I loaded Star into the trailer. She got no grass this time for just her front feet and she caught on pretty quickly to the idea that she needed all four feet in the trailer. The second time in she was pretty nervous about Robert and Chuck (Roberts brother) and was seriously considering attempting to bolt out. I decided to make her stay in, she needs to learn to stay in the trailer even when scary stuff is happening. I loaded her up twice, and as before, made her leave before she was done eating grass.
I took lady out and brushed her down thoroughly, leaving large clumps of white winter hair on the ground. Lady has been rubbing the hair off a spot on her chest but other than that she looked pretty good. Because she has some girthing issues from her past I decided to put a surcingle on her to practice for when I need to put a saddle on her. I tightened it ever so very slowly. Mostly it went well. Twice she started fussing a lot, tossing her head, walking forward into the crossties and so on. The first time it happened as I was tightening her girth the second time I remember I wasnt tightening her girth but I dont remember exactly what I was doing. So I'm not sure if both times she was fussing because of the girth or because she was angry that Keno was getting out and working and she wasnt, or just because. Who knows with these horses sometimes?
The actual lungeing went well enough. We had to re-visit the concept of moving out on the circle when asked. We also had a couple of attempts to switch directions on me and to take a different gait than the one I wanted but she cooled down and toed the line pretty quickly. Sometime I think I'll have to post the story of our first lungeing experience together. She short version is that she tried to kill me and after an hour and a half or so of battling it out I won and after that she was pretty happy to see me whenever I walked by her run. So we just had a little refresher.
Although when Alyssa says a horse looks lame I'm usually skeptical she did indeed catch a problem both Robert and I missed on our first look but eventually noticed. She was limping on her right foreleg because her frog had a crack in it. Robert prescribed this black goopey stuff to paint on to her hoof which should help keep her frogs from drying out and cracking and should help them heal. She never seemed like she was in any pain, she was really happy to be out and doing things, I think. I put some fuzzy stuff on her bridle so that it wont rub off her hair this year. Last summer those bridle shaped bald spots on her face made me crazy. I also switched her back to her old halter, which actually fits. I conditioned it and now the only problem with it is that it has a plate with her registered name on it (La Grande Dame) rather than a plate commemorating Ian's winning some show at the Columbia equestrian center or something. Ian will get over it and Lady will have a halter that fits and a bridle that doesnt cause cosmetic damage to her face.
Star is now using a cob bridle borrowed from Alyssa. Its not a good color for her but unlike her previous bridle, its all one color and not made from pieces of three different bridles. Plus it fits, unlike her old bridle which had extra holes punched in it just to get close. She had a gash in her lip that I cant explain and that didn't seem to bother her at all. So I put a saddle on her (thanks to Alyssa for that excellent suggestion btw) and rode her for a while. She was OK, she made her transitions much better today because I remembered that half-halts should precede transitions. (Thanks to Captain Should-have-been-obvious-by-now for that excellent suggestion.) She was woefully unbalanced though. She cant use her hind end and she can't balance and she's spooky and suspicious and stubborn, randomly head shy and assorted other oh so desirable qualities. What can I say? I'm a sucker for a lost cause. She and I rode around outside a little. That could have gone worse, but I've definitely had better ideas. At one point she spooked and I lost both my stirrups due to an attempt by my subconscious to curl me up into a fetal ball. Fortunately once I didn't have any stirrups I proceded to do the right thing: stretch my legs down as far as they go, sit up straight and tall, and then get her back under control.
I dont think I can do anything with her really until her balance is fixed. I could take her outside more but I think I'll wait for a sunny hot day. When its hot she gets tired faster, plus there are no puddles for us to fight over. (I think they're safe, she things they're bottomless pits disguised as puddles.) Robert reccomends a long line exercise for balance correction. Basically you send her in a circle and at random intervals change the circle direction, which forces them to balance themselves for the turn. For extra fun, instead of making the circling random, watch them and every time they get off balance, turn them. I did this with Keno a lot. He was displeased but I think Alyssa will testify that his balance is reasonably good these days, except for the shoulder dropping thing. We'll work on that at some point.
I picked Papillons hoves, did absolutely nothing with Colonel, and Alyssa rode Luca. We've got a new pinto-morgan thing in training. Should be fun. That means we'll have seven horses to work. If you don't count Imp, or Reno. Plans for the near future (besides job hunting in the non-horsey world) include:
- Long line Star to try to teach her to balance
- Lunge Lady and practice putting the surcigle on her again
- Ride Papillon!
- The previously described come-to-Jesus meeting with Colonel
I have no idea how long I'm going to be long lining Star. Teaching Colonel to pick up the right lead canter took almost a month on the long lines last summer. I think Lady will get going fairly quickly and I think the same thing about Colonel still. Poor Papillon keeps getting pushed to the back burner.
I'm supposed to be out the door by 6:00 am tomorrow in order to get to the barn by 7 so I guess I'll be off to bed now.
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