Working Through

Daylight savings! I definitely forgot about it and woke up at my normal time (6:30) thinking that it was 7:30 and that I had slept in. Not true, but it took me a couple hours to realize it. This is the first (and last) year that I don't really care as much about daylight savings as I used to care because I'm in this weird place in my life between careers where I'm no longer trying to smash lessons into the evening anymore because I'm not teaching as much and where I'm not yet having to ride in the evenings after work (I do plan on keeping future horse at a barn that has lights/covered arena, but it's still nice to ride in the daylight).

Speaking of this weird time in my life, I was thinking about how crazy the last week was with my new job that has suddenly added a bunch of hours to my day and realized that I have FIVE jobs right now. Insanity. Here they are:

Job #1: horse trainer/lesson giver/pony club person
- I teach and ride about 6-8 hours per week. I've really backed off my clients because teaching more clients may mean more money but it also doesn't help my resume

Job #2: statistics laboratory
- for three hours per week, I sit in the lab and help people with SPSS and refuse to do their homework for them

Job #3: graduate research assistant
- I'm helping with assessment for about 3-5 hours per week, we're assessing the bachelor's programs

Job #4: research assistant (new job)
- I'm helping with visualization of data, last week we did 21 hours, this week is 10. It will likely be 10-15 hours (this plus job #3 can't add up more than 20/week)

Job #5: graduate teaching assistant
- I graded papers last semester for an engineering class and this semester I'm doing it for a statistics class. It's about 5-8 hours for a week about 3 separate weeks out of the semester (when they have assignments). I might also get to do a guest lecture which is cool. I did one last semester for a graduate class teaching the students how to use R to run t-tests. This is a freshman stats class so it won't be as in depth.

Then on top of that, I have one class (3 hours of class a week) and my thesis (0 hours of thesis work each week....). I also ride TC and do crossfit 3x per week but that's just fun.

Speaking of TC. But this isn't TC, it can't be, this looks like a
second level horse during a medium trot, not a 3 year old who is
two months into dressage training, whaaat?

On Friday, I rode TC and he was excellent. He's really figuring out the chambon and I'm starting to reap the benefits undersaddle.

Today was essentially a continuation of the excellence that was Friday, and I have videos and therefore screenshots from today so I'll talk about today.

I usually longe him in the chambon, but today my mom offered to come by to take pictures so I just hopped on because she was in a hurry. Well, it turned out that doing video was much easier for her (since I didn't have to go get the camera and set it up, etc). I'm actually glad that we did video, now I have a solid idea of how he's going now, rather than just a bunch of stills. And I don't mind torturing people with screenshots! But first, here's the video:

I started off by trotting around and he was kind of an idiot. Then we cantered a bit, which was good, until he did a lead change. I'm so dumb.  He's so much like Rico that I then asked him to switch back and he did try (poor pony) but then landed HARD on his front feet and crunched my back. Ouch.

So now I'm in a bit of pain but I did manage to keep riding. However, this pain explains my questionable riding position with my back rounded.

He's so good

In general, he's looking SO much better than he feels, and he feels pretty good. His trot (as some of you guys have seen on instagram) is really coming along nicely. He's steering pretty well, although when I interrupt his roundness with steering, he sucks back in the bridle. You can see it a bit in the video. So trotting along on big, predictable figures means good connection and relaxation, but the second anything changes, not so great. Definitely something we can work on.

The canter was good, kind of speedy though. His canter is a tricky one- the bigger and faster he goes, the better the quality of canter is. He gets lateral when he has to go slow, but yeah I guess he's more controllable. But control, smantrol, give me quality! I feel like everyone else at the barn thinks that I'm nuts.

Come on though, the horse will eventually have a controllable canter, duh. Do I want a really high quality canter that may take longer to get under control, or do I want a shitty canter that I can control now. He's three years old. I'll take quality canter work over control. He's not doing anything bad, just getting fast.

Plus who cares about canter with a trot like this!

The canter does need work though... 

In the end (after all videos were taken), I worked on some figures. The larger area means that the figures don't stress him out as much and I can actually do things like spiraling in and out and lots of three-quarters of circles as we wiggle around. He definitely had to think about everything a lot. Not a ton of progress was made, but he did sit down a bit better and think about where we were going, which I think will really help in the future.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with him. He's pretty solidly round at the trot after he does his stupid baby shit in the beginning of every ride. His canter is forward and ground covering (especially the good way- left) and he's starting to at least try to go on the bit at the canter. The connection feels amazing and at least in trot (the gait that I use the chambon in for longeing- haven't cantered him in it yet), he is stretching more consistently forward and downward. Still not enough, but much better than before. The canter needs work in the connection department.

Not so reaching over the topline fancy pants cantering... 

Ugh someone give me a job so I can buy this pony sooner

I'm not super pleased with myself- baby horses are harder to keep position on than a Grand Prix horse and I've also not had a lesson since October. I need to drop my leg down and around, sit in the front of the seat of the saddle, and stop fucking posting with my hands what is that actual bullshit I don't do that EVER. Honestly, I think that showed up simply because my back was so painful while I was riding, that I was extra tense. So unless it doesn't go away, I'm going to just ice my back and chill out about my sudden post-y hands.

Less than a month until our tentative first show. We've got two outings plus at least another trail ride planned so hopefully we'll be prepared!

First outing is to this pretty place!