Short day by myself

Despite being there for less time than usual (around 4.5 hrs or so) and it being cold and me feeling listless as a result, I did get some stuff done today. The trick is to not do any one thing for very long I guess. I took Reno out and rode him. He was OK, again. He had his feet trimmed today day so I took it pretty easy on him. He does neck rein when he wants to. This means he's ready for my favorite game, its like simon says except you always do what you're told. Anyway, he's going to start moving off my legs and seat (or Alyssa's leg and seat depending on who gets to him tomorrow) or he's going to get cropped. I played this game with Colonel and ever since he's been very good about moving off leg pressure and whatnot. Or at least last time he was good about anything he was good about that.

I took star out and I long lined her again. She is starting to balance better. I think I might start riding her again a little earlier than would be best because I dont have the attention span for this, and because I'm hoping she'll get better at balancing while we're out remembering how to do trail stuff. She needs to remember how to be a trail horse, and there are always times when I dont really have time to ride but I have time to do groundwork.

No one was going to be around, Robert was running errands and no Alyssa today so I didn't ride Lady today. Its probably just as well, I still dont think she's at 100%. I looked at her hooves today and her frogs are in shambles. They look like they've been through an egg slicer that just didn't quite cut all the way through. I've decided I'm not doing hoof stuff in stalls anymore, those girls (Lady and Papillon) are going to have to come to the hay barn where I can see what I'm doing and where they wont get dirty again after I set their hoof back down. I put a dressage saddle on her (Lil's I think, the one with the wider twist) and she was really quite good for the girth. I put a bit in her mouth, a french link I think it was? Anyway, she was fine with that too. I took her out and lunged her. She was willing to trot but not interested, which is strange. She looked stiff at the walk and awkward. I couldnt really tell if she was favoring any particular hoof but really, most of them were pretty bad. I dont know if it actually hurts her, she wasnt bobbing her head at the trot at all, she was just so unenthused... I dont know. We'll look tomorrow.

Anyway I was talking to whats-her-name the red-haired trainer that used to ride her. I was asking about her and she couldnt figure out why I was making such a thing out of this. I tried to explain and realized, its really not. She said she doesnt buck that much, she's really smooth, she said lunge her first and that trotting 20 meter circles calms her down. She made another observation I thought was interesting, Lady has been ridden on and off by a lot of people. She gets ridden for a while and then she can be off for up to a year, and now she's gotten suspicious of new people, 'like a foster kid' is how she summed it up. She told me to brush her down and make sure she liked me and everything would be fine. Check and check, I think, so I'm feeling good about this enterprise.

I took Papillon out. I wanted to get to the bus pretty soon so I just took her out with a bareback pad. Which rolled during my ungraceful mounting. She couldnt figure out why I kept stopping her, throwing myself deliberately off balance and then righting myself, but that turned out to be the easiest way to roll the pad back up and center. Papillon was really good, she was soft and flexible and focused, for the first few minutes. Then she decided it was trotting time and was pissed when I wanted to handle things differently. I started trotting her, she just got jazzed and rushed and it was hard to sit, which pissed her off. So we started trotting the long side and walking the short side, her first few strides of trot were always nice, then she was off again. So we did 20 strides walk, 20 strides trot. Transitions have always been a good way to get her to focus. For many of our trot segments she really did a good job stepping under herself and collecting. Sometimes she didn't. The difference is really amazing. For the same speed she can be incredibly choppy or really smooth to ride depending on where her mind (and her butt) is. I took her outside to cool down. She was willing to walk for a while and then, as before, she decided it was trotting time. The ground was squishy so she was a little more receptive this time. When we went through the tall grass she decided that a walk was a better gait from which to nibble some grass. Even though she's at least 16 hands, the grass was hitting my feet as we went through. She was mostly reasonably good about walking actually, except when she realized she was going home, then she decided if she had to go home she may as well trot home. I brought her back to the hay barn with her chest covered in water and grass seeds. I want to do some more trotting with her, and walking and stopping and circles and really get her working again. I think a saddle will be in order. Also I'll need to set aside more time for her.

Tomorrow at least Lady or Colonel will get done, I'd love to do both but sometimes thats not how it goes. Alyssa and I might have to take shifts lounging Colonel, he's been in his stall for a while now, plenty of energy built up I'm sure.