Too Confident

First, thanks everyone for the exercises last time! I'm thinking of compiling them into one big post, adding my own, and posting that... eventually.

Rico is glad he doesn't have to do any more damn exercises

Okay so my new (temporary and "part time" but I'm already closing in on 20 hours and we're not nearly finished) job is killing me. Physically, mostly, the work itself is really cool. My boss has a standing desk, so when I go into work, I stand too. Despite being young (at least for another few months until my 29th birthday, booo), I've learned that I can't possibly stand up for so long. My boss, being quite a bit older than me, is a standing up pro. By the end of our five hour meeting yesterday, I was DYING. I hobbled out to my car and insisted on laying down for the rest of the evening.

This morning, I woke up incredibly sore (also sore from crossfit both from Monday and Wednesday this week, both workouts were brutal) and had to haul around my computer and the computer she gave me to do work on. I'm so tired, how does she do it? Luckily my roommate was on campus today and able to drive me home rather than me have to lug the damn computers to the train station and home.

Except that coming home meant riding in this
very sketchy elevator with exposed wires and no
certificate of safety... whaaat the actual fuck?

Yesterday between crossfit and the epic stand-off, I rode the best baby horse!

He's getting so much more confident in himself. But I mean really. He wears boots and he has a crank noseband and he knows what a chambon means and he only occasionally yanks his feet out of my hands when I'm picking them! What a dressage pro.

With the new found confidence, comes a new desperation to be a total brat.

I had to put my saddle near him because my normal rack was taken. So he proceeded to dump my saddle pads off of the saddle and started in on the saddle itself until I told him to stop. Then he started yanking blankets down and spooking at them when they fell. Then he pawed, got his foot onto the fence, and thought hard about climbing it before I backed him off of it. The whole time, I was saying "stop it", "quit it", "knock it off" and the lady nearby was like "wow he's really obnoxious."

But he's so cute!

We did our normal longeing routine. After his normal warm up walking, trotting, and cantering, I put on the chambon. Immediately TC took the chambon to the next level. He stuck his nose literally in the dirt and trotted so that he was dragging his nose along the ground. I kept having to send him forward to get him to bring his head up, then he'd hit the chambon and go way way down to the ground again. Eventually he figured it out...

I got on him and he was really stoked. I could feel a little bounce in his step as we walked along. Then he decided that it was time to trot and he charged off with me.

He's always been super lazy. Since he was a baby being broke, he's always needed spurs and a whip. But now that he's gaining confidence and fitness, he's getting more and more forward. It's a really nice forward, but he isn't strong enough to hold himself up, so he basically just charges around with his face in my face and won't respond to any aids. I don't think he means anything bad by it- he's just feeling good.

I'm not a massive fan of being dragged around by an idiot baby horse, but I do like how forward he is now. He's always been lazy- since the day they broke him, he's needed spurs and a whip to be ridden- so I'm really pleased that he's quite forward now. But I want to, you know, have SOME sort of control over him. So we once again revisited the half halt. He wasn't so thrilled about it but after a LOT of transitions, we got some excellent work.

There are donkeys in that paddock to the right
he loves them. 

Once as he settled down a bit, we had some really nice trot work. The geometry isn't perfect yet, but he is definitely going into corners much better. Other than getting him to settle down and do his job rather than darting around the arena like a maniac, my big goal between now and the show in terms of how he is going is to get his geometry a bit better. He falls in and out on circles sometimes and doesn't always stay to my outside rein. That will all come with time.

The canter work was excellent. He's really figured out how to keep cantering through corners and to the right, he stays quite balanced. To the left, he's struggling with the corners, especially the one where he turns to go downhill (the arena is on a bit of a slope).

Overall, I'm really pleased with him, even if his new confidence has turned him into a brat.

Ali and I talked about getting to new places both for her horse, who can be dramatic, and little TC, who just hasn't been many places. She's going to talk to my former boarding barn to see if we can pay a quick use fee and school (which would be great! There are many arenas, including a trail course which I'd love to torture him with). I also talked with my mom and okay'd using my parents' facility one day, which is just across the valley. Hopefully that lines up two new places for us to go before the show. I'd also like to get TC trailering alone and in my rig, but Ali is going to the first show with me, so I'm not too concerned about getting that done just yet.

Stop, I want to take pictures of your face!

Can also just add here at the end that although the baby horse is really fun and exciting, there are so many days that I just really miss having my favorite Grand Prix horse in work. Rico is thoroughly enjoying his retirement and my mom is looking forward to having him as her trail horse one day. I'm glad he's getting the life he deserves, but I miss him sometimes!

Loved his piaffe

Our last show