Equine Recital

Alyssa and I have been practicing for the equine recital on Dec. 6th. (Anyone who has ever heard Robert talk about Luca for longer than you thought possible is invited, by the way. You know who you are.) Every trainer gets 30 minutes to show off what their students are doing. Alyssa and I are doing a pas de deux (or pah dee dough, depending on who you ask) with Reno and Keno. While Keno is successfully forced to behave beautifully when I'm looking, Reno is having trouble with the whole for-God's-sake-stop-trying-to-bite-your-brother,-you-bastard! concept. We dont actually have a plan, or music yet. Still, I'm optimistic since they do have a pretty well timed pace and Alyssa and I have been getting pretty precise with our riding. Next thing up is coordination.

Robert is very pleased with us. I'm pretty pleased with us. Robert and I are both enjoying the faux competition with Cari. She might be doing a pas de deux with these two very cute fijords. So Robert and I get all secretive about our plans, and whisper when Cari's around. I've explained to her the joke so hopefully she wont suffer too much being the straight man for our entertainment.

I had a decent ride with Colonel the other day. It occured to me that I had previously just been focusing on the ass kicking part of the training. Thats the part that tends to make faster, more obvious progress. Thinking back on Star though, I spent a lot of quiet time with her, walking around the field sniffing stuff, sitting quietly on the wall, walking and trotting without too much worry about precision or straightness. So I'm going to try to slow it down with him and have a little more compassion for his fear and lack of self confidence. It always seems like bullshit to me when he gets all "oooh, I'm skeered of something or other so I'm going to pitch a fit now" but Robert thinks its not and he would know. Apparently Colonels mother was a spooky creature.

A new working student canditate is coming to the barn today. Very exciting.