Fun in the sun

Saturday Robert told me to have a fun day after moving all that hay before. In direct defiance of his orders, I went and got Colonel. In his stall he was looking almost too skinny to ride, but I took him out and looked him over in the light, and in more uniform shade, and actually he was looking slightly better than previously, so I forged on. He was calm enough warming up, even with the gigantic wagon the shires were pulling out in the field. We worked on steering. Particularly we worked on keeping his nose and his feet on the same track. It was a massive fail. I'd tip his nose for a 20 m circle and I'd get 8 m from his nose and bigger from his shoulders and even bigger from his hips. Alternatively, I'd try to tip his nose and all I'd get was a braced neck and a shoulder moving on too tight a circle with his hips falling in to the circle.

Whats more, he was really pissed that we were doing all these tight circles. You would think that in defiance of these tight circles he'd, oh I dont know, make bigger ones to make his life easier? Did he do anything to try to make his life easier? No. He just got pissed. He'd start cantering on these little circles so I'd push him on cantering in these little circles which really really pissed him off.

To be honest, when he gets angry it scares me. When he bucks and pulls I become very uncomfortably aware of how much bigger and stronger and stupider he is. I really resent being scared of him. So basically after a while we were both pissed. I was ready to quit for the day, but I couldn't really justify it. I got off him and lunged him.

You should have seen his face when I ran the lunge line through his bit. He was so sure he was done. I lunged him until his coat was slick. I hate to do that to a thin horse, but I couldn't think of anything better to do. When I was feeling less vengeful I got back on him to cool him out. He was doing the same sort of shitty stuff, weaving around when he's supposed to go straight, bracing his neck, or over turning, as I described before. Still, it was a calm walk so after a good go around the arena I brought him back to the barn. He sat in the cross ties for a long time before being put back. I'm pretty sure he learned absolutely nothing from that ride. I, however, did learn from that ride. I learned that I need a more detailed plan than just sitting there being pissed. So, more scheming is in order.

After hanging around in the heat I finally went and got Star. It was time to have fun.

We walked around the field once. Very long negotiations regarding the hay monster in the burn pile. I practiced not taking my legs off her when she's misbehaving. Bad habit. Bad. I was pretty pleased with my progress when she finally bolted past the hay and my legs were wrapped around her just fine.

Next we worked on getting a calm, pleasant trot in the field. Thats not really her strong suit but when I was satisfied then we went for a run. I had sortof forgotten that we hadn't cantered/galloped towards home on the scary side yet. I started with that. It was scary, but in a good way. We were doing a pretty good gallop, the wind felt really good rushing past my face. Star travels very straight and smooth when we're galloping, and I had my legs streched down and wrapped around her nice and tight so I felt secure. Plus, Star cant really go that fast compared to, say, Colonel. When we got down to the tracktor equipment I sat deeper in the saddle and within three strides we were walking again. Thats the thing that makes me feel the safest of all. I can stop Star with my voice, my seat or my reins even when we're galloping towards the barn. No fuss, no nothing. Can I slow her down within a gait? Thats a little trickier, but still.

We cantered up the other side, Star was a little sluggish. We walked through the turns and then galloped most of the way back home. I cooled her out in the arena. She was very subdued in the cross ties, barely raised her head when I took off her bridle.

Bath time was a little less relaxed. She was good for the first side, but she refused to turn around in the wash rack. We spent a long long time arguing about that. I spent an irritating portion of that time getting the whip untangled from her tail, but I basically won the argument and for a little while Star was clean. When I scraped the water off her, it did not resemble mud, very cool.

Star was unimpressed.