Jump!

I got to the barn as Robert and Jerry were tacking up Imp to head out. I'd decided on the bus that I should put my jumping saddle on Keno, because I think it will fit Niki best out of our saddles, and I don't want to be adjusting my stirrups while I'm on the horse. And, well, because I'd have my jumping saddle on, why shouldn't I do some jumping?

So I set up some trot poles in the arena, as well as an 18" crossrail. A boarder and her very cute Arab were working in there already, and it took me a while to convince her that I was perfectly happy having her occupy our ring and that I, in fact, was the greater intruder, what with not paying to use the ring and all. She said she had a hot horse and he might bother my horse. I told her my horse could damn well deal with it. At any rate, she was very nice, we talked about clicker training and her horse's soft tissue injury.

Tacked up Keno, headed out, he was decent to good. We jumped maybe five or six times, and he was good for almost all of them. I told him "this is the last one unless you screw it up" and he decided he wanted to throw his head around and run and maybe buck a little. So, he screwed it up. We trotted for a bit, went over the crossrail calmly, and ended. While I was grooming him, I talked to the Arab's owner a little more, mostly about neuroscience.

Next I grabbed Niki. She's a mare! So I used the hot pink saddle pad. I don't think Luca will mind too much, especially if he can sniff it afterwards. She wasn't overly thrilled with the saddle but no spooks, no nothing. When we got in the ring I lifted the top flap to tighten the girth and the stirrup slid back and touched her FLANK and oh my goodness that was problematic. She circled for a while til I told her to stop, while I was hanging onto the saddle flap and the reins. Then I dropped the flap. Then I lifted it! Then I dropped it again. I am a magical wizard, who can both gift and remove flank touching.

I just slid over onto the saddle rather than dealing with stirrups and unbalancing today. It seemed easiest. She was thoroughly unhappy about the "working" thing. There was head shaking and veering into the middle and an occasional lopey stride. She was mostly upset about the construction going on by our neighbors', but also she's a mare. She basically got over herself, or at least started doing what I told her to, so we quit at that. No indignation at posting the trot? So that's good, I guess.

We harnessed up Reno and did one circuit of the field, then I helped a client tack up Rocky while Robert worked Reno. He went off for the lesson while I cooled Reno out and unharnessed him.

While they were out, I grabbed Luca and chased him around for a bit. He was more full of himself than usual and was VERY excited when Rocky came back, galloping around and bucking. Then he ran over to the gate and did a fullblown rear, which I was a little uneasy about. He settled down though.

Put on his bridle and hopped on bareback again when Robert got there. Luca was less happy about mounting so we backed up a while and then we went in circles. Stopped before I got dizzy, so I guess we didn't do it for too long. Walked, trotted, cantered, got some really nice bending out of him. Robert called Vic over to be impressed. I'd left the poles out so we did trot poles, and he was totally cool with those, which was nice. He did have two almost-bad moments but nothing really disobedient.

I think Luca's almost oversensitive to my reins, which makes sense being a driving horse. He'll ignore my seat and my legs to answer to the reins. It off-balances me because if I ask for a circle he'll try to make it smaller, throwing my seat bones to the wrong side until I ask him to move out with my inside leg. We're working on it though. I think the bareback helps because he can really feel my seatbones asking/putting pressure on him.

Anyways, the crossrail was still up (totally on purpose, by the way) so Robert casually mentions that "oh, hey, we haven't jumped him in a while have we?" And I said "no, no we have not" and trotted him over. I thought he'd way overjump it but he was very neat and careful. Nice jump, calm, trotted out afterwards. We did it again! Same cool, calm, collected Luca, no rush before the jump, which was what it was like when we jumped last year. Robert asked if I wanted a vertical. I said sure, so we trotted over that too. I really thought he'd jump huge or refuse, and was prepared with velcro-leg and loose reins so I wouldn't catch him but I also wouldn't fall. I admit I grabbed some mane. It's not like he's using all of it. But, very nice calm jump, cantered out of it but was completely balanced and under control. It was great.

Biggest I've jumped since June, and bareback on a greenish stallion. Sometimes I like that boy a lot.

Four hours, three horses, zero saddles

I worked three horses, which I think is decent for getting there at 11:30 and feeding at 3:30. I got there and chatted with Robert while we watched Buzz, Rose, and Duke plow (pick which one's the human). He asked me how much it'd be worth to me to see him in a hot pink shirt. I was highly suspicious. I told him that I wore the Super Princess hat to a party and everyone loved it. Also that I'd met a boy and in conversation it came up that he owned a Cushman, and the next ten minutes of that conversation consisted of Cushmen. He got a kick out of that.

Swept the aisle, grabbed Keno and hopped on bareback. I've been riding him/other horses with a saddle lately, and only Niki bareback. So when I got on the mounting block I went "holy crap this horse is huge." He's 14.3. My hunter/jumper, TB roots screamed, shriveled up, and withered away at that thought. Anyways, he was good, our canter transitions are getting better (we differentiate between ours, where I ask for the canter, and his, where he just goes for it). I remember I used to have to ask pretty hard, or just kick him into it. It's now very precise and uphill. You can really feel him pushing off his hind end. We worked on trotting nicely without spontaneous cantering.

We turned Luca out in the arena and chased him around a bit. Either he's less energetic since we've been working with him regularly, or he's learned that getting turned out isn't the end to his day, but he's not going nearly as crazy as he used to. Absolutely no headlong dashes to the gate. He was, in fact, pretty boring. We turned him out with intent to ride afterwards, but me being me, I'd grabbed my helmet and bridle and just hopped on. He was fine for mounting, stood all by himself. And he did absolutely nothing stupid! I was amazed.

Shana happened to be there, since she'd just had her lesson, so she watched Luca run around like an idiot and then watched me walk, trot, and canter Luca bareback. Robert claims she was impressed. We did some really nice canters to the right, very smooth and powerful. To the left, again, not so good. Did some bending and some leg yielding (hi, my leg is not just to make you look short) and got an ugly canter out of it. This, happily, made Robert realize that Luca is not currently show ready under saddle. We ended by trying out Training Test 1, which wasn't terrible. I cheated and picked up the canter at the corner by the gate, NOT going towards the gate (sometimes Luca likes to charge for it). The 20m trot circles were okay, the long walk was decent once he remembered about it, the 20m circle canters weren't terrible. He broke gait a few times, but I think he was tired and he's not used to doing that small a circle at that fast a gait. Every time he'd break I'd say "Luca, and canter!" and he'd pop right up into it again, so he's a game little horse.

I'm also not entirely sure how I feel when riding Keno and he does a nice transition, after working with him for the better part of a year at this point. I'm really happy with him. Then I get on Luca, the fairly green horse, and he does it effortlessly. It's a good comparison, for what conformation can do and what training can fix.

Also, I've gotta say. Luca bareback is comfyyyyyy. And very, very wide compared to Niki, who was my last victim.

Robert just watched today. She lined up next to the block and then started walking away when I was on it, so I brought her back and everything was fine. Calm when I got on, no stiffening, walked off calmly. I should get a saddle so it's easier for me to stay all the way off her face, as she started shaking her head at the trot, but not doing too badly. We understand leg means faster now, and she's only sensitive to it when she wants to be. She got a little "stuck" at the gate and I kicked her. She thought about it for a second and then walked on calmly. Niki was also pretty upset that Jade, her buddy, was outside but unreachable. Then Star started calling for Jade, but Niki was hoping desperately that it was for her instead and started screaming. I let it go twice but checked it with a half halt the third time. She was surprised but accepting. I rode her out of the arena almost to the barn, then stopped her, hopped off, and put her back.

By the way- Star got angry at me and Niki this morning. I was putting bedding in stalls and put some in Jade's, so Niki was sticking her head in to say hi. I started scratching her cheek and Star ran over and started kicking at Niki. I went in her run later to try and fix fence and she wouldn't let me come near her. It was pretty great. Mares.

I don't have it bookmarked anymore, but I had a site/blog with videos cataloging a pro training an 8 year old horse from basically greenbroke to Grand Prix. Each video had a little blurb next to it about what he was doing and how that would further educate the horse. He started off with sending the horse forward, then collecting him back. Legs/seat, rein. Legs/seat, rein. The horse understands that first you need energy, then you need to hold it in. Gradually you can shorten the period of time between the legs/seat and the rein, until you're doing it simultaneously. This is a half halt! At least, that's where I think it was from, but with my luck it might be mugwump or something.

Home Run!

I worked five horses today. Papillon, Star, Colonel, Reno, and Keno. When Reno came up a little lame and I had a half hour before feeding I seriously considered sitting on Lady, just to pad the count a little.

I got out at 10, and the boys (Robert and Jerry) were working on putting Jerry's cart back together. It fell out of Roberts truck on the way back from a show and as a result, needed a little TLC and about 25% of it replaced. As always, they were working on the cart right in the entryway of the barn. So I grabbed Robert's dressage saddle, and some grooming equipment and set up shop at the main barn for the day.

Before getting my first horse for the day I actually took the time to condition the reins on Star and Colonel's bridles. Its nice because they are flexible now but I've lost my special rein aid, the snaffle push. Its nice having the trailer set up so I can just sit down, polish, and go. I actually wound up polishing tack throughout the day in between rides, a habit I'd like to keep up.

My first victim was Star. I decided this wasn't the moment to work out her issues about tying in the wash rack so I just tied her in the aisle. Cari came by and showed me how I could slide the dressage saddle back about an inch and then it wouldn't be compressing Star's scapulae. (Scapulas?) I think the saddle wound up sliding back up during our ride anyway, but not all the way so that was interesting. I think Star was a little displeased to feel my weight someplace other than where she's used to.

Poor Star winds up being the guinea pig for everything I read about online. I was reading this blog: http://glenshee.blogspot.com/ and was experimenting with some of the thoughts there about collection. The big thing was being much more conscientious about how much leg and hand gets applied at the exact same time. The phrase 'push them into your hands' made me feel like I should be doing both at the same time, but this blog advocates something I remember hearing elsewhere (now that I've been reminded) namely, push them forward with your leg, collect them with rein as needed, push them forward again as needed. Over time they should learn to retain the collection even when they are pushed forward again. Something like that. I'm sure I'm not expressing it quite correctly but hey, thats why I linked to the blog.

(One thing I love love love about this blog is how it just absolutely rips George Morris apart. I always felt bad because much of the stuff he wrote didn't really jive with what I thought I understood about the physics of the situation.)

Anyway, Star was pretty good after a while. We ran into trouble when she decided that there was no reason to react much to my leg, since I was just going to collect her up again. So, when she ignored my leg, I booted her up in to a canter and went around the arena once and then we relaxed back to the forward trot I had asked for in the first place. She got the picture.

She was actually so good, and she had been worked so hard the day before, lots of collection and lateral work and such, that I put her back after a particularly nice collected(ish) walk that she did for me. I think she's starting to get the idea of relaxing her back a little. She really is a very nice ride when she's all shaped up properly.

Got Papillon out next. Not much to say really. She's a good old bird but I only took her in the arena because I didn't feel like dealing with her enthusiasm outside. She got a pretty short ride too, I quit while the sweat on her neck was still in patches. For the upteenth time I've resolved to get Papillon out a little more often.

Then I had my lesson with Robert and Colonel. I dont think I'll ever quite get over the audio-visual disconnect I feel when I watch this old suspender/plaid wearing farmer type guy fluently dispensing eloquent classical dressage advice. I got to demonstrate Colonel pulling on me, which was nice. Every time I say to just about anyone that Colonel pulls on me, the first thing they say is, well dont pull back, it takes two to pull, who do you think is going to win that one, blah blah blah. I dont deny that this is reasonable advice, but it always makes me feel like people think this is just a trivial problem I've created for myself by allowing myself to get into a tug-o-war with this guy. I didn't do this, yes I'd been pretty compliant with his demands that I hold his head up, but I've stopped doing that. I've ridden him on a loose rein, (everyone and their brother all seem to think thats the solution to this problem,) but he's still doing it, so it felt good to be acknowledged. Yes he's pulling on you, yes its a big problem, here's a sensible correction for you to use in the future.

The Plan, is to push him forward every time he leans his head into my hands. When he picks his head up (which he usually does after the first push) then fix him so he's back to doing what he was supposed to be doing before the push. I think I wrote about this earlier, but Robert was there and evaluated the effectiveness of this technique. Overall we were both satisfied that this was the way to go. He added that a moderate to severe inside rein half-halt could also be used if he wouldn't pick his head up from just the forward push. (Sometimes he's stubborn like that.) Plus I should also push him when he does that annoying head flipping thing. If we're stopped and he does it I should just bump him with my legs. I needn't actually move him, I can stop him with my seat, just enough to get his attention back on not being a jerk.

We looked a little at our canter each direction. The left lead was basically fine, good transition, lots of pulling but my upper body was super active so it will help to quiet that down and re-assess. The right lead was at the lower end of mediocre. He picked up the left lead the first time, then the correct lead. When we tried it again later he was insisting on picking up the left lead, Robert kept telling me to bend him more and Colonel actually did a nice little flying lead change. He really shouldn't have because after that when he picked up the wrong lead Robert wanted a flying change. It gave us a chance to show off what a tiny tiny circle colonel can canter on while on the wrong lead. Plus his capacity to pick up the wrong lead even when nicely bent and working well of his quarters. Stubborn little monkey, that one.

I took him out on the trail after our lesson and he was pretty reasonable. We went all the way back to the far creek, but not across it. We walked through the flooded, muddy path along the far creek. I was pleased that Colonel barely worried about the blue tree protectors. The first time I ever fell off him I was leaning forward to let him sniff the ground (dumb) and he came across a tree protector. He went one way, I stayed in roughly the same spot and SPLASH. Colonel stopped running home when I yelled at him. Charles laughed at us both when he saw my muddy self leading Colonel home. Anyway, no big reaction from the tree protectors, or that one piece of Styrofoam that I really should do something about, but I'm unlikely to.

As usual when he was pointed towards home he started to fuss a little but he remained responsive to my requests for a walk so I didn't worry too much. As much as possible (not much) I kept him on a loose rein. Mostly it went prance, trot, walk walk walk walk, prance, trot, etc. Still, there was no major head flailing, or screaming for his buddies, or running through my hands, or prancing sideways, spinning, spooking, bucking, rearing, or that sort of fun stuff. So I'm pretty happy with him. I dismounted in the arena as I think I'll probably do for basically the rest of his life. No reason to let him think there is any good reason to get excited when we are riding around near the barn.

I took Keno out next. Robert had said of Colonels and me (particularly regarding our cantering to the right) that what we needed were 500 miles of good road, and that I seemed a little out of control at the canter. "A little out of control" is a lot generous, but still wasn't fun to hear. I knew I could canter Keno around and feel very in control, so thats what I did. Tacking him up was interesting as always. When I first started to put on the girth he wiggled and fussed so I tightened it as hard as I could manually and held it tight until his feet stopped moving and then I let it down. Repeat. By the third time I tried to put the girth on he stood nicely for it. He continued to stand nicely while I tightened it up.

I went to tighten the girth again in the arena and he just totally blew up. (Or tried anyway.) He spun away from me, and one of his sets of hooves came off the ground, so he either bucked or reared, I wasn't really paying attention. My eyes and will were focused on keeping the girth ratcheted up as tight as it would go until he stood still again. He yielded and let me tighten the girth. He also stood very nicely for the mounting block, and didn't walk off when I got on him.

Cantering around was basically without incident. Cari came in and was working with Xsarena. At one point I wanted to change directions because she had changed, so I tried to set Keno up to do a flying lead change. I guess I must have failed, and Keno nearly fell on his face. He was understandably pissed about that so I let him trot a few strides before going back to work.

[Almost done, I'll finish it later. Gotta go to bed.]

Working from behind

Robert told us to have fun and ride some horses today, so we did that. At the end of the day the body count was 5, plus we free lunged luca so 6 if you count that.

After putting my saddle on Colonel along with the hot pink pad Alyssa left on it I walked out to the arena. Alyssa was there with Reno and the saddle I usually use, Robert's dressage saddle. Since my saddle clearly wasn't going to work, and Alyssa was done with Reno, we did a little saddle swap and Alyssa brought my saddle back to the barn. Colonel stood quite nicely for the whole thing, even though comet was zooming around in the arena and the gate was open.

Under saddle I started doing what Robert suggested and every time he pulled on me I pushed him forward. This had the irritating side effect of causing him to go forward every time he pulled on me, whether I pushed him or not. I'm worried I'll wind up with one back-asswards gelding who speeds up when you use your rein aids. Anyway, it does get him to pick his head up so one problem at a time I guess.

Speaking of annoying side effect problems, Colonel circles very poorly now. Every time I ask for a circle he pitches a hissy fit, bucking and cantering the whole way around. He discovered that I have no problem making him canter an eight meter circle if he picks up the canter the moment we turn. I discovered that he has no problem throwing his head down and bucking while cantering an eight meter circle. I shouldn't say no problem, he's perfectly willing but his ability to buck is severely hindered by the circle. So that will need fixing. I feel like I'm just always trading bigger problems for lesser problems, and then fixing those lesser problems later on. Bucking on his circles isn't exactly a small problem, but I think its pretty easily fixed.

We went outside today because it was sunny and gorgeous. Going away from the barn he was very nice. I decided pretty quickly I'd like to turn around and just make this a nice, short, low stress expedition. Going towards the barn he was pissy and prancy. No worse than Papillon but took constant managing to keep him calm and slow. After we crossed the culvert headed back to the barn I walked him back to the arena and dismounted there. I've decided that I'm always always going to dismount in the arena, hopefully it will get through his thick skull that its not over until I say its over. No amount of sneaking out the arena door is going to get him back any faster.

(Honestly, why do they think that will work? Am I just going to decide that as long as I'm back at the barn I may as well put him away?)

I took Star out and we did lots of transitions and leg yields and shoulder in and hindquarters in. Star alternated between being a delightful and kinda pissy. Still, I was pleased that she wasn't a nervous wreck after our little incident while taking up. I cliped her to the wall in the wash rack and stepped a few feet away to get a brush... BOOM! or should I say SNAP. Star flipped out, pulled on the tie, slipped on the concrete, pulled some more, snapped the metal clip (the bailing twine held, of course) and ran back into her stall and out to her run, dragging both her lead line and the cross tie. Classy.

I took her outside too, and we walked through the water, and the scary bare patches on the ground. We chased geese, which Star seemed to really enjoy. I could feel her pick herself up and walk much more forward after she realized that some other animal was more afraid of her than she was of it. We jumped the bank once from a walk. She does what I always predicted Nisa would do, namely, after the jump she thrusts her head down into the grass to eat. When I work with her in hand thats her reward for jumping things. Under saddle its not so bad when she is more forward over the bank but its still kinda slippery out there and I was pushing my luck as it was.

Chased Luca around, fed, and conditioned Colonels new reins (glorious god-fearing laced reins, not that skinny strip of leather I was using before.) I call it a good day.

Cute Poneh Picture

cute poneh!

Contact

I took Papillon out today. As always, too lazy to saddle her. We trowalked out in the field, through the flooded stream banks. I missed Papillons hyper-collected trot. Its so comfortable to ride, which is good because its not easy to stop it for very long. If I thought she would keep it up when she was actually allowed to trot then I'd just ask her to do it all the time. I trotted her a little in the outdoor arena. Comet zooming around in the indoor arena was somewhat offensive to her highness. She was actually really good, very little cantering at all. One spook, at the lightpost of all things. I think I might do a little bridle re-shuffling. Maybe swap Reno and Papillon's bridles? Lots and lots of leather polishing is in order for me at some point.

Took Colonel out in the dressage saddle. I'm not sure I like the way it fits him, but he didn't complain. Alyssa and I will have to look at it tomorrow. Anyway, I decided that it was time to resume working on rein contact. This had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the dressage saddle has nowhere to set the reins down without them slipping.

He was a little surprised to feel my hands again, but he dealt with it OK. Then he started casually pulling on the reins. Its very subtle and insidious because I have to really pay attention to notice that I'm leaning more and more forward to accommodate his demand for more rein. I started pushing with my legs and then little half halts with my reins.

I talked to Robert about this later and he pointed out that its just a game for Colonel. He pulls, I half halt, he puts his head up for a second, then he pulls again. This is consistent with what was happening. I dont know why I always get so whiny when I talk to Robert about my problems with Colonel, but I really do. Fortunately Robert ignores this, which is very gracious of him. He is going to help me on wednesday. He also gave me a suggestion for a long lining technique to try. I'm going to thread the reins through the top loops of the surcingle, then through the bit and then attach the reins to the lowest loops on the surcingle.

The new plan of attack under saddle, as per Roberts suggestion, is that when he pulls on my I'll just push him forward and then deal with the results of that once he has pulled his head up. No rein stuff until his head is back up. He says that should help him work off his hind end too, so that he doesn't need/want as much support from my hands. We're also going to do lots of transitions to help him work off his hind end.

I felt kinda guilty. Robert said to me, "no one wants to do repetetive transitions with a horse because its boring, but there is just nothing better, to my mind." I'm totally that person who doesn't feel like doing the transitions. I dont really think of myself that way, but I am. Maybe thats why I get so whiny talking to Robert, he suggests things that are slow and difficult. (Though effective.) So its time to pay my dues. I cant just sit there anymore.

You mean I can't just sit there?

Saturday at the barn was nice. Crazy amounts of snow just dumped from the sky for a while. I took Colonel out for a walk in it and he was super good. He kept shaking the snow out of his forelock but I think that's fair. I took him straight to the hay barn after his walk to saddle him up. He really does keep getting better, ever so slowly. We continued to work on calmly following the rail. We spent a huge amount of time trotting to the right. Partially because he's not very good to the right in general, and partially because he was massively unhappy that Niki was outside the arena. There was lots of bucking and circling and bucking. I felt (and probably looked) like a sack of potatoes for the rush trot-bucking. It is actually nice to have something un-subtle to work on though. It just doesn't get much less subtle than bucking and charging. If things ever get too subtle again Alyssa has agreed to walk Lady in an out of the arena. We just kept trotting and circling and weaving around basically at random until Colonel calmed down. By the time Alyssa came in to sit down and make wincing faces at us, most of the worst was over.

I'm working on forcing myself to be more disciplined with Star. There was a time when it was both beneficial and impressive to be able to just tool around on Star and do whatever came to mind. Now she needs to learn to actually use her back and be a more comfy, responsive ride. So we did trot poles. We cantered around a little, which she wasn't pleased about. I just about fell off her when she put her head down and shook herself from head to tail but kept cantering. I swear it felt like the front half of the horse just disappeared entirely. If it weren't for the pommel on Robert's saddle being so high... I shudder to think. Alyssa just laughed.

Moderately awesome day

Moderately awesome day yesterday. We got to the barn and it was snowing. Huge, fat flakes that were sticking to the ground. I pulled Tillie out and we walked around a little bit. She realllly wanted to go see the Shires.

Still snowing, so I thought I'd take Niki out for a walk. I blanketed her with some minor drama and we headed out. There was a big flock of geese in the middle, and we chased them! She was pretty startled when the first ones took off, but then she realized that, oh hey, they were flying off because of HER. She thought that was pretty cool, and started looking for geese to prance towards. We went through a ton of water and over the bridge. We went up and down the bank too. She was fine going up it but when she went down the bank she did a little hoppity rear thing a lot. We'll work on that.

Watched Gillian ride Colonel for a bit then ate some food, then grabbed Kenopony. He was a little uppity in the ring but not terrible. He's started head-bobbing as a prelude to slipping into the canter. It worried me at first because he'd been off a week ago, but I'd give him a half halt and he'd quit it. I don't think he was bridle lame.

As soon as I finished Keno I pulled out Niki so her owner could see how she was doing. She humped her back when I got on, but it was my fault. The block was too far from her withers so I'd had to scoot forward. We walked a circle with Robert and he cut her loose. She didn't want to listen to me when I asked her to walk so Robert walked next to her and past to get her started. After that she was fine stopping and starting. She got a little prancy so I decided to go with it and we trotted a little bit. She's pretty well balanced and so it was easy to stay on. She was a little nervous about trotting but very good overall. Chuck was completely amazed. I'm happy with her. She's apparently pretty well bred in the POA-world, her dam produced several World Champions, her sire has a bunch of offspring doing well, and her full brother has a long list of accomplishments. I also found baby pictures of her, which were awkward and cute.

Turned Luca out to show him off to some people, which is always fun. After feeding, I hopped on him for ten/fifteen minutes. He was the best kind of disobedient: laaaaaaaazy. We cantered a couple times both directions. Left rein he does a weird thing where he bends to the outside. Apparently my girth still isn't tight enough so when he does that and I use leg to try and correct, my saddle twists a horrible and uncomfortable degree. On the MAJOR plus side, he didn't do anything bad because of it (he has in the past). I need to get a dressage whip and play move it or bruise it with him, because I KNOW he knows what I want. It'll get better just through riding him, since I haven't done that since June, but he's not as green as he's pretending to be.

Didn't do too terribly much. Rode Keno who was sound and reasonably polite about the whole business. No spooking despite Rocky + cart coming in and out (we were in the small outdoor arena), or Cari + trailer pulling up next to us. There was some bucking on right lead canter, so I should ask Robert if his feet are due soon or if he just wants to be a jerk in some other fashion. It was a nice sunny day, so being outside was nice.

Hopped up on Niki briefly before feeding started. She was a touch nervy and I guess we'll have to work on standing for the mounting block again, but once I was up she was good. Robert walked with us halfway around the arena and then let us off lead, we walked around another time and a half all by ourselves. She was a little nervous but listened very well to me. She stopped roughly when I asked her to, walked most of the time, and only got to a bit of trot. The benefit to long lining really showed up here. Niki had her head dropped, her back muscles engaged, and took a decent amount of contact without pulling on me.

I've been thinking more about my approach to her. It's possible that she's just totally thrilled not to be a driving horse anymore, but I feel like there's something else. I didn't analyze what I was doing with her because it just felt *right*. But, some ruminations on this...

Niki wants to be the boss. Always. She respects people to a degree but they aren't automatically dominant over her, like they are for Reno and Papillon. And, instead of backing down when people say no, she wants to fight back.

And she doesn't want to give up. Robert took her cantering around the field in a cart for 45 minutes every time, and it doesn't seem like she took anything away from it other than that she hated the cart. I think most horses would've gotten the message that life is easy if you behave.

The same kind of idea comes into lunging. She wants to trot, you want her to walk, and so she starts fighting. As soon as you send her out she thinks that she needs to fight to prove herself. I haven't seen her lunge calmly and obediently in a while. Even when I'd started working with her a year ago, she'd challenge you at least once a session.

What I'm doing, is not fighting with her. I ask her for something, I get it, we quit. Slow steps that I haven't had to push her for. I'm not going to dumb it down too much, because I'm pretty sure I need to keep her thinking. That'll come into play with serpentines, transitions, poles when we get to them, lots of circles. But present each idea to her as if it's OUR idea, not mine, and I think we'll be fine.

Gillian says a tired horse is a thinking horse. I'm pretty sure that Niki devotes all her thinking power into how she can beat the game. She doesn't shut down like Colonel, but she's pretty singleminded.

Anyways. I'm super-pleased with her. She's got a big gorgeous walk that Robert could barely keep up with and just feels very steady. She's not a fan of me getting offbalance but I can wiggle around all I want at a halt and she's fine. I might start looking for a saddle to slap on her. Once we get walk and trot down, and do a hand walk or two, I think we'll go outside on the trails. I really want her to be my trail pony, and I think she could be. I'd love to do 90% of her schooling outside.

EDIT to say: I (+1) have been Luca certified for riding! Robert would like to be aware that we're doing something, and on the property, but as long as someone qualified, like Gillian, is keeping an eye on things, we can take him out whenever. I'm pleased by this.

More productiveness....

I helped Robert briefly with tearing the wall out next to Star so we could hook up water there. ("New things? Star will love this!") He was up there most of the day, but the plumbing there is done. Various horses were variously displeased about the ladder, Robert being on the ladder, and general loud banging noises.

Since we're supposed to get a new working student tomorrow, we need a nice easy horse. Papillon fits the bill but she hasn't been ridden in a month or two. I turned her out and chased her around the arena, then fit a new bridle to her. It doesn't really fit- the throatlatch is too tight. But it works for what we need to do with her, at least for one ride. As soon as I pulled out the bridle she started tossing her head around and when I pulled the reins out she dropped her head so we could go go go! She's a funny girl.

While Robert was on the ladder, I swept the aisle and tried to figure out what to do next. I knew I wanted to do Niki, so I checked in her stall and oh hey, she was out in her run and soaking wet. I put her in her stall and attempted to towel her off. We had a discussion about this. She is not a fan of things behind her flanks, probably stemming from the crupper business, and it took about five minutes to convince her that I was not doing anything but annoying her. At least she was never agressive- just evasive. She will, however, stand pretty happily with a towel draped over her entire head. That was cute.

We grabbed Luca and freelunged him in the arena, then tacked him up and lunged him for maybe five? minutes. Put his bridle on and off we went! We didn't walk for very long, went straight to trotting (it's like loping off, but for wimps). Did that both directions, then did a short canter down one side and called it quits. He was a tired pony but a good one.

Niki was after that. She was a little more active and antsy than usual, but stood while I got on, and stood patiently while I wiggled around, with just a "wtf?" look. I started steering (belatedly letting Robert know. Oops. I guess it's useful to know if the rider's turning the horse away or if the horse is turning away.) and she just shrugged and said okay, I know how to do this. We hit a rough patch where she turned and I got a little off balanced and she threw her head up and stopped. I apologized and she turned and sniffed my leg and we went off again. Robert was only holding the very end of the leadrope, and basically had no control. I was really pleased she figured out that I was in charge, and she should move even if the person holding the lead didn't.

Actually rode Papillon- she was as sound as she ever is. We walked and trotted fairly merrily both directions for quite some time. I was enjoying the unbroken mare, then realized that I should take it easy if I wanted her to stay unbroken. It was raining pretty hard and the bobtailed cat had taken refuge between the walls of the arena and the sand. Papillon was VERY interested when she saw the cat, but didn't actually chase it. I was a little disappointed.

I had twenty minutes til feed so not really time to work a horse. So instead, I took the five bazillion bridles I'd stored in the tack room with all the horses, and Lil's dressage saddle, and restored them to their rightful places in the hay barn tack room. I also cleaned off the bridle hooks outside the tack room, which is where Star, Niki, Colonel, Keno, Reno, and Papillon's bridles are.

I was thinking about how at this time, two years ago, we had no sound riding horses. Gillian was working on Papillon, and I was about to start with Colonel, but no one to ride. Damn. We've come a long way.

I fed, and Star refused to come into her stall. She had been doing the Arab-traumatized thing for the entire day, apparently, due to the ladder and the banging. She was absolutely SOAKED. I felt bad for her because she'd be standing in the stall the rest of the night and I didn't want her to get too cold (even if it was her own fault). I grabbed a towel and OMG that was terrifying. I pointed out to her, several times, that it was exactly like a saddle pad, and that she'd had her native costume on just fine, but apparently those were not acceptable excuses. Eventually she understood that she wasn't going to stop being harassed until she stood for it, but she wasn't happy.

Robert gave me a ride to Clackamas Town Center, which was nice. Back on Thursday!

...Yes, I dressed Luca in hot pink. Your point?

Was actually super productive for the couple hours I had today. I got the new x-wide tree dressage saddle and toted it out to the barn. Robert and I oohed and aahed for a couple minutes, then he left to drag the arena some more. I grabbed some brushes and groomed Tillie, then took her outside. We practiced walking into the scary scary hay barn, and she did get much better at the end. It took her some time to go back through the door into the aisle to her stall, but it was on the order of a minute or two rather than five or ten like last time. So she's learning. She's not totally sure what to think of Robert- she saw him walking towards us and wanted to go visit, but when he came up to her she went back a few steps.

Next was pony-boy himself. We turned Luca out in the arena and free lunged him. We impressed Robert greatly by his circles around me and trot-canter canter-trot transitions on voice alone. We tried Luca's new saddle on him and it looks okay- I think his shoulders might be a little snug in it but we'll see. He lunged (on a line) very, very nicely, though he had a little trouble picking up the right lead canter on the line. I think he's just not used to doing that on a tighter circle as opposed to the whole arena, and he was also probably tired from running around like an idiot.

Colleen and Jack showed up for their lesson around 3. I lunged Keno on the grass and he's dramatically better, but not 100%. I think he'll be sound on Saturday, and definitely on Tuesday if I have time. He was funny today- he wanted to eat grass, so whenever he got close I'd say "hey!". That offended him greatly and he'd take off a little before remembering that it was way easier just to walk or trot. I asked him to whoa and he really got his quarters under him, lazy boy.

I helped Robert, etc. tack up Rocky and set him free, then swept the aisle, shrugged and grabbed Reno and a bridle. Reno was a little more bouncy than usual but not terribly spooky, just head shakey. We rode for about ten or fifteen minutes, because I had no idea what time it was until I saw the feed truck going by the arena. Reno did not mind going back early, but he also didn't mind sharing the arena with Sunny the ancient pony.

After feeding, I pulled out Niki. She was seriously interested in the tiny person (aka Jack). After sniffing for a while she thought maybe she might try her teeth and was shocked to discover that I disapproved. She failed to try that again. Apparently Colleen had been regaled with tales of Niki the evil pony and couldn't get over how pretty she was and how sweet she seemed. She can be pretty nasty in her stall at feeding time, so it wasn't that surprising. Vic, whose only interactions with Niki are at feeding time, was similarly stunned at how happy she seemed to be. The six of us went to the arena and three of us walked around. We introduced steering from above, as well as stopping and starting. She doesn't seem inclined to do the goosey-start like she does with the tire, and she did a fairly nice halt after the first "you want me to do whaaaaat?" head tossy thing. Colleen has confirmed that my legs + pony = silly.

I'm qualling this weekend so no barn for me, but I should be back on Tuesday. Plans include riding Niki and Luca.

For your viewing entertainment

So I guess I'm working with mares again. Weird.

Keno was lame yesterday when I took him out and lunged him for about three minutes. His right hoof was warm so I asked Robert to take a look at it, and there's a tiny little puncture wound in his frog. I'm slightly amused (mostly worried, but...) that the reason he has this was because I walked him on the grass to spare him the gravelly road.

Someone is supposed to come look at Reno today, so yesterday I turned him out and rode him. It involved a lot of kicking him into turns on the forehands when he screamed back at Keno, but we did good at mounting and not half bad at turns on the forehand.

We took Tillie out- she's sweet! She's a little goosey about Robert being behind her, but was very calm and patient while he untangled her mane and tail and put lotion on her itchy spots. She was deeply intrigued by the plastic bag the lotion came in and tried to stick her whole face in it.

I fitted Niki's bridle to her and took her out. She was okay with lunging but reallyreallyreally wanted to trot. I swung up on her and Robert walked us around and she was totally cool with the whole thing. We hung around in the arena and talked to Robert and one of Robert's students and she just tucked her head against my chest and stayed there for a few minutes while I scratched her ears. Too cute.

Welcome Tillie!

Today Luca's daughter Tillie came to Stoneybrook. Robert bought her and we're going to promote her as much as humanly possible. We're going to train her up and enter her in a lunge line class or two this summer if all goes well. As you can see she's in a bit of an awkward stage right now. She's going to be turned out with Rocky, our traditional babysitter/uncle. He is very good at teaching kids to keep their stall tidy.

I rode Colonel again today. Alyssa sat in the arena and watched us. Colonel seems to like having someone around besides me. He was really very good, I thought. We even cantered around a bit. His left lead canter was very pleasant, calm and slow. I tired my legs out a bit keeping him moving. When we went to the right he picked up the left lead canter, we went around once but he started out pretty hyper and so we had enough calm strides that we quit doing that. It took quite a while trotting around to the right before he calmed down again. Then he got a little homesick and started calling to his buddies. Fortunately we were just about done. He barely noticed when Alyssa left the arena, which was nice. Sometimes he pitches a little fit about that.

He was great on his hand walk outside today. I led him halfway around the field and then turned and walked straight towards the bride to back home and he was totally calm. Just went along sniffing the ground like a dog. One of these days I need to borrow Alyssa's rain boots and take him across the far creek and see how he does.

Alyssa and I messed with Niki (I'll get a picture of her up here) a bit today. Alyssa sat on her for the first time this morning. In the afternoon we worked on lunging her over a jump. She was somewhat resistant to the idea. At first I tried this thing I saw on the RFD channel. The philosophy was basically to let a horse run past a jump if they want and figure eventually they'll be used to it enough to face it and jump it, just keep them going forward until then. Niki just kept getting more and more hyped up so eventually I wound up going back to what had worked for Star. Led her over the pole between the standards, lunged her over the pole, jumped her in hand (She, like Star, seemed nervous about the X so we did a vertical instead) and then goosed her over the jump on the lunge line. We got a few good jumps both ways and then we brought her away from the jump. Having jumped over it she wasn't afraid to go past it anymore, which was nice.

She's an opinionated little darling. I'm glad Alyssa likes her.