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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Brrrr

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

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

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

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

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