Fell off a horse today

I had a pretty productive day today. I took Dylan out and lunged him near the gate. He pretty much ignored the gate, which pleased me. We wound up continuing to work on staying out on the circle. He thinks that trotting is done on a big circle and that walking should be done on a smaller circle, so he likes to come into the center a little bit when he's walking. Fixing that but then bringing him to a walk was annoying, but it went pretty well I think. Robert wants to have us put a bit in his mouth and lunge him with it. 

The trailer was still hooked up from the show last weekend. (Luca got 5 firsts, some seconds and a fifth I think, anyway he's got enough points for his supreme in halter, but he's going to keep doing halter classes to try to get high point champion in halter again. He's a few points away from his registry of honor in driving, next stop supreme!) I decided to do some more trailer loading with star. I took the machete and cut a bunch of grass. She came right in the trailer and I decided it was time for her to learn to stand tied in the trailer. I let her eat more grass for a while. I ran the lunge line through the loop in the far end of the trailer. After a while I brought her head up so that it was at the same level as the hay bag still hung in the trailer from the show. She sniffed the hay, looked around suspiciously. I left the trailer slowly and I just stood there. I dont know how long I stood there. I got back into the trailer, planning to let her out. Robert came up behind us just at that moment, of course. She did her usual terrified of robert thing. Then Lil drove her car past us. That was apparently pretty scary too. Still, she didn't pull on the lead rope at all. When she had calmed down more I asked her to come out of the trailer. She didn't want to, which is odd, but I kept asking and she backed out of it well. 

Cari arrived and so I decided that was plenty of witnesses to get lady out. Lady was just barely off, so I decided I'd ride her. I also decided not to lunge her. I think my laziness:fear ratio is a little off. Lady was very very spooky in the arena. She tossed her head sometimes, jigged, and ran sideways a little. Mostly she spooked at the world. In her defense it was pretty windy. Also Robert drove his truck with the trailer on it by the arena. He was on his way to clean out the trailer in the field. Lady apparently disapproves of trailers in her line of sight. Also she doesn't like them driving past the arena. She also spooked at some stuff at the far end of the arena. She spooked at a tree, I think. I have a hard time telling sometimes what that mare is concerned about. She did one little tiny rear, when I asked her to go forward and she didn't want to because of the tree; or something. we walked around the arena for a while, spooking, jigging, head tossing continued. She didn't seem to be angry per se, just nervous. Eventually she was calm for a while and I got off her. She was sweating a lot harder than she should have been. Not sure what was up with that. Maybe a nervous thing?

 She really wanted to trot. Cari says that I should just trot her in 20 m circles until she's calm enough to walk. I have mixed feelings about this idea. She clearly would like to trot. I think it might even be true that trotting in circles would calm her down. On the other hand, she's not totally sound at the trot. Also, I'm not sure what I think about the attitude of trotting so that she'll walk better. I think she should walk well and be rewarded with some trotting. Plus an inability to walk calmly doesn't bode well for the trot, in my opinion. I think she needs to spend more time in that arena, so if she got lunged while I was away job hunting, that would be super. Even better if she got ridden but its not necessary.

I got Papillon out and Cari worked her over with her hands, showing me some pressure points and she confirmed that her right shoulder is hurting her some. She was talking about massage too, and she really reminded me of the importance of currying. I had just been doing it to get the dust out. I know its good for circulation to the skin and that was another motivator. I hadn't really thought about how it feels on the muscles. So I curried pretty hard and watched Papillon. She seemed to approve. 

Cari also told me about what she likes to do when a horse is being disobedient and trotting when they shouldn't.  She likes to have them sidepass or circle or shoulder in or some form of working harder. Every time they trot, have them sidepass then offer them the chance to walk straight, they either do, or they sidepass some more. I tried this with Papillon. In so far as she was willing to listen to my leg, it worked pretty well. Sometimes my leg didn't mean all that much to her. Next time I'm bringing a crop.

The last horse I worked was Keno. I've been meaning to hack him and work on his jigging too. I brought a crop and put the western saddle on him. I walked him around the outdoor arena a little. Trotted a little. After I asked him to trot coming down to the walk didn't go as well as I wanted. He pranced some but settled down when I really insisted. The walk started out nicely enough out on the trail. Then he started prancing and I shoved him to one side, then the other side, then he was willing to walk. Repeated this a couple times on our way down the long side. I decided to cut down the middle of the field so that I could go back to the mowed part to work him harder now that he was warmed up. About a quarter of the way down the field he started prancing, and I tried to shove him to the side. He refused, I cropped him, he reared up. I jerked his rein to the side and I leaned forward and to the side. The side leaning was sortof instinctive and I'm not totally displeased with the instinct actually. Anyway, he went past 45 degrees which is my personal threshold for serious rearing. In the middle of all this I sortof zoned out thinking about other rearing situations. I was thinking about that video on youtube and I was thinking about the Walter Farley books. I slipped off the side. I dont know if I would have regardless of whether or not I was paying attention. Anyway, it was perfect falling off a horse weather. It was raining yesterday but not today so the ground was soft but not muddy. I did a nice tuck and roll sortof landing, jumped up and grabbed keno's reins then cropped him on the chest as he was reaching for grass. I tightened up his cinch and I grabbed mane and the pommel part of the saddle right next to the horn and jumped back on. 

He was a little more docile after that, or at least for a while. He jigged again, I sidepassed him, he refused, I cropped him and he reared again. This time not as high, also, this time I was pretty sure thats what he would do so I was pretty far forward pretty fast. That made it more work to rear than he was interested in, I think. I took him over to the mowed spot furthest away from the arena/barn/home. We did some trotting, some transitions from trot to walk and I discovered that he really really likes to rush towards home. The transitions helped with that. We picked up a trot circle, about 20 m I think. Thats what I was shooting for anyway. After several minutes of trotting we picked up the canter. On the first half of the circle he was pretty good. As soon as he was pointed towards home he ran and he bucked. I spun him and I kicked him when he wasn't spinning hard enough for my satisfaction. I took a breath, he took a breath, then we went right back up into the canter. He was pretty good after that, a little fast towards the arena but slowed right back down on the other side of the circle. Then I pointed him down the long side of the field towards the back creek. I only ran about a third of the way down because I was loosing my stirrup and tired and didn't feel like falling off twice in one day if he decided to do anything stupid. I dont know why I couldn't pick it back up from a canter. Stupid western stirrups, thats my excuse. 

We walked after that. He was pretty happy to walk most of the way. We still did some sidepassing exercises but he was a little more docile for them, even when I cropped him for not moving. He needs to be worked more out there. He was so happy to be running, his cute little ears were perked forward, very nice. When I'm out again, I want to start working on doing one whole loop around the field at a canter. I think Keno would be a good horse for that project. Right now its a little muddy on the far side for that. Also, I want to do it in the dressage saddle, I feel really stiff in the western saddle. 

I fed and it came up that I didn't think Colonel was safe. He wasn't super thrilled to hear this. I think if he can get Colonel leading well I will re-consider, but it doesn't count if he's tired. He needs to lead well even when he's full of pep. He just doesn't display any regard for my personal space or even my location. I think he sometimes runs into me on purpose and nothing I've done has dissuaded him from doing it again. For me thats sufficient, he should know better. He doesn't act like it. I'm sticking to my guns here: he's a time bomb, and I'm not getting near him. 

 

I should be sleeping...

Friday was as I expected-- worked Reno and Luca (rode Reno, he was eh, decent, doesn't respect a snaffle as much as the curb), bathed them, cleaned the cart, cleaned harness.

Gillian declared Dylan to be lunging competent and gave him to me for a test run. He did pretty well-- he understands what I want him to do, it's just a matter of how much he wants to do it. And as Gillian said, when he whoas and stands, you can tell that every fiber of his being but one wants to come into the circle and be loved on. That other fiber says "remember what happened the last time you tried to do that? Bad things happened. Bad. Stay away from the scary lady with the whip."

That was Friday. Saturday I got up at 7 to get to the barn by 9:15 (leave house at 7:30, get on bus 7:50, get on next bus 8:30, arrive at 9:15) to clean stalls, since Robert had left to go to the show at an ungodly hour. 7 is pretty ungodly for a college student during the summer, but 4:30 is the time where you just stay awake all night for it. Got up, cleaned stalls with Gillian's help, managed to not run myself over with the tractor.

I took Dylan out twice today and was very pleased. The first we lunged, and he did very well. We've been lunging him in the very back of the arena because he wanted to stop and pull towards the gate at that point every circle, and it got stronger and stronger the closer you were to the gate. That's obviously something he needs to get over. So today, as we were walking and trotting around, I would move us a little towards the gate. We were solidly in the middle of the arena today, with no stopping due to gate (he did fall a little in love with Jade, the chestnut Arabian). His trot is still very forward but he's kept it to a trot thus far. He slipped once but that was because he was in a muddy spot, and he didn't get at all upset.

Because I'm dumb and feel like pushing my luck (also he's dirty and half white) I decided I wanted to brush him. The first step to that is learning if he crossties, because that's the only good way we have to secure them. So I attached one crosstie to his halter and ran the lunge line through the loop of the other clipped up crosstie. He tested it, pushed, felt pressure and gave to it. Yay! I stepped back about ten or fifteen feet. He was a little more restless, and kept looking around. He stood still for maybe half a minute, so I went up and scratched him. Oh!, he said. This is the game. I don't move and you pet me. I went back away from him. He stood still and looked directly at me the entire time. We played this game for a few minutes. He's very very focused on people, and aware but not spooky. Once he gets a concept, he gets it. It's a little weird to be so clearly the center of this horse's world.

I decided this was a good place to stop for now and put him back in his stall. He still needs work on haltering and unhaltering, but he's getting better. I pulled him out a couple hours later to actually brush him. I put him in the wash stall, which he was highly suspicious of, but walked in without a problem and turned around and stood without more than a few snorts. Again, crosstied one side and just ran his lead rope through a ring so I could release pressure if he started getting worried. Xsarena, a Trakehner mare, was being groomed next to him, which helped, but that horse did not move a single foot for about fifteen or twenty minutes while I curried and brushed. It was fabulous. I put the other crosstie on and he didn't even notice. He did get a little worried when she left, and started getting antsy, so as soon as he stood still for several seconds I called it good and put him back. I am really liking this horse.

I think I like getting them at 5 years old and barely halterbroke-- he's sensible, smart, and has an attention span. I'm pretty sure that Gillian and I could do most of the basic work on this boy by ourselves. I wouldn't, but I think we could get him broke to w/t/c under saddle fairly easily, and I think we could get him pulling things and tolerating carts on his back. I've seen most of Robert's process and with such a nice horse like this I think I could probably do it. Again, I won't, or at the very least I would do it with Robert's supervision. I have knowledge of the process, but I don't have the techniques I would need if anything even slightly out of the ordinary did arise. It'd be worth it to see the look on Robert's face though if he showed up one day and we were driving him around the field.

Rode Keno, he was alright but a bit of a pain. I used my close contact saddle and man, it uses different muscling than the dressage saddle does! I need to ride in it more.

I spent a ridiculous amount of time talking to Cari, a trainer at the barn. She's an ex-eventer and now does dressage and lessons. She's very nice and absolutely full of information.

Ooh, we got two new horses on Friday-- an Appaloosa and a Belgian/Arab. We called them Spotty and Drafty. Their real names are Spot (we were close!) and Bella. Bella is fat, and Spot is at least 100, probably 150-200 lbs underweight. Bella may go into driving training, and Spot is here for some badly needed weight gain. They're both broke to ride and we have permission to ride them. Bella doesn't have a bridle, though, and there's no way in hell we'd ride Spot right now. The girl was riding him(?) though. Without a helmet, and I'm pretty sure she's under 18 (insurance). She's pretty big, and Spot is not, especially in this condition. She asked him for a trot and almost fell off, she's got a little of the chair seat. I decided I could not find a tactful way to tell them they were hurting the horse, and as a representative of Stoneybrook I sort of had to be tactful if I was going to say anything at all.

Incidentally, I tend to pick a horse and label it MINE for a period of time. In this period, I gush about whatever he may have done right this day no matter how unimportant. This horse now appears to be Dylan.

The kittens have learned to climb legs. Lovely. Three small things on your jeans, not so bad. Gabe decided that he'd try this too. OW. One adult male cat (with extra toes no less) clinging to your legs with only breeches between? Not so cute.

I ride Keno a lot

Really, that's about all I did on Tuesday and Thursday. Wednesday I went to the lab and did brain surgery (no, really. On a rat, but whatever.). Thursday I came out again and was generally useless. I watched Gillian break her "I don't ride lame horses" code to walk Lady around and was slightly amused. I watched Pam bounce around and lean wayyy behind the vertical at the canter, and got to tell her "I don't know if you're doing this on purpose, but you're leaning back and that might throw Breeze off balance," as well as how to tell which lead is which while you're on the horse. Yes, really. I helped harness up Reno and told Robert that his hands weren't even, and Reno magically improved. I unharnessed Reno. I finally called Robert on Luca's leading problems and got to watch that, and then got to harness up Luca. Very very shortly afterwards, I got to untack Papillon and unharness Luca.

Then I got to hold an axe with a broken handle while Robert hit it with a sledgehammer to break concrete. Eventually I got gloves and then, even better, safety glasses.

I put pairs reins on minis. I fed horses. I tacked up Keno and warmed him up. A little girl used to take lessons on him a few months ago, but one day he spooked and she fell off and broke her arm. After she healed, she'd been driving a little POA. A week or so she said she wanted to start riding again. So just to remind him to behave, I pulled him out when he'd finished his grain (he doesn't get that much of it, it's okay) and did lots of "pick your damn shoulder up and bend" work.

I need to ride in a close contact saddle more often. Keno is being put in one for the little girl so that's what I put on him. And, um, ow. The seat's completely flat and there's no padding. Which is fine, I rode in one like that all summer, I actually like that. But the twist is way too narrow. My seatbones were barely in the seat, and I felt like you could see air between my hip joints (there's no good way to describe that portion of anatomy, is there? I remember an old instructor for which English was not a first language, and we had to coach him on words. He was very, very hesitant to use the word "crotch." It was kind of adorable.) and the saddle. I got sort of used to it, but I noticed something I actually learned from Centered Riding, which is that I post off balance, with more weight in my left. Something which is noticeable when I'm using my stirrups but not when I'm not, like Western or dressage saddles. I'm not used to having my knee angles close that much, and it feels weird. I like wrapping my legs around the barrel.

Tomorrow will be basically the same-- we're working Reno and Luca, cleaning the cart, and cleaning both of them too for the show on Saturday/Sunday. Maybe I'll take Star out for a spin.

Gold Brothers

Dylan is 5. It's fantastic. His owner said he led and lunged, but... not so much. I watched him walking into her space and circling around, no attention to her, and quietly raised an eyebrow. Now I see.

Keno was good today. He's understanding the concept of being pushed together now. By the end, if he got a little strung out, I squeezed my legs and hands, basically a half halt, and he came back together very nicely. I suspect he's breaking at the poll to avoid the bit, so a little more leg is needed than hands. I'll have to ask someone to watch to see how badly he's doing it. We walked through the jump field to cool off. He looooved it because the grass is so high he could walk at the same pace and grab grass without lowering or turning his head. I still think we should take him to a dressage show. He's a crappy looking horse but he's a nice mover, responsive, and will stay sound.

I also rode Reno. We put a leverage bit on him and he basically ignored the whole thing, so today we added a curb chain. That got his attention! Now he neckreins, whoas nicely, and is much less likely to try to just barge through the bit. After a while in the ring to see how he reacted to the bit and to make sure Gillian and Star wouldn't kill each other in the next fifteen minutes, we went out to the back forty. This part is important because I haven't been on the back forty on a horse since the first day I got back on a horse in October (okay more than 100 feet into it). I haven't gone by myself since September before my accident. Reno was a little jiggy, I was a little panicky, but focusing on the ride (and grabbing the horn) worked okay. I've wanted to do this for a while but haven't had a horse I felt comfortable enough on. So that was good.

That was actually all I accomplished today. I had a crappy night* and needed some solid, no problem horse time. Keno needs to get worked pretty hard on about a biweekly/weekly basis for him to stay compliant, so I spent a long time on him, and then got caught in conversation by Cari, so he was thrilled to stand there eating grass while we talked. He also helps me with my position, and he's a horse who basically understands the concepts I'm asking him for. He won't do it, though, unless I ask right, so it's enjoyable to see him improve. He's also getting better about his girthiness, or at least we have an agreement. I put his girth on, stand back and let him dance and back up and express his displeasure at life as long as he does NOT take one step towards me. He stops after a few seconds, I tighten it a hole or two, step back, watch the Keno shuffle, etc. If he had withers I'd cut him some slack because the saddle wouldn't roll, but he's round and so it's necessary.

Geldings are major dorks. It's kind of adorable.

*One of the kittens started coughing up blood last night. A fabulous person drove to the emergency vet. Unfortunately, we lost the kitten to an uncurable, fatal virus. So best case scenario, the other three are magically uninfected. Worst case, we lose them all. As they're acting normal, they're either magic or more likely nonsymptomatic carriers. I don't want anyone to have to go through this, so kittens are under quarantine until they can get tested for FIP at 8 weeks old, if I can finagle a way to keep them that long. It sucks. Very sad, and I didn't get to bed until 4 so I was tired and drained at the barn, then proceeded to have an apple in the morning and nothing else until I was going to work, so I didn't actually feel capable of much work. If kittens are carriers, they can live with other carriers, but are otherwise confined to single catdom. If they get sick, it will probably go fast. If they're healthy, they shouldn't be too difficult to place.

Kittens!

Top to bottom: 2, 1, 4. To the left is 3.
At least 2 and 3 are eating, everyone is drinking and making a complete mess of their carrier. They're not thrilled about being handled, but will walk up to me once I get them out of their cage. An attempt to let them hang out on my bed failed dramatically. 4 tried to go to my bedside table, but instead fell down to the ground (a fall of at least 4 feet), and was displeased when I removed him from his hiding spot. They all found the spot behind the headboard, which was fine, except 2 and 4 managed to squeeze down between the back of the headboard backing and the wall. Again, displeased yowly kittens. I put 1 and 3, the behaving kittens, back. 2 and 4 had at this point found my desk. Ian's big metal organizing thing was there. They had a ball squeezing their grotesquely giant heads and tiny bodies through there for a while, until I had 1 and 3 safely away. Then they got put back, too. All four spent a while mewing at me after that. I mewed back, so they climbed the wire door and looked at me pitifully.

I have high hopes they will be rehomed easily. If I didn't know I couldn't keep one, I'd be very tempted to keep 3. I have three numbers from the bus ride home of interested parties, though I'd love it if they went to people I knew.

I wonder what their dad thinks about this. He's a tame outdoors cat and loves people. I found him sitting on the pallet where we caught them and started meowing at me-- did he know they were there or did he just find a cat scent and was curious? We brought the kittens out, and they spilled to the front of the cage, mewing frantically and trying to touch him. He was very interested ("What are those things?") but quickly grew more interested in the horizontal position of my legs.

We'll have to livetrap the mother to spay her, and get Gabriel snipped as soon as possible. I'm pretty irritated that Robert's been planning to do this since October, and still hasn't gotten around to it. Livetrapping will probably ruin any chance we have of making her friendly, but at least she won't be making more feral cats.

I didn't really do much yesterday other than kittens. I helped get Reno ready to ride and walked him around for a minute before letting Gillian take over. I watched Lady be lame. I took Nicky for a walk with Gillian and Star. The interesting thing about Nicky seems to be her intense respect for someone attached to her halter. Her owner said she was a wild weanling and it took 3 hours to wrestle a halter onto her, but she's always respected it since. This goes to an impressive level. Yesterday she was acting up a little, but I asked her to trot. She freaked out, went to rear and bolt. I'd basically committed myself to having to let go of the lead rope, but a second after she put pressure on it, she stopped by throwing herself to the ground. Then she got up and stood very calmly. This is the second time she's done this sort of thing, but the first I thought she'd just lost her balance. It genuinely seems to go deep that she must not put pressure on her halter, and it's self-reinforcing when she does this. It's nice when horses teach themselves things so you don't have to. She also was totally fine with everything she hadn't seen for months-- the bridge and the round bales.

I'm happy we have Reno under saddle. I think I'll finally have a trail horse. I haven't been more than 100 feet past the culvert under saddle since the first day I got back on a horse in October. When Nicky gets going, I hope that that will work for trails too.

I don't know what to do with Luca. When he's good, he's absolutely fabulous. When he's bad... well, damn he's bad. I can stay on no problem, but I'd rather be moving forward with our training instead of focusing on why we shouldn't buck whenever we damn well feel like it. Maybe Gillian should get on and see if the same thing happens to her, or if it's a me issue. I'm sick of him trying to kill me, and I want something fun to do. I'd rather have higher aspirations for a show than hoping Luca doesn't hop the chain and kill the judge.

Super short goals update

I've got ten minutes but I wanted to organize my thoughts on the matter of our immediate goals:

Papillon: Ride and get ready for dressage test

Star: Long line her until she's better balanced

Colonel: Come to Jesus meeting still scheduled for sometime

Reno: Ride and get ready for western pleasure show

Keno: N/A (we need Robert to help with the driving stuff)

Luca: Ride and Drive and get ready for show

Lady: lunge, apply hoof dressing and ride when she's sound again

Path: preliminary cutting of a human trail, to be widened into a horse trail

Cantering

We have got a lot on our plate these days. Yesterday, after the show, I got star out and worked her on the long lines a little. I also loaded her into the trailer and we stood there for a long time. I think that the work on the long lines helped a bit with her balance. I also think that it will help build her topline since she does start to put her head down when I have the reins set low on the surcingle. Although putting her head down isn't the same as collecting, it at least permits her to collect herself a little bit. When she throws her head up in the air she really cant help but hollow her back too. Theres no point in having long-ish pasterns if you're going to hollow your back. I think I'll try to long line her as much as possible, but I would like to get some riding hours on her too. In my copious spare time I think I'll also try to take her out riding, especially outside, get her used to the world again. I have got to work on that bridge crossing if we're going to take her to McIver park.

I rode Keno too, for my psychological benefit mostly. I have this thing about cantering. In and of itself I think it scares me a little. I really like doing it but its also the thing that happens before bad things happen to me or its the thing that causes the bad things to happen in the first place. I havent done it very much out at stoneybrook really. Papillon was rarely sound enough to canter and Keno often wasn't ridden at all because I was working other horses. Star is too unbalanced to do it well so she frequently stops dead and rears up if you ask her to canter. In the canter if you throw her balance off even slightly she stops dead (on her shoulder of course) and rears, frequently she refuses to move for a while after that. Colonel has the opposite reaction to his poor balance, he canters very very fast. It feels even faster if you've mostly been trotting before that.

My two worst spills (both resulting in concussions) were off of bolting horses. The first one I was jumping a horse I really should not have been jumping. It was a cavaletti and the horse had been an A-circuit jumper before this. Supposedly he had been lunged on a regular basis and every day he was getting better and better. Anyway, it was dumb, he rushed the jump, overjumped it, bucked then galloped off with me. I was standing in my stirrups so I couldnt use my seat to stop him, I tried to stop him, the last thing I remember was feeling my knees start to shake, I woke up on the ground and I have no idea how much memory I lost because no one was around. (Also a stupid thing to do, never jump by yourself.)

Getting concussed falling off Colonel didn't help. When I woke up from that I remembered most of what had happened but on the walk back to the barn (stupid thing to do, if you get concussed and wake up on the ground, stay on the ground) I started forgetting things and repeating myself. (And to the peanut gallery I would like to say, I forgot things more and faster than usual and repeated myself more than usual, not just the normal forgetting and repeating.) At least one of the times I was told that I had fallen off after trying to race Colonel against Shaina and Blue (rider and horse, respectively) I thought it was a stupid thing to have done. Having regained all my memory except for a few minutes in the barn talking to Ian I'm not sure that was a fair assessment. Colonel had been behaving well, we started the horses with a pretty good distance between them and I was feeling good. We said go and Blue broke from the "gate" like a proper racehorse. Colonel started bucking. After he had simmered down I figured I'd at least run after her, who knows Colonel is supposed to be pretty fast we could probably come close to catching her and I could try to pass that off as a tie or something. I had run Colonel to catch up to Shaina before, when we were chasing coyotes and that was fine. When I asked him to slow down this time, he pitched a fit. I pulled on the reins one direction, he pulled on the reins the other direction, I got pulled over onto his neck and off I went. Ian claims this isn't possible. I claim he's an idiot when it suits his purposes. I grabbed his mane long enough to get my legs underneath me but I still hit the ground hard enough to whack my head. Ever since then I've had little faith in my ability to determine whether or not a horse was going to stop when I asked him, and once again, any suggestion of excessive speed absolutely terrified me.

Working with a lesson horse at another barn helped a lot but now I need to practice at stoneybrook. The plan is to canter with Keno for a solid 5 minutes every day, gradually increase the time that I spend cantering without stopping to check and make sure that he'll stop, or to make sure that I'm not too tired to keep going without falling off. Yesterday I did 3 minutes each direction.

It was an experience I'm still processing but I did notice a few things. My sense of the passage of time is very poor, three minutes seemed to stretch on forever the first time around. The second time around it came up pretty fast. When I become concerned that we're going too fast, or the thought enters my head that I would like to stop now or that I'm falling off, or anything of the kind, I stiffen almost every relevant muscle in my body, which not only causes the obvious equitation problems, but it also makes me feel very tired. I think its like on your laptop with the estimated battery time. When the screen is bright the estimated time is much smaller than if you dim the screen to use less energy. When I tense up the likelihood of falling off increases; and the time I can spend before I cant keep that all up anymore decreases. So relaxing really helped but it is genuinely the case that it requires a great deal of conscious effort to keep in a balanced position. I can get into a rhythm trotting and then just completely zone out and be fine. I started to get to that point at the other barn, but the amount of time I could canter without too much conscious effort was pretty short. What doesnt help is that when I'm having fun I tend to lean forward. Not just on horseback, but its most noticeable on horseback because leaning forward creates a vicious cycle of leaning forward even more. So I've been using Keno to work on that. Eventually I think Lady and Colonel and maybe Reno will be good to practice with also, but right now Keno is the most reliable/sound horse we've got.

In daily miscellaneous items: I lunged Lady, walk only. She was quite good but still a little lame I think so I put some hoof dressing on her and put her back. For those keeping track we're now up to seven horses to either ride or get ready to ride: Reno, Keno, Colonel, Luca, Lady, Papillon, and Star. Plus the morgan/paint horse is in full training so it needs attention also. I assume its in training to be a driving horse but I havent heard yet. No work on Colonel today. Robert suggests using the western saddle for our come to jessus operation. The two main advantages are 1) we can rule out a saddle fit issue and 2) when it comes to actually riding him if he wants to pitch a fit its pretty easy to deal with. (I make it my policy to fall off a horse once its reared up to a certain height, and I've tested this personally: you can definitely fall backwards out of a western saddle on a rearing 7/8ths arabian mare.) The western saddle has the added bonus in my mind of being heavier than the other saddles, thus more weight to carry, thus less time getting dizzy if/when he decides to pitch a fit. No work on the trail yet either but I'm all set to go out there with some giant clippers and do some preliminary cutting. Also, a picture of Ian's baby horse:

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.

Goals

Goals for ponies:
Keno needs to learn how to drive. We've pulled a tire with him, he was not thrilled at first but dealt with it. Also, I'd love it if he learned how to accept bit contact under saddle.[edit: and handgallop without bucking me off. Ow.]

Luca, just get him a little more finished under saddle. Walk and trot are solid, but he's either extremely unbalanced at the canter or just wants to be an idiot. Jumping would be lovely, too.

Colonel-- stop being crazy?

Papillon, be consistently sound and consistently worked!