First day back

Ok, it was my first day back on the farm and I managed to make it a fairly productive one I think. Robert and I worked Luca, Imp and Reno in the cart. I practiced loading Star into the trailer. I lunged Colonel, and I scouted out the hill a little bit and generated some new thoughts about the hill path.
While we were getting out Luca and getting him ready to go I worked on convincing Robert of two things. 1) He needs to be giving better feedback about Alyssa's riding and 2) Luca really really needs to have better manners enforced more often. He definitely agreed with item two, but I think it will take a little more shaming into it. One thing that I think will help is that one of Luca's little 'excursions' wound up running him into the bridle-cleaning hook, this got snagged on his bridle. He wouldn't step forward when I asked him to and instead he backed up, pulled the bridle off his head and put a cut right down his nose. The cut is long but not wide. Robert's reaction was the usual "its far from his heart" but also more amusing to me, "I'll have to move that hook." Yep, that's clearly the solution just move everything out of the way so that when he goes wandering around in the cross ties he wont bump into anything and then refuse to follow instructions to help get him out of whatever mess he manages to find. The drive itself was quite nice and uneventful.

I did some trailer loading with star a couple of times. The first time I just let her sniff it, I had her with me while I was opening it up and locking the door open, which startled her frequently but she got over it as quickly as always. I grabbed some grass and led her up to the trailer. She was pretty happy to put her front feet up on the trailer in exchange for grass or even just release of pressure on the lead rope. Whenever something unexpected happened she got down off the trailer in a hurry. I let her get down but I didn't let her get very far away from the trailer; I always made her get back up again afterward. I put her back briefly because I decided that the thing to do was to stockpile grass instead of getting grass, bringing her to the trailer, getting her front hooves up on the trailer, feeding her the grass, backing her up off the trailer and then repeating this process again. After a little bit of coaxing and a lot of standing around cultivating an air of boredom and disinterest she decided to get in the trailer. I got her in twice, then Robert came and we took out Luca. Then, after Luca was done with and Imp (who bucked and reared when we were out with him) was done, I got the machete and cut a lot more grass and we loaded up again. By the fourth time in the trailer she was getting in pretty quickly. It still took some coaxing but it was a lot faster. I made her stay in the trailer a while, she at some grass but before she finished the grass I backed her out of the trailer. When I led her away she was looking wistfully at the grass in the back of the trailer. I hope that impression of wanting to get back in the trailer will stick in her mind and I'll see if Robert will pull the trailer up again for us sometime.

I took Colonel out to lunge. He was really quite good. We did a long warm up at the walk and he was his old calm, lazy self. He also did his usual western pleasure trot (a.k.a. twinkle toes trot) Most of our work was done over the pole, everything except for warming up and cooling down, actually. We did lots of walk trot transitions and then lots of trot canter transitions. The walk trot transitions were good. He was generally pretty good about picking up his feet over the pole at the walk and trot. He didn't do as good a job at the canter.

Going to the right he would pick up the left lead canter every time he crossed the pole, but he was quite obliging about switching, after a while he did it without being asked. I was pleased about this. To the right though he was actually better about his pace and his transitions but not about picking up his feet. At one point he managed to step on the pole with his front feet, sending it shooting backwards and then he stepped on it with his back feet. He was unhappy about this and the next time around he jumped the pole, but he landed on the right lead so that's good right? Achem.

Going to the left he was a little bit more rambunctious. Robert and I independently came to the conclusion that he's a little more off balance going to the left. I guess I neglected the left lead canter a little too much last summer. That should be a quick fix though. It wast too bad all and all. He bucked a little, threw his head in the air a little, and he was a little too fast. After doing some canter-trot transitions he calmed down at the canter. I think he stepped under himself better after doing some transitions and I think knowing it was coming led him to believe that a saner canter would be the easiest option for him if he wanted to get back to his twinkle toes trot. In both directions though I was unsatisfied with his competence at setting himself up for the pole and, more importantly, picking up his damn feet! I thought about getting on him, since he had been so good, but I was tired and hungry after scouting out the trail so I didn't, but I definitely will tomorrow. I definitely see a lot a lot a lot of trot poles in that boy's future.

Scouting out the trail was interesting. I was wrong in thinking that a machete to clear the brush would be sufficient. That trail will need to be cut with a chainsaw, not a machete. The problem is that there are all these little clumps of tree-like things. The way they grow they'll just have to be cut at the base I think, in order to clear enough head space for a horse and rider to go through. The grade is a little too steep to go straight up, but the soil is about right for the retaining wall idea. There's plenty of space though for a nice conditioning trail. I'll have to get over my fear of chainsaws and its going to be slow going. I'll need Robert to help me plan the trail. I want to go in with stakes and some bright ribbon to mark out the proposed trail that way I can just go in and cut. I think it will take most of the summer to build it but I still want to try.

Robert things that McIver park is more like 30 minutes away and with a horse trailer that might be right but he's still willing to take us sometime. I forgot to ask him about riding Lady, and I'll need to talk to him more about the trail and about chainsaws. Those things really scare me but I think I'll just have to buck up and be careful. In other barn improvement news, they're still cutting hay in the fields but they've got the section between the first creek and the gazebo done. Robert says we can set up some jumps there. I think we'll have Colonel jumping out there before you know it. Although I guess we'll start in the arena. ;) Robert claims that the main thing keeping them from moving into the new house is he needs to find out where the sheet rockers damaged the wiring to the dishwasher. Once he finds it and fixes it they're moving in or so he claims. Oh, and also we got a new horse in today. Its a breeding stock paint, which apparently is a paint horse that isn't color but that can produce color. 14'2 or shorter. I think she (he?) is pretty cute. The owner is a nice girl I only interacted with her briefly. The horse is one that likes to walk under the rope. Didn't even wait for me to walk off before starting to slip under that rope across his door, as though that was what he was supposed to do and there was no reason to hide it. So now we're up to four horses that need their doors closed at all times during feeding. Super. Last news-ish item: I've shed the title of working student and adopted the title of intern.

Goals for tomorrow:
Ride Colonel
Dressage Lesson for Luca
Load star again?
Ride Papillon and ask her to frame up at the walk a little.
Take Lady out and brush her.
Ride star, or lunge her over a pole like I did with Colonel.