A new beginning?

So I finally got back out to the barn. I'm going to be out most of next week, which will be nice. I decided to use this stretch of time at the barn to get started on a project I've been thinking a lot about recently: Colonel. I'm not sure how its all going to work out, or if its even a good idea, but I've learned a lot in the last year and Star is coming along now such that I can probably get Alyssa to ride her at least half the time. Mostly though, he can jump and he's usually sound so thats big motivation to get him rideable again. Colleen, Robert's daughter, mentioned to me that Colonel wasn't spending so much time sitting in the corner of his stall facing the wall. (He spent much of his time this way basically for the last year.) This was about a week ago that we talked about this. I'd been scheeming ever since, going over in my mind everything I'd read, and everything I'd seen and everything I knew about Colonel. I formulated a new plan.

I got to the barn around noon having goofed off all morning and missed the bus I wanted earlier. Alyssa was tacking up for a lesson with Robert and Cari was in the arena with a lesson too. My main mission that day was to execute the plan in so far as was practical, but there was no good arena space for me to do it. Instead I piled all the hay that had been scattered on the hay barn floor into one pile for Robert to put into the manure spreader. I also gathered up all the equipment I would need later.

Robert had another lesson in the arena but Cari was done, leaving plenty of space for me to lunge Colonel. I took my gloves and the lunge line and headed off for Colonel's stall. These days Rocky and Colonel are out together so I found Colonel in rocky's stall. He was very well behaved, minimal attempts to shove his nose into my face and stuff like that. I totally forgot about the whole double turnout arrangement and left the door open as I left. Alyssa tells me that Cari fetched Rocky and put him back for me.

I ignored the fact that he was walking further in front of me than I wanted, I repeatedly moved him out of my space but I didn't bother to escalate in an attempt to make it stick. I'm following my new conception of geldings as not so much defiant as stupid. Or at least, with the memory of a gold fish and the impulse control of a three year old boy. Colonel though, is probably also pretty stupid, as horses go.

Colonel was very excited to be outside but he was holding himself together pretty well. Better than in previous trials. For lunging he has always been pretty cool, and I took him straight out to the arena so he stayed pretty cool. I didn't ask him to walk or to go out but as soon as I assumed the position he was headed for the circle. I ignored that too. There was a lot of clenching of teeth from me. Usually I'm a very not-a-hair-out-of-place kind of lunger with a horse his age and with his training. As he walked his right fore seemed a little stiff but Robert said it didn't seem to be causing a problem, and that we'd see at the trot. He wanted to trot right away but I asked him to walk and he did. He protested by flipping his head up and down. Sortof funny since the net affect was to send waves through the line to me, and then reflected back to shake on his own halter. I looked really hard and though I still think he was short strided on the right fore he wasn't bobbing his head. I decided that this meant I should work him more to the left so that the pressure would stay off his right side most of the time.

When he started trotting with more impulsion I said, quietly, "aand canter." He sprang forward like a coiled spring unleashed and proceeded to run furiously but he kept his distance, neither pulling nor crowding. Robert shouted from across the arena "that leg don't seem to be botherin' him much." Colonel galloped around, bucking and snorting. People who claim that a horse cant buck while they're moving are full of shit, by the way. I just watched him go, he was having a good time and he hadn't been out in a very long while.

It did seem to support the assumption I had made while planning all this: Colonel is not lazy except in so far as all horses are lazy. He likes to run, needs to run even. I am also nursing the pet theory that part of the reason he is so chill on the lunge line is that he almost always gets to run on the lunge. He's calm because he knows his reward is coming, he will get to run eventually.

When he was cantering calmly, with minimal cool-down, I took him back to the hay barn. He had worked up a healthy bit of sweat. Alyssa helped me brush epic amounts of mud off of him and I saddled him up and put on his bridle over his halter and wound the reins up for lunging again.

Alyssa and Robert came out to supervise and I sent Colonel out on the circle again to lunge. He did a calm twinkle-toes trot, he extended it when asked, he did a very calm canter. I should have lunged him longer than I did, he was still holding the canter too long when asked to come down but I didn't want to keep people waiting .

With zero cool-down from the canter I took him over to the mounting block, took off the lunge line, took off my gloves, unwound the reins, donned my helmet and protective vest, picked up the crop and got on. Robert told me "now remember, this is no time to be a hero." I reflected on those words briefly, because I hadn't told him what I was planning to do next, but I didn't tell him because I didn't want to be talked out of it, and I certainly wasn't going to be talked out of it at the last minute by some generic one-liner.

So, I gave colonel a squeeze and asked for a trot. Immidiately he wanted to do a little shoulder in across the arena. I didn't worry about this to much, I just put a little extra inside leg on him and turned him towards the other wall to begin our "circle." I knew I needed to ask in the next few seconds or it might not seem like nearly as good an idea, so I squeezed again and asked him to canter. No dice, just got a rushed trot. I didn't care, I just kept telling him "canter, colonel, aand canter" with a pretty meek squeeze from my legs. I didn't really want to press the issue, I just wanted a nice relaxed canter. About half way around the circle I got it. I gave him a loose inside rein but I had already grabbed mane with my outside hand and that rein wasn't going anywhere.

There was significant tension, for both of us. Colonel at first didn't seem to be sure he was doing the right thing, and seemed to be anticipating a correction. When he didn't get one he picked up a little more speed but it was still a good pace, especially considering what I know he's capable of. He was trying to stretch his head down and although I had told myself I was going to give him a loose rein, I couldn't resist thinking he was putting his head down to buck, so I used the inside rein to pull his head up a little and then dropped the rein again. The outside rein, as I mentioned before, was fixed, and was fixed a little too short, but he could still go straight and I sure as hell wasn't letting go of his mane. I think I probably didn't need it. I certainly didn't use it for any side to side stabilization. I just pulled up on it to give myself a feeling like I wasn't going to go anywhere/was ready for anything.

He was heavy on his forehand and was giving plenty of lift with his back, both of which make me nervous, but he still wasn't speeding up and since he wasn't going very fast he wasn't leaning into the circle very hard. I'm not sure how many times we went around the half of the arena. I think we were going for at least 45 seconds, maybe a minute. Maybe Alyssa knows, I have no sense of time. However long it was, I started to relax, he was either relaxed already or he relaxed too, I'm not sure, but I decided that was our quitting moment. I picked up the inside rein, asked for a walk and with minimal pressure from rein and seat, got it. Walked over to where Alyssa and Robert were sitting, stopped, got off, and I took him back to his stall. Done. Next time I'll do some cool down, but I just wanted to send him back calm and having been a good boy.

He's got two days off to think about that, and so do I. On tuesday I'll try the same maneuver again, but this time I'm going to try to truly have him on a loose rein. I'll grab mane when I start to feel unstable, rather than at the outset. I might go a little longer at the canter, but I'll definitely cool him down before putting him back. Thats the plan anyway.