Late start but productive

I had a late night and couldn't drag myself out of bed in a timely fashion, so I arrived at the barn around 11. Robert was fixing stuff today so we sat and chatted for about half an hour. He told me to do horse stuff. Poor Brandon had gotten there at ten and managed to sweep and cut some weeds down, but was having problems with allergies and his chest started hurting, so Robert sent him home before I even got there.

So I dutifully went onto horse stuff. Grabbed Keno and tried putting my dressage saddle on him (still too tight in the shoulders, I'll have to find something to pad it up with). We went out in the field with him being way more snorty than usual, and something by the Morgan pasture made him spin and bolt and dance. I am not so much with the confidence so I hopped off and made him work on the ground (mini lunge circle, leading, etc) until he was not so jiggy and high-headed. Then hopped back on and walked home. We worked in the outside dressage arena until he was willing to give me his head. There was a lot of unauthorized trotting and bucking. He was basically a jerk and it was highly frustrating. I took his bridle off and put him in the crossties and then went to go see kittens. Alef and Dalet were in the forklift seat as usual. Mamacat emerged from behind the hay and let me pet her! She hasn't let us do that for months, since Robert nearly caught her in the live trap. I did catch a glimpse of a small kitten.

Finished untacking Keno, rinsed and put him back, ate lunch. I dragged out two poles and two small standards. One pole went between the standards, and the other one was perpendicular to the first pole, but by a standard. I grabbed Niki.

Niki did *not* want to walk at first, which makes some kind of sense because she's a hot little mare and it was a cool day. So we did a lot of long-trotting and I experimented with how much I could slow down her trot by slowing down my posting, which wasn't inconsiderable. We cantered (mostly on her own initiative) to the left the whole way around the arena, without popping out her shoulder and dragging me towards the gate. I gave her some slight directions and she took them, loose rein and fairly comfy canter. It was awesome! I tried trotting her over the pole against only one standard and she was unhappy about the idea, so we walked over it a couple times and then she trotted the other one, both directions, no problem. Ears perked, no rushing, definitely looking down at it. I tried cantering right lead and we had more problems than left, but we did get it eventually. Her "whoa" is getting worse, so I need to spend some time on that. We did some of the mugwump stuff, where as soon as she moves we go back to work, and I think she started to get the idea.

Star was one I had been plotting about the last couple days after watching the jumping session, and the reason why I actually pulled out the poles and standards. She didn't want to get caught but I guess that's not strictly unusual. She wanted to hesitate at the hay barn but didn't, so that was nice (no whip), and I am either less gentle about saddle pads and saddling than Gillian is, or I'm just not authorized to tack her up, because there was a lot of flinching. Mounted in the arena, and she didn't walk off immediately. It took a couple seconds, so that was an improvement from the last time I rode her. Gillian's saddle is hellish. I'm surprised I don't have bruises on my thighs today, actually. Star's a much bigger mover than any of my horses- they're all very smooth and flat-moving, so that took a lot of adjustment, and I didn't want to post off my thighs because oh god the pain. But we worked it out. She tried squirreling out over the first ground pole and I didn't let her, so she resigned herself to trotting over it, and then trotted over the one between the standards with little hesitation. We cantered- I like her canter!- and she went over the poles fairly willingly, even after she stumbled over one. The first time she broke to a trot but she kept her forward, and she kept her rhythm steady after that (other than when she knocked it). I was listening to my iPod and a slowish song came on but she matched her canter to that, it was very well done on her part.

Untacked her and put her back as Colleen was taking Rocky out. Rocky was very clearly sore on at least one of his hooves. Nothing in his feet, no heat in his legs, but he was standing very uncomfortably and his face showed a lot of pain. Robert and I immediately went to "founder." But he was willing to trot. We hosed off his feet and he seemed to do better on that. Right now he's getting a flake of hay and downgraded to a handful of grain. I don't know how he's doing today.

I was feeding and Robert was hosing off Rocky when Bella and Jessi came in. Jessi was really upset at Bella and I asked what happened- I think Bella bucked her off, Jessi was definitely not walking right. She was untacking Bella and I offered to hop on, since putting her back was not an option she wanted to take. Jessi made noises and Robert interjected to say that yeah, someone needed to put the fear of god in her. I grabbed my helmet and handed my cell phone to Jessi.

Bella was deeply offended by me smacking her to have her keep up with me on the leadline, and hyper sensitive. She was *mad*. I swung up and she almost immediately started trotting away. Bella was trying to duck out towards the gate by popping her shoulder and bulling her way over, shaking her head, etc. Her saddle sucks for me because I can never get a solid seat in that big of a saddle, and it hurts my seatbones. But I was not coming off that mare. In about ten minutes I had her saying "yes ma'am" and working off my seat, legs, and opening reins. We cantered both directions, which she was absolutely shocked by, but didn't have any bucks. I got bored of randomly changing directions at the trot and stopped letting her have the rail because that made life too easy. The ground poles were still out so we trotted through one each direction. Bella did not want any part of this. I felt her trying to evade but I closed my legs and she didn't even dramatically change her rhythm. According to Colleen, though, her legs were crossing over every which way to try and run out. We got some pretty good trot-halt-trot transitions too. After about twenty minutes or half an hour she was soaked in sweat (I wasn't far behind) and had some of the fire taken out of her.

I talked to Jessi briefly about having Gillian and/or me put some training rides on her, because Bella is a nice enough horse, she just needs some whoopass, especially as green as she is. Jessi's not a bad rider but she hasn't been riding for very long. I've got way more stick, determination, and knowledge at this point (though she has more balls, I wouldn't have the guts to ride in her shoes). Robert mentioned it, apparently, so I'll talk to him on Saturday about it. I'm not riding for free directly for her, because that makes me have divided loyalties and time. I won't ride for pay directly for her either because I want to keep my ammy status! So Robert and I will have to work out an appropriate fee for him to ask. It'll probably be something like ten or fifteen bucks per ride, and I think 2x a week would be plenty.

Jack was out today with Colleen because Charlie was sick. First Rocky came up lame, and then everyone just had to come watch me work Bella, so it was 4:30 by the time I dismounted. Jack wanted to sit on a horse so Robert pulled out Keno, then suggested I put a bridle on him, then suggested I take Jack for a ride instead of just having a pony ride. Keno was good! He stood like a champ and wasn't too unhappy that we weren't letting him eat his hay. He did his little WP horse jog and Jack likes it better than Sunny's trot, he says.

We put Keno back and I was heading to the tack room to change when I got called back to look at the new kittens. Robert, predictably, says they're all keepers. (::headdesk::) There are two tuxedos and a "dalmatian kitty" and possibly one more, but I only saw three. I was tired enough to be insistent that we work on catching them, so Robert agreed to put a hardcore press on the kitten excavation project on Saturday. We will see.