Tuesday dawned about as cold as the weather app said it would.  But it might have warmed up to be a nice day, except there was a brutal north wind blowing quite strongly.  

Despite that, we have an indoor riding arena that blocked that wind, so my trainer didn't cancel lessons.  My first job was to put feed sacks in the trash, and then my second was to transport square hay bales.

See, Yucca, the stud colt, has officially been gelded and is now integrated into the lesson horse program.  (Blueberry picks on him a lot XD).  The hay bales that were over by his old little pen my trainer wanted me to move.  Two of them to the gate by the lesson horse pen, and two of them by the gate to the donkey pen.  

So, after doing feed sacks, of which there weren't many, I grabbed the two-wheeled wheelbarrow and went over to Yucca's old pen.

One bale at a time, I wheeled them to their designated locations.  It wasn't all that hard, except the bales were tricky to get in and out of the barrow.  

I found my trainer in the tack shed for my next job.  She's been at this 'new' place (I originally took lessons with her at another place, but awhile back, before I ever even started Wattpad, she moved to this place), and she has yet to organize / sort through the stuff in the tack shed.  

So guess who's job that fell too?  

Which is fine, because I like organizing things, it's distinctly fun and soothing to me to bring order out of chaos.  

Actually, my first job was to put the western saddle blankets back in order.  They'd kinda fallen in a messy pile.  

They're stacked on this... wooden thing?  Cabinet?  Not sure what it is but it works pretty well.  After unearthing it, I reorganized so that the least used / dirtiest saddle pads were at the back, and the most used ones at the front.  

Then it was time to dive into a pile of stuff that was right next to the western blankets.  My trainer gave me one box and told me to put any little bits and bobs that weren't trash in there.  She also said that she was going to bring out some more boxes for me to put things in, and that I'd have to show her what was in each on before I left.  

However, as I was working on the saddle blankets, Sally showed up for her lesson.  This distracted my trainer, and so she never ended up bringing the boxes XD  Despite that, I went ahead and went through it so that when the boxes came, I could just put the piles in them.  

Sally said that my helmet cover looked really nice on a cold day, and so I told her where she could find it.  Seriously, guys, that helmet cover has made winter riding so much more tolerable for me, it is amazing.  

Rummaging through all that stuff and organizing proved to be interesting.  You just never know what you might find.  I won't list it all here, but there was a lot of variety, let me tell you.  A lot of it was dusty from having been left there for awhile.  

It felt like it took a lot longer than it actually did, and when I'd finished that, (my trainer still hadn't brought me any boxes), I went back out to the indoor arena.  Sally was just mounting Cordell.  

My trainer told me that a blue tub had blown over to the end of the horse pens (I knew where it was, I'd seen it,), and she wanted me to put it back in Riggs and Mistletoe's pen along with a purple tub.  Then she wanted me to fill up the water tanks.  Oh, and pick up any hay nets I saw.  

I fetched the blue tub, and picked up some hay nets.  The hay net in the lesson horse pen was nearly gone, and I knew that I could pull the hay net out from under it before the wind blew it away.  I also knew it'd probably be pretty hard to do.  

But surprisingly, it was the easiest hay net I've ever pulled out from under a hay bale.  I literally grabbed on end of it and started pulling.  It rolled the hay that was on it, with a pad of dirt, around enough so that when I pulled it off, the hay pad had been moved to a completely new spot XD  But the hay was still on top and not the dirt.  Kinda hard to explain, but it was neat to do.  

Anyhow, after putting that in the trash, I turned on the water and took the blue tub back to its place.  I was going to fill the lesson horse pen tanks first, but they still had water.  Mistletoe and Riggs had been out for a little while, so I dragged the hose over there to water them. 

I also noticed that Tidbit had been moved over the pen with Sage, and that another filly was with them.  I believe she is my trainer's own foal, which she bred for, but I'm not for sure on that.  I've only seen her a couple of times, and it's been awhile.  There was also a fourth horse in there, but I can't remember who it was?

I remembered that Tidbit couldn't reach the bottom of the tank with her little nose, and noticed that the tank was low, so I filled them up next.  

It took awhile for this tank to fill.  I spent some of it looking for stray bits of hay net, but a lot of it I huddled on the other side of the tack shed out of the north wind.  I could still see the tank, but I wasn't freezing to death because of that brutal wind. 

In fact, I actually got kinda warmed up there.  If there'd been no wind, it could've been a gorgeous winter day.  

Anyhow, next after that was the lesson horse pen.  Here, there was no building for me to stand behind that was close enough, but I did find a nice hollow in the piles of dirt and weeds that are next to the lesson horse pen.  By hunkering down there, I was able to stay out of the wind XD.  I kinda felt like a little kid again. 

When my trainer came to put Cordell up, she said she said to me that she was thankful that I could help her with my work.  It meant a lot to me that she said that, because I do want to be helpful to her as she has been to me.  

Also, during this time a electric company truck arrived.  Then more trucks arrived.  And it turns out that they were going to be setting in telephone poles.  Right next to the indoor arena.  

Which is how we ended up doing groundwork.  Because I don't know about you, but when the electric company is making drilling and banging noises right next to the arena, riding doesn't seem like a very safe option.  

After sticking the hose into the big, huge tank in the donkey pen, it was time for my lesson.  First I was to catch Sage and then Blueberry.  

Sage was grumpy that I work her up from her nap, but otherwise fine with all the noises.  Bluebonnet, on the other hand, was not at all.  She snorted and fidgeted as we waited in the indoor arena for my trainer.  

Also, Friend came by for another lesson with me.  She was the one who got to work with Bluebonnet, and I worked with Sage.  

It took awhile for my trainer to get over to us because Sea Monster was having some issues.  My trainer hopped up on a flatbed trailer, and she wanted him to come up alongside.  But he wasn't having it.  So it took awhile for them to work through that.   

Part of the reason, my trainer told me later, was that he's just been told 'No!  You're in trouble!' so many times that he just didn't believe it anymore because they didn't follow through with it.  He no longer believes that he's in trouble when he's told he's in trouble.  So now she has to convince him of that.  

Anyhow, once she did come over to the arena, she brought him with her for additional groundwork.

So, the first deal with Sage was getting her to be more self-going-forward.  She's not a lazy horse, but she doesn't think it's her job to keep up the pace.  Denali was like that all the time, until you got onto her for it.  

But Sage is a young horse, my trainer said, and that hasn't been taught to her, so we need to prevent it now so she doesn't become another Denali. 

So, I was to put her on a circle, stick her in an active walk, and then really get onto her when she slowed down and didn't listen to me when I asked her to speed up.  

This was hard for me on the ground as it is in the saddle.  That is, I didn't know what my trainer meant by an active walk, or rather, how active the walk should be.  At the beginning, I was also dealing with some anxiety, so I wasn't as assertive as I should have been.  

While we made some progress, my trainer did take her from me and showed me what she meant.  This really helped.  When I took Sage back from her, Sage was way more forward going.  Thus, when she had a fast walk, my trainer told me that was what we wanted.  Now I had an image in my mind of it, and could measure her speed by that.  

After doing more circling with that nice, fast walk, we started doing some haunches out on the circle.  That is, I was step towards her tail while bring the rope across my chest to make her step under and across with her hind feet.  After, say, two good steps, I'd back off and send her on the circle again.  

One of the things I had to remember was to step towards her tail, and also to make sure she had that fast walk.  Oh, and to remember to not keep my hand raised so high.  That was screaming at her to move forward, I had to keep it more down at my side instead.  

One of the things my trainer also wanted was her to step over and under herself.  Not a weird shuffle to the side, or to step behind herself, but a good deep step over.  This works the horse's inside hind leg.  

At one point we were doing pretty good, but she was stalling when it was time to go back on the circle, so I had to get after her for that a little.  

Eventually, we got to where we were doing that pretty good and consistently.  It's one of my favorite groundwork exercises. 

Then, we moved onto doing that at a standstill.  So, we'd be halted.  Then I was to come round her side, smoothly and not aggressively to ask her to step over nicely.  Once she did, I'd let her step forward a couple of steps and then stop again.  

This was fairly easy, except that I sometimes she'd back up before stepping over.  My trainer told me I had to step around to her hindquarters, instead of going straight back.  I could feel the difference when I did that. 

Part of the reason we did this with Sage was because we wanted her to practice being available to us at a standstill.  This isn't easy for her, she tends to tune us out whenever we're halted for awhile.  And the longer we're stopped, the more she does that.  

My trainer also demonstrated this with Sea Monster.  We're tempting them, she said, to ignore us and then, when we ask them for something, we see if they took the bait.  Surprisingly, Sea Monster actually didn't take the bait and did well.  

Once that was going well, my trainer had us do changes of direction at a standstill.  So, I'd do what I was doing before, moving the hindquarters, then I'd stop and move the front feet away from me onto the new direction. 

At first, I assumed I was to do this as a normal change of direction, like we'd on a circle.  Which meant that I'd change my hands with the rope after moving the hindquarters.  See, you've got to switch hands with the rope so that your hand holding the tail end of the rope become your new 'leading' hand.  Did that make sense?  

After doing a couple of these changes, which were good in their own right but between moving the haunches and the forefeet we kinda got a little stuck as I changed hands.  (Also, I had to be careful about not step on the end of the lead rope, which was long enough at that point that it touched the ground XD).  

However, my trainer then corrected me, saying that before I performed the change, I was to have my hands already in the right position.  This she also demonstrated for me.  It felt weird, but it did make the changes go a lot smoother.  

Finally, the last thing we did was trotting around on the circle.  But not just any ol' boring trotting.  My trainer said she wanted me to put her in trot, and then, when she slowed down, to attack her.  No warning, no nothing, just  get in there after her and make her go.  

Unlike before in walk, I was a lot more diligent about this.  It only took about two or three times before Sage got the message and started keeping the pace.  Next time my trainer said I could merely raise my hand and see if that got her to go faster.

After changing directions and trotting her the other way, we called it good for the day.  My trainer had me go put Sage back in her pen, and then told me that I could either grab Mariah for some groundwork or go back to organizing the tack shed.  Guess which one I chose.  

But before I caught her, I took the hose out of the big tank, which was overflowing by now.  My trainer was the one who turned off the water though.  This is the first time I've actually filled every single water tank *pumps fist*  Usually I don't have enough time but I got it that round.

Mariah was fairly easy to catch.  My trainer told me to work with her for a little while and see what she was like.

When we came in the arena, she was a little spooky about the electric company's machines and sounds, but nowhere near as excited as Bluebonnet, just not as calm as Sage.  I put her on a circle, and then started doing some haunches out with her as well.  

Doing that helped focus and calm her down.  When my trainer came back in the arena, this time with Riggs, she asked me what I thought of her. 

I said she'd been tense when she'd come in here, but had calmed down.  I also mentioned she was ducking in on the circle on some points, specifically when going through the corner, although that had gotten a little better.

My trainer said I could work on that in trot, to keep Mariah from getting bored.  She also said that Riggs is from the same place as Mariah, so they know each other :)  

At first, I wasn't sure what was needed to make Mariah bend, and was unsure about it.  Finally my trainer said I needed to step towards where the girth / my leg would be if she was saddled, and I needed to do it before she unbent herself in the corner.  

It was a lot to manage between keeping her in trot and getting her to keep the bend.  But, after a lot of fumbling on my part, we finally got it.  

By then, it was time for me to leave.  My trainer wanted me to do a couple of changes on the way to the arena gate.  When I asked Mariah to move forward one time, she didn't quite do it, and my trainer said that was because my cue hadn't gotten through to her because my rope wasn't short enough.  So, got be careful of that, the horse must actually be able to hear you XD 

And yeah, that was it.  

Actual lesson 2/1/2022