I knew the wind was going to be constant throughout the day from the south / southwest, and sure enough, when I arrived, it was already blowing.  Ugh.  

Guess what my first job was?  

Yep, feed sacks.  Then I was to fill up all the water tanks that needed filling.  

In the pen that Yucca was in before he became a gelding, was a new horse that I hadn't seen.  Sea Monster was gone.  This horse looked young, but of the same breed as Sea monster.  He's a flashy bay, and throughout the whole time I was there he kept calling out to the other horses.  This was understandable since he'd only arrived yesterday, as I later found out.  

It was still early in the morning, and the hose hadn't had time to thaw out yet.  From experience I knew that if I ran the water long enough, it'd push the ice out.

It took long enough I was wondering if it was every going to happen.  While I was waiting, my trainer had caught Sage and tied her up on the arena fence.  Then she went to catch Riggs.

Now, Mistletoe and Riggs's pen has a H brace that's not fenced next to the gate.  I've always wondered if Mistletoe, being as little as she is, could slip under it.  But she'd never tried it in all the three months she'd been living in that pen.  

However, I guess Riggs being taken away from her triggered something, because what do you know, she slipped right under it.  It didn't take her but a moment to find out she was FREE!  And boy, was she excited about it.  

My trainer wasn't too concerned, I think because she knew Mistletoe would stay near where the other horses were.  She put Riggs in the feeding pen first before going to catch her.  

I would have helped, but my trainer didn't say anything to me about it.  If she didn't, I wasn't going to do anything because I didn't want to mess up my trainer's catching plans.  

My trainer patiently trailed Mistletoe all over the property.  Mistletoe was having a ball, trotting and running around with her tail high in the air.  She did look like a million bucks.  She excited the other horses, especially the ones in the lesson horse pen.  My trainer said in passing to me, "There goes my time to ride."    

Eventually my trainer opened the gate of the pen she'd escaped from wide.  Then she kinda worked Mistletoe back towards there, and herded her into the pen.  So, nothing came of the escape, and Mistletoe was safely back in her pen.  

To keep her from escaping using the H brace again, my trainer jammed the two-wheeled wheelbarrow into the H brace gap.  It was enough to deter 

My trainer told me, as she came back from wrangling her, that the Germans have a word called "Schwung."  (Not sure if that's how you spell it or even the word she meant.)  And it means the natural brilliance of a horse.  Like what Mistletoe was doing as she pranced around.  And that everything we do as riders is to try to bring back that natural brilliance, only under saddle and under our control, instead of running around in the yard XD.  

Anyhow, after that my trainer went inside the house, and I dragged the hose down to the buckets in Mistletoe's pen.  When my trainer came back, she had some scissors, and she cut off the edges of Mistletoe's tail with them.  She also dumped out the buckets, to get the grime out of the bottom, and said I'd need to dump the bucket in Sage's pen too.  She also mentioned I'd better take a weapon to fend off the baby horses XD

So, after filling up Mistletoe's water, I picked out a halter and ventured into the pen.  For the most part the left me alone as I dumped the tank, I wish I could have cleaned it out better.  

I held the end of the hose through the gap in the fence just enough so that the water went into the tank, but I could fend them off from playing with the hose.  The Bay Filly, the Red Roan Filly, and Tidbit all crowded around to drink.

They lingered for awhile.  Bay Filly tried to nibble at the hose a little, but I just moved the halter and she left it alone after awhile.  Actually, she'd put her head under the stream of water on purpose, like she was playing with it.  It was cute.

After that tank was filled, which took awhile, I went back to the lesson horse pen and filled the second tank in there.  When that was filled, I switched it to the little bitty third tank.  Just then, my trainer called and waved for me to come over to the indoor arena, where she was riding Riggs.  

Inbetween riding Sage and then Riggs, my trainer had caught Twister.  She wanted me to tack him up with a certain English saddle, and get his bridle that was in the trailer.  This was for a lesson for the girl that's been coming for awhile.

See, my trainer gives two types of lessons.  One is a private, 30 minute lesson with the horse already tacked up for you.  And the second is an hour long group lesson where you tack up the horse and untack.  My trainer likes to start new people out with the private 30 minute lessons.  

So, I tacked Twister up for this gal, whom I'm going to call Vivie.  This caused the water to run over, but my trainer said it was fine.  I led Twister into the arena, and switched him for Riggs. 

After that, my trainer gave me another long list to do.  She wanted me to put Riggs and Sage up in their respective pens, then catch Cordell and ride him.  She told me to open the gate wide for Riggs, as she can get nervous in narrow gateways.  And when riding Cordell, if he started to lean I needed to sit up and stop him.  

So, I untacked Riggs and put her up first, making sure to open the gate wide.  The wheelbarrow that was blocking the H brace was in the way, so I had to move it and then put it back.  I put Sage up too, and then caught sweet Cordell.  

I got interrupted in tacking up Cordell to assist my trainer again.  She wanted me to go get a western saddle and blanket for another lady who's name I don't know but is also coming to lessons after Vivie.

I wasn't sure I was going to make from the tack shed with that big western saddle and heavy saddle blanket, but somehow I did.  After I'd put the saddle on the fence, the lady mentioned that Cordell had escaped.  She said, "Is that one of his talents?"  And I replied "Yes, among many others" XD.  

Cordell didn't resist my catching him, thankfully, and we got back on track.  

By the time I was ready to bridle him, Vivie had finished her lesson.  She came over to Cordell and was petting while I was over by my crate.  My trainer said that she might be riding Cordell in her next lesson.  I told her that Cordell was fun to ride.  

My ride on Cordell went good, he was the usual amazing, big walking Cordell.  I resumed about where I left off when I last rode him, working on getting him to give to my hand and not lean on the reins.  Also trying to remember to sit tall and not slump / lean forward.  

Cordell responded really well to my asking him to give, even better than he has in the past.  Especially considering he doesn't get this type of work often, being a lesson horse, and having little kids jounce around on him all the time.  I tried to use my leg more and not just rely on my hands.  

I walked him over some stuff, did some circles and serpentines, etc.  I only gaited him a little on circle, just so I don't forget what it's like.  I also wanted to see if I could get him to give to my hand while gaiting.  

Somewhat surprisingly, he did, and I ended the ride soon after that. 

While I was riding him, a new horse arrived.  I'm assuming it's a client horse.  It was quite agitated when it came, so my trainer just let it sit in the trailer for awhile and I never got to see it.  I know it has white on it's face, and is maybe a bay, and that's it.  

When I came back from riding Cordell in the outdoor arena, I was given a long list again.  I don't mind it, I just want to make sure I remember all of it.  

First, I was to put Cordell up.  Then scoop up all the hay along the pens that'd blown out from the square bales.  It appears my trainer's order of round bales has yet to arrive after two weeks, which is annoying for both her and me.  After that I was to take the hay I'd scooped up from the arena and put in Riggs's pen.  Then scoop up the hay that was currently in the indoor arena.  Finally, I was to catch Mariah for my own lesson. 

Scooping up the hay along the pens was the most annoying job.  The wind was still blowing from the southwest, so I had to put the hay (per my trainer's shouted request), along the side of the shelter wall in the pen to keep it from blowing away.  This created only one pile, and so the highest ranking horses (Rugar in the lesson horse pen and Little Pig in the donkey pen) were the only ones that really got anything.  I had to hold the hay close to me to keep it from blowing away when taking it into the pens.  

Anyhow, I got that over with, and put the hay in Riggs's / Mistletoe's pen.  Again, I had to move the wheelbarrow out of the way and put it back again.

I didn't end up scooping the hay in the indoor arena, because Carol was riding in there with Medina.  So my trainer just told me to go get Mariah.  

Mariah was fairly easy to catch, although I think I could have done better about it.  

As I was tying her up, my trainer said something like, "Abby, I'm sorry, I didn't realize it's 1:30."  (I generally leave at 2.)  "Come in here and do some groundwork with her, we'll let you ride extra in your next lesson."    

So yeah, for the first time nearly three years, I didn't actually get my lesson XD  But I don't mind, it happens.  And I'm glad my trainer has a job she likes so much time just flies by for her.  

I accidentally impeded Carol when coming into the arena *face palm* fortunately she was looking and so we didn't get run over.  But I was annoyed with myself for not having looked earlier.  

My trainer had the new, special horse out (not the one that arrived in the trailer) and was ground working him.  He's about 2 years old, not quite 3 I don't think.  I think he's gonna be big when he grows up.  My trainer is particularly excited to work with him, because he's a 'blank slate.'  He hasn't been taught anything wrong at all (really he hasn't been taught anything.)  So she gets to see what it's like to train a horse who doesn't have any problems that need worked out, which is something she doesn't get to do often.   

Trainer told me to start working with Mariah and seeing how she felt to me, then we'd go from there.  She also mentioned she thought she had something that she wanted me to work on with Mariah.

I picked a place in the arena and put her on a circle.  She was slow, not the usual reactive Mariah, which was nice.  In fact, she was almost too laid back.

We did a couple of circles going both directions, then I started asking her to cross her hindlegs a couple of times.  Again, all of this was very calm for Mariah.  She'd also do that cutting in / springing out of the circle shape a couple of times, but not as badly as when I last ground worked her. 

I mentioned this and the calmness to my trainer when she asked me what I thought.  My trainer was very happy that she was that calm.  She handed me the two year old, who's name is something like 'Two Shoes' and took Mariah from me to demonstrate what she wanted me to do.

Two Shoes was annoying.  Like, he came right up to me and started poking his nose around.  I started to ask him to back up, but my trainer said, "No, he doesn't even know."  Like, he doesn't know yet how to back up.  She said that if he was nosing at my face, to just put my hand up between it and him, but otherwise to let him sniff with his whiskers. 

Because of this, it was a little hard for me to focus on what my trainer was saying, but I got something out of it.  

Basically, the idea is to get Mariah to step to the inside with her forefeet.  To do this, I could either make her move her haunches until she did that.  Or I could stand away and to the side, and ask her with my hand to move her forefeet over.   Like the second half of a change of direction.

The idea was that Mariah wouldn't step behind her outside foreleg with her inside foreleg, which causes her to travel to the outside.  But that she would step over her inside foreleg with her outside foreleg, thus moving to the inside.  

I opted for the second option, as it was the one I knew the most about (thanks to annoying Two Shoes.)  

The first time I did it I was standing too close and basically asking her to step on top of me.  Also, my hands weren't in the right position on the rope.

Once my trainer had corrected these two things, I was left to my own devices to kinda figure out how it worked.  Which was fine, and I got it quickly enough.

The hardest part for me was figuring out where to have my hands on the rope, that is, which hand should be holding the tail end and which should be holding the end attached to the horse.  But it clicked that it was like the second half of a change of direction, after you'd switched your hands.  Once I realized that, things went a lot smoother.  

We'd do one, then I'd stop her.  We'd wait a moment, I'd change hands, and we'd do another one.

After that, my trainer had me put her on a circle to see if her not wanting to stay on the circle was better.  After shortening my rope a bit between me and her, plus asking her to walk a little faster, it was clear that yeah, the problem had been made much better.  

Then my trainer told me to step towards Mariah's tail and move her haunches.  So I started doing that, and then she told me to walk away in a straight line so Mariah had to follow me.  

I didn't see it, because I was walking away from Mariah, but my trainer told me that she did it much better than she would've before.  She followed the rope and didn't, like, hit the end of it.  So we ended on that.  

And yeah, that was my lesson for this week, except it wasn't a whole lesson XD  

Actual lesson 2/15/2022