly caught her in the live trap. I did catch a glimpse of a small kitten.

Finished untacking Keno, rinsed and put him back, ate lunch. I dragged out two poles and two small standards. One pole went between the standards, and the other one was perpendicular to the first pole, but by a standard. I grabbed Niki.

Niki did *not* want to walk at first, which makes some kind of sense because she's a hot little mare and it was a cool day. So we did a lot of long-trotting and I experimented with how much I could slow down her trot by slowing down my posting, which wasn't inconsiderable. We cantered (mostly on her own initiative) to the left the whole way around the arena, without popping out her shoulder and dragging me towards the gate. I gave her some slight directions and she took them, loose rein and fairly comfy canter. It was awesome! I tried trotting her over the pole against only one standard and she was unhappy about the idea, so we walked over it a couple times and then she trotted the other one, both directions, no problem. Ears perked, no rushing, definitely looking down at it. I tried cantering right lead and we had more problems than left, but we did get it eventually. Her "whoa" is getting worse, so I need to spend some time on that. We did some of the mugwump stuff, where as soon as she moves we go back to work, and I think she started to get the idea.

Star was one I had been plotting about the last couple days after watching the jumping session, and the reason why I actually pulled out the poles and standards. She didn't want to get caught but I guess that's not strictly unusual. She wanted to hesitate at the hay barn but didn't, so that was nice (no whip), and I am either less gentle about saddle pads and saddling than Gillian is, or I'm just not authorized to tack her up, because there was a lot of flinching. Mounted in the arena, and she didn't walk off immediately. It took a couple seconds, so that was an improvement from the last time I rode her. Gillian's saddle is hellish. I'm surprised I don't have bruises on my thighs today, actually. Star's a much bigger mover than any of my horses- they're all very smooth and flat-moving, so that took a lot of adjustment, and I didn't want to post off my thighs because oh god the pain. But we worked it out. She tried squirreling out over the first ground pole and I didn't let her, so she resigned herself to trotting over it, and then trotted over the one between the standards with little hesitation. We cantered- I like her canter!- and she went over the poles fairly willingly, even after she stumbled over one. The first time she broke to a trot but she kept her forward, and she kept her rhythm steady after that (other than when she knocked it). I was listening to my iPod and a slowish song came on but she matched her canter to that, it was very well done on her part.

Untacked her and put her back as Colleen was taking Rocky out. Rocky was very clearly sore on at least one of his hooves. Nothing in his feet, no heat in his legs, but he was standing very uncomfortably and his face showed a lot of pain. Robert and I immediately went to "founder." But he was willing to trot. We hosed off his feet and he seemed to do better on that. Right now he's getting a flake of hay and downgraded to a handful of grain. I don't know how he's doing today.

I was feeding and Robert was hosing off Rocky when Bella and Jessi came in. Jessi was really upset at Bella and I asked what happened- I think Bella bucked her off, Jessi was definitely not walking right. She was untacking Bella and I offered to hop on, since putting her back was not an option she wanted to take. Jessi made noises and Robert interjected to say that yeah, someone needed to put the fear of god in her. I grabbed my helmet and handed my cell phone to Jessi.

Bella was deeply offended by me smacking her to have her keep up with me on the leadline, and hyper sensitive. She was *mad*. I swung up and she almost immediately started trotting away. Bella was trying to duck out towards the gate by popping her shoulder and bulling her way over, shaking her head, etc. Her saddle sucks for me because I can never get a solid seat in that big of a saddle, and it hurts my seatbones. But I was not coming off that mare. In about ten minutes I had her saying "yes ma'am" and working off my seat, legs, and opening reins. We cantered both directions, which she was absolutely shocked by, but didn't have any bucks. I got bored of randomly changing directions at the trot and stopped letting her have the rail because that made life too easy. The ground poles were still out so we trotted through one each direction. Bella did not want any part of this. I felt her trying to evade but I closed my legs and she didn't even dramatically change her rhythm. According to Colleen, though, her legs were crossing over every which way to try and run out. We got some pretty good trot-halt-trot transitions too. After about twenty minutes or half an hour she was soaked in sweat (I wasn't far behind) and had some of the fire taken out of her.

I talked to Jessi briefly about having Gillian and/or me put some training rides on her, because Bella is a nice enough horse, she just needs some whoopass, especially as green as she is. Jessi's not a bad rider but she hasn't been riding for very long. I've got way more stick, determination, and knowledge at this point (though she has more balls, I wouldn't have the guts to ride in her shoes). Robert mentioned it, apparently, so I'll talk to him on Saturday about it. I'm not riding for free directly for her, because that makes me have divided loyalties and time. I won't ride for pay directly for her either because I want to keep my ammy status! So Robert and I will have to work out an appropriate fee for him to ask. It'll probably be something like ten or fifteen bucks per ride, and I think 2x a week would be plenty.

Jack was out today with Colleen because Charlie was sick. First Rocky came up lame, and then everyone just had to come watch me work Bella, so it was 4:30 by the time I dismounted. Jack wanted to sit on a horse so Robert pulled out Keno, then suggested I put a bridle on him, then suggested I take Jack for a ride instead of just having a pony ride. Keno was good! He stood like a champ and wasn't too unhappy that we weren't letting him eat his hay. He did his little WP horse jog and Jack likes it better than Sunny's trot, he says.

We put Keno back and I was heading to the tack room to change when I got called back to look at the new kittens. Robert, predictably, says they're all keepers. (::headdesk::) There are two tuxedos and a "dalmatian kitty" and possibly one more, but I only saw three. I was tired enough to be insistent that we work on catching them, so Robert agreed to put a hardcore press on the kitten excavation project on Saturday. We will see.

Got there at 10, hung out with Robert for a while since it has been a fairly long time since I actually talked to him. I guess I've been in a funk lately? Who knows. Robert had decided to spend the day cleaning up the feed table, so I helped him move it and put some stuff away.

Suited myself up in riding gear. My iPod was dead, and usually the the only way I go out in the field is with said iPod, so I can distract myself from worrying with music. But, after little-blond-pony-inspired boldness, I grabbed my cell phone and a Keno. He was desperately happy to be out until he saw the saddle. We headed out and walked around once on a long rein. He was very unhappy over the hose monster, displeased that things had changed in the neighbor's yard with respect to the well drilling equipment, and could have cared less about the haymonster this time.

After one time around, I gathered my reins and asked for a trot. He gave me a nice one and gave me his head, but around the curves and then on the stretch towards home he got rushy and headflippy and disobedient. I sighed and kept him moving. When we trotted past the culvert he threw his shoulder out a bit, but then gave me a nice trot again. He kept it up on the path towards home the second time, I guess he figured out that going towards home doesn't mean going home.

At this point, he was going nicely, we were on the stretch next to the neighbors' driveway, I thought what the hell and asked for a canter. Not the lead I asked for, but calm and responsive. About halfway down the stretch it was still going well so I asked for a hand gallop. Wheee! He came back down when I asked him to, and got a little jiggy at the very beginning but walked through the curves and down the stretch at a nice forward loose rein walk. Good times.

I also took Niki out. She was pretty hyper but behaved mostly. Bella was grazing right next to the arena (which I hate) and she just gave that mare a bit of a wider berth. She walked over the little crossrail Gillian set up, and then trotted over it on the lunge. Not pretty, but calm! Under saddle she chilled out a lot, eventually. We posted the trot relatively calmly and slow. We were much better with steering for the most part, and when Star bolted right at us, we were unhappy but did not do more than dance to the side a bit (which meant we didn't get hit, I'm okay with this). We did canter! It wasn't pretty, and she ran into it, but there wasn't anything more than some humping her back up.

Less burning, more learning

Just rode the one horse saturday. I rode Papillon bareback while Alyssa rode lady. Papillon was having a bad day arthritis-wise. When she finally got that through her head she was much more willing to work under my direction. Trot only on the long sides, round your back more, nice smooth transitions. Normally Papillon will round up at the walk and canter without my asking as long as I'm sitting basically correctly. At the trot, first I dont always sit quite as correctly as I'd like, and second Papillon is very unforgiving. On a bad day though, I think I will continue to insist that she do the right thing and ease the weight on her front end.
I have perfected the mounting without rolling the bareback pad, and even though the girth on the pad came undone it didn't move an inch while we were riding, it just made Alyssa twitch a little. I really like that bareback pad, its cushy and fuzzy for high friction.

Most of the day was spent grilling Robert on his training ideas. You have to grill him if you want an efficient flow of information. He has a vast warehouse of information at his disposal, but the retrieval can be a little inconsistent. Lucky for me he's "going back to basics" with Reno to re-establish better bending and balance. To do this he's doing something I've been curious about for a while, namely, rollbacks. He's doing them on longlines and manages to keep Reno, stiff as he is, to keep his hind end mostly in place. At this point the rollbacks seem to be mostly turns on the hind end, but that is OK with me if it gets the job done.

I think I'll be pretty successful in getting Robert to teach me how this is done. Then I can practice on Reno and on poor Colonel, bwa ha ha ha ha. Supposedly Colonel knows how to do this. We shall see.

This next part is where I try to hash out what Robert and I are discussing. Its technical (I hope) so feel free to skip it.

Right now Robert is on a big kick about The Wither. I'm taking this to mean more physiologically thoracic vertebrae 1 through 8 or so. We've been talking about the lateral ark of The Wither. I'm going to represent it with ( and ) for pointing left and right respectively. The idea is that if the whither points left ( then the horse will go forward to the right because that is the way that they are bent.

Those of us who ride are painfully aware that a horse can have his neck bent to the right and still quite easily go left by poking out his left shoulder and dropping his right shoulder and away he goes! To my mind this is prevented by having the wither longitudinally balanced straight up and down. Then they cant drop the inside shoulder. I'm not really clear on this part. Maybe its an issue of the wither being more exaggerating of course, due to the limits of the symbols available to me. We all know they can do a leg yield bent smoothly in the opposite direction of travel. They can do a sidepass bent in the same direction of travel. ( I may have this backwards, but, no matter.) Maybe they have their wither straight | and are just bending their neck in front of the wither? I will have to clarify this more on tuesday.

Feel the burn

Another day of horse subduing heat!

Colonel is now officially too skinny to ride. We dont have a saddle that sufficiently clears his withers. Robert says they've got him back on his grain, so hopefully we'll be back to riding soon.

Anyway, I decided not to waste a day of training with him, and I got out the surcingle and crupper. Colonel wasn't exactly thrilled. Out on the long lines we practiced our follow your nose routine. I gave him some pressure on the inside rein, as soon as he stepped with his inside leg, release, when he kept turning after the release, outside rein to straighten him out. After a while he got a bit sour on his turns, but he eventually figured out that if he went straight when I released the pressure then he didn't get any outside rein. We zig-zagged all over the arena like this.

We also practiced driving in squares and triangles. Let me tell you, that is very difficult work. Poor Colonel, every time he started anticipating a particular shape, I switched it on him. His desire to do what he's told is admirable. His inability to wait until he's told what to do is annoying, and frustrating for both of us. I'm thinking that if I can get it into his head that he should follow his nose then he can do that without being asked and everyone will be happy. Right? I can dream, anyway.

Next thing we did was something from a book I have. I took the inside rein out of the surcingle so there was just a straight line between my hand and the bit. My theory is that this better simulates and opening rein. Colonel has a nasty habit of massively over doing his turns if you ask with the leading rein, as I've discussed before. We did more squares and triangles, and then I added a spiral in spiral out exercise. Really it was more like a spiral in, walk straight out exercise. He followed his nose in pretty nicely. He still wanted to circle a little, just out of habit, when I straightened him out, but it wasn't bad.

It could easily be my imagination, but he seemed to be getting it. At least, he seemed to be getting the idea that a short pull means a shallow turn while a longer pull means a sharper turn.

After talking with Robert for a while it was time to get Star out. Basically the plan was to do the same things we did on Saturday.

She was a little more reactive to everything than usual. I attributed this to the fact that today we were working her bad direction. She bolted past the hay monster right off the bat, no stopping and staring. (Improvement? Dunno.) It took two loops around but we got a nice comfy trot going. I was very much enjoying myself.

We picked up our canter a little after passing the hay monster, and quickly sped up to a hand gallop towards the barn. I asked her with my voice to take it easy. She basically ignored me. She gave me two slower strides and then was right back up. I decided this was fine anyway. It was smooth and straight and I felt secure. I felt so secure in fact, that we galloped around the turn and all the way past the culvert. The instant we passed the culvert we went from a hand gallop to a relatively relaxed (but still extended) canter. I decided we may as well keep going up the long/scary side. I decided to avoid the gate so that Star wouldn't fuss about it and break gait. Bad move. She remembered it was there and was somewhat alarmed that I was keeping my distance this time. Give 'em an inch... but actually it was only a brief trot interlude before we were back to cantering, and I brought us back to the fence. She was expecting to stop before the curves so gave her a push to let her know we were going to keep going.

I let her avoid the spot she hates through the first turn. I pushed her through the former mud puddle and into the second turn. We finished the second turn but I decided we'd quit before going past the hay monster. As we both caught our breath I looked down and saw that she had worked up a nice little lather on her neck and around her saddle pad. That didn't stop her from bolting past the hay monster. It didn't matter. We had gone 3/4 of the way around the field. At least. I wasn't feeling especially wiped out. (I would have gone around again if Star had been up to it.) My longtime goal of circumnavigating the field at a canter is within my grasp.

I probably would not have been so bold if I had realized at the time that Star was massively massively in heat. I first noticed the evidence when I was rinsing her off. After her bath I led her out to the pasture and she and Luka were both having conniption fits as she passed by his stall. She did all the classic she-whore stuff on our way out to graze, very scandalous.

Niki pitched a fit so I brought her out too. Later she didn't want to be caught, the little vixen, so I chased her around with a rope. Eventually she decided she didn't want to do that anymore. When I went to get Star, she was no trouble at all. She'd done all the running that day that she stand.

Fun in the sun

Saturday Robert told me to have a fun day after moving all that hay before. In direct defiance of his orders, I went and got Colonel. In his stall he was looking almost too skinny to ride, but I took him out and looked him over in the light, and in more uniform shade, and actually he was looking slightly better than previously, so I forged on. He was calm enough warming up, even with the gigantic wagon the shires were pulling out in the field. We worked on steering. Particularly we worked on keeping his nose and his feet on the same track. It was a massive fail. I'd tip his nose for a 20 m circle and I'd get 8 m from his nose and bigger from his shoulders and even bigger from his hips. Alternatively, I'd try to tip his nose and all I'd get was a braced neck and a shoulder moving on too tight a circle with his hips falling in to the circle.

Whats more, he was really pissed that we were doing all these tight circles. You would think that in defiance of these tight circles he'd, oh I dont know, make bigger ones to make his life easier? Did he do anything to try to make his life easier? No. He just got pissed. He'd start cantering on these little circles so I'd push him on cantering in these little circles which really really pissed him off.

To be honest, when he gets angry it scares me. When he bucks and pulls I become very uncomfortably aware of how much bigger and stronger and stupider he is. I really resent being scared of him. So basically after a while we were both pissed. I was ready to quit for the day, but I couldn't really justify it. I got off him and lunged him.

You should have seen his face when I ran the lunge line through his bit. He was so sure he was done. I lunged him until his coat was slick. I hate to do that to a thin horse, but I couldn't think of anything better to do. When I was feeling less vengeful I got back on him to cool him out. He was doing the same sort of shitty stuff, weaving around when he's supposed to go straight, bracing his neck, or over turning, as I described before. Still, it was a calm walk so after a good go around the arena I brought him back to the barn. He sat in the cross ties for a long time before being put back. I'm pretty sure he learned absolutely nothing from that ride. I, however, did learn from that ride. I learned that I need a more detailed plan than just sitting there being pissed. So, more scheming is in order.

After hanging around in the heat I finally went and got Star. It was time to have fun.

We walked around the field once. Very long negotiations regarding the hay monster in the burn pile. I practiced not taking my legs off her when she's misbehaving. Bad habit. Bad. I was pretty pleased with my progress when she finally bolted past the hay and my legs were wrapped around her just fine.

Next we worked on getting a calm, pleasant trot in the field. Thats not really her strong suit but when I was satisfied then we went for a run. I had sortof forgotten that we hadn't cantered/galloped towards home on the scary side yet. I started with that. It was scary, but in a good way. We were doing a pretty good gallop, the wind felt really good rushing past my face. Star travels very straight and smooth when we're galloping, and I had my legs streched down and wrapped around her nice and tight so I felt secure. Plus, Star cant really go that fast compared to, say, Colonel. When we got down to the tracktor equipment I sat deeper in the saddle and within three strides we were walking again. Thats the thing that makes me feel the safest of all. I can stop Star with my voice, my seat or my reins even when we're galloping towards the barn. No fuss, no nothing. Can I slow her down within a gait? Thats a little trickier, but still.

We cantered up the other side, Star was a little sluggish. We walked through the turns and then galloped most of the way back home. I cooled her out in the arena. She was very subdued in the cross ties, barely raised her head when I took off her bridle.

Bath time was a little less relaxed. She was good for the first side, but she refused to turn around in the wash rack. We spent a long long time arguing about that. I spent an irritating portion of that time getting the whip untangled from her tail, but I basically won the argument and for a little while Star was clean. When I scraped the water off her, it did not resemble mud, very cool.

Star was unimpressed.

After a month haitus...

A lot has happened in the last month. I havent been blogging it. I wish I had now, so I'm picking up again on the blogging. I cant really summarize what's happened so I'll try to summarize where I think I am with the horseys.
Lady:
I was doing really well riding her every time I was at the barn. I dropped the habit after a last minute trip to CA so I want to pick it back up again. Sometimes we really get in sync and its very good.

Star:
Star is rounding her back at the trot! Its really nice. Next up, canter. Her canter in the arena lacks impulsion. Her departures are reluctant. She is always poised to stop if she feels like she's loosing her balance. On the adgenda is to teach her better transitions; that its not acceptable to just stop cantering; and also, that she can keep herself balanced and not feel the need to stop.

Colonel:
Colonel is doing pretty well at remaining calm. He's even doing a little better at calming down after something hypes him up. He is still: leaning on the reins during transitions; throwing his shoulder out around the bend; reluctant to pick up the canter on command; falling in like crazy at the canter. On the adgenda is: teach him a reasonably nice stop, teach him to follow his nose, teach him balance at the canter.

anyone learn anything? maybe?

Saturday I got Colonel out and lunged him. Alyssa was working with Luca and trot poles that later became canter poles. I lunged colonel over those. He got a little hyped up at times, especially the canter poles, but he stayed manageable and I put him back. The thought was that this would bring his mind back into the work zone without me having to get on him while he's all fresh and whatnot.
I got Star out for a brief go. We started out in the arena but Jade was going to be pulling the tire in there and I decided I'd pass on that little experience. We worked in the outdoor arena at Alyssa's suggestion. Star was not going as straight as I wanted so I did some little circles in the same and in the opposite direction we were going. Not sure how much that helped.
Alyssa was curious about "something" and wanted to hop on her. I was interested to hear what Alyssa had to say, but also quite pleased that she was going to finally get on her. Alyssa has been avoiding this. I've only been prodding gently but Alyssa insists that she doesn't like riding Star, and these days she can afford to be picky. :/
It was also gratifying to note that the tiny tiny posting that Alyssa usually does was absent on Star. Confirming what I occasionally try to tell myself, namely, Star moves differently than Keno and Luca and the posting wont necessarily be the same height. Not that it wasn't subtle, just more detectable to the human eye. I was also happy to see that Alyssa revised her opinion of Star at least slightly.

The advice I got was this: long thighs + insufficiently large saddle = seat pushed towards the cantle + leaning forward to compensate for seat= unhappy, high headed horse.

So I'm looking into buying a bigger saddle, but, that all being said, I've been riding Star in this saddle for a long time. I know she can do better with it than she was doing on Saturday. So there's still a discipline component I can work on in the mean time.

Today I technically worked 4.2 horses. The decimal is the small amount of time I spent long lining Spirit. I only got roped into that because I found Niki cast in her stall. She was lying with her hooves facing the wall. There were lots of scratch marks on the wall, which she added to when she saw me peering in and tried to get up. She made an even more vigorous attempt when I opened the door. She settled down in between attempts but she was still panting and you could see the whites of her eyes a little.

Robert was in a lesson with Spirit so I got stuck with Spirit while Robert and Chris went off to free Niki. Spirit was good, especially considering it was his first time long lining. Niki finally managed to push herself away from the wall when she saw that Robert was planning on intervening. I guess I'm just not scary enough to get the job done.

I worked with Star on staying straight in her corners. I worked with me on just experimenting with my position in the saddle. I spent some time neck reining Star and gripping the pommel with my other hand to hold myself in the middle of the saddle. Seeing what it takes to hold the same position without the pommel. I was much more able to get my back straight/ shoulders back when I was right in the middle. This lends even more evidence to support Alyssa's theory that I'm leaning forward to compensate for my seat being too far back. I also fidgeted with my feet a little but I didn't have a whole lot of luck there. Plus Star eventually reached a point where she wasn't interested in putting up with my antics.

On the Star front I think we made some progress. When she cut her corners and counterbent through her corners I spun her pretty hard in the direction opposite the one we were going. When she started anticipating the spin to the outside I just applied my inside bending aids and she was relieved not to have to do the spin and she went nice and straight. We'll have to practice this more at the trot. She'll be a little ball of unholy fury if/when I try to do this at a canter.

We did a little canter around the arena at the end, just for my entertainment. I'm paying for my tendency to let Star walk or stop after we canter. Now she doesn't like the idea of going down to a trot, more importantly, an energetic trot. She feels entitled to a very lazy walk. I think that should be easy to fix though. Maybe not fast, but easy. I'll just make her do it until she gets used to it.

I got Colonel out and we did lots and lots of transitions. Basically I decided we'd do under saddle what I had started on the long lines. His walk to trot transitions got a lot better. When I did my little half halts he picked his head up, rocked a perceptible amount of weight back to his hind end and then went off my leg pretty nicely. His trot to walk and his walk to halt are still basically shit.

He wants to lean on my hands. For the halt my solution to this was to ask for my halt right before a wall. That got some semi-reasonable stops out of him. When they weren't reasonable I made him do a turn on the forehand to get us pointed the right way. When they were good enough he got to just walk forward and turn like a normal horsey. Don't know if that message got to his little walnut-sized brain or not.

For the trot to walk, my idea was that a good transition got some rest at the walk, a crappy one got sent back into a trot. He started getting kindof balky about the trot-walk transition because he wasn't doing it well enough often enough to avoid having to do another up transition after two strides or so. Still pondering options for that one.

I got a good halt out of him without using the rail so I hopped off him and I hope maybe some twinkle of that lesson reached his walnut brain. Hard to tell.

I got Lady out and walked her around some, trotted her around some, mostly walked her around some. Robert has been expressing some interest in riding her again, and he shouldn't have to waste time re-conditioning her so I think I'll try to pitch in with Alyssa to get her going. Plus, Papillon was looking pretty lame. Lady was definitely trotting asymmetrically, but she is by her nature a profoundly asymmetrical horse. She was happy enough so my plan is to see if riding her like this leads to a worse trot because of damage or a better trot because of muscle development capable of correcting the trot.

I watched her all summer of '07 and Ian was jumping her. I rarely saw her trot get especially worse. Usually when it got worse it was from taking her on excessively hard ground, or working her beyond what she's capable of. So we shall see.

I also rode Keno bareback for like, ten minutes and then decided it was too much effort to either hold my calves against his sides without a saddle to boost me up, or to go get a saddle so I put him back. He has a fun little tiny trot. I didn't think he could effectively pick up a canter with it, but he picked it up a lot better with his tiny slow trot than with his faster but less focused trot. I need to strengthen my hold-calves-against-sides-of-too-short-horsey muscles.

I felt really productive on Thursday. Showed up at 10 and swept/turned Lady and Papillon out in the pasture. Colonel absolutely flipped out at that. He was screaming for them, screaming and staring at me, running in and out of his stall, and banging on the door to try and open it. Poor guy hasn't really been eating, but it's showing up in his mental state rather than his physical. Lady and Papillon kicked it up a little bit but mostly stuffed their faces.

Brought them. Tessa's mom was out of town and asked Robert to lunge her, so he asked me to lunge her. She was extremely mistrustful of me haltering her, but she's pretty calm and quiet. Didn't want to walk at first so we did some trotting, and then she relaxed. She knows ropework better than lunging, I think, but I did a little of that with Claire so it worked out just fine. Put her back just in time to help Jerry unharness Imp. Once that was done I grabbed Luca and harnessed him up to go out in the field. We had a nice drive with Robert, he was pretty full of himself but well behaved overall. He is standing so much better, it's unbelievable. Rinsed him off and went to lunch. Robert took a long lunch. I turned out Colonel and Libby while I ate.

So I got dressed and rode Niki. She was, well, pretty terrible at first, but improved by leaps and bounds (occasionally literally, but not the "improving" part). Jessi and Bella and their entourage came in at one point and she was very upset about that. Our circles got much worse. So I pulled her off of the rail, because that's where she's been going crooked, and we did a 10-15m circle at the far end of the arena for a long time. We worked on bending and following her head, and not popping her shoulder out. She actually got pretty good at that, did a brief spook when Bella left, but kept working just fine. I rode her back to the crossties and Jessi asked if I was going out in the field. Um, no. Two green horses, a green rider, and a rider who's nervous about riding in the field is NOT a good combination. Plus I had a lesson with Robert anyways.

We did the trot and canter poles again. He's definitely getting the idea, but still wants to cut in and drop his shoulder. We did 10m canter circles whenever he wanted to do that, and he started getting nice and balanced. He picked up the wrong lead a lot, though. We need to work on bending. Robert was pleased by his progress but I was insanely frustrated (largely from not drinking any water and going straight from Niki to Luca). He made up for it by being cute. I was trying to demonstrate to Robert that while I was holding Luca towards the rail after the canter poles, it was because I was trying to make him go straight, and if I let him go he would drop his shoulder and run towards the gate. Instead, we cantered over the poles, he dropped his shoulder and cut the corner (it was UGLY), and aimed straight for the trot poles and cantered over those. That restored my good humor immediately. He's just a weird guy.

But I still didn't feel accomplished. So I asked Robert to look out for just one of us coming back, and rode Luca out in the field. We just walked around one circuit, but he was really good. We crossed the bridge across the creek, which I was a little nervous about (do not want to get dunked in beaver water), even though he's done it a billion times. Halfway across his head came up and he did a plant-all-four-feet spook. Wonderful! I saw the deer bounding away from us. I thought that was a pretty fair call on his part, especially as he moved on calmly. He also did a little sidesteppy trotty thing when something moved in the bushes next to us, but again, fair call. We did the water crossing too, and once I reminded him he wasn't supposed to trot up it he was fine.

I rode Keno with a saddle. That was mediocre. He gets weird cantering in the arena. He's much better in the little dressage one outside. He was busy eyeing Sunny and sticking his head up in the air as much as his short little neck will allow. We got a nice trot though, once we went over the trot poles. I guess I should hop on him more often and give him a real work.

Four horses worked, one of them twice, and four horses turned out. Woohoo!

Rode Luca again. He was an absolute jerk to lunge- taking off, bucking, tried pulling the lunge out of my hands once. We did a bunch of transitions up and down and suddenly he remembered his job. He was a fun ride. We set up three poles at E and B, first at trotting length, then lengthened one set to canter strides. I'm not convinced we got the striding right, at all, but he was definitely balancing himself better. We did some 10m canter circles (because he wouldn't bend otherwise) and oh, oh, we stayed cantering through them, and I didn't need to balance like a barrel racer to stay straight on the horse! It was lovely.

Robert has been redoing all the doors to runs in the hay barn so they're on the inside of the barn, rather than the outside. We reached another crucial step in the "girls and powertools" stage when he told me to use the drill to disassemble an outer door he'd taken down. And went over and showed me the bit I would need to use, where the charged battery was, and how to take the battery out of the drill (which I failed at- need less fingernail, more finger strength), which were all critical parts of the process, it turns out, and things I didn't know. He also showed me how to change the bit, which, whatevs, that's fine. And then he left to go teach a lesson! I ran in briefly to have him open the drill to take the battery out, but that was that- I took the door apart and stacked the wood and we didn't have another conversation about it. It was fantastic.

Less fantastic was not doing anything the rest of the day. Chuck is trying to sell Niki, and wanted to know how she was doing/when I'd be around so he could take pictures of me riding her. And I mean, I don't want to buy her, but I really do like riding her, and she's the first horse I've really had control over her training-- I didn't start her from the ground up, but I've done *everything* with her after longlining in the riding process. And I think I figured I'd have more time with her. I could have had a lot more done with her if I hadn't been so lazy, so it's not like it wasn't my fault, but it's still a little upsetting. Robert and Chuck keep telling me that once Niki is sold, Jewel (his new horse) will get brought down here and I can ride her all I want. Jewel is apparently a real nice quarter horse, trained for cutting but not good enough to be in the money, and I guess can do a decent reining pattern. Which makes me immediately think of mugwump, of course. It'll be fun, but I like taking a green horse and showing them something, and having them realize what you want and be happy to do it. Niki and Will were both a lot of fun that way.

I guess one of these days I'll buy a horse, and then regret not being able to hand it back to an owner when I don't want to deal with it anymore. Bleh. At least Keno is somewhat desperate for attention, whickering wildly whenever I walk by. It's a little pathetic.

Saturday went much better than Thursday did, though it was pretty unhorsey. I came in just as Rose, Julie, and Buzz were leaving. Ate lunch and hopped on Keno bareback. As usual, I wasn't planning on working him very hard, but we got into a groove with our figure eight canters. He was doing much better about trotting through the middle. He's a tad reluctant to pick up his right lead, but that's because he gets excited and high headed about it and doesn't want to drop left lead first. We did get a nice transition, right lead, one trot step, left lead.

Next I worked on fences for a long time. I hate fences. If I had more upper body strength I think I wouldn't hate them nearly as much. But I got Niki and Star's fence up, and Bella and Tillie's fence too. I tried fixing Lady and Papillon's run but settled for mediocrity.

Instead of working Luca, Robert and I unloaded approximately 80 bales of hay from the yellow truck and his truck. Buzz had baled them yesterday, and it was scheduled to rain, so Robert loaded them all up in the trucks and drove them indoors. I was on the truck and Robert was stacking them. He looked appropriately mortified when I teased him about sending the girl scared of heights up on the truck, until I told him it was just a ladder thing.

Hm. Short day, most of it spent feeling terrible.

Got there at 11, swept, helped untack Imp. Libby had wrecked her hotwire while I was sweeping (and was pretty distraught about it all), so I turned off the fence and redid her section. Hopefully it'll stay up a little longer.

Spent a long time with Luca. Robert had us do basically a figure eight like an 8, with standards to denote what to turn around and cones to get us cleanly through X. We started at a walk, then did a trot, then cantered one side, then cantered both with a trot through X, then picked up the next lead. Luca was a big fan of this, actually. He started pulling some pretty tight turns and getting much more balanced. He also figured out the trot-at-X thing. He'd feel pretty strong heading towards the gate at a canter, but come right back exactly at X.

Uh, started riding Niki. She was pretty good. We chased the black feral cat out of the arena and she seemed interested in that. We did walking serpentines. After a while she stopped to stare at Buzz hooking up the tractor to his truck and I realized that, while I've never passed out, what I was feeling was pretty much what I imagined it would feel like. So we walked over to the gate, chased the cat the other way (she loved that, actually), and I hopped off and sat down for a bit. Then walked her back, put her back, and went to the house to inform Robert that I was going home.

It's been a while!

Saturday was a bit of an epic failure as far as horses go. I'm pretty sure I only worked Luca. Who was really good, by the way. We only had one cut for the gate. While I was saddling up he was bouncing his head up and down, but didn't move a foot, so the important parts of his body stayed in place. Good enough for me.

Ah! The reason why I spent so long with Luca. Right. I remember this now. It's been a long few days. Um, so Luca counterbends very badly to the left. Robert pointed out that, among other things, the saddle was shifted far to the right and my right stirrup was a hole longer. I was also giving him pretty strong half halts, which I remembered/Robert discussed with me don't really work with Luca. He prefers more subtle aids and will just outright ignore you if you give him a cue too loudly. So Luca and I ended on a really good note. Another thing I didn't remember, which was sort of dumb, was that getting the correct bend is more important than getting a nice full 20m circle.

I think Robert realized, maybe finally, that I really don't know what to do with a green horse a lot of the time, and I do appreciate lessons and suggestions.

I swept in and out of the barn like a ninja on Monday morning. I needed some tools that day that I'd forgotten on Saturday, so I ran in on the 8:50 bus, grabbed tools, swept the aisle, scratched my ponies, and ran out on the 9:30 bus. Apparently Robert was kind of confused as to how the aisle got swept.

Tuesday was more productive. I got there at 10 and worked Luca ("the boy") until almost 12. We did the doubling thing, against the wall and into the arena, and it was good. He's really learning to work under saddle, and to chill out and stand when it's time to chat.

Ate some food and headed back out. My task was to put up hotwire around Jade and Niki's run, as far out as possible. I did what I could, ignoring some laws of physics, discovered it wouldn't work because of said laws of physics. I needed to put some eyebolts in the side of the barn so the tape would be far enough out there. Robert interpreted my "I need to put eyebolts in there" as a "what should I do?" rather than a "I need to put eyebolts in there, and I am letting you know so you can give me permission to put holes in your barn." Response: "Put some eyebolts in there!" Okay, yeah, sure.

I've been doing stealth repairs around the barn for a little while now. Robert doesn't like to let girls use powertools, even though I've used them for four or five years now and am pretty comfortable with the basic drill, chop saw, etc. So when he goes out for a lesson, again, I am a ninja. So far I've moved two saddleracks, built a saddle pad stand (that Gillian designed, and which he did know about), and put a bucket back on the wall. I thought we'd reached an agreement that I would do things and we would both pretend it wasn't happening. Because, hey, whatever works.

Back to the story- so I found some eyebolts and no way was I just sticking them in the wall and twisting. So I grabbed a drill and walked right by Robert, daringly. He eyed it, noticed it had the correct bit, and went back to talking to Jessi. Neither of us said a word.

Put the eyebolts in, fixed the hotwire up. Niki was in her stall, but pushed the door to her run open enough that she could stare at me while I was doing it. It was pretty cute. I also fixed BJ's bucket, which he'd knocked off the wall again.

Went to see what Jessi and Bella and Robert were doing. They were working on having Bella relax and drop her head at the walk, and Jessi wasn't really getting it. So I hopped on and walked around a few times. That saddle is painful, but Bella seemed nice enough if drafty and opinionated. Hung out for the rest of the lesson, then hopped back on Bella and trotted around. Awesome, fantastic jog. We got a little stuck at one point and backed up for a few minutes, but I got bored and popped her lightly with the reins and we continued on our merry way.

Colonel, of course, hasn't been eating his grain since Gillian left. I took him out and lunged him while Robert was lunging the POA pony Spirit. Poor Colonel was trying so hard to be a good boy that he was listening to me and Robert for a while before he figured it out. I don't think I worked him hard enough. I might ride him, with Gillian's blessing, or I can longline him. He's starting to get more ribby and pathetic.

Watched the end of Spirit's lesson, then pulled Niki out for a lunge. She was crazymare, and does a stupid bunnyhop with her hind feet when she pulls out all the stops on her go-go-go. She was not fond of the green plastic chair sitting in the middle of the arena. She doesn't relax on the lunge and she was breathing pretty hard, so I wanted to cool her out before I put her back.

Being stupid, I put both clips on the right side ring of her halter, ran the line over her neck and back through the left side ring, gathered up the excess, walked over to the mounting block and hopped on. No helmet, of course, feel free to scold me. We had a nice walk, very happy and calm. There was some poor planning on my part (like relying too much on friction) which resulted in poor left turns, but we figured it out, and she still had an excellent whoa. We walked around a few times, headed out to put her back, so I thought, but she reaaaaaally wanted to head out towards the field. I'm not that dumb, though, so we walked around the grass arena and quit.

Poor Keno is getting ignored. Ah well.

Last trip before a ten day break

I was pretty sluggish about getting to the barn on thursday. I got held up at the dog park for one thing. Then a little shopping trip to goodwill and when all was said and done it was 1 pm before I got to the barn. Despite this I managed to work three horses. I helped with the new POA pony, Spirit. He is learning to lunge. He is a pretty cool customer, too cool really, but I think it bodes well for his future as a cart horse. Like Robert says, it doesn't take a real mental giant to get a horse moving.

I longlined Colonel. He was a little more peppy than the last session. One thing is we learned that leaning on my hands is, in fact, optional. Hooray! We'll have to see if he remembers that when I get back. I'm still not sure what I'm looking for before I get back on him. I think I might do some diagnostic canter transitions. If they're getting good, I'll get back on him, if not, more walk-trot-walk transitions. I'd especially like him to canter without leaning on my hands and without me having to string the reins through the bit and back to the surcingle. Is this too much to ask? Sigh.

Alyssa set up trot poles and some standards but Keno had a stone bruise. She wanted someone to use them, so I saddled up Star. She was really really good about the tracktor running out in the field. She looked at it repeatedly, got a little excited, but within minutes she was totally cool with it. She barely shied at the barrels in the arena either. We basically had the same rutine as our previous session, with basically the same results. It just didn't take quite as many repetitions to get a jump I was happy with.

Really I'm happy she did it at all. Used to be that getting Star to do something once wasn't the biggest hurdle, it was getting her to do it consisntently. I wonder if she still hesites going over the bridge. Eventually I'll have to do that so we can lead Alyssa and Niki over behind the far creek.

After feeding time, at like 4:15, the sky suddenly went really really dark. Severe storm warnings were in effect, and Colleen drove us home so that we wouldn't be stuck in the rain and 60 mph winds and so on. I'm told that in some places there was hail the size of golf balls. Ouch.

No such things in CA here. I'll see if I can get some riding lessons in an AP saddle so I wont feel so awkward. It is not like riding a bicycle.

First real jump!

[Star did her first jump today in the arena, under saddle. Her late owner, Gloria, wanted Star to learn to jump. Star panicked and cleared a 5 foot fence once, and that put the idea into Gloria's mind. I like to think she would have been pleased to see her little girl bravely jumping over her first crossrails.]

I got to the barn pretty early today. Around 8:50 or so. I moved some carts into more long-term storage, I swept the aisle. I chit chatted with Robert about what had gotten done and what needed doing.

The first horse I worked was Colonel. I got him on the long lines so we could work on transitions and whatnot. We had some technical difficulties with the reins. One of my new ultra low friction rein extenders (read: clothesline with snaps) snapped, leaving me with one rein and a horse headed for the door. When all was said and done Colonel had looped that one rein around him several times, and the D ring was in his mouth. That part was impressive to me because these D rings are giant. Alyssa swooped in and fixed everything, I tied a better knot on the snap and we went back to work.

Robert came in and gave me some more pointers on how to help Colonel balance better/not pull on me. Colonel was e x t r e m e l y sluggish. Eventually, Robert brought out a whip, and with more impulsion Colonel's transitions got better. Robert's homework for us is to improve the walk-trot-walk transitions before worrying about the canter much at all. It makes sense, its just not nearly as exciting or direct. Oh well, thats how it goes sometimes.

While I was longlining Colonel, Alyssa was setting up trot poles and a pair of low jump standards. (For some reason I kept not noticing her going back and forth and kept trying to run her over with Colonel. Strange.) The plan was to take Keno and Star over the trot poles and then raise the last pole up into a jump once they got the trot poles down.

I was totally going to be lazy and not bother with it today, but there was the jump and Alyssa was saddling Keno up, so I thought, no time like the present I guess. I put my crappy AP saddle on her. It was borderline as far as whither clearance goes, but with me in the saddle is was off her withers by at least a finger so I'm calling that good enough. She didn't seem to upset about it.

She was upset about Keno being in the arena. She was raised with Keno and Reno and they have a definite sibling rivalry thing going on.

We warmed up and did the trot poles. Star was not so sure about them at first, she insisted on walking through them. After that she trotted just fine both directions. Then we raised the bar, literally. Alyssa set up a crossrail while I fidgeted more with my stirrups. I haven't sat in an AP saddle for so very long, it felt cramped and slippery. I felt cramped and unbalanced. Fortunately Star has gotten pretty tolerant of my riding issues so she took this all in stride. (So to speak, ha ha, yeah... moving on)

Keno went over the crosrail nicely and it was our turn to go. I got a nice forward, albeit somewhat irate, trot from Star. She was shying at the plastic chair as we turned the corner towards the jump. She was somewhat surprised to see it there. She hesitated and stopped, I was about to turn her to try again when she walked forward over the poles and came to the jump. I was really not sure what was about to happen here, or how I was going to deal with this if she wanted to get away from the jump after all.

It seemed like many minutes even if it was only a second or two. She stared at the jump at her feet. I was doing I have no idea what trying to decide where I should be. Then Star popped right over the jump like a good girl. She seemed pretty calm about the whole thing. I was pretty pleased that she was so willing to try to go forward. Normally she's pretty nervous about crossrails, but a vertical would be too high.

Second time over she jumped it, but it was pretty clumsy. Third time over she just trotted the whole thing without bothering to jump. So we raised the crossrail. Thats how I got my first refusal. OMG WTF its DIFFERENT!!! I just turned her around and came back for another pass and she went through it. Instead of jumping the jump though, she decided to jump over the last trot rail and the jump. I was taken somewhat by surprise. It was a big jump. I made that our last jump for the day.

Alyssa went to swap horses so I took Star around the field. She was a little skittish, quite stubborn about the puddle, but basically good. Alyssa came out with Niki and we weren't quite back to the culvert yet so I asked Star to trot over there. The little rat decided this mean canter over to her budy really fast. She came down to crazy rushed trot when asked. Good enough.

We walked around the field the opposite direction as we did on Tuesday. The first part was good, but the east side going home was a little tense for Niki. She kept staring at the neighbors. Alyssa thinks she was looking at the cows, which seems plausible. Mostly Niki just paused frequently, not too much fussing and trotting. What trotting she did Alyssa was mostly able to contain with a nice deep seat.

We had some trouble getting past the scary gate of doom, and then Coleen and gang showed up across the creek and Niki was seriously displeased by this and wanted to go Home Now. After Alyssa got her walking a few strides I suggested that Niki had been a good girl walking around the field and that maybe she should be walked back the last little bit, lest she get herself into trouble. On Saturday we will walk the same direction, since that seemed to be more trouble for Niki, and we will walk across the culvert under saddle. Either she'll be fine, or she will learn how her fussing is dealt with.

After feeding we worked Libby. It didn't go as well as when Robert is there coaching me, but it was OK. I think it was certainly helpful for her training, I just couldn't keep her from pulling on my inside rein. I think I'll see if I can work with Robert some more and learn how to handle this.

Niki takes the lead

Tuesday we got Libby, Luca, Reno, Niki, and Star out. I had ambitions for more of my horses but so it goes.

We got Libby out first, she was pretty hot from being in her stall today. We decided not to pull the tire today. Instead, I came down towards the gate to do the second half of our longlining and I got an impromptu lesson from Robert. I was a little surprised by this, but I'm very grateful that it happened.

I have a tendency to let horses set their own pace on the circle, thinking they'll eventually decide that they dont want to be doing as much work as they're doing. Libby never really decided to do too much less work. As a result she was rushy, counter bent, and unbalanced. Robert had me slow her down. This was easier said than done. She really hauled on my hands. The gate is still broken, and she was quite distracted by the possibility of freedom. So Robert had us go down to the walk when she got too rushy and then bring her right back up to the trot. Maybe three stride of walk total, or less. Then he started having me give her half halts before the transitions. (Something I also neglect to do, and I really should do it.) Slowly, she started to balance back better, her transitions got more balanced, it became easier to bend her correctly, and she maintained a better pace, even when headed towards the gate.

This was a revelation. I think its time to get Colonel on those long lines and teach him the meaning of the half halt, and see if I can get him more balanced, particularly at the canter. To this end I started putting together a system to try to lower the friction between the reins and the surcingle. It should allow me to be more precise with my reins.

Alyssa rode Keno some, and then she was ready to take Niki back out into the field. I am pleased that this took no pressuring from me. I got Star saddled up, and I took her around the field once first to make sure she would be fine as a companion horse for Niki (and Alyssa.) She was a little nervous but she settled down after we got past the scene of Saturday's crime. I came back to get Alyssa. Niki was sweaty, a board on the arena was broken. I didn't ask.

Niki hesitated crossing the culvert, but after a little pause she came right across. Alyssa handled her well though her mild anxiety going towards the spot where the dog came after us. After that Niki took the lead, Star trailed behind. That little mare can really book it.

Alyssa opted to go around the puddle, which makes sense if you want a low drama excursion. (And we do.) Star believed that this gave her license to go around the puddle. She was mistaken. Niki stared a little at the neighbor's horses, and then we moved on. After Niki crossed the culvert I held Star back. She was displeased and tried to back over the culvert. I just sat there until Star changed her mind. Once she was walking willingly away from the culvert I turned her around and headed for the arena.

We did some left lead canter that I'm pretty pleased with. She is really getting on my seat quite nicely. I stopped her without touching the reins. Just before we stopped she did a couple of strides of really nice uphill canter. I'm really becoming very happy with her. I may start doing some trot jumps with Alyssa soon. I want a little more forward in the canter in the arena first, and a little better balance around the turns. (They have gotten better since cantering in the field though, fancy that.)

We failed to catch any barn cats for spaying. Alyssa was scratched in the line of duty. She was gracious about accepting help cleansing her wound, so I'm pretty proud of her for that too.

Short rides

Saturday started on a good note. Alyssa helped me build (built really) the saddle rack I've been thinking about. Its just a prototype right now but I'm pretty pleased with it. In the future we'll add to it, sand it, and bolt it onto something sturdy. Still, its nice when a plan like that comes to fruition so smoothly.

Alyssa and Robert took Luca out on a drive. Meanwhile I saddled Colonel up for some arena work. The plan was to work on teaching how to "double" a little more calmly. I have a tendency to swing him around and I'm thinking thats overly emotional training. Colonel was quite sluggish in the arena, unless something got him excited. Going towards the door is one such example.

We did some doubling work, and he did show slight signs of getting the idea that the outside rein should control his speed. Very slight signs. We did transitions and be leaned on my hands through all of them. When he leaned on my hands we did little circles with a high inside rein. Didn't help the transitions but I think it persuaded him to leave off pulling on me when we weren't doing transitions.

Luca was coming back so I decided to quit for the day. I took him into the center of the arena and asked for a halt. He leaned on my hands so hard that I became rather annoyed. So we tried doing halts where he didn't lean on my hands. No dice. So I started walking him into walls. He tried to dodge, and he leaned on my hands when I kept him straight. So I started trotting him into walls. Still lots of leaning. At one point he got pretty irritated and he was just starting to pick up the canter when I ran him into a wall. Nice stop on his rump, didn't lean on my hands. I got off and loosened his girth.

I'm swimming with various ideas on how to fix this transition issue. None of them seem very compelling. I might have to do a separate post where I agonize over the options I can think of.

Next Alyssa and I saddled up Star and Niki in the same crossties. That was interesting. Niki seemed pretty calm about the whole thing. Star was concerned but quiet.

I took Star around the field once without Alyssa to make sure everything would work out OK for our second ride out together. Everything checked out, and we decided to go past the scary tower of doom and ride all the way around the field.

Going past the scary tower of doom went quite well. Alyssa seemed pretty relaxed, and I was pleased with the situation. We saw a dog up ahead, I speculated that it was a Belgian sheepdog, Alyssa said it was some mix or other, and we chatted a little while about it. We were coming up on the bright orange been-there-forever-yet-still-scary fence. I thought that would be the next major hurdle.

Then I saw the dog charging at us. Then Star and Niki saw the dog charging at us. Then the shit hit the fan. Niki turned and bolted, which was all I saw as I tried to spin Star. I usually spin her to the right, but for some reason I chose the left. Maybe because that would start her off away from the barn, maybe it was random. The result was that Star was more resistant, and since my left arm is weaker, I didn't manage to pull her into a circle. So we ran sideways. I have never seen her run that fast while still sideways. She was starting to straighten out so I grabbed both reins in my right hand, slid my hand up the rein most of the way up to her bit, and then leaned back to pull her around. Yay leverage and a strong lower back. So I turned her into a circle and was able to look up to watch Alyssa and Niki running off.

By the time I looked up at them again they had stopped. Alyssa was grinning and occasionally leaning on her knee as she collapsed her upper body laughing. She was probably a little giddy from the adrenaline. Niki was calmly eating grass.

I got closer and discovered that Alyssa was actually grimacing in pain; grabbing her thigh to try to steady herself lest she move her hip and cause more pain. Apparently Niki's sudden leap to the side wrenched Alyssa's hip severely. I was relieved when Alyssa decided to get off her horse, and I got off Star. I planned on bringing the horses back and fetching Vic and a truck and driving back out to collect Alyssa, who would be finding a comfortable position to hold while she waited.

I was quite dismayed to find that I couldn't talk her into this plan. Alyssa wanted to get back up and ride home. We argued about this briefly, she had plenty of justifications for her decision, most of them silly. The one that got me was her claim that lying down was not an option and that standing was painful. Apparently mounting a horse from the ground struck her as less painful that lying down or sitting, so I held her stirrup and she rode back to the barn. (I tried to lead Niki home but it went poorly so off she went.) I got back on Star and followed her.

I wound up having to pry the reins out of her hands, since she was insisting on standing there and holding Niki while I put Star back. Shana was there so she held Niki for me while I hastily pulled Star's tack off and put her in her stall. Niki got the same treatment.

Ibuprofin, food, water, and lemonade for Alyssa. After about 45 minutes she got restless and wanted to walk around. This was quite alarming to me. Alyssa has a history of pushing herself a little more than seems wise. I had to admit though, she seemed to be walking reasonably well, so I calmed down, and transitioned out of emergency mother hen mode. (Next notch down: heightened mother hen mode.)

After all was said and done, Alyssa seems remarkably positive about the experience. She cantered her horse, rode it home from the field, and survived probably the worst spook she'll have to deal with. Last I heard (Sunday) she's "almost functioning normally" so maybe we'll ride out on Tuesday. If we see the dog, she has my blessing to dismount and walk until we pass it.

Field work for Star and Alyssa, arena work for Colonel

Thursday I had a good time with Star, and an interesting time with Colonel.

The neighbors are drilling a new well, which means there is a giant tower, and lots of heavy equipment and trucks and goings on. I really dont blame star for being nervous about this one. So I was pretty lenient when she wanted to get pretty far back from it and sidepass all the way past it. In the middle of her sidepassing through the field (sorry Robert) she also spooked at a sprouting blackberry bush. I would have considered that beneath my notice, given the GIANT scary tower, but Star is very thorough.

I decided to fight her about going through the puddles in the curvy section of the field. If she doesn't want to trot through them, fine, I respect that, but she's going to damn well walk through them if I tell her to. Now Star does understand the indirect reins. When I payed attention to my aids she was actually pretty good about going through the puddles.

Once we got comfortable-ish, we actually did do some canter work on the scary side of the field. Just the last half, away from the scary tower, and I was pretty pleased with us both. We also did some really nice trotting. It was smooth, controlled, dare I say round?

Later I saw Alyssa and Niki thinking about going into the field. I wanted to get there before any major decisions were made, so I sent Star trotting towards the big scary tower. Star had also spotted Niki, so she was just fine trotting towards it. I walked her past it and then we picked up a canter. Robert says that from where he was watching out his window we got a pretty impressive hand gallop. It was fun, but irritatingly out of control.

Alyssa and I wound up walking up the west end of the arena and just around the corner. Alyssa decided to quit while she was ahead, so she got off and led Niki the rest of the way around the field. I took Star back home.

I decided to avoid having to deal with Colonel and the scary tower of doom, so we rode in the arena. He is very sluggish in the arena, he hangs on my hands a lot more in the arena than he did in the field. The work we did in the field about not hanging on my hands apparently doesn't translate to the arena. Bummer. We did some circles and some trotting. He was relatively calm, but I really had to fight for all but the most basic requests. He steers fine. He goes forward reasonably well. Slowing down, stopping, turning without leaning precariously into the turn, all of those were fought for, and not all of them achieved. I absolutely could not get any downward transitions without him sticking his nose out and pulling on the reins.

I tried to canter him, that went poorly. Low slung head, pulling, leaning into his turns. I swear I could have leaned my shoulders to the inside a bit more and knocked us both over. Of course his solution to being out of balance was to go faster. I decided we werent going to get anywhere with that, and we went back to working on a calm trot.

Still not sure what to do about all this.

Just one of those days

In the middle of a week projected to have lovely sunny warm weather, the one day of rain fell, of course, on one of my barn days. Oh well.

On Tuesday, Alyssa, Robert and I finished off the wood pile project yesterday, which made Robert happy. I moved some more stuff out of the trailer, and I rode Colonel.

He was a wild animal. I quickly realized that just letting him trot without messing with him was not going to be an option. We tried to work on transitions. I've discovered that we've made the dubious progress from pulling on the reins to bracing against the reins. One implication of this is that if I raise my hands I can hollow him out quicker than anything else I know to do. Bummer. It still works to stop him, but I'm trying to reserve it for emergencies.

I think we were out there for an hour. I experimented with lots of different things to try to help him understand what I wanted, and to try to get him to actually do it. Going away from the barn he was pretty OK. Going towards the barn he's the most hard mouthed SOB I hope I'll ever ride.

The thing I like to bear in mind about hard mouthed horses is that a hard mouth is a state of mind. You don't (hopefully) look inside their mouths and find scar tissue that renders them unable to feel what you're asking for. The way I see it its probably one or a combination of some of the following:

• He doesn't understand what I'm asking
• He doesn't respect what I'm asking
• He cant do what I'm asking (or thinks he cant)
  
• His mind is just so shot that he doesn't even realize I'm asking

Unfortunately a stronger bit wont fix any of these problems for me. Wouldn't that be nice? Anyway, I think maybe all of these things are issues to some degree. Particularly that he may not quite get it, and that he thinks he cant. Going towards the barn it may be either a respect or a mind is totally blown kind of thing.

I know he understands the leading reins. I'm pretty sure he understands the direct rein of opposition for asking for a downward transition, he just doesn't want to transition downward. I think he really has basically no idea what the indirect reins of opposition are trying to tell him. He also doesn't get the whole "slow down" concept, or maybe just doesn't respect it.

In the canter I think he believes that there are two ways to do things. Either use my hands to support his front end, or put his head way down, go fast, lean like crazy in the turns. I think the reason I get such nice unauthorized canters is that at the time, I'm trying to get him to slow down, and the whole time he's cantering, I'm asking him to stop. He uses that to help balance himself on his hind end, and voila, a sane yet out of control canter.

Clearly more experimentation is called for.

Trying new things

Saturday didn't feel productive at the time, but ultimately I think it was. I didn't manage to ride Star, but I rode Colonel and Papillon.

One thing that soaked up some time was working on the woodpile in the shop. We have this project that is creating cascading tasks. The project is, harvest hay from the field. This involves storing the hay in the hay barn. The hay barn is poorly named in that it has a lot of other uses, it stores carts, tools, spare parts of every kind imaginable, etc. So we need to clear a lot of that stuff out. This involves taking down some shelves. Their contents have to go somewhere, so we're cleaning up the shop so that it can absorb all this and still be useful. The shop has a big lumber pile in it. In order to make a neat stack outside, (and it needs to be neat so that the barn will still be presentable) the long pieces of lumber at the bottom need to be at the bottom of the new pile. Ever heard of the tower of hanoi? We're still not finished with it but we made a lot of progress.

Nancy came over to try out Papillon for a half lease. She's been having a hard time finding a horse to replace the one she had before. They got into a little battle of wills, she and Papillon. Nancy wanted to walk and halt, Papillon wanted to trot. I was very impressed by the halts nancy managed to get out of Papillon. I can get halts like that if Robert is standing there coaching me, when he's gone so are those nice clean halts. Papillon isn't big on standing around.

After Nancy got off, I got on so that Papillon could do a little trotting. It was my first time trotting without stirrups in a while. (I didn't feel like adjusting the stirrups so I just crossed them over.) When I first stretched my legs down there was significant complaining from the tendons in my thighs. Pretty soon we were going around pretty nicely. Papillon stayed reasonably round for me, so that makes it a thousand times easier than that stupid "death trot" certain horses like to do outside. Achem.

I really hope it works out with Nancy. I could work Papillon outside and let her blow off some steam. Nancy could work her inside and remind her how to be a dressage horse. She is a really nice dressage horse with someone who has the dicipline to decide exactly what they want, and then work until they get it.

Once I got my saddle back from Alyssa I took Colonel out. We walked out into the field, and he wanted to trot a couple of times but I just sat deep, didn't even touch his mouth, and he cut it out. We got to doing our trotting same as usual. I'm now making extra sure to keep my elbows at my sides. I have a tendency to let them get dragged forward, so when the big pull comes I have no time to react. Plus it lets him get away with leaning on my hands, which is antithetical to the goal.

He was doing a lot of unauthorized cantering, just a few strides but it was hard to bring him down. Said cantering was really smooth and pleasant. It gave me the idea that I wanted to ask him to canter a little. Well, the canter I wound up asking for was the right (as in, not left) lead, which is his bad lead. So that caused a little charging and kicking and pulling, but he did quit doing it, sortof. It wasn't a great thing. I'm sure he learned nothing from it, but it was an interesting diagnostic. For one thing, he gave me the right lead canter, so that was cool. Also, I was able to stop him. That give one confidence.

He was a total pill walking over the culvert, so I rode him into the arena, but instead of dismounting we did a little left lead canter. Colonel's pulling is much worse in the arena, and worst at the canter. He was unhappy when he discovered that I wouldn't tolerate his pulling anymore, even in the arena and while cantering. He charged around at a pretty good clip. Basically out of control, truth be told. Still, I got more information out of it.

His brain seems to kindof shut down when we canter. Not totally but a lot. I'm not clear on how I'm going to try to fix this. I think it involves getting a really solid, controlled trot out of him. No pulling, no running, no sidepassing, no funny business of any kind. I think he's ready for longer rides now, and that might help. Eventually I want to start doing some schooling excersises, transitions mostly. I want him to stop leaning on my hands in the transitions. Once he can do that, I'll start more canter work with him.

In the shorter term, I think on Tuesday I'm going to do something I learned on Mugwump Cronicles. This technique worked really well for putting some brakes on Star. In short, what you do is work your horse pretty hard, not too many walk breaks, or none if your horse is up to that. Then ask for a halt. Just sit there and let them pant. If they move forward, boot them back into whatever you were doing before, and then after a while let them try again. It took three repetitions for Star to get the idea. It may take Colonel longer. Especially since I dont want him eating grass. One think I really like about this excersise is that it doesn't involve holding Colonel back. He either does it on his own, or he goes forward. No opportunity to bull on my hands.

I'll try to get to Star on tuesday too. I want to try building some topline on that girl. And also continue breezing her out in the field. Thats quality entertainment right there.

Good Progress (IMO)

I had a productive day today. Robert was working on cleaning the shop so I was sent out to sweep and then work my horses.

I started with Colonel. I still havent put a standing martingale on him. I couldn't find a proper one, so I thought I'd use some bailing twine, but I just dont like the idea so I havent done it. Anyway, I didn't do any turning out or lunging this time, we just headed right on out there. I didn't warm up as much as I probably should. Colonel was good and ready to trot, so rather than fight him about it, I asked for my trot a little early. (Ok, a lot early.)

He kept sidepassing into the grass, largely ignoring my reins and my leg. When we started to go through the turns on the north side of the field he veered out into the grass again and decided it was snack time. Between him plunging his head down and stopping on his forehand I went over his neck. I grabbed his neck before I went down. This meant I was going to fall basically right in front of him. I hit the ground and covered my face with my forearms and waited to see if I'd get trampled or not. When I didn't get stepped on I opened my eyes and started mentally preparing for my walk of shame across the field to go fetch my horse. Colonel, it turns out, had swerved to avoid me, and then stopped and eaten some grass.

So, he did get some grass out of the deal, but he also got his girth tightened another two holes so that I could get on him from the ground. It turns out that with a little leftover adrenaline I'm not too bad at that. He even stood still for the whole thing. Without further ado we were off and trotting again. I was pretty pleased with the effect of my protective vest. I think that next time, since we weren't going fast when stuff happened, I wont grab his neck going down. That way I can make sure I fall on the back of my hip instead of the front of my hip.

Anyway, after that we had a great ride. He was a little more amped up than last time, and he pulled on my hands some, but I liften my hands and he cut it out. Also, I remembered to time us (eventually) and discovered that it takes us five minutes to trot the entire field.

There was a lot more unauthorized cantering this time. (Why is the disobedient canter sooo nice?) Frankly, if he keeps getting better the way he has been, we might do some authorized cantering when the track dries out a little more. I told this to Robert, and he cautioned me that Colonel could go pretty fast. I reminded him that I was quite aware of that, thank you very much. He looked puzzled, I explained, then he remembered my brief, ill fated career as a jockey.

Next up was Star. She was pretty tense, so we walked around the field. She was very very upset by Vic and the yard mower. She was also very skeptical about the damp footing. I tried doing some trot work in the little outdoor arena in the field. She was horribly pissy and falling into her circles as though pulled by a black hole. I looked at her saddle and it had slid up again. When I got a little bit of good walk out of her I got off and led her home.

We worked on walking through puddles in hand. Amazing how much better that goes with a dressage whip. Eventually I had her walking through like it was nothing and I put her away. I was still pretty depressed about the saddle situation.

I was talking to Robert about it. He thinks I'm overreacting. Eventually he saw that this would not console me, so he suggested trying his fancy memory foam pad next time I rode. After a few minutes I realized that I wouldn't feel better until I tried it, so I brought her back out and tacked her back up with the fancy pad and minus the fore girth.

Robert accompanied me to the arena and I cantered Star around a bit on her bad direction. She still gets upset if my weight gets too far forward, but she didn't outright stop. She was sluggish but Robert thinks she didn't look uncomfortable, or upset. He further postulates that she may not like going around in the arena because she doesn't see the point. I think she feels unsteady in the turns and outside she doesn't need to turn as often. Anyway, I'm pretty happy with the pad. After Robert left we did some more cantering in the other direction, and we worked on our trot. I got a lot of nice rounded trot and was extreemely pleased. I'm not a big fan of trotting, but when she really rounds up and does it right, its a blast.

Last horse of the day was Papillon. I took her out into the field to trot. She was a lot hotter today than yesterday, which is how I like her. It probably helped that we were outside.

I forced her to walk around the field before we did anything. She needs a good warmup whether she likes it or not. She was a little over-reactive, but its her first time in the field for a while. I like riding Papillon because she always makes me feel very safe. She stays pretty round even when she's pissed, and that really helps.

Towards the end of the ride, I just couldn't help it, I had to ask for a little canter. So we cantered up the west side of the field. The first half was really nice. The second half she was trying to stare at something behind us, so that messed up her bend and she wouldn't give it back. We reached the curves and I had her walk. She was much calmer after a litte canter.

It was getting close to feeding time so I took her back. I love how easily she gets sweaty, and how white her mouth is after a ride. It makes me feel accomplished. Roberts always telling me, "Go out there and ride those horses and bring em' back wet."

(I got a pretty good sweat going on Colonel too but the wind and the sun dried it off. Oh well.)

With all that trotting I am starting to agree that the pommel on Robert's saddle is a little high. ;) Still, that pommel has saved my butt on more than one occasion, so I guess I can live with it. Plus, it reminds me to sit back on my seatbones. Speaking of such things, I've decided that my upper abs are clenched so tight that I cant straighten up effectively. So I'm working on relaxing those, thinking about keeping my chest nice and "open" and making sure my shoulders are sufficiently far back. (But still relaxed!)

Trot Trot Trot

For those of you who had been enjoying the unexpected sun on monday and tuesday, your welcome. Apparently sun is what happens when I wind up not going to the barn. Today it was rainy.

Fortunately Colonel doesn't mind the rain. I turned him out and I lunged him a little bit before going out into the field. I nearly wimped out and just rode inside. Once outside I nearly wimped out and just rode inside the little arena dealie; but after a couple of passes in each arena I hit the road.

It went really well. At first I felt like I was picking at him all the time about his speed. I would bring him down to just into my comfort zone and then let him go again. As you can guess, he was quickly back up to speed. So, I switched tactics. When we got out of my comfort zone I brought him all the way down to a nice, nearly too slow, speed. Then I let him go. It meant I was on his face for longer, but it let me ride quiet for much longer too. Colonel started getting the idea.

To adjust his speed my strategy was, one, fix the inside rein. Then two, squeeze the outside rein. The twist was, when the first sqeeze didn't work, I raised my hand and squeezed again. Every stride that I didn't get what I wanted I raised my hand a little more. Every now and then my hand wound up getting pretty high, but I always got my way.

It was a pretty jarring trot at some times. I could feel the wrong muscles tensing up, which brought my seat backwards in the saddle. Poor Colonel probably didn't appreciate me coming down on the cantle of the saddle, but we worked on that. I did get to the point where I could keep my body fairly relaxed despite the situation. I was pleased about that.

We wound up trotting about 2.5 miles. We went around the field twice each direction. Sometimes we walked the side towards the barn, (but not always! Whoohoo.)

Thinking about it later I realized that although Colonel had been resistant to my aids a lot of the time, he never stuck his head down to pull. I could have a light contact on him with no rebellion on his part. The more time I could spend riding quietly without correcting him, the better he was for the following corrections. I think I'm liking this plan.

I also got Papillon out. She was a little off, I assume from having been shod that morning. We worked on trotting calm and round. That went pretty well too. I worked on relaxing my damn shoulders. I hate riding around and then noticing that my shoulders are sore. They really needn't be doing anything, but, so it goes. I'm working on it.

Hopefully the weather will improve, the ground will get drier and Star and I will be back to tearing around the field. Maybe Colonel and will get to start cantering the field too. Time will tell.

Gillian wrote most of what we did on Saturday. Um, I was absolutely shocked when Robert said "why don't you turn horses out in there?", gesturing towards the pasture. He actually meant Libby first. Which makes sense, I guess, because she's still pretty skinny. And then he amended it to "oh, all our horses can take a turn." Okay? I got Libby out. The pasture is behind the hay barn and next to the mare side of the main barn, so it's adjacent to Lady and Papillon's run, Sunny's run, and Eddy and Bella's run. It also runs along the hay barn, so Tilly and Rocky's run as well as the QHs (the QHs were out in the other pasture, which shares a fenceline with this pasture). I was a little concerned that Tilly and Libby would get too excited about being almost reunited. Tilly got a little worked up. Libby was like "oh hey grass" and totally ignored everything else.

Next I did Papillon and Lady. I turned Papillon out first, figuring Lady would come up and attack us both if I put her out first. Papillon was psyched up and then unhappy to discover herself so far from Lady. Lady was distressed as well. She was prancy heading out there, but kept herself in the right place with some effort. She was also really pissed that I made her stand still and wait for me to take her halter off, in such a way that she wouldn't wheel into me/be able to kick me when I let her go. They had some fun running around like idiots. Papillon still looks wonderful when she arches her neck and does her fancy warmblood trot. Lady had a blast chasing Papillon around periodically. Papillon was economical and kept a bite of grass in her mouth at all times.

Reno and Colonel were a decent pair, though Colonel was worked up and Reno was busy stuffing his face. Star and Niki got along, or so I was told. Niki walked up to meet me and didn't seem at all upset about leaving Star. Star did not want to leave the grass. Star hid behind Niki to avoid getting caught. I thought this was a poor idea.

Keno went out by himself, but quickly made friends with Doccer and Sis over the fence amid gorging himself. I left him out a little longer than planned (he's foundered before) but he seemed fine afterwards.

Between turning horses out, I longlined Libby. I got some decent bucks out of her and she had a general "screw you" attitude at first. She got mad at me for keeping her on too tight of a contact. I tried pointing out to her with my inside rein that if she moved a little bit into the circle, I wouldn't be in her face at all. She ignored it for a while then figured it out. At one point she really got into defying the Man and took off towards the tall grass. I am not as strong as a 15.1 Canadian. So I hung on and ran with her. She was in the corridor between the two big barns, and Keno was running in and out of his stall and run like an idiot, which didn't help matters. But, we got her turned around, and she was actually really good from there.

I rode Lady, too. I'm not altogether sure why I thought that was a good idea. Maybe it was because she looked sound in the pasture. I rode her once before- at a walk, around the arena, once. Gillian was planning on getting out Papillon and asked what she should do, so I told her she should be in the arena while I verified Lady's lameness, then go out in the field for a ride.

Lady's not that bad to tack up, a little wiggly but not terrible. She shakes her head when you mess with the bridle, which is irritating, but a couple smacks fixed that. I was sort of nervous- Ian (exboyfriend) used to ride her a lot a couple years ago and made a big deal about how hot and sensitive and a difficult ride she was, and how I *might* just maybe be able to ride her without completely ruining her or killing myself.

Yeahhhh. Ian said a lot of things I shouldn't have listened to.

Anyways. Robert came out of his house just as we were going into the arena, so sat down while Gillian and I mounted up. Lady was a little jiggy and spooky at first but settled down quite fast. She was fine at a walk, so we did trot- no tight circles, but big loose corners and me asking her not to drop her shoulder. I asked for contact, and I guess my hands were steady enough that she accepted the bit more or less fine. She wants to go behind the vertical a lot, but I didn't really want to mess with anything much. She had big loose floppy ears which Robert commented on, and I got the feeling she was having as much fun as I was. Her trot is really nice. She's actually a little less sensitive than Keno, but he's also in consistent work and we know each other really well. She has the capacity to blow up much easier than he does.

Robert got me to canter her down a long side once. She seemed pretty pissed by this, ears back. I don't know if this is how she just wants to go or if Ian trained her or what, but she tucked her head into her chest and went barreling along. I had to get a little insistent to bring her back down.

She felt not altogether sound. Lady definitely trots a little funky right rein, which makes sense because her more crooked leg is her right front, but from my experience, she won't want to work if it hurts. I'm okay with her not being sound, as long as she's not lame. After we trotted she really relaxed, though, and I think she likes me. If she stays at this level of soundness, I'll have to ride her more often. Shocking, I know, a horse that fits me.

Brought Keno in from pasture with none of the fireworks I expected. We tacked up and headed out to walk around the field once. Robert's made a path that he runs the tractor along. Keno decided it was way too squishy and refused to walk on it. He would jig on it, or walk next to it, but was not a fan of actually being on it. A couple times he tried to turn around and go home. He did get kind of jiggy on the last side, but it wasn't terrible. To his credit, he didn't spook once-- not at the horses on the other side of the fence, the man who walked up by the pond, or the car that drove past. We cantered a little in the "dressage arena" and he accepted contact there too.

Need to start riding Luca. Oh god, need to start riding him.