An Influx of Kittens

Monday morning I was teaching a bit at my barn and had a childhood dream come true. I was standing in the arena and look to my left, and a herd (well four) of ADORABLE kittens is mewing and trotting to me. Obviously I yell "OH MY GOD KITTENS" and immediately picked two of them up.

This one was the first one to run to me!

All four! The furthest gray one is a little nervous about people

They were so friendly and so sweet. As BRH trainer came over to see what I was yelling about, we ask him if the barn got kittens, because by now I had one in my arms and the other three were crawling under the barn's truck and trailer. Poor BRH trainer, he had NO idea what we were talking about, so he told me to grab them all and we'd put them somewhere. One of the guys helped me. We caught three fairly easily, but one was more feral than the rest (the little solid gray one), so the guy gave me the one he had caught (making my total THREE ADORABLE KITTENS to hold) so he could crawl in to get the other.

We put them in a little pen at the barn that we covered with plywood and gave them some food. One of the ladies offered to go get kitten food, but they were starving so we threw cat food at them and some water (they got kitten food later that day). Poor kittens.

We're still not sure where they came from but we think they might have been dumped or came in with the hay. Luckily, someone from the barn needs barn cats, so they are going home in a week or two!

So cute! The other black and white one was
not a fan of me

This one is so adorable, sat in my lap for a while!
Reminds me of little J

So basically everything that happened for the rest of the day was terrible, because can you really beat finding a herd of tiny kittens and cuddling three of them at once? I thought about just going home.

But I had the silliest little horse to ride. He had been screaming at me all morning. Why would your best friend come to your house and then just ignore you in favor of playing with kittens and making money so she can pay your rent? Wtf indeed.

I got him out and arranged to have BRH trainer help us. We went to the round pen and TC was so good on the line. He is getting a little frustrated when we change directions that he can't just pick up the canter right away and canter forever. He's been really bad about anticipating things these days, especially the canter. So we had a short discussion about WAITING to be told that he can canter and then cantering. This horse is going to be completely obnoxious to teach lead changes to.

Pictures from Tuesday's crappy fence video!

I hopped on and again headed right, he's sort of training me to do that. Woops. I need to stop letting my horse train me. The right felt really great. He felt super in the connection, though sometimes a little bit curled because he needs to push a bit more.

The walk-trot transitions are still rough, he really doesn't like staying on the bit in them. We worked on that and it did get better as my timing got better (weird) and eventually we had a couple of really good ones. The canter transitions are actually getting fairly good. TC is learning how to canter with his hind legs first instead of pulling himself into the canter with his front legs. The canter itself gets better every day, I got up into half seat and let him stretch out a bit, then back to trot for the stretchy trot.

Changing directions, we worked again on the straightness to the left. He's SO much better about that after working on square turns. BRH trainer reminded me that Tracey was going to come after me if I didn't keep my left hand still. Yet again it was doing shit it wasn't supposed to do when I thought it was being still. It tends to send him way off to the right, which is his natural crookedness anyway, ugh. But it got better and better.

Dude this is the left lead canter

After the round pen, we headed into the covered and had some excellent work there. He was foot perfect, no bolting or spooking. Every now and then he'd pick up his neck and look at something, but then back to work. I got to play a little bit with the quality of his trot, something I haven't done much of. I mostly just harassed his hind legs to get under him a bit more, but the result was some really amazing work out of him.

We took a short break and BRH trainer was happy to see that TC was breathing so hard. I think we're finally at a place where I can actually get him tired enough without stressing his leg or brain. Excellent.

After a canter break, we can get real fancy

I had asked about just walking around the dressage court, but there was a tractor in there so as we walked out, I said that we could just try again later this week. But then I realized no, I'm in training for a reason, so I hopped off and put my crash dummy trainer on. BRH trainer just exudes confidence so while TC was nervous about the tractor as we walked toward the trail course, BRH trainer just stayed quiet so TC relaxed. I need to learn how to do that...

They did a little walking and trotting in the trail course while the tractor was RIGHT next to them. TC watched it but generally handled it well. He looked like he was having fun trotting around in the trail course (which does have footing and get dragged, phew). BRH trainer would time it so that when the tractor was near us, he was trotting TC away from it, sort of baiting him to bolt. But TC was fine!

After the tractor left, we headed to the arena. I leaned against the fence and played with my phone as my horse quietly walked around the outside of the dressage court. So happy to have him in training!

Cantering, yay!

On Tuesday my thesis was due to my adviser, so I forced myself to turn it in before I went to ride. I had planned on having it done by Monday, but had turned on a movie (just for background noise) that I thought was supposed to be funny but realized too late that it was a very sad movie, and I spent much of the evening sobbing rather than working on my thesis. Erm. Woops.

So thesis was turned in (YAY OMG) and I headed off to the barn. I had sort of been feeling like crap all day. I think I'm slowly getting sick and also I had been working on that damn thing for so long, that having it lifted off my plate even just for a week or so while my adviser rips it apart was a very strange feeling. And celebrating by getting froyo made me feel even more sick, I used up all my brains on the thesis I think.

He is so fun

It was so hot though, that I didn't feel like longeing. TC stood snoozing in the cross ties and generally looked like he was about to pass out. 

I decided to do a bit in the round pen, then go to the covered arena. Let me say now, that we did make it into the covered arena for like ten seconds before the tractor came into drag. So the whole ride ended up being in the round pen. Boo, but we had really good work. 

We started with one bad walk trot transition, and that was it, great transitions after that. Phew. When those things are ugly, they're real ugly. The trot itself felt good, though very quiet. He always starts out quiet and gets more animated as he loosens up maybe? I think he's in a perpetual state of slightly sore muscles and it takes him a bit to work through it. Or he's lame.

Stretching down, both of us, ugh

I've been trying really hard not to think of him as being green. I mean he is, but if I keep treating him like he is, he'll never not be green. So he's not green. I was in walk after our trot work to the right and went ahead and just asked for canter. And TC just picked it up. I mean it was a little off the bit but it was clean, no trot steps. Mmmkay not green. Schooling a little Second level now I guess. 

The feeling of greenness comes mostly from the issue in the straightness to the left. I can't help but to think a horse is green when they go flying sideways out through their shoulder. But to be honest, he really doesn't even do that anymore. He's getting quite rideable to the left, even going on the bit in the canter that way. Damnit, my thinking needs to catch up to my horse! 

To the left he felt great, we had a couple of moments where I had to get on his case with some square turns. After that, well, you can see in the video stills that we ACTUALLY GO ON THE BIT TO THE LEFT. It's still so retracted, and he's not using his back, but we're going left and he isn't throwing his face in my face anymore.

He looks like a normal fucking horse to canter, so weird!

I still have to put him there, which I no longer have to do to the right. He comes off the bit in the transition that way but then he's nice and round. It's one of the things I really love about this horse- roundness is so automatic with him. We just have to get that left lead in gear and then we're all set!

This video was the first one I took where I was SUPER excited to see how far he's come. He sort of feels the same day in and day out, but then I looked at the video that L had taken in early August, so just a month ago, and to the left he's just all over the place. Now, he's rideable, just a little wiggly.

As rough as some of our rides have been with the bolting, and as much as I'm NOT looking forward to winter, I really truly love riding this horse. He just keeps getting better and better!