Re: Luca cantering and impulsion: It only really got bad when Reno/Robert were coming close by the ring, and we'd turn away so he couldn't look at them anymore, and then he'd break to a trot. He's also just not a fast-moving horse. Star, especially, but also Keno, have a fairly fast strided canter. The fact that he's not moving super forward, or trying to speed up, is kind of nice- he's not trying too much to compensate for balancing by falling on the forehand and running on it.

Rode Niki, like Gillian said, for the first time in a while on Thursday. We had some rough spots, and she didn't really want to walk for a while, but there were only a few dumb moments on her part. The halfhalts are really helping (which were partially Cari's solution, when Keno was bucking if we turned into the arena), I think, and I'm getting more airplane ears from her, rather than ears back. I get the feeling that these are her concentrating, only slightly pissed off ears. We also got a few unplanned strides of canter. Hers.... will not be comfortable. Ah well. At least I'm getting plenty of practice sitting the trot in a jumping saddle, since she doesn't like it when I post and we're working on one thing at a time.

I was really pleased with Luca on Thursday. Tacked him up and went out to lunge to get his attention on me. He cantered on the lunge for a while, I'm hoping that he just hasn't done it very much, and he'll figure it out a little more. 20m circles may be the answer under saddle, too. He was distracted by Colonel.

This is the part that really frustrates me. I've been riding for 13? years. I *really* should have figured out before now, that the way to get a horse to stop being distracted by something he's not scared of, is to make him work harder. I need to make him pay attention to something, namely what I'm telling him to do. If he has time to stare like an idiot, I need to ask more.

I figured this out, at the latest, summer '07 with Sunny. But I totally forgot this with Luca. I think this is because, last year, he was so bad that I couldn't trust him with anything, except to misbehave. And especially after the show he reared me off at, I'd rather avoid a fight than start one and win it.

But. This saddle seems to fit him nicely, and I think I'm doing most of the right things with him. He's bored with just going out on the rail, that's fine, we're doing transitions and leg yields and circles and serpentines and just generally making him work. And once he realizes that if he stares like an idiot, I make him work harder, he settles down pretty easily.

And Saturday I worked him again. He has this ridiculous thing for Star more than any other mare, as far as I can tell. When we show, he's going to be riding with other horses, and he needs to be able to deal with that. So I asked Gillian to ride Star in the arena with us. He was pretty distracted and show-offy while lunging, which is why I was lunging him. Luca mostly settled down fairly fast, so we started riding. He had no problems riding with Star, the most I could say is that he was a little bit slower to turn, and more likely to gravitate towards her if I provided no direction. He was pretty excited when we were walking about 30 feet behind Star, because she likes to carry her tail cocked to the side. He got a nice view and was a little annoyed when we turned.

Our canters are getting better, by which I mean, we can typically maintain it all the way around the arena. I can also, often, cue it without saying "canter!", which is an important step. We need to work on cantering not in the corners, especially going left lead. Sigh. So much work to do in two more rides.

We jumped a little bit, a ground pole and then 28 feetish later, a smallish crossrail. He almost refused once but then went over, but the jumps before and after that were better. I hope Cari's saddle fits, because the dressage saddle is pretty bad for that sort of thing. I got a pretty, inadvertent canter halfpass after the crossrail the first time. It was interesting. Also, I'm pretty pleased that Luca and I can open the gate. I tried that once before, famously, with Jeff. He headed out before the gate was very open, I snagged my halfchaps on the arena, and fell off. Sigh. Go Luca!

I really need to ride Keno and Niki and Luca on Tuesday. Arrrgh. This is, naturally, the best time for my hips to be wonky, and apparently my elbow/wrist act up when it's cold and rainy. Awesome. Thank god for ibuprofen. I'm hoping my hips are just going "oh god Luca is a wide horse especially with a saddle" and will adjust, but we'll see.