Brrrr

Tuesday it was cold, very cold, but I pressed on. I took Libby out, because I could take her out with my coat still on. :) She was hot but reasonable for walk and trot. I decided to ask for some canter, which she dropped after less than a minute. I didn't have a lunge whip on me, and in the process of chasing her around like an idiot trying to get her to pick up the canter she pulled me over and I scraped my knee. It was a nice little reminder that I was being an idiot and should stop. So I stopped. Libby looked pleased with herself, or was it my imagination? Anyway, she was less pleased when I got the lunge whip out, and we did a little canter. She really doesn't know how to canter on a lunge line very well. Kinda sad really.

Speaking of cantering poorly. I took Star out after Libby, and continued to fight my impulse to declare us "done for the day" after only ten or fifteen minutes. We practiced cantering Star's bad direction. In the northwest corner of the arena she consistently decided to stop and rear rather than take the turn. Eventually I got her to stop doing that by make sure we did a big easy turn there. The little rat picked up on my habit of quitting after overcoming something like that and wanted to stop on the long stretch. So we kept going until I couldn't stand it anymore. This didn't take long, but instead of stopping and walking, we trotted. This was displeasing to her but she did it. I found I can catch my breath just fine sitting the trot. Particularly since her trot was a little lethargic after cantering around. So we cantered and then trotted and then cantered again several times.

There were traces of sweat on her neck and obvious sweat around her ears and under the saddle pad when we quit. I'm trying to make a point of quitting only when she's actually sweating, so I succeeded in that, at least. I think that maybe I need to get Alyssa to lunge us at the canter to help her get used to actually cantering on turns and help me get used to compensating for her leaning into the turns. We might also spend some time just working on canter transitions off of a kiss. I need some split reins with a knot, so I can whack her with them without hitting her with a buckle.

I hand walked Papillon for ten minutes and then later on I rode her. She was quite stiff. I never really got a good trot out of her. When she was engaging her hindquarters properly her walk smoothed out, but that was it. Worrisome.

Colonel is looking less lame now, and slightly less skinny. The farrier dug out an abscess in his right rear hoof and he's walking on it now. Still wont stand on it, but thats OK. His weight is getting better thanks to lots of sweet feed. When I fed him he dug through his regular grain to get to the sugary stuff. Picky little goof ball. Star is going to get me a better seat and improve my endurance so by the time Colonel is back on all four feet I'm going to kick his butt on a regular basis until he behaves himself like a good citizen. Thats the plan, anyway.