Colonel

So today was a productive day, with a healthy mix of progress, frustration, education and exercise. The first horse I got out was Colonel. He was so good yesterday, and I was feeling pretty good so I figured I'd hop on him and see how he does. I was brushing him down and I was doing a fairly slow careful job because I had gotten lax about this in the past so I wanted to start off on the right foot. All of the sudden he starts shaking his head, violently. I figure that something is bothering him or he wants attention or something so I ignore it and finish up my grooming. I go to put the saddle on and he's still doing it, and he's doing it worse, so I decide to take a different approach. I smacked him on the shoulder every time he shook his head like that. It was having a small effect and I grabbed a crop so that I could swat him more effectively. I got the saddle on and he had calmed down but I couldn't find the bridle.

So we walked over to the other barn, he led quite well, and I tied him in that barn and he was fine, still no bridle. I just held him and poked my head into the tack room in the main barn, still nothing. So I go back to the hay barn and as soon as we set foot in it he starts shaking his head again. I put him in the cross ties and he's still shaking his head and it was hard to clip the cross ties on him. I smacked him in the shoulder again and he quieted down long enough for me to put the clips on him. Then she's shaking his head again, flipping it up in the air, swinging it from side to side the works. I thought, since he had been good in the other barn and the problem started up again the instant we came into this barn, maybe it's too dusty in there so I walked him out a few feet to put the bridle on him (it was in Robert's tack room the whole time, of course.)

No sooner had I got the bridle on him he was back to shaking his head but this time he was also spinning around, I think he was whacking his head into me on purpose, he pushed me with his shoulder, (I hate it when he does that) and I had to knee him in the barrel to keep him away from me. I thought maybe the noseband was too tight, it was already done up when I put it on him and I handn't checked, the way he was freaking out it seemed like something was hurting him so I tried to get the bridle off him. He wouldnt let me touch is face, and he flipped out when I touched the nose band. I finally managed to get him to hold still just long enough to undo it and then off he goes again, running in circles, I think he had started bucking by that point. I'm holding the reins because I dont have a halter on him. I've got it in my hand and I'm trying to get it on him and he throws his head away from me so suddenly and so forcefully that I lose my grip on the reins and off he goes. Nothing seems to be bothering him while he's munching on grass outside the barn and I walk up to get him and he starts to trot into the barn but he stops to look back and I grabbed him. He tried to pull me over to where he wanted to go but God knows I've spent enough time being pulled by Colonel to know what it takes to beat him. I bent my knees, rocked back on my heels and pulled on him and he stopped walking but again with the head shaking. I managed to get the halter on, dont remember how, I know he was shaking his head the whole time but I just got it around his nose and pulled until I could get the buckle closed over his poll. I started to lead him to the arena to get some help/diagnostics from Robert, he crashed his shoulder into me and I smacked him with the end of the lead rope and sent him flying around in circles. More bucking ensued and around and around he went. He actually led reasonably well up to the barn, some head tossing but not that bad. Robert asked me how he's doing and I was still breathing pretty hard from fighting with him and just so frustrated I felt like I could scream.

Robert took him, Jade left the arena because they were finished with their lesson. Jerry was getting Imp out to get his lesson. So Robert tells me, oh, you don't want the halter to be on like this and takes off the halter and starts to take of the bridle so he can put the halter back on. But he didn't keep the halter around Colonel's neck so when Colonel sees that he's free he starts to back away from Robert and make a run for the gate. Robert cut him off and I sprinted for the gate. Robert was clutching Colonels nose still and had pinned him against the fence and was getting the halter back on. Once it was back on Colonel was still tossing his head. Every time he tossed his head Robert jerked on the lead line and backed him up and glared at him a little bit. He said that there was no reason for him to be doing that, that Colonel smelled sweaty and that he didn't like the way his eyes were looking either. I asked if it could be the saddle bothering him. The girth was loose but we decided to test it anyway. We took it off and for a few seconds he was calm, but then violent head tossing again. Robert checked him all over for soreness and found none. We got a lunge line and Robert lunged him a little bit. He was mediocre and Robert told me to long line him for about 10 minutes and then put him back.

I got the long lines all set up. Colonel is perfectly calm in the cross ties at the main barn, bits well, stands for everything and I lead him out to the arena. When we stop in the arena he doesnt stop straight but instead whirls around in front of me. I straighten him out and get myself set up to drive. He is absolutely terrible on the long lines. He tosses his head and he pulls and pulls on me. One thing I like about the long lines is that when there's too much rein contact I know exactly who's fault it is and its not mine. He doesnt want to walk on a straight track away from the wall but I do my best. After a few minutes he wants to trot which is annoying. He also wants to stop and start a lot. We get a few decent runs around the arena without too much fuss so I put him back, frustrated and confused. (I am anyway; Colonel, who knows?.) Robert asks me how he was and I told him I was out of my dept with him. He said "you're better than you think" I replied "That could but but I think he's worse than you think." Robert thinks I was doing the same thing he would be doing but agreed to take him out while I watched. He'll decide what he thinks needs to be done, I'd decide if I think I can do it. The working theory is that he's just being a bastard and the way to punish him is to lunge him until he's tired when he starts acting up.

The question is, how do you set it up so that you can lunge him in response to him doing something stupid, and what stupid thing he does do you want to punish him for? You can take him out on a lunge line and he's pretty much fine. I think the trouble probably starts when you give him the impression he's going to be ridden. I think he has a problem with bits. He likes to lean on them and he's offended when they restrain him. I don't get it. Robert says there are no sores in his mouth so thats not the problem. At a minimum I think I'll need to put a saddle on him for this operation. What I'm leaning towards right now is putting a saddle on him, leading him out to the arena on a lunge line, bridle in hand. If he starts fussing for that part, great, send him out and lunge him for that. I wish there was a good way we could warm him up for this maybe I'll take him straight out to the arena, lunge him at a walk, then take him back and put a saddle on him. Then he'll be warmed up and I can send him off galloping/bucking without too much concern. I dont want him to pull something. Anyway, assuming he'll fuss once the saddle is on, when do I start with the lunging? When he starts tossing his head? Should I wait until it gets sufficiently violent? I want to make sure he knows what he did wrong besides just generally pissing me off. If he doesnt lead right, and starts prancing and/or tossing his head that would definitely be a good lunging moment. Ultimately I'll probably just go out there and when the moment feels right I'll send him out there and make him wish he hadn't messed with me but I'd like to have some thoughts beforehand about what I'm looking for.

Whether or not he fusses with the saddle I want to put the bridle on him and lead him around with that on. If/when he fusses over that: again, out on the circle, working hard until he really wishes he wasnt. Once there is no fuss with the bridle I want to get on him. I'll have the halter on under the bridle and if he gives me any fuss I'll hop off him and lunge him. He aught to be damn tired/docile by that point so I dont think it will be a problem but I dont want to do this on multiple days because he will be sore, I dont want to take him out sore and I'm curious how he will behave the following day. This will be a come-to-Jesus type operation. We'll have to walk him out a lot after all this. Under saddle wont do it either, he'll need to be hot walked but I think he'll probably be seeing the light at this point and should lead pretty well. And if he doesn't .... :)
The next day he'll need to be hot walked too. Just walking around no likely amount of soreness will excuse/explain misbehaving and I might send him out on another round of run-till-you-wish-you-weren't but I want to decisively deal with this, the leading, the head tossing, the generally pissyness, all of it. A serious attitude adjustment is what I hope this will accomplish.

First day back

Ok, it was my first day back on the farm and I managed to make it a fairly productive one I think. Robert and I worked Luca, Imp and Reno in the cart. I practiced loading Star into the trailer. I lunged Colonel, and I scouted out the hill a little bit and generated some new thoughts about the hill path.
While we were getting out Luca and getting him ready to go I worked on convincing Robert of two things. 1) He needs to be giving better feedback about Alyssa's riding and 2) Luca really really needs to have better manners enforced more often. He definitely agreed with item two, but I think it will take a little more shaming into it. One thing that I think will help is that one of Luca's little 'excursions' wound up running him into the bridle-cleaning hook, this got snagged on his bridle. He wouldn't step forward when I asked him to and instead he backed up, pulled the bridle off his head and put a cut right down his nose. The cut is long but not wide. Robert's reaction was the usual "its far from his heart" but also more amusing to me, "I'll have to move that hook." Yep, that's clearly the solution just move everything out of the way so that when he goes wandering around in the cross ties he wont bump into anything and then refuse to follow instructions to help get him out of whatever mess he manages to find. The drive itself was quite nice and uneventful.

I did some trailer loading with star a couple of times. The first time I just let her sniff it, I had her with me while I was opening it up and locking the door open, which startled her frequently but she got over it as quickly as always. I grabbed some grass and led her up to the trailer. She was pretty happy to put her front feet up on the trailer in exchange for grass or even just release of pressure on the lead rope. Whenever something unexpected happened she got down off the trailer in a hurry. I let her get down but I didn't let her get very far away from the trailer; I always made her get back up again afterward. I put her back briefly because I decided that the thing to do was to stockpile grass instead of getting grass, bringing her to the trailer, getting her front hooves up on the trailer, feeding her the grass, backing her up off the trailer and then repeating this process again. After a little bit of coaxing and a lot of standing around cultivating an air of boredom and disinterest she decided to get in the trailer. I got her in twice, then Robert came and we took out Luca. Then, after Luca was done with and Imp (who bucked and reared when we were out with him) was done, I got the machete and cut a lot more grass and we loaded up again. By the fourth time in the trailer she was getting in pretty quickly. It still took some coaxing but it was a lot faster. I made her stay in the trailer a while, she at some grass but before she finished the grass I backed her out of the trailer. When I led her away she was looking wistfully at the grass in the back of the trailer. I hope that impression of wanting to get back in the trailer will stick in her mind and I'll see if Robert will pull the trailer up again for us sometime.

I took Colonel out to lunge. He was really quite good. We did a long warm up at the walk and he was his old calm, lazy self. He also did his usual western pleasure trot (a.k.a. twinkle toes trot) Most of our work was done over the pole, everything except for warming up and cooling down, actually. We did lots of walk trot transitions and then lots of trot canter transitions. The walk trot transitions were good. He was generally pretty good about picking up his feet over the pole at the walk and trot. He didn't do as good a job at the canter.

Going to the right he would pick up the left lead canter every time he crossed the pole, but he was quite obliging about switching, after a while he did it without being asked. I was pleased about this. To the right though he was actually better about his pace and his transitions but not about picking up his feet. At one point he managed to step on the pole with his front feet, sending it shooting backwards and then he stepped on it with his back feet. He was unhappy about this and the next time around he jumped the pole, but he landed on the right lead so that's good right? Achem.

Going to the left he was a little bit more rambunctious. Robert and I independently came to the conclusion that he's a little more off balance going to the left. I guess I neglected the left lead canter a little too much last summer. That should be a quick fix though. It wast too bad all and all. He bucked a little, threw his head in the air a little, and he was a little too fast. After doing some canter-trot transitions he calmed down at the canter. I think he stepped under himself better after doing some transitions and I think knowing it was coming led him to believe that a saner canter would be the easiest option for him if he wanted to get back to his twinkle toes trot. In both directions though I was unsatisfied with his competence at setting himself up for the pole and, more importantly, picking up his damn feet! I thought about getting on him, since he had been so good, but I was tired and hungry after scouting out the trail so I didn't, but I definitely will tomorrow. I definitely see a lot a lot a lot of trot poles in that boy's future.

Scouting out the trail was interesting. I was wrong in thinking that a machete to clear the brush would be sufficient. That trail will need to be cut with a chainsaw, not a machete. The problem is that there are all these little clumps of tree-like things. The way they grow they'll just have to be cut at the base I think, in order to clear enough head space for a horse and rider to go through. The grade is a little too steep to go straight up, but the soil is about right for the retaining wall idea. There's plenty of space though for a nice conditioning trail. I'll have to get over my fear of chainsaws and its going to be slow going. I'll need Robert to help me plan the trail. I want to go in with stakes and some bright ribbon to mark out the proposed trail that way I can just go in and cut. I think it will take most of the summer to build it but I still want to try.

Robert things that McIver park is more like 30 minutes away and with a horse trailer that might be right but he's still willing to take us sometime. I forgot to ask him about riding Lady, and I'll need to talk to him more about the trail and about chainsaws. Those things really scare me but I think I'll just have to buck up and be careful. In other barn improvement news, they're still cutting hay in the fields but they've got the section between the first creek and the gazebo done. Robert says we can set up some jumps there. I think we'll have Colonel jumping out there before you know it. Although I guess we'll start in the arena. ;) Robert claims that the main thing keeping them from moving into the new house is he needs to find out where the sheet rockers damaged the wiring to the dishwasher. Once he finds it and fixes it they're moving in or so he claims. Oh, and also we got a new horse in today. Its a breeding stock paint, which apparently is a paint horse that isn't color but that can produce color. 14'2 or shorter. I think she (he?) is pretty cute. The owner is a nice girl I only interacted with her briefly. The horse is one that likes to walk under the rope. Didn't even wait for me to walk off before starting to slip under that rope across his door, as though that was what he was supposed to do and there was no reason to hide it. So now we're up to four horses that need their doors closed at all times during feeding. Super. Last news-ish item: I've shed the title of working student and adopted the title of intern.

Goals for tomorrow:
Ride Colonel
Dressage Lesson for Luca
Load star again?
Ride Papillon and ask her to frame up at the walk a little.
Take Lady out and brush her.
Ride star, or lunge her over a pole like I did with Colonel.

McIver State Park

Ever since I've been out at the barn I keep hearing people talk about going riding out at Miguiver park. People have even said "oh, you should come with me next time I go down." Well it all just came together now. The title of the post ruins the punchline but its McIver state park. And its a 15 minute drive from the barn right down the highway. Its right along the river and it has horse trails. I think I'm going to add to my list of goals, for both Star and Colonel (and maybe Lady) we need to take them to the park and bring them back alive and sound, etc.

We'll need to practice loading Star. I'm going to take Robert's advice and just bring some food into the trailer, tie her to the trailer, sit down with a good book and wait for her to get hungry enough to walk in. I think I'll work with her first though. Get her stepping through the water, stepping over the bridge (preferably without lots of balking and head shaking) walking through those giant scary hay bales, etc. I wonder if Colonel loads well already. He probably hasnt been loaded into a trailer in years. Same goes for Papillon and Lady. I think the thing to do for the first trip is to take papillon out with one of them at a time. She's reasonably calm around strange stuff like this. She might get a little hyped up but by the time we're attempting all this hopefully she will have figured out that she gets to work after, and not before, warming up. Maybe we should take Papillon and Keno out first to scout the trails so we have a better idea what we're dealing with. Actually its only 7 miles of trail, we could do it on foot too. Anyway, its another project I'm exited about.

The path

Sometimes I get it into my head that this one thing is going to fix all my problems if I can just get it set up right. Right now that thing is working horses on a sloping path. It's supposed to be great for building up a hind end and for muscle and coordination in general. Papillon needs to build up muscle again, and her hind end is pretty deficient right now and walking on a slope would be great. Colonel needs to learn to balance and to not work on the forehand so much. Going up will force him to use his hind end and going down hills will motivate him to focus on what he is doing because there's nothing I can do to keep him from falling on his face. Star has a very strong shoulder, but she hasn't really developed or learned to engage her hind end and she has no topline. People think she's ewe necked because her underline is so much more developed than her topline.

The problem is: stoneybrook is flat. Very flat, I think a small glacier flattened it out a while ago. I should say though, most of stoney brook is flat. The valley ends and there is a pretty good hill at the end of the property. The problem is that right at the base of the hill the trails stop. So the whole thing is covered in brambles, blackberries, and generally thick underbrush plus trees. Currently absolutely impassable. I asked a friend of mine who also works there sometimes to clear a path. He was excited about it too; Lady is his big project and her hind end needs developing too if she is going to get back to jumping. He was always clearing brush anyway with that machete. I am a little scared of them. I can very easily envision chopping my own head off with one. Anyway, no path was built, so now its up to me.

People keep telling me that machetes are not really so bad and that it will be fine. So I've decided to do it. But I realized after scouting the place out that its not so obvious where to put the path, what grade it needs to be, how much the footing is going to need to be reenforced, where exactly the property line is, etc. etc. So I've been reading about trail design and the needs of horses in particular. I suspect I'm going to have to build some retaining walls, just simple ones, but I dont know yet. On my first mission, almost a year ago now, I didn't really get into the thick of it very far. I thought I had successfully delegated this task. Now that I finally have the opportunity to get back to the barn on a regular basis its gone and gotten intensely hot and I think this is a mission requireing long sleeved clothing, and I'm a little worried about ticks, so maybe a hood? Evidently I've signed myself up for a trip out there very early in the morning. But, its going to be a great project.

Goals II

I dont feel like working right this moment so I'm also going to do a goals post.
I second everything said about luca, keno, and Papillon, but I'd like to expand on Colonel.

Colonel: Its hard to know exactly what needs to be done without figuring out where he is right now. At the end of the summer he was cantering in a balanced fashion, mostly, and we were starting him over small jumps. At the trot he was reasonably good about calmly taking the fences. At a canter he was convinced that he needed to go very fast in order to get over. Watching him jump on the lunge line at the canter makes me think this might actually be true. When he came up to it calmly and tried to jump the small rail, he knocked it over. When he sped up to get over it, he didnt have too much trouble. I agree that more practice would proabably help, but I think this is an issue that could better be solved with more flatwork. He needs to learn to actually collect himself at the canter. Without leaning on anyones hands, I might add. I suspect that a lot of his more mentally based issues would get better with consistent work. So in summation my goals for him are:

• diagnostics to see what we're dealing with
• calmer behavior in general and particularly outdoors
• a collected canter
• jumping at the trot in a calm fashion
• jumping at the canter both calmly and correctly (ie, clearing the jump)

Star,
I'm was pretty happy with her walk and trot and the end of the summer. She was yielding to leg pressure, stopping, and generally pretty calm. She did have/develop a fear of logs which definitely needs fixing. She picked up the canter only when she was well set up with the corrrect bend, usually from a circle was easyest. She needs more practice with her canter transitions so that she'll be more balanced for the transition. She needs to be more balanced at the canter in general so that she doesnt feel the need to stop and rear or balk so much. At least I think thats the problem. Her headset is aweful. Really just terrible. It doesnt help her balance any. Plus she'll never be able to jump anything well if she doesnt develop a topline and learn to collect herself. She doesnt exactly scream jumping prospect but if she could jump an 18" crosrail she would be much more valuable, which is important if she's sold someday. Along with headest goes collection. She needs it. Also I'd like her to stop shying from the barrels in the arena, thats annoying. In summation my goals for star are:
Bring her back to a more calm state of mind by getting her in work

• Get her in a little better shape since she's been off work so much
• Get her to set her head properly
• Get her collected at the w/t/c
• Get her balanced at the canter
• Get her to be more calm around logs
• Get her to accept things moving around by her feet
• Maybe start working her over jumps again if she can get the above stuff down
• Get her to stop attacking other horses
  
• Get her to stop shying at the barrels at the end of the arena
  

As a side note, I'd like to make sure lady is ridden consistently. She deserves that. And try to get her a little calmer just walking around.

Also, for the barn, I'd like to clear a path up that hill. It would be nice to have a sloping path to walk up. Either get Ian to do it or just go out there and do it myself (or with help?). I just dont want to kill anyone, or myself, with that machete but it might be the fastest way to go. We'll see.