Dylan, Lady, Reno and Papillon

On paper I guess I had a reasonably productive day. I took Dylan, the pinto looking morgan (a client's horse, not Robert's) out today. I rubbed him all over with the halter, gave him several 'hugs' to get him used to my arm over his neck, and I scratched his poll to get him used to my hands next to his ears. Then I slipped the halter on while he was sniffing it trying to figure out why it smelled so much like him. I clipped the lunge line on him and grabbed my crop. I led him around, he was pleased to be out. While we were leading I stuck my elbow out and every time he ran into it I smacked him on the shoulder with the crop. It took him a while but he eventually figured out the pattern; he still forgets a lot.

Lunging was interesting. The last horse I taught to lunge was Annabelle, who may have had some attempt at lunging before, I'm not sure. Dylan was indeed mystified. I asked him to move forward and generally he wanted to do one of two things, come in and see me or pull vigorously on the line. We had many many round of trying to get him to go in a complete circle, ended the same way every time, him pulling back hard in the direction of the gate. I had an Ian-esque moment when I realized, "Oh right, he's a gelding." Annabelle was a bitchy pony mare who understood quite well the concept of moving when she was asked to and raw intimidation was quite effective. Dylan doesnt get that sort of thing, he just wants to know why you dont love him anymore, so I tried a new tack. First I led him around in a circle over and over and over again. I question the effectiveness of this part of the plan but he needed to calm down anyway and it certainly didn't hurt. I sent him out on a circle and after about a half a circle or so I asked him to whoah, went up to him (I was taught never ever to bring the horse to you, always go to them) pet him, then asked him to walk again. When he paused at the side of the arena closest to the gate I just stood there, I even let him sniff the ground, eventually he started walking on the circle again, and after a moment I stopped him, pet him, repeat. We worked up to a full circle and a half without stopping or flipping out noticeably, and I called that good enough for one day. He definitely was leading better after the lunging session (which is quite typical in my experience.) I think it started to reinforce the concept of personal space. When I led him back to his stall he balked at going in a little but came anyway, then we walked out and walked back in again. The second time he didn't hesitate at all. I think he'll turn out to be a 3 or a 4 on the compliance scale which will be refreshing, especially if he turns out to be more of a 4.

I saddled lady and took her out to lunge. It was going to be a fairly relaxed thing but she kept forgetting and then re-discovering the tractor in the corner. When she was trotting by it going to the left she bolted. One of the stirrups came loose (I dont know how, I wrapped it really well I thought) but it hardly swung at all and didn't bounce noticeably either. I attribute this to her being the worlds smoothest bolter ever. So she ran around, tried to change direction once or twice but nothing too difficult to handle, she ran herself pretty hard but when she was calmer I stopped her and led her past the tractor several times, it was a combination of sacking out and hotwalking. We went around to go look at the tractor from outside the arena. Barely batted an eye at it this time. I let her eat some grass next to it. It took her a while to be willing to let down her guard enough to eat some grass but she did and I figured everything was fine now. I went and got her bridle, and a helmet and my spiffy class three body armour. She hates hates hates that figure eight noseband. I had to take the fleece stuff off the bridle because it changes the fit (well duh, some might say to me, and to them I say: shut up) of the bridle and I didn't feel like re-adjusting it when I probably wasn't going to use it again anyway. Robert came out with me and I got on in the arena. Robert held her until I had gotten both my stirrups and then we walked around a little. She was flipping her head and trotting intermittently for a few minutes. She was very responsive to my seat, which is good because the way she was pissed about that noseband I really didn't feel like doing much with the reins. She calmed down and we changed directions and repeated the process. She calmed down the other direction and I waited until she had her happy ears and then I stopped her and got off. Robert noted that she seems to like me, even thought the figure eight noseband pisses her off. I shared with him Ian's thinking that her dislike of the noseband is evidence that she needs it. We both had a nice time scoffing at this logic. I've got a different bridle ready to go for her. I havent fit it too her yet but its set to be roughly the same as Ian's bridle for her. Some of the hair on her nose rubbed off in that one session, which irks me. Tomorrow I will ride her in the new bridle and maybe for a little longer. We'll probably start trotting next week, and cantering the week after that. Maybe its an overly conservative schedule but she's a tense tense girl sometimes; I want her to get used to the idea that going out to ride needn't mean working your ass off and needn't result in being sore the next day.

I took Reno out and I didn't keep him out long. Something about him ignoring the reins makes me irrationally angry now. He still wanted to pop into the middle of the arena, and he was a little confused as to why he was cropped that one time but he guessed correctly that he should be moving off my leg better. I needed better timing. In addition to him ignoring the bit, and my irrationally adversarial attitude towards him, I realized I didn't know what the hell I was doing with this leverage bit. I asked Robert and he said that typically in western riding the bit is sortof an emergency stop, the horse should be stopping principally off your seat and steering principally off your leg, seat and to a lesser extent, the reins resting on his neck. He confirmed what I was beginning to realize myself, which was that these bits cant really be used to steer.

He promises that the chain on the bit will give us some whoah power. I was thinking about this though, I think that if he's going to be used in the western pleasure show he needs to do dressage first. My understanding is that you dont start out your western horses neck reining and expecting them to work off your seat and whatnot. He understands reins, and thats about all he's really experienced. He needs to connect what he knows already to these relatively new aids. I dont think Carly was riding him for that long and six years is a long time to be not ridden. Ideally I think we would ride him twice a day, school him in dressage in the morning in a snaffle, and then try to do some western pleasure stuff in the afternoon in the curb bit. Maybe keno's bridle will fit him without too much fuss?

We got a huge shipment of hay. I fed the horses. Then I took Papillon out. I put a saddle on her and we worked in the arena because I didn't want a sunburn and I didn't want her to melt. She was not interested in transitions today, and was frequently listening very poorly. When I insisted that she bend correctly and collect at the trot she assumed, as she always always does in this situation, that I was collecting her up so that we could do a nice canter transition. She obliged and off we went. She came back down but I guess I tend to go from canter back down into a walk a little too often because thats what she thought I wanted. When I said no she thought she was mistaken about the down transition (or at least thats how I'm anthropomorphising the behavior) and went back into canter.

I decided that a potential solution to this problem was just to actually ask her to canter for a while, I figured that would take some of the wind out of her sails. She has a really nice canter, which I rather enjoy. She didn't want to move off my inside leg very well but a 20 meter circle really does wonders for her sometimes. She was only mildly subdued by the cantering but I am gun shy now about cantering, I really worry about making her lame that way. She really really wanted to go outside the arena, she kept drifting towards the closed gate. I'm not sure what the plan was there.

If the gate had been open, and I had had some sunscreen, and I weren't so worried about breaking her I would have gone and galloped her down the long side of the field. I dont know why but I feel very comfortable with Papillon. I trust her probably more than she deserves but alas, she's a delicate soul so I guess I'll just have to get Star geared up to go out there and run with me. I've done the run down the field with Colonel and Keno. Its more fun with Colonel, even when it ends badly but its even more fun when it doesnt. I dont know why but both Keno and Reno set me on edge. Maybe I don't like geldings. I dont understand them, not the temperamental ones anyway. I think I'll just have to get over it. I'm starting to feel less unnerved by Keno. Alyssa has done great work with him over the course of the school year. He's a very cooperative boy now. Basically the same agenda tomorrow. Except I'm riding Luca, I guess. Robert's going to drive him first so its not a great test of what his problem is. Still, when he bucks at least then we'll know what his problem isn't. Gotta get myself not to stare at him though. All riding coaching will be gladly accepted, by the way.