Grow a Pair

Tuesday night I headed out to the barn determined to figure out what is going on with the canter. I mostly wanted to gather information and see whether riding him over the ground a bit more would help with the backing off.

TC looked pretty quiet when I came out to see him. He stood in the cross ties with his lower lip floppy and his entire body looking like it was especially responsive to gravity that day. He perked up when I went to bridle him, and by the time we were out walking, he was doing his normal spooky things and marching out.

No media so old old pictures from two years ago when his
canter was so ugly

I warmed up with the idea that he would be very much committed to being in front of my leg. We started in trot and I had to amp him up a bit to get to the point where I felt like I could just sit quietly and have him really into the rein and up in front of me.

It didn't take much effort, really. If there's one thing I know how to do, it's to add energy to a situation. Thanks, Rico.

But the tough part with TC is that fine line between fun dressage horse and fire breathing dragon. And I've worked VERY hard to get him to be quite relaxed in his work. When he's relaxed, he swings through his body better, keeps his tempo slower, and doesn't run away with me. But I do know that if I want to keep progressing with him, he needs to learn how to be responsive to me without being reactive to everything happening around him.

And to train that, I have to push the envelope.

So I grew a pair and did just that. After getting the trot where it needed to be, we went into canter and I was determined to get the same feeling of being in front of my leg. And that's when I saw what had been brewing the last week- he refused to go into canter, then when he did, he would either canter very behind my leg or buck.

I had it out with him, kicking him out of it and sending him quite forward. Then we came back to the collected canter, then back out to the medium canter. Back and forth, over and over. It only took a couple in each direction before he was all about going forward from my leg.

I remember being so impressed with this picture lol

And it was SO FUN. His medium canter is to die for, I'm actually not riding it big enough yet because it's right on the edge of my comfort zone. But it's so uphill and he covers a freakish amount of ground with so much scope.

After drilling the transitions, he really figured out the aids- light in the seat with the legs coming a bit back to collect and heavier in the seat with the legs going a bit forward to cover more ground. The upward transition is bold, all that practice with bolting, and the downwards will get better with more practice.

He only zipped off with me twice all ride. Once in the very beginning when someone was wrapping up a hose (obviously a snake) and once on our walk around the ranch after the ride when a horse moved (obviously the same snake turned into a horse). None during the work in medium canter, though I did note that he did get a bit stronger in the bridle than usual. But I don't mind that because he's quite light to begin with and I could use something to hold onto as we galloped around.

This horse doesn't even look capable of going forward in any
kind of balance lol

Back in trot, we ended with some shoulder-in and some lengthenings in trot. He's kind of figuring out how to get his front end up in both, which has been really cool. We're playing a little with adding scope to his trot in them both, so alternating them seemed helpful to him.

It wasn't a long ride, and I forgot to take even a behind-the-ears shot, but it was a good ride. I don't know my plan for the next couple of rides, but my gut tells me that right now, it's a bad idea to do that canter work every day. I think today we'll do mostly trot with just enough canter to drill into him again that he has to stay in front of the leg, then do more medium canter tomorrow.