Lunge Lesson Magic

Bonnie had Tuesday night off from work, which ended up working out well for me.  Meant I could stop out and ride after work.  Yippee!  When I got to the barn, Tammy was there with two of the girls she's been teaching.  They were riding Kaye on the lunge already, which was kind of disappointing.  Meant I couldn't jump her.  And Tiff had been out to ride that morning, so I couldn't ride Bugs either.  Oh well, good excuse for a lunge lesson on my pony.  So I tacked up the Pon-Pon and we headed out to the arena for 45 minutes of torture from Bonnie.  :)

It's amazing how well X is going on the lunge line after just a few lessons the past couple of weeks.  His canter work on the lunge is incredible!  His hocks are underneath him and he's together and very uphill in his canter.  And this was with no contact at all!  So proud of my boy.  And he really likes the lunge lessons.  I mean don't get me wrong he'd still prefer to be in his stall eating, but if he has to go to work, lunge lessons aren't so bad.

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Buggers!

So Jamie the blacksmith was out this week and Bonnie decided to try one of her unusual shoeing ideas.  See Bugsy has never moved quite right, not off or lame necessarily, just not quite right.  And he always pulls his right front shoe.  Well Tiffany has been riding him a bit and Bonnie been watching him move.  And he moves much better without the right front shoe.  So maybe he has one leg just a bit shorter than the other. We had Jamie trim his right front just a bit shorter to see if we're right.

Saturday was chaotic as usual at the barn.  Rachel got there early, so we tacked up Naughtie for a lunge lesson. I lunged Rachel first and then we swapped places.  Then Rachel tacked up Kaye and I tacked up Buggers!  Bonnie wanted to take a look at how he was moving since it had been two days since he was shod.  We started out just walking on a nice loose rein.  Eventually Bonnie had us pick up the trot, still on a long, loose rein.  Bugs felt good!  And it felt good to ride him again, been a very long time.  So after we had trotted around for a while, Bonnie tells me to shorten my stirrups and hop over the crossbar.  Well, it's Bugs and he does get a bit exuberant when jumping at home, so I wasn't so sure about it.  But Bonnie wouldn't let me say no.  So with a little trepidation we dropped the whip and headed towards the fence.  And Bugs was such a good boy!  He just popped over it nice and easily, landed in an easy canter but quickly came back to the trot for me.  We jumped the cross rail a few more times and then Bonnie turned it into a low vertical.  He did get a little stronger coming down to the fence.  But still very manageable.  After jumping that a few times, Bonnie raised the vertical.  And that's when Bugs really started to have fun.  He really started to get strong going into the fence, and instead of just holding him and going with him, I got scared and defensive.  But we jumped it a few times, and as I relaxed and actually rode the horse instead of just sitting there, things got better.  We called it quits after that, it had only been two days since Bugsy's feet were done and we didn't want to push it too much.  Astrid measured the fence after we finished.  We had been jumping 2'7" which is my personal best with Buggers.  So that was pretty cool.

Later I ended up getting on Twinkie, first time anyone has been on her in probably a year or so.  So was cool as could be though.  I started to lunge her only because she hadn't been turned out in a while.  She quickly let me know it wasn't necessary, so I just climbed on.  Ari was taking a lesson on Fanny at the time and Katie was walking Tru under saddle, so Twinkie had plenty of company, which she really enjoyed.  She settled right into a good walk, no funny business or anything.  After a while I asked for a trot.  She was a little foot sore (she really needs a trim) but she was still very good for me.  The only problem was every time she passed Tru she wanted to walk because he was walking!  I was pleased with her though, for not having done any work under saddle in months she did really well.

After I finished up with Twinkie, the barn was getting quiet.  Most of the kids had left, we were just waiting for Astrid and Victoria to be picked up.  So I decided to pull Bugs out of his stall again and practice braiding the way I learned from the Phillip Dutton Camp Videos.

Patiently waiting for me to finish

The braids

Buggers looking very handsome

Practicing for jog ups

Begging for treats

Bugs says "If your not going to give me more peppermints, I'll just eat your hair instead."

We had talked last week about having a bonfire this weekend since Morgan would be up from Tennessee.  Unfortunately her Mom wouldn't drive her down to the barn (they were with family up in the Meadville area)  So the bonfire was cancelled.  But Astrid and Victoria ended up inviting Bonnie and I for dinner and a movie. So after we finished with the horses I headed home for a quick shower and then back to the barn to pick up Bonnie.  We made a quick stop at the AT&T store in Cranberry to get the wireless card for Bonnie's laptop and then it was time for dinner.  Astrid's dad cooked some pork and brats on the charcoal grill (Yummy!) Dinner was very good.  And the meal was fun and entertaining with the von Rintelen's.  After dinner Bonnie, Astrid, Victoria, Henry and I all headed downstairs to watch Flicka 2.  Good movie, fairly predictable as most horsey movies seem to be.  But we all enjoyed it.

Sunday I was back at the barn.  Cleaned X's stall first thing.  And then picked Miss and Twinkie.  And then I tacked Twinkie up.  She was a little tired and a little foot sore, but she still went right to work for me.  I warmed her up on a nice long rein, not asking for much.  After a while we trotted through the cavalettis Bonnie had set up for us.  She looked at them the first time through and slowed to a walk but she didn't hesitate at all.  Next time she just trotted right through like a pro.  After trotting the cavalettis a few times, Bonnie put a small cross bar.  Twinkie did stop in front of it but then she jumped from there.  I think the stop was probably more my fault than hers.  We jumped the crossbar a few times before calling it quits with her.  You could tell she was tired.  But I'm really very pleased with how she went this weekend.  Can't wait to get on her next week after she gets her feet done.

One of Bonnie's newer students came out in the afternoon for a lesson.  After I helped Denise tack up Kaye, I got Bugsy ready and rode with her.  All we did was lots of walking and trotting on the buckle, but man did he feel great!  He was very happy, and had a nice long stride.  He just really felt very good.

Bonnie's off Tuesday night, so I'll be able to get some weekday riding in this week.  And then Wednesday is Maeve's party at Ethan's house.

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South Farm and the 4th of July Holiday

There's not too much that's better than a long holiday weekend.  I have to say I was really looking forward to the 4th of July weekend.  Ron was kind enough to let us out early on Friday at 3:30, so I enjoyed getting out then.  Of course I used my extra time to head out to the barn.  Astrid was there and Carlee and Colleen came soon afterwards for Carlee's lesson.  While Carlee was riding I tacked up Kaye for a jumping lesson.

Once again I am reminded how freakin awesome Kaye is.  After we had warmed up, we started jumping the single vertical that was set at about 2'7"  Jumped that once or twice and it was time to knot my reins and jump with no hands.  Been a while since Bonnie has had me do this particular exercise, but man does it really just fix my position so quickly.  So we jumped that several more times and then I got my reins back and was told to head to the triple bounce.  And instead of collecting Kaye to it, I ran her into and we stopped.  Completely my fault.  Tried again, but now I was a little afraid and so we had another stop.  So we went back to the single fence and jumped that a few times to get a nice jump, while Bonnie took down the first fence in the triple.  Then we turned for the bounces again.  Although Kaye was slow and I was holding her back through it, we jumped the bounces.  Second time through was much better once I realized that there was nothing to be afraid of.  So we jumped just the two fences a few times and then Bonnie put the first one up again.  Although our first trip through wasn't pretty, we did.  Jumped the triple a few more time, getting better each time, before we called it quits for the night. 

Saturday morning I picked up Astrid early, we headed out to the barn to feed and then we all piled into the truck to head to South Farm.  Bonnie and I had volunteered to jump judge for Sarah, and we figured it was a good opportunity for the kids to learn.  So Astrid, Rachel and Katie all decided to go with us, and of course Chloe tagged along too.  Made it to South Farm just in time for the jump judge briefing.  The TD was Cindy DePorter from North Carolina.  Super nice lady, very knowledgeable and very entertaining in her briefing.  Once the briefing was finished, we all grabbed lunch and headed out to our fence.  We were at fence number eleven on the prelim course.  It was a corner with a sharks tooth option.  And yes it was the infamous Rob corner, the one that you jump between the 3rd and 4th board.  We saw quite a bit of bad riding at the corner,  several kinda scary jumps and a few refusals.  And then there were several riders who never even made it to the 11th fence.

After the prelim division finished up we headed back to fence number one for the training division.  It was an easy, inviting log.  So we didn't really see any problems there, some bad riding of course though.  I did manage to get some good pictures from both the first fence and the last fence.  For novice we stayed with fence number one, although we did have to move to a different part of the cross country course.  Another easy, inviting log, but man was there some bad riding!  Including a very ugly, scary jump from a well known local trainer.  Then to finish up the day, we headed over to fence number three for beginner novice and starter.  Both of the fences were little coops, very easy for beginner novice.  Altogether it was a fun day.  But even though all I did was sit outside all day, I was beat by the time we got home.  I helped Bonnie feed the ponies and then I headed for home and my bed.

Sunday morning I was up early and out to the barn.  Mom was having the whole family over for a picnic at dinner, so I wanted to get my riding time in the morning.  Started out the day with some stall work.  Got Annie and Jade both cleaned while they were outside.  Then got X, Kaye, Bugs, and Cuddles done as well.  After we finished up with stalls, Bonnie had me tack my pony up for a lunge lesson.  She let me keep my stirrups for the whole lesson, but that was the only way she went easy on me!  X and I both had to work a lot.  We did a lot of posting trot and then quite a bit of canter work each direction as well.  By the time we finished poor X was lathered!  But he got a good bath which he enjoyed, and then he had his nice clean stall to go lay down in.  We grained the ponies and then headed home.

Mom's picnic was nice, always good to see the family.  Would have been nice if my brother and his family could have been there.  But Todd had to work, the hospital recognized Monday as the holiday, and Kris took the girls to one of her sisters.  It was still a nice evening with the rest of the family.  Jeffery was even able to make it down from Pittsburgh for a bit.

Monday, I had the day off, so of course I was out to the barn.  Ari, Victoria and Katie were all there as well. So we got quite a bit done.  I picked all the stalls I had cleaned the day before and then cleaned Fanny's stall as well.  The kids got Twinkie done and Katie worked on some of her stalls.  Bonnie gave me another lunge lesson on X.  Poor pony I think he was horrified when I tacked him up again.  But he's going very well right now.  He actually had a really nice canter on no contact at all.  So as much as he doesn't like the work, it's been very good to him.  I did feel bad though, pony was pooped!

Ari and Victoria tacked up Kaye for lunge lessons and I headed out to the hay field with my trusty steed Edgar.

I brought in the last ten bales for Bonnie.  I did pretty well, didn't have any problems until i was bringing in the last bale.  It was a heavy one and as I was coming up the hill, the front end of the tractor was off the ground!  So I was trying to use the brake pedals to steer, that didn't work out too well.  And then I lost the bale off the back of the tractor.  Of course it landed on it's end.  I use the fork on the tractor to tip it over on it's side.  And then I watch as the bale goes rolling back down into the field.  So I turn the tractor around and go back for it.  I was a little more careful and managed to get it up the hill on the second try.  I was glad that was the last one though.

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One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Well as good as last weekend had been, this weekend was decidedly less so. Stopped out to the barn Friday after work. Astrid and Ethan were still there bathing Jade. I spent some time with my ponies, cleaned Kaye's stall and gave her a good grooming.

Saturday morning I was back to the barn early. Tacked Bugs up for Bonnie to ride, but then before she could get on him the kids all started showing up. I lunged Rachel on Naughtie and then the two of us had a jumping lesson. I don't know what happened, but I just fell apart. I couldn't get things together. So we were back to jumping crossbars. That just sucked! And I felt bad for Kaye, I know she was looking forward to jumping big fences again. She did however get a nice bath. So Marsie is all sparkling clean. Which she quite enjoyed, she's smart enough to know that when she starts getting baths it's almost show season. I then started to fix the front pasture fence so we could begin turning horses out, but I only got about halfway around before I had to leave.

Sunday I was back out fairly early. Bonnie gave me a lunge lesson on Naughtie which was badly needed. I haven't had one in a while and I know my position was suffering. And I did ok until after we cantered the second direction Bonnie asked me to post without stirrups. I don't know what it was but something made my knee start to hurt like you wouldn't believe. I guess that means it's time to call Dr. Yakish for an appointment. Maybe time to try another Cortisone injection. We'll have to see.

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The End of an Era

So I made an offer on the house last week. Spent two hours over at Northwood's offices Wednesday night filling out the gazillion forms that it involved. Seller was supposed to give us an answer on Thursday. I'm on edge all day waiting to hear, finally Lynn calls me at like 8:00. Apparently the seller (who like almost 60) was working as an extra on the new Denzel Washington movie in Pittsburgh all day and wasn't able to give her an answer. So it's another day of playing the waiting game. Finally Lynn calls Friday evening. Of course it's bad news. Apparently, he was contacted by one of the people who couldn't get financing two months ago. They are still interested in buying the house. And so he's going to give them another month or so to come up with the money. He basically told Lynn that he didn't want to pay her commission so he wouldn't even consider any offers she brought him. Well thanks Asshole!

So I was supposed to do something with Mattykins Friday night, but honestly by that time I didn't really feel like going out at all. So I went up to Mom's and we watched some TV for a while. Saturday morning I was out to the barn early. Took a lesson on Naughtie before the kids all rode. Bonnie had me tack her up with the draw reins and I rode in my little spurs. She was pretty good, Taryn had been riding her a bit and you could tell. She wasn't quite as stiff bending and her sides were better. Then Rachel and I took lunge lessons on X. It was a short day at the barn, I had to get out early so I could make it home in time to get ready to go to Pegasus. It was the last weekend for the downtown location and so Mattykins and I had made plans to go.

Luckily we stayed away from any and all deer on the way into the city. Joni and her friend Jamie ended up going with us and we met Crystal and her boyfriend Antonio there. It was a good time. We found out Pegasus wasn't completely closing, just the downtown location. Thursday and Friday nights at the Eagle will be 18 and over Pegasus nights. But it just won't be the same. We danced the night away and closed down the place at 2:00. It was fun to be there again and see some of the regulars from before. Plus a lot of new, different people. And it was just a lot of fun to go dancing again. It's been so long since I've been able to do that, I really missed it.

Sunday morning I slept in a little bit and then headed out to the barn. Bonnie and I got some stalls done and then I tacked up Kaye for a dressage lesson. I had a really good ride, worked on my laterals. I'm finally really getting the hang of the half-pass. We worked some more on doing a shoulder in to a small circle and then haunches in. I still have some trouble with the haunches in. For some reason I just can't get the correct feel for it. But I'm getting better. I had to laugh though, next summer I'll be the only beginner novice rider warming up for dressage with upper level movements!

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There is no secret so close as that between a rider and his horse -Robert Smith Surtees

Thanksgiving weekend was nice, very relaxing which is something that I don’t get all that often. Tom and Maryann had gone to New York so I was feeding his ponies Wednesday evening through Friday evening. They are super easy to care for of course. Thanksgiving itself really ended up being a lazy day. I got up and fed at Tom’s in the morning and then I came home, put the PJ’s back on and crawled in bed with Squalor. It was great. Squalie-cat loved it as well. As soon as a laid down again he was immediately on my shoulder, almost like he was trying to keep me in bed. Anyway I ended up not getting up again until it was time to get ready to go to Aunt Sandy’s.

Dinner was small this year. Todd, Kris and the girls were at her family’s for dinner and Daddy had to work. But the food was delicious as always. And then Sheri and Joe stopped by after dinner. I did have to get up and leave to go feed at Tom’s. But I had filled water and laid out hay in the morning so I only had to dump grain in the stalls and bring the ponies inside. Didn’t take very long at all. Then when I got back to Aunt Sandy’s Todd and crew had arrived. And Todd had found a job for me to apply for. It’s at Heritage Valley, it’s an HR Consultant job. The primary location is at the HR Offices in Moon Twp, but some travel would be required to the two hospitals. And the best part is that it would be a pretty significant pay increase. Even just the starting rate is about $7 an hour more than I make now. And hopefully with my experience I would start somewhere in the middle. The mid point of the salary range is about double what I make now. Plus it would almost be like even more of a raise since I wouldn’t be spending $92 a month to park, and I wouldn’t be spending as much in gas. Moon Twp is a lot closer than Oakland, plus not nearly as much of a hassle to get there. Aunt Sandy of course is helping me out and got Dr. Yakish to give me a reference. And she talked to the COO of the hospital to put in a good word for me. And Aunt Sandy knows the CEO of the hospital. So fingers crossed. I’m hoping Aunt Sandy’s help will at least get me the interview and then I just need to dazzle them and get the job.

Friday morning I had to feed both at Tom’s and Bonnie’s. Got all the ponies fed and then started cleaning some stalls while I waited for Bonnie, Astrid and Ethan. We got a lot done that day. I picked horsechild’s stall and then the kids and I cleaned the four stallions. Buster and Mystic weren’t too bad. And Ethan and Astrid had cleaned M-N-M on Wednesday, so he only needed picked out. Spot of course, was the worst. It took all afternoon to dig it out and clean it. But it was nice to get that side cleaned. Now we just need to get some of the empty stalls over there cleaned out so the outside horses can come in. Before we left Astrid and I took turns lunging on X. He’s such a good boy on the lunge line. Astrid though, I couldn’t believe that she shortened the stirrups on my saddle to ride. She’s taller than me, if anything she should have to lengthen them! Feed Tom’s horses on my way home and then I quickly got cleaned up and over to Aunt Sandy’s for leftovers. Watched the Pitt-WVU game, which was enough to drive me to drink. Don’t really want to talk about it.

Saturday I slept in a bit and didn’t make it to the barn until later. Rode on the lunge first with Astrid on Naughtie. Astrid’s trying, I know she is, but she has that horse so dead sided. And not bending at all. I would end up pounding my inside leg on her just to get her to move over, only she would just speed up. She has no concept now of independent leg. So that means she’s going to be getting lots of lessons with spurs and draw reins. I did have to laugh because once I put Astrid on her, she didn’t dare cut her circle short. Not because Astrid was keeping her out, but because she knew she wasn’t allowed to do that with me. Then I rode X with the group. Rachel rode Airy, Astrid on Kaye and Katie on Naughtie. We did the cavaletti’s with them, but bowed out of the jumping. Now quite ready to jump my own beastie yet, he tends to get a little too exuberant over fences, especially when he hasn’t jumped in a while. After the kids finished jumping I did some canter work with him. He started out being a jerk. But we did the exercise where we canter a circle, stop at the wall, turn on the haunches and canter the other direction. Rinse and repeat. After we did that a few times he was cantering very nicely.

Sunday of course I was back out at the barn. Bonnie and I got a lot done. Twinkie, X, Bugs, Cuddles, Miss and Kaye’s stalls all got cleaned. Heather brought Ari and Elaina out, along with their friends, another Elaina and Jenna. The kids all rode Fanny and then Ari and Jenna went to go interview Lisa Culver for their Girl Scout project. After they finished there, Heather dropped the two of them off to help clean stalls. It was nice to have their help with things like getting sawdust and whatnot. Anyway Bonnie and I were just starting to feed when Taryn and her Mom showed up. So Bonnie finished feeding and Taryn and I rode. Taryn got Bugs, who was not all that happy to have been ignored for a few days. And I rode Naughtie. I wanted to spend some time with her in draw reins and with spurs. She really needed the work on bending and lightening her sides. After we worked on the flat for a while I popped her over a few jumps. First cross-bar she just tried to stop at it. After that I really got after her going down to the fence. Of course though I ended up having to turn the fence intoa small oxer before she's even bother to jump it. Silly TBs have to make everything so difficult.

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Dressage is striving for the equation 1+1=One -Author Unknown

Some personal news to share. I went to look at a house this week! It's small, just three rooms and a bathroom. But since it's just me and the cat I don't need a lot of space. It's in pretty good shape structurally, it just needs some updating. So, we're working on the financing stuff and hopefully I'll be putting an offer on the place. Keep your fingers crossed!

Had some good ride this weekend. Both Taryn and I took lunge lessons on X Saturday morning. Of course he had to decide to be a bit of a jerk at first. But he settled down after a few laps. First lunge lesson since before my surgery, and I'll admit I was a little sore afterwards. Need to do lots more lunging, I'm out of shape now! Then it was Taryn's turn, and I was just cracking up. She kept saying that her outside arm (not even the one she was holding on with) was tired. I was just waiting for her to do the YMCA the way she was waving her arms all over the place!

Taryn had to leave early so I rode with Rachel on Airy. Now Airy had kicked Kaye the day before in the hock, so we were taking it a bit easy on her. The two of us had a fun dressage lesson. Worked on leg yields and half-passes. And then moved on to shoulder in and haunches in. Bonnie had us coming out of the corner and doing a shoulder in for half a dozen strides, then a small circle and shoulder in again. Rachel was having some trouble with that, Airy's not the easiest to do laterals with, so they stopped there. Then Bonnie had me try doing a shoulder in from the corner, small circle and then haunches in, which is a movement in the Intermediate dressage test.

Sunday, Bonnie and I worked on cleaning stalls all morning. I was waiting around to see if Taryn was going to come so I could ride with her. After a while though I tacked up Kaye and we had another dressage lesson. Started out working on center lines. And then Bonnie had me try riding the center line in the new beginner novice test A. Which is AXMC. I have to say it's very awkward to ride. I don't know if it's just because I'm used to riding a straight center line. We rode that a few times first going to the right and then to the left. Finally we finished with some canter work. Good lesson.

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It's Rolex Time!

Last weekend before Rolex! Can you tell I'm excited? And I'm not even riding. Anyways, Saturday was the usual busy day at the barn. The kids were all out, including Rachael and Kelsey. First thing on the agenda was lunge lessons. Astrid and I took turns on Naughtie while Rachael and Kelsey lunged on Airy. Astrid went first and when it was time for her to do the sitting trot she had to pull the stirrups off the saddle because they hurt her legs. So when it was my turn Bonnie wouldn't even let me put the stirrups back on the saddle. No I can get on my little 15.3 hand horse bareback, but getting on 16.2 Naughtie? Not so much. Once I finally managed to climb on her back I had a good lunge lesson. Which I really needed. Actually I need lots of lunge lessons right now.

I rode X a bit on Saturday as well. We did some cavalettis and he was a jerk. He liked not doing anything all winter and he's not exactly thrilled with the idea of going back to work now. I did manage to talk him out of his bad behavior and spooks. He really wanted to though. His leg is doing much better now. He's just getting the proud flesh medication on it every couple days and it's healing very well. The really exciting thing was that Saturday was warm enough for a bath! After I rode I gave X the first of many baths he will need to be clean. He's not all the way there yet, but he doesn't smell anymore.

Sunday was spent playing musical horses and moving stall assignments around. We turned M-N-M out and started on his stall. Unfortunately we haven't been able to get him out to do his stall the last time the spreader was on that side. And so between that and the leaking waterer, it was a bad one. But we got that stall done and moved M across the aisle and then Spot went into M's old stall.

After the stalls were finished I tacked X up for Katie and I to have a lunge lesson. My pony is such a good lunge horse! He just goes out and trots around as long as you want him to. He's so nice and soft on the lunge line and easy to side on. I love my pony! Of course he wasn't quite so happy when Katie got on him. First Katie looks like a giant on him. She's like 5'10" or so I think. Quite a bit taller than me. She doesn't realize it, but when she rides she grabs with her leg. Tru is just so used to it he doesn't do anything, although he is really dead sided from her. X didn't do anything bad, but your could tell he wasn't happy. The ears were back and his tail was swishing. Not that Katie got it. I told Bonnie we need to put her on something that will bolt if she grabs like that.

I'm off work Thursday and Friday this week for Rolex! We're not leaving until like 7 Thursday night, but I decided to take off anyway. That way I can go out and ride during the day and help Bonnie get the barn in order. And then it will be off for three days in Kentucky. I've got the camera all ready, extra memory cards and an extra battery. So I'll be good to go. I'll try to post pictures each night once we get back to the hotel so check my PhotoBucket page. Plus I'll probably be Twittering from my cell during the day. I think Friday morning we're going to try to get up early and go watch the morning works at Keeneland. That will be fun, I've never been to a racetrack before. So the next time you hear from me I'll be at Rolex!

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Why do I have to have an accident prone horse?

So last Sunday I noticed that X had a cut on the outside of his right foreleg. Not too big a deal, didn't seem to hurt him or anything. So I cleaned it up and put some Vaseline on it. Friday I got out of work early and I headed out to the barn. Cleaned his stall and then brought him out to the cross ties to tack up. I'm grooming him and his leg is swollen a little. Cut doesn't look any different from last week but he has some heat and swelling at the site. I jog him up and down the aisle a few times, he isn't off at all so I figure I'm still going to ride him. I finish grooming him, tack him up and slather Vaseline over his leg to keep the arena sand out of it. We go out and I put him on the lunge line first. He really hasn't been ridden much, plus then I can see if he's off at all. Nope he's perfectly fine, takes off cantering, bucking, jumping, the whole bit. I let him work some of his energy off and then hop on him. Suddenly, we're dead lame. I don't think so dude. I make him work through it and after a few minutes he realizes that the lameness trick isn't going to work and he starts working. Now though he decides that it's necessary to spook at everything! I really just don't feel like dealing with it. I get off and he goes back on the lunge line. It doesn't take too long for him to give in. Really he's lazy and knows that I'll just keep making him go until he settles. I get back on and he's a good boy now. Bonnie comes down to the barn after a while and she sets up some cavalettis for us. First few times through it was like he'd forgotten what they were, but after a while he was going through perfectly. Pretty good ride considering he hasn't done anything in months!

Saturday I was going to take a lunge lesson on X but for once the kids all showed up early. Ended up riding Naughtie in a lesson with Kelsey/Kaye, Rachel/Miss and Katie/Tru. Of course Katie takes five times longer to take up so by the time the rest of us are ready to start jumping she's just getting to the arena. And then she's constantly in the way. Like common courtesy would be to give the rail to the horses that are working. Not Katie, everyone else has to work around her. We worked through the cavalettis and then onto a cross-bar. As usual Bonnie raised the fence until we were jumping a 3'4" oxer. Then she decided to have us work on some bounces. Lowered the jump back to a cross-bar and we started over just one. Then she added a second fence. I had some trouble with Naughtie which I know was all my fault. We had a couple of stops and so that was it. I didn't want to start any bad habits. I ended up getting on Kaye to jump the three bounces. After I took Kaye through I couple times I got back on Naughtie and did the single fence again, just to end on a good note.

So today I was determined to get a lunge lesson on my horse, we both really need it. I go to groom him and his leg is swollen again. And joy, it's infected. But it's still not bothering him at all, so hopefully it will clear up soon. I had a great lunge lesson. X was really working well and moving great. The leg didn't bother him at all. He figured out that it's not worth it to try and pull the lame horse routine.

Picked out his stall after we rode. I love the Best Cob bedding and how easy it is to clean. Plus it's keeping X clean. But now he has to find something to do since he can't get himself all dirty. And this is what he did. I could really kill him sometimes. Makes me glad I hadn't planned to do any recognized shows with him this summer.

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