Moving Forward

I'm writing this veeerrrryyyy carefully on my stupid laptop which has decided that graduate school is too hard for it and that it wants to stop working. I haven't figured out exactly what is wrong yet, but it essentially freezes up randomly and refuses to shut off.

Looks like this year I'll be adding a new laptop to the massive pile of debt I've acquired since making this life choice. Remind me why I'm doing this again?

Speaking of questionable life choices, the 18 year old animal who is still miraculously sound after several horrible injuries so I continue to pay for him despite said debt is doing well!

A few pictures from the lake trip I took at the beginning of
June with boyfriend and his family

As I mentioned in my previous post, my last lesson with Tracey went very poorly. The evening ended with tears, talking with my best friend for a couple of hours, and deciding that I needed a new trainer. I won't go into details about what happened exactly but I've had enough trainers to know when it's time to move on. I'm feeling very burnt out from riding so I think a change is necessary.

One solid change comes in the form of a couple of lessons this week. I'm seeing Heidi twice (today, Tuesday, and Thursday) and might do the Gail Hoff-Carmona clinic on Saturday. I normally wouldn't throw myself into a clinic like this, but the clinic is a 5 minute drive away from my house so why not.

So many rams!

In the mean time, I've been working on regaining the formerly solid basics I seem to be merely grasping at currently: the roundness, the energy, and the straightness.

He's just not quite through anymore. At my last lesson, Tracey had me ride him rounder and more through than I have been. I continued that through this weekend and it's hard! Rico wants to be a little behind the bit and in front of the vertical (doesn't that sound weird? Basically he's too light and hollow, and when I try to establish more of a connection, he goes more hollow). I rode him a little long and low, really emphasizing him reaching into the contact and using his back more.

We've been working on the energy for a while, and he's certainly getting better, but at my lesson it was obvious that we only get about 70-80% of the energy we have at home at lessons and probably at shows. I think it might be because trailering over to a facility probably takes a bit of energy out of him. Either way, I need him to be on fire at home so that he's energetic elsewhere. So this weekend we worked on that. I stayed much taller in my body and worked to not get behind him and drive downward into the saddle.

The straightness is an ongoing process that I tend to forget about. It's most apparent in our changes and transitions. He loses straightness and then therefore loses roundness. I've been worked on the single changes and a LOT of transitions. We now always start warm up with walk-halt transitions and end with a ton of walk-canter and canter-walk transitions. This weekend I also worked on the pirouette canter and that is getting much better!

Such love for vacation

With Heidi I want to go in with a plan. I want to take a step back from showing (next show would then be August 2/3 so I have a month) and get the basics back in addition to adjusting to a new trainer. The first two lessons I want to just make sure we're both on the same page of what is expected of both Rico and I at the walk, trot, and canter, then I'll practice that before coming back.

At the clinic I want to see about working a bit on the ones and the pi/pa depending on how he is going. Gail is a judge I may consider riding under so I wanted to see what her ideas were about the piaffe and passage, and what her opinion is on the one tempis. Before anyone jumps at me, you're allowed to clinic with judges up until 30 days before the show. It's kind of frowned upon to ride with them regularly and then stop 30 days out, but I'll only be doing one day at one clinic about two months before I'd see her. Probably fine!

I'm super bummed about my decision to stop riding with Tracey, Rico and I came so far under her guidance, but I'm excited about moving forward and having fun during the last several months before Rico retires from the FEI levels.

Hopefully more lake trips in the future!