Excuse me, do you have those blue balls?

Cant resist opening with that Robert quote. He did it on purpose, I should mention. He did a very silly thing and bought one of those big 65 inch inflatable balls, thinking maybe Luca would like to play with it. Luca did not want to play with it. He was totally disinterested in it. He shoved it with his nose once so he could sniff the ground underneath it. Robert proceeded to chase him with it, throw it at him, anything he could come up with to get a reaction. I refused to participate in this silliness, siding with Luca I guess. Star was OK with it as long as it wasn't moving towards her. Colonel was ok as long as it didn't move, but he wasn't super interested in getting near it either. Cari rode Xsarena into it a couple of times, which was cute. I was impressed by Xsarena's nonchalance with regards to the ball.

Keno was very entertained by the ball. He pushed it around with his nose, he tried to rub his face on it and just generally had a good time. It made him feel powerful I guess because then he tried to shove Alyssa around in similar fashion. It went poorly for him. Very poorly.

I put Colonel in the long lines. He really wants to resist, and then over-turn in response to the rein aids. When I put the reins through the bit and then back onto the side rings of the surcingle he was displeased. I usually take that as a good sign with Colonel. He went behind the vertical a lot but he didn't pull on me which was nice. He wasn't very forward and I think I need some lower friction reins for this to be really effective. Still, he looked like he was engaging nicely so I didn't make him do it for too long. We did a little canter and he looked beautiful but pissed. Eventually he figured out that he did not need to put his face behind the vertical, and things mostly went better. I think I'll try it again later when I find better reins for this project. And we'll see tomorrow if he learned anything.

I sat around and conditioned tack while watching Alyssa work with Luca. Its a cold, relatively dull job watching those two because mostly Luca is pretty good. Today was a little more entertaining because Luca was doing some pretty extreme haunches-in exercises. A dressage whip helped with that. It didn't help so much maintaining impulsion at the canter. I suspect that practice alone will really help clear that up, since Luca doesn't get asked for the canter much at all in the cart. I'll bet you could get some serious energy cantering around outside, but maybe that will wait for another time.

We had 30 minutes before feeding time and I wanted to ride a horse. So I got my helmet and gloves, then grabbed a lead rope and Star and I went out in a halter. She was very very good. She did a nice, smooth relaxed trot for me. She stopped every time something caught her attention, which was annoying but I didn't really feel like getting after her for it, so I just asked again quietly and I got a quiet trot. Imagine that.

We went outside to the little outdoor arena. It promptly started raining. Star was pretty good showing off and remained pretty relaxed. I was/am super pleased with her. Now I need to teach her to neck rein so we can dispense with the second lead rope. Or not.

Tomorrow, I'm going to haul myself out of bed at a reasonable hour and get to the barn in time to actually ride both my horsies. Star is going to go back to work on her long and low, and on her canter. Colonel back to work on not pulling, especially at the canter and the walk. (He basically doesn't pull anymore at the trot, which is nice.)