Trying new things

Saturday didn't feel productive at the time, but ultimately I think it was. I didn't manage to ride Star, but I rode Colonel and Papillon.

One thing that soaked up some time was working on the woodpile in the shop. We have this project that is creating cascading tasks. The project is, harvest hay from the field. This involves storing the hay in the hay barn. The hay barn is poorly named in that it has a lot of other uses, it stores carts, tools, spare parts of every kind imaginable, etc. So we need to clear a lot of that stuff out. This involves taking down some shelves. Their contents have to go somewhere, so we're cleaning up the shop so that it can absorb all this and still be useful. The shop has a big lumber pile in it. In order to make a neat stack outside, (and it needs to be neat so that the barn will still be presentable) the long pieces of lumber at the bottom need to be at the bottom of the new pile. Ever heard of the tower of hanoi? We're still not finished with it but we made a lot of progress.

Nancy came over to try out Papillon for a half lease. She's been having a hard time finding a horse to replace the one she had before. They got into a little battle of wills, she and Papillon. Nancy wanted to walk and halt, Papillon wanted to trot. I was very impressed by the halts nancy managed to get out of Papillon. I can get halts like that if Robert is standing there coaching me, when he's gone so are those nice clean halts. Papillon isn't big on standing around.

After Nancy got off, I got on so that Papillon could do a little trotting. It was my first time trotting without stirrups in a while. (I didn't feel like adjusting the stirrups so I just crossed them over.) When I first stretched my legs down there was significant complaining from the tendons in my thighs. Pretty soon we were going around pretty nicely. Papillon stayed reasonably round for me, so that makes it a thousand times easier than that stupid "death trot" certain horses like to do outside. Achem.

I really hope it works out with Nancy. I could work Papillon outside and let her blow off some steam. Nancy could work her inside and remind her how to be a dressage horse. She is a really nice dressage horse with someone who has the dicipline to decide exactly what they want, and then work until they get it.

Once I got my saddle back from Alyssa I took Colonel out. We walked out into the field, and he wanted to trot a couple of times but I just sat deep, didn't even touch his mouth, and he cut it out. We got to doing our trotting same as usual. I'm now making extra sure to keep my elbows at my sides. I have a tendency to let them get dragged forward, so when the big pull comes I have no time to react. Plus it lets him get away with leaning on my hands, which is antithetical to the goal.

He was doing a lot of unauthorized cantering, just a few strides but it was hard to bring him down. Said cantering was really smooth and pleasant. It gave me the idea that I wanted to ask him to canter a little. Well, the canter I wound up asking for was the right (as in, not left) lead, which is his bad lead. So that caused a little charging and kicking and pulling, but he did quit doing it, sortof. It wasn't a great thing. I'm sure he learned nothing from it, but it was an interesting diagnostic. For one thing, he gave me the right lead canter, so that was cool. Also, I was able to stop him. That give one confidence.

He was a total pill walking over the culvert, so I rode him into the arena, but instead of dismounting we did a little left lead canter. Colonel's pulling is much worse in the arena, and worst at the canter. He was unhappy when he discovered that I wouldn't tolerate his pulling anymore, even in the arena and while cantering. He charged around at a pretty good clip. Basically out of control, truth be told. Still, I got more information out of it.

His brain seems to kindof shut down when we canter. Not totally but a lot. I'm not clear on how I'm going to try to fix this. I think it involves getting a really solid, controlled trot out of him. No pulling, no running, no sidepassing, no funny business of any kind. I think he's ready for longer rides now, and that might help. Eventually I want to start doing some schooling excersises, transitions mostly. I want him to stop leaning on my hands in the transitions. Once he can do that, I'll start more canter work with him.

In the shorter term, I think on Tuesday I'm going to do something I learned on Mugwump Cronicles. This technique worked really well for putting some brakes on Star. In short, what you do is work your horse pretty hard, not too many walk breaks, or none if your horse is up to that. Then ask for a halt. Just sit there and let them pant. If they move forward, boot them back into whatever you were doing before, and then after a while let them try again. It took three repetitions for Star to get the idea. It may take Colonel longer. Especially since I dont want him eating grass. One think I really like about this excersise is that it doesn't involve holding Colonel back. He either does it on his own, or he goes forward. No opportunity to bull on my hands.

I'll try to get to Star on tuesday too. I want to try building some topline on that girl. And also continue breezing her out in the field. Thats quality entertainment right there.