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.

Back to work

[[Edited In]: Oh, and also, Alyssa and Keno went and walked around the field, looking quite cute.]

Today was a nice easy, but productive, day back. We turned out horses in pairs. Lady and Papillon ran around and played. It was cute. Colonel and Reno didn't interact with each other much. Colonel ran around like a fool, bucking and snorting and sliding to a stop. Star and Niki were a disappointment. Star just wanted to eat. Niki wanted to play but Star largely ignored her in favor of grass.

Star made up for her disappointing performance by running out of her stall when I was putting her back, and fled back to the pasture. So I free lunged her pretty hard. She mostly stayed in a nice circle around me, probably to stick close to the horses. I managed to get a tiny bit of sweat out of her before we put her back.

I took Colonel out to the field and he was pretty rilled up. By the time we crossed the culvert he was so fired up that I wound up sending him out on his circle early. We gradually moved our circle further away from the culvert. I managed to take the wind out of his sails a bit, and then I put him back.

There is talk of someone half leasing Papillon, so I got her out to see where she's at. Alyssa felt inspired to ride Lady, after observing that she was pretty sound in the pasture. The two mares wound up being a calming influence on each other and we both had a nice ride. Papillon was quite mellow. It probably helps that I put her in a snaffle instead of that french link that she ignores. It was a pretty thin snaffle too, by my standards. I dont feel too bad about it though because I was able to be nice and light with her now that she's not constantly jerking her head against the reins.

I got Colonel out again and we walked around the field. No spooking, no screaming, no rushing ahead of me, it was great. The only blip was when he was putting his head down to snatch grass, I wasn't paying enough attention and he stepped on his lead line. When he jerked his head up he smacked me in the butt with substantial force. He recovered his composure quite quickly though, so I am pleased.

Tuesday I'm going to try to ride all three of my horsies. I want to breeze Star some more out in the field. I want to start long trotting Colonel out in the field, and I want to put another short ride on Papillon so she'll be nice and tuned up. I like the idea of someone getting her out more. If someone else was working on her too, I could hop on her for a short ride to keep her all tuned up. She gets downright lazy if you work her consistently, but she is a round kind of lazy, so its nice.

I had a more ambitious plan for today, but I'm really happy that I wound up easing into things a little more slowly.

Big Black Mare Day

I started cleaning stalls late, and the tractor ran out of gas while I was midway out in the field, so I didn't have a lot of time to actually work horses. Gillian wasn't there so I didn't really want to ride Niki. Instead, I longlined Libby outside. She was good, I was not really good at doing trotting butterflies. I didn't notice where my outside rein was and let it slip right out of my hands. But, I asked her to stop and she did, I picked it up and continued. No drama.

Rode Papillon. Indoors, which she was upset about. I thought about taking her out, but I was supposed to give Colleen a lunging lesson, and also it's RennFayre today and I didn't want to have something terrible happen and end up missing it/being incapacitated for it. Ten minutes walk, fifteen minutes trot, ten minutes walk. She was.... herself, I guess. We did 20m circles and she started to round a little bit. Opinionated mare.

Taught Colleen how to lunge with Colonel. He was really good. He did a little spook when Jack kicked dirt at him, which I find totally acceptable, and was not a fan of Jack running around by the creek with a rustling plastic bag clutched in his hand. Colonel was just disobedient enough that Colleen had to give clear commands. He anticipated her like whoa, but that's okay, since that means she was doing the right things.

It felt realllllly good to sleep in my own bed. Three days at the barn is, shockingly, enough.