Barn Pixie

The red mare, while being bitchy and surly, has moments of real appeal

She was tight in the back and very unhappy with me this morning, and it got worse before it got better. She hated sitting trot, but nailed walk/canter transitions, and got many of the trot/canter transitions so long as I was posting up until she struck off. After we got some of those ironed out I worked on the beginnings of counter-canter, and stopped at a good point.

She is being tested for Lyme this afternoon so we will know whether that is a factor or if she is just bitchy.

After work, I hosed her off, and then let her play with the dribbly hose. She chewed it, and let water dribble out of her mouth.Then I let water pool in my hand and she drank from my hand. I don't know if she's done that before, or if we just figured it out, but it was incredibly cool.

I went back and rode Penny after lunch. She was doing pretty well, considering the heat, and we got some nice forward work. She hangs on my left hand which I tend to set-and-forget, so we reinforce eachother in a bad way. I have been working on softening that hand particularly, and not letting her (or me) hang on it.

While I am fond of Penny, and Ruby cracks me up, I really want Kaboose. I want her to be mine. i want to keep her outside at a nice barn, and be her friend and rider, and trust her and have her trust me.

le sigh.

The large and usually phlegmatic Penny horse has developed an unexpected turn of speed. I think some of the work we've been doing to get her more go has worked. Unfortunately she has developed a parallel lack of stop, and erratic steering. (we had one digression off the path at speed that made me think of the Gary Larson cartoon of the horse crumpled against the tree, and the guys standing around scratching their heads) I can't quite decide if the steering issues were simply not present when the biggest thing was to keep moving, or if they are new.

Whatever - I am pleased to have the go, and we can work on recouping the stop.

I rode all three of the Canadian girls today.

My legs feel like spagetti. Plus something about Ruby's trot does vera bad things to my back.

Maybe Ruby should be a driving pony?

two days riding, back to back!! the astonishment might tip me over.

Kaboose is sound again, but still amazingly grumpy. Lani suggested testing for Lyme, which is good advice but expensive. Bob rode her today and was having some issues with cantering, both the transitions and maintaining a canter. Part of the issue is that he is a kind of floppy rider, and he was sending decidedly mixed signals, and part was just that she was tight and grumpy. And yet he loves her, and she works well for him when he is still(er) in the saddle. When I hopped on her, she did better, but still tight. We called her done, because the rain was coming down (again).

Penny was also sound, but sooo sloooooow. I worked and worked on getting her to move smoothly and quickly off my leg. It is getting there, but slowly. Yeah - slow through time, slow from her, slow all around.

Andin the personal grooming department, I have been shorn like a sheep. I finally have hair that looks the way I think I do - about an inch all over. I love it. If the place hadn't been open, I was going to take Al's beard trimmer to it, with one of the stops on it to keep from taking it all off. Just most of it.

Kaboose, the Red Queen, has returned!! 

She has been steadily schooled over fences for the last couple months, and "loves it" (where I am not entirely clear that horses love anything besides food and eachother, although they can certainly be interested in various projects). I set up a bunch of things to leap over, with mixed success. We made it over everything. My position needs tons of work. I was dubious about some of the fences and that is deadly for making it over. Once I lowered a couple so I had no excuse, then we did much better.

I had forgotten how poised I was on the knife edge between fear and exhilaration when riding this horse. Some of the fear dissipates as I ride her more, and trust her more, but that first rush is kind of deadly.

I rode Ruby briefly. The firewood was delivered while I was working her, so a lot of the lesson was an exercise in distraction.

I brought out Penny, and was thinking about popping over the same set of jumps I'd set for Kaboose, but I was so dubious about them I decided I'd just set back the whole process by weeks. So we did trot-walk-one-stride-trot-again until she was much more forward and round and worked on some canter departs. We did hop over a couple of fences, but nothing I knew we might argue about. I was grateful to be on Penny and almost bored, after the excitement with Kaboose.

There is a combined test coming up at the end of the month, and I want to take Penny or Kaboose in it. I think we have to do the shortest fences (2feet/60cm) because it is my courage that is failing. I don't even know, at the moment, how to start making the decision.

The smaller, younger, squirmy Ruby horse and me (with stompage!) from the Sunday show, for proof (of white britches? of the test? I dunno.)

She is very interested in EVERYTHING ELSE, and desperately wanted a drink at the puddle, but overall did pretty well.

The Penny horse was tired but willing, and we rode our test (T2) twice (taking heed of Hannah's experience) and then practiced some canter departs from the trot, working to smooth them out. Penny's default is to slow down and stop. It makes her a reassuring trail horse, and very forgiving for Bob, but it means getting her MOVING is HARD. However, all our down transitions rock! 

The Ruby horse was sassy, still. We rode our test (intro B)  twice and after I got it un-conflated with the other test, we did it again just to be sure. Then, because she still had attitude to burn, we experimented with more cantering. She is getting more assured at the canter in both directions, and much better picking up the right lead, but it is fast and bumpy and verry pony-like. We tried some circles, and some straights, and a little more plain around the ring. I am hoping some wild child will fall in love with her and have to own her. She needs a kid of her own.

Finished fabric, part of an ongoing series of ten leaves.

exercise: ran, outside! for about 2 miles? total, probably 1.5 of that running
horses: Penny! Trail ride! lost in the woods! 1.5 hours (no moose)
fabric: Yes!
plus: Tax Cake for Al.

Just because it is a thankless task, doesn't mean you shouldn't get thanked. This year's was chocolate with melted raspberry jam+cordial in between and white sherry frosting (no vanilla [yeah, I know, panic in the streets], sherry worked pretty well)

I keep thinking I am not running right because it hurts so many different parts of me, and I can't breathe. I can bike all day, I can walk a long ways, I can ride horses for a long time, is running really that much harder?

I vow never to go thrashing about in the woods without a GPS again. I think I was one hill away from the other end of the power line trail I wanted to get home, but the town line went the wrong way so we had to turn around and go back the way we came out. Penny was completely awesome. Aside from keeping a sharp eye out for any more moose, she kept moving nicely.

I think I both niggle and mumble with my leg aids. I was trying to say nothing until I wanted to say something definite. It seemed to smooth communications.

exercise: 3 miles (got my 5K, YAY) ran 2 of it, plus lots of arms
horses: Penny and Ruby
fabric: yes, sort of

Painful running. I have the breath for it, but it feels like my legs are going to fall off. BUT - I made it to 3 miles total, and all I have to do now is increase the running part, and decrease the legs falling off part.

Made it to see the girls, got Penny first (Ruby really worries that I won't play with her and give her peppermints and cookies) and we did a lot of bending to the right. She resists on the right and won't fill the left rein. So I tried to be lighter, and use more leg to get her OVER. With a lot of release when it went right. Some of it goes much better. We hopped over a couple small fences. I think she'll be fine in a small combined test, depending on the scary quotient of the fences. She is lumpy and disorganized. Some of it is being 5, some of it is being large and hard to move around. I had a big gelding form Canada growing up, said to be Perch/TB cross but he looked exactly like Penny, and he moved the same way, until he was really fit. So clearly I have fitting up ahead of me. Maybe that will get her some withers too.

I rode Ruby bareback, working on basics; walk, trot, whoa, less hand, more seat, think about bending, put your face in the bridle and go forward. She is squirmy and bouncy and interested in eeeeverything and stops suddenly. All of this is fixable, because she is so dang Happy! When we were done, I pulled her bridle off and we did some free stuff with the clicker.

I am stunned by how fast the clickering goes, both for Ruby and Penny with the mounting and dismounting issues. Getting a small change comes quick, and refining is seems much easier. I was thinking of how to get Ruby to step up onto something, and we couldn't get there, so I made it smaller, and easier. I found a piece of plywood, and got her two front feet onto it, three or four tries, and Bingo, she has that. We are still hammering in the ones we've been working on - picking up feet with a tap, follow the target with me on either side, walking and trotting, touch the target EVERYWHERE; up, down, at her hooves, on either flank, near her tail (pretzel pony!). We run through those every day.

and now, done. Thank you very much.

And happy April Fools, sorry I got nuthin', because I love the theory.

exercise: barn cleaning
horses: all three Canadians
fabric: yes indeed, took me all weekend

Thank you all for the sympathy. Right now it is more not knowing than not having.

I did ride the red mare today, and we went off stomping in the woods and got LOST. I was amazed and disgusted because it just isn't that much territory to get lost in, but I managed it. The nastiest part was the ice remaining on the trails in the shade, which caused us to skid and slip and get worried. The bravest part was where I hopped off and we tiptoed across an icy bridge because honestly the only other way home was ALL the way back. Fifteen minutes home one way, and hour and a half the other way. Maybe she heard that reasoning, because she did it like a trooper. And stopped on the other side, when I had to drop the reins because I couldn't keep up, and got handfuls of peppermints. The ice was awful. The mare was veryvery good.

And then because I'd failed the training part of the morning (my knees vetoed running on the treadmill) I rode the other two as well. Penny goes like a freight train, but can be brought round and light(er) on the left rein. On the right she is ugly and bent wrong and dropping her should and... We have a lot of work to do. Plus we are clickering standing like a plug, or a rock, or a bored horse, next to the mounting block while people scramble up and down her side, and not squealing like a pig when the ride is done and the rider goes to dismount. I ahve no clue why she might be nervous about these things, or if she just got in the habit of being pushy. I think the dismounting really worries her, so we are really schooling that to desensitize and relax her. The mounting block is straight up rudness and we can fix that easily enough.

And finally I took little Ruby down the road. She was alert to all potential hazards, and a little spazzy. Cars going by bothered her, leaves blowing past bothered her, the melt water running down the edge of the road and the shadows of the trees across the road and the flags in the graveyard, all bothered her. This is not the cheerful, forward little trail horse I rode in the fall. I don't know where she went, but I'm working on getting her back.

Ended the day looking after Lani's horses. Her stud colt (just 4 years old) is getting increasingly obnoxious. He chomped a great hole in his (now ex) pasturemate, and now he busts out of the pasture routinely and goes to talk to (squeal and paw and rear and show off for)  the horses in the back field. He is hard to get to the head of, and mouthy. I think he would be better with hard, steady work, but the weather and Lani's life have not conspired to make that happen. I haven't got the chops or the courage (at the moment) to offer to help. All the rest of them were just wild with the wind. Blankets for tonight because it will be cold, and yet, we are anticipating 45-50 farenheits tomorrow. I will be pleased when it warms up, but I realized that the instant the ice is gone the black flies will come out. And that is a tough call: Black flies, or ice?