In His Natural Environment

Friday morning, I headed out to see TC. Yep, morning!

I ended up taking the day off on Friday for a few reasons. One, I had stopped accruing vacation time, which surprised me. At first I was like "meh horse so expensive, can't afford to go anywhere," but then I realized that with my crazy driving schedule, I should take days off when they help me reduce my driving. Taking the day off actually saved me two hours in the car.

Want cookies

Thursday was my dad's birthday so we were all (minus brother who was on a work trip) getting together on Friday night for dinner, then had family coming in from Michigan for Saturday.

This meant that if I wanted to see TC (I did) and wanted to make it to dinner on time, I had to get up SUPER early to start work early, hope beyond hope that nothing was assigned that day that had to be done that day so I didn't get delayed, frantically drive in traffic out to TC, then turn around and drive straight down to the south bay from the rehab place in traffic.

Or. Or... I could just take the day off. And go see TC in the morning, come home and pack everything up, eat lunch at home, relax with my cat a bit, and then head down early for dinner to avoid traffic. That sounds a lot less stressful!

He's so narrow still

Coincidentally, on Wednesday I got a text asking if I could skip my visit on Friday because the owners of the facility wanted to head out early. I told them that I could come in the morning or on Thursday afternoon (was sick, sick of being an adult that is) and they asked whether I wanted to come watch TC swim. UM YES PLEASE I WANT TO SEE IT!

I got there in the morning after a leisurely drive (this weekend was so amazing). TC smelled really great, so it was clear that he'd had a bath recently. He's basically all shed out and is looking really good. Quite strong, although his topline isn't very impressive because he's simply not using those muscles.

LOL fuck you TC, we'll wait until your vet check
to look at that bump

I gave him carrots and hung out with him for about twenty minutes, and then the guys came to get him to swim. It was fun talking to them while they haltered him and picked his feet. The main guy is really enthusiastic about TC, though speaks only a little english. I said that I heard TC liked swimming and he said "yes he charges into the pool, very fast" and then I told him about going out on cross country, saying we had a pond that we played in once and he gestured like pawing and said "I bet he did this, he loves water" and then he said TC was very strong. He kind of said it in a way where he was impressed yet kind of scared. I say it the same way.

And we got to see that strength come out as my baby horse freaked the fuck out about nothing walking over to get his hose down. They hose the horses down before letting them swim, I think mostly just to get them used to the water so it isn't such a shock.

OMG THINGS ON THE LEFT

OH WAIT NO MISTAKE

OMG THINGS ON THE RIGHT
(look how much he can bend his hocks!)

Here's some video of TC going in, he does seem quite excited. I think if he were a kid he'd have done a cannon ball.

He swims about 5-6 laps at this point, which is a LOT, he came out of the pool quite amped.

Then after swimming he goes in the walker for a while. The guys were telling me that he's normally calmer, which made me feel better and worse at the same time. Better because phew I'm glad he's not THIS crazy all the time, since if that was the case, it'd be a miracle that he didn't kill himself. But worse because ugh he definitely acts up more around me. I'm really not sure why.

Stress these days is piling up so I've been crying about everything (I cried because my photographer friend offered to come take pictures of TC and I when he comes back- oh and I'm getting teary right now writing about that lol cortisol, it does a body good). Obviously after that I had a good childish cry session on the way out thinking that I just bring the worst out in this horse.

But the reality is that I take things too personally, it was also windy so that could have contributed to it. And he's an easily distracted horse and I'm not normally there when he swims/walks and he probably sees me as a carrot machine. I mean if a vending machine full of cheesecake was bustling around the office telling me I was cute, I probably wouldn't do my job very well either.

Excuse me walker, I would like to walk faster

okay he shouldn't be cantering but look at how slow
he can canter now!

 After the walker there was one other big spook where he ran sideways but once as he was back in his stall, he was fine. I slowly gave him the rest of the carrots doing carrot stretches and just generally having him be a little more polite about things. This horse is freakishy flexible. He can now reach on both sides back past his flank. Eventually he will be able to literally put his own head up his ass, this fall he could only figuratively do that. Progress, tangible progress.

He's such a sweet fun horse. I left feeling a bit split about him. I was thinking when he was spooking and being over-reactive that I just need to sell him- he isn't the horse I bought and that's okay. It's not admitting defeat, it's a fact that we're probably not a match. I don't like unpredictable horses, and he's a big strong guy with a serious flight mechanism. But then back in his stall he's so sweet and I go back to the amazing rides over thanksgiving when we were having so many problems and all it took was being at the right barn with the right trainer.

Ugh he is so good at this move, I'm going to have to start over
with teaching him to reach downward with his neck again

And this weekend more plans were solidified to guarantee that I can keep him at the right barn with the right trainer long term. And I reminded myself that I once had a much scarier horse who reared and spun and launched me into arena fences. That horse took me to Grand Prix with the right trainer, the right barn, and a lot of hard work.