Back to Full Work!

Rico went back to full work yesterday and today! Yesterday I just touched on everything from Prix St George to see where we were at and then today I drilled the canter work (esp the pirouettes).

THIS HORSE IS SO COOL! Let me explain in too many details why:

I mean he's had over a month off now, just kind of chilling while I obsess over all sorts of things including his soundness, his fitness, the amount of muscle he lost, his weight, whether I should bed his stall deeper, where I should put him when I go to Boston (this one is pretty much solved- my neighbor has offered me a stall at their amazing facility that I drool over on a regular basis), etc. Obsessing over horses should be an Olympic sport, seriously.

One of the main things on my mind was the amount of muscle he'd lose being off for so long. I was especially worried that he'd lose the strength to do the pirouettes, which he had been struggling with anyway. Well, this horse is freakish in that he seems to have gained strength in the pirouettes while not doing them for a month. Maybe what I should do is just trail ride him for three months, then enter him in a Grand Prix. That seems to be what it takes to train this horse!

In truth I think that it's that I've been working immensely hard to fix my riding, to loosen up on the left rein, to sit down on my right seat bone, etc. Today the pirouettes felt easy to me, like my body position was just THERE, I wasn't fighting it at all. And he responded by giving me the BEST PIROUETTES EVER! In the real world that I outright refuse to live in, they were probably not so great- he did over-collect a bit to the left and the right was a little lean-y. But for a horse that just came off of a rehab, YAY!

He also maintained his ability to do lateral work, provided that I stay in the middle of the tack. Evidently, it seems that sitting way off to one side and pulling on one rein to assure that I don't fall off is NOT the best way to execute a shoulder-in. On a somewhat related note, my horse is exceptionally tolerant of such tomfoolery and actually did give me something that resembled a shoulder-in despite my poor riding.  I'm fairly convinced that he just reads my mind and humors my silly humanness.

(as an aside, I had a student once that asked me "do horses think we're as cute as we think they are" and I am kind of thinking that it's somewhat true. I think he thinks it's adorable that I try to ride him... that's probably not what she meant, but still!)

The half pass zig zag is resiliently there. I seem to remember writing about how awful it was and then how it just magically became amazing overnight (certainly not my doing). He probably stayed up late that night thinking about what my flapping meant and came up with the zig zag. What a genius. I totally forgot it used to be a weak movement so I just rode it and of course he was brilliant. He was so on every single time. Have I mentioned how amazing this horse is? Not nearly enough, I'm sure.


So the plan for this fall: I'm feeling really really good for Prix St George on September 8th and then continuing at the same level in October at Greenville and maybe in November at Starr Vaughn.

I need to talk to Tracey about it though. Tracey (who tends to be more conservative than myself of course) will likely not want to support my return to the FEI ring so soon since we're going to be rather weak for the level. But I was thinking about it today and I just want to get the first one over with sooner rather than later. I want to buy that damn pretty shadbelly and canter up centerline even if I'm completely unprepared and the judge visibly cringes at me as I ride through the movements.

I just feel like HE is ready. I'm probably not ready, my abilities aren't as reliable as Rico's are, but I'm ready to make an attempt at it.  Besides, I already decided that next year is the big PSG year. Next year we're going to work hard to score well, to go to championships, and maybe to even do a CDI. This year is about learning new things and experiencing having my wonderful horse back for *almost* an entire season.


In non-horsey news, tomorrow I have my departmental orientation!! Then Tuesday I work in the morning and ride with Tracey in the evening, Wednesday is work in the morning and my first day of graduate school, Thursday I ride in the morning and then head to Elk Grove, Friday through Sunday is CDS JR/YR Championships! More on that later but I'm super stoked :)

It's going to be a long week (including today where I got up at 5:30am to head to Lodi for several hours at Dressage in the Almonds, then went to Woodside for 5 hours of work before returning home to ride Rico at 8pm), but it's going to be amazing.

PS no pictures because apparently blogger doesn't think that pictures are necessary. Either way I don't really have any interesting ones yet. I have a bunch I'm editing currently so I may add some later :)