Deal With It

So on Monday my boss told me that she hoped I wouldn't find a job and then I could stay with her all summer. It was oddly flattering and slightly insulting at the same time! But too bad for her, I had an interview on Tuesday with a recruiter (contract position, boo) and today I had an interview with someone from a ridiculously amazing company (they found me! I wouldn't have applied to this position, too senior for me). So at least I'm getting some call backs. 

This is one of the things I'm going to buy when I have a steady
income to support him!

I rode TC on Monday morning instead of crossfit because I didn't have time to ride on Tuesday and didn't want him to have a whole bunch of days off. He's so fun at home, we did leg yields, canter work, and the connection in the trot was amazing. But it really got me thinking that it's a shame he gets so worried in new places because he's doing so well at home schooling a bunch of training level, but we're only a bit closer to being able to move up to training. I'm in no hurry (since I need to protect his record), but it'd be nice to feel like the work we're doing at home is able to directly translate to the show ring. 

So today I DID do crossfit and hated it, but afterward (and by afterward I mean after I laid down for a bit too long and watch Netflix before leaving), I headed out to the barn to ride TC. 

To work on the discrepancy between riding at home and riding elsewhere. I'm hoping to ride in a place different than the very comfortable covered arena at least 2x per week. I typically only ride him 3-4x per week so at least half of our rides will be in a different arena. When we can, we'll trailer out, but I have access to the field and the three neighbor arenas on a semi-regular basis. 

Today I headed over to the neighbor arenas, they have a big covered, a small covered, and an outdoor. The outdoor has the best footing, and Ali was actually already in it. 

This cute face needs to deal with new
arenas better!

We warmed up as usual in a place that isn't home- kind of chaotic. I'm still not used to this. Every other horse I ride (all schooling 3rd or above currently) is so easy. I get on, I tell them they HAVE to behave and they just do. TC is too busy being surprised that sometimes the fence has a hole in it and those black mats are STILL there after 3-4x around the arena and a horse SUDDENLY appeared out of that box. 

Just about five minutes after I got there and began the chaotic trotting, a few trailers pulled in. A black horse unloaded from the trailer, was walked over near the arena we were in, and allowed to graze. 

According to TC though, the horse appeared OUT OF NOWHERE and such a terrifying magical appearing animal needed to be watched by him the entire time, at the expense of paying attention to me. 

Rocks are also terrifying and must be stared at

Typically when TC sees something that really bothers him like that, he's unconsolable for a few minutes. He never does anything wrong though. Never bolts, bucks, explodes, rears, or anything crazy. He just gets very tense, very high headed, and trots around like the Oldenburg side falls right out of his brain and he goes full Friesian on me. Ugh. 

Normally, I handle this by being calm and waiting him out. I try to quietly redirect his attention but as long as he isn't being a complete asshole, I kind of let him ride it out on his own. I like this method because it never makes him MORE tense, and he learns to get over things on his own. I DON'T like this method because it takes a while and it means that he's never really expected to do anything if he's worried about something. In the long run, that's not good, he needs to perform under pressure sometimes. 

Such a cute HALF Friesian, not full, HALF. Not that I have
anything against Friesians, but the buggers are talented at using
their necks to get what they want

So today, since it was in a place he had been a lot before, since his friend was there with him, and since it was just a freaking HORSE getting out of a TRAILER and he should be able to deal with that, I put pressure on him for the first time in this type of situation. 

It actually worked out really well. He trusts me quite a bit now, and I think that made a big difference. I started by putting him on a circle and insisting that he bend, when he didn't bend, we'd turn harder and the work would get harder until he focused a bit better, then I let him out on to the bigger circle. 

It didn't take long until he was relaxed and going well to the right. He was super soft and round and forward, ahh it was amazing. To the left, he struggled more, it's harder in general for him that way. Harder to bend, harder to connect. Ali gets slightly worried when I tell her that. She thinks something might be wrong with him. Could be, he's quite uneven and I'm slightly worried that he's wearing one of his hocks out a bit fast, but he's also only four years old and give me another year with him and he'll be pushing evenly on both hocks. Plus, anything questionable will hopefully come up at the vet check.

But even while going left when he was so upset by the horses coming out of the trailers (multiple horses by this point were out and walking around out of multiple trailers, oh the tragedy), he still stayed with me as best he could. Once as he chilled out enough, I stopped for the day and Ali and I headed back to the barn. 

Just a few more days until our next show!

Back at the barn, TC won the horse lottery and got put in a paddock with a huge bucket of grain, cool calories (which Ali grabbed for him at the feed store to help put weight on him), and a flake of alfalfa hay. He was so happy! He walked around, went to get a drink, casually ate his food, and Ali was going to put him back this afternoon (I had to run off for my phone interview). 

Overall, I was really pleased! We have just over a week left until our next schooling show. Hopefully we can get off the property at least once to school, although after his behavior at Woodmyst last weekend, I'm pretty sure he'll be at least better behaved at this show than he was at the last one. Hoping to break into the mid 60s this time around! Or at least beat our 61 from last time. Intro B ftw.

Leg Yields for the Laterally Challenged

I used to have a love-hate relationship with leg yields. They're so damn helpful and the gateway to the rest of the lateral work, but ugh straightness ugh crossover ugh roundness. I've done enough of them now to not hate them (and now all of my lateral work hatred is focused on half pass).

Oh hey Intermediare II half pass. I HATE YOU. 

A leg yield, for those who may be unfamiliar, is a lateral movement where the horse stays straight (parallel to the long side of the arena if leg yielding from centerline to rail or rail to centerline) with a slight lateral flexion (lateral flexion = at the poll*, bend = through the whole body). Both the inside front legs and the inside hind legs cross over as the horse leg yields. Leg yield can be done at all three gaits but no crossover occurs at the canter and horses may interfere at the canter. I don't typically leg yield at the canter unless a trainer makes me. I've never had it really help much.

*saying flexion at the poll doesn't make sense because the horse's vertebrae don't work that way, the horse flexes longitudinally at the atlas/poll and laterally one joint down at the axis. 

I literally have no pictures of me doing
leg yield so enjoy some from google!

I generally try to get leg yield on a horse as soon as I possibly can unless the horse is particularly squirrely and might use it against me. But in general, having more control over the horse laterally is a good thing.

My typical precursor to leg yield is turn on the forehand, mostly because it isolates the hind legs from the front legs and is usually easier for a horse to understand and perform correctly than a leg yield. Plus, IMO, it's nice to introduce lateral work with a movement that you'll never be asked to do in a dressage test so you can do it real shitty and never have to worry.

Once as I have turn on the forehand in both directions from a light aid, ideally while the horse is softly on the bit and not yanking my arms out (TC's first turns on the forehand were basically pony wrestling), then I'll start the leg yield.

There are a lot of different ideas of how to put on a leg yield and where to do leg yield and when to introduce leg yield to your parents. Lots. Here are some that I have heard that I don't totally disagree with:

- always leg yield from rail to centerline so the horse doesn't learn to rush to the rail
- starting the leg yield from centerline to the rail because most horses want to be on the rail and that can help you install it
- always make sure the horse is totally straight in all aspects of training the leg yield, even if the crossover is not that great, the crossover will come later
- always make sure the horse is crossing over in all aspects of training the leg yield, even if the straightness is not that great, the straightness will come later
- don't ever leg yield along the fence because the horse will get tense
- start the leg yield along the fence because the rail will help keep them in balance

Soooo yeah. I tend to make decisions based on the horse I'm on. If I'm on a horse that gets tense when pushed against the rail, no leg yield along the rail. If I'm on a horse that gets very crooked while riding in straight lines, go for straightness before crossover. And I think a horse rushing to the rail is more of a rider problem (as in, rider lets horse ooze to the rail and doesn't correct rushing) rather than a horse problem.

A little more flexion than my taste but love the free shoulder

There's also a lot of information about where the rider should sit. I do have a strong opinion on that. People always say "sit to the inside of lateral movements" and "sit to the outside of lateral movements" and "bring your inside shoulder back" and "put your outside shoulder back" and "look where you're going" and "look to the inside."

I have had the best luck sitting in the middle of the horse, or if you put a gun to my head and told me to pick a side (why would you do that?!) I would say sit to the inside. But really, even weight in both seat bones is the way to go because people take "sit to the inside" way too far. I tend to want riders to sit totally straight, both shoulders perpendicular to the rail/facing C, and looking straight ahead. First- this is a good way of getting out of the way of the horse. Second- this is a good way to feel any not-so-straight moments that your horse throws at you.


There are also a lot of ideas of where the leg should be and what the reins should be doing. Honestly, in the beginning I tend to believe that where you *should* put your aids is wherever your horse needs them. But I like the horses to be even in both reins, with my outside rein not resting against the horse's neck (stop it! stop that now! I see it so much!) and my inside rein not open or crossing over the horse's neck. As for my hands, I don't do much with them, but the connection should be good enough where you can half halt on each rein or both and have the horse respond accordingly.

Legs-wise, I like the leg yield to come off of an inside leg that is very slightly behind the girth. I always made the mistake of putting my leg too far back and Heidi would yell at me (this was years ago) that my legs were too long to put my leg that far back because she (who is 5' to my 5'6) wouldn't be able to ask the horse. I also think it risks getting the horse leading with the haunches too much. Outside leg shouldn't be kicked away from the horse. Outside leg sends the horse forward and balances the horse, so outside thigh is there to support and outside calf is there to regulate the sideways.

In general- the less you can do and still get a leg yield, the better.

Someone steal me this horse

So you're putting on leg yield and having problems. The first thing I always have to remind people is this: horses are not machines, leg yields require flexibility and not all horses are masters of horse yoga. Even if your horse is already trained, if they haven't done it in a while, leg yields still require flexibility and without regular practice, flexibility goes away. I had a student who had a horse who was terrible at leg yields and so she would never practice them outside of lessons when I would teach her (and lecture her about practicing). News flash! The horse was bad at leg yields because she never practiced them!

For example, Rico can leg yield like a pro, but if I were to ask him to do it right now, after months off of lateral work, he would really struggle. It doesn't mean I'm doing anything wrong, it doesn't mean he is doing anything wrong, it means that he needs to do more horse yoga in his pasture.


For the laterally challenged horse, such as TC, I love introducing leg yield along the rail after the turns on the forehand are acceptable. Leg yielding on the rail helps to isolate the crossover and will prevent rushing forward to avoid crossing over. I start with a few steps here and there, then work up to the whole long side. Once as I get a slight angle off the rail, then I start getting the angle steeper (add inside-to-the-leg-yield leg and outside-to-the-leg-yield rein) for a few steps at a time.

After that, I start playing with them from centerline to rail and rail to centerline. For a horse that struggles with going sideways, I emphasize crossover first and deal with straightness later. So at this point, TC gets a little overbent sometimes, he'll eventually stop that. I don't want to ever punish this horse for crossing over, or put him in a place where he can't be successful (he knows I want him to go laterally over THERE but he can't do it if I constantly block him on the outside rein and don't let him move over). Tension is the enemy in lateral work.

Leg yield along the rail

Once as he understands the concept and feels confident, then I'll start work on the straightness. As I said above, with a horse who seems overly enthused about lateral work, I typically work on straightness first, then develop crossover within straightness. There are two things (okay there are more but there are two that I've found to be the most helpful) that affect the straightness in the leg yield.

1.) Connection. If the horse refuses to connect to a rein, over connects and bulges through a rein, or anything in between that isn't a good connection, you'll likely have a straightness problem. You may have it because as you leg yield to the right off the left leg, the horse bulges through the right side and the haunches trail. You might have it because the horse refuses to connect to the left rein, so ends up flexed the wrong way when leg yielding to the left off the right leg. Fix the connection on the straightaway/circle and the leg yields will be easier.

2.) Straightness. Duh. But a horse that is crooked when you turn down centerline isn't going to magically straighten out when you start asking them to cross their legs over. Think of a crooked horse like a kinked pipe cleaner. You can't make them straight by trying to make them crookeder, you need to grab their nose and their tail and yank pretty hard, then flex them and ask for leg yield.

While all of this is happening, I work on the roundness. Some horses find this easier than others. TC goes rounder when doing lateral work most of the time, which is awesome. Rico thought that lateral work was easiest done with his face straight up in the air.

Hollowness leads to tension and as I said above, tension is a leg yield (and lateral work) killer. Leg yields require the horse to be soft through the back so they CAN crossover. You always see it, right? A horse who isn't crossing over enough because they are tense being smacked by a rider who demands that they crossover more when the best thing they can do is just bring it back down to the basics and get the horse to chill a bit...

It's hard. But see above- teaching the horse to stay on the bit in the turn on the forehand is very helpful. It's an easier movement, you can isolate the hind end crossover and associate that with roundness and connection on the outside rein.


Once as I have that, I usually start the leg yield in walk on the bit. When the horse comes off the bit, I circle 10 meters to the inside to put the horse back on the bit, then start the leg yield again on the bit. The hardest part for my students has been counteracting the desire to make it to the rail or wherever your arbitrary end point is.

Say you start on centerline heading to the rail and the horse gets hollow on quarterline so 10m circle to fix it, back toward the rail and a few steps later the horse is hollow again. But ugh you're so close to the rail and you're running out of room and blah blah so you don't circle and instead, the horse gets hollow, braces against the outside rein or bulges through it, and dumps onto the rail. That moment RIGHT before the rail is so important. Abandon ship when things go wrong, don't let the ship slam laterally into the rail.

From there, I introduce the leg yield zig zag (helpful for horses who "take over" in the leg yield) and nit pick at the first and last steps of the leg yield. Having a good first step and a clear ending to the leg yield really wraps it up like a package and makes judges happy.

There's so much more I could say, but this post is long and I'm running out of decent leg yield pictures from google.


Two things from today:
I rode TC today and he was great, especially the quality of the canter! Also his sister is trying to kick the shit out of their mom which is hilarious, she's three days old.

Going Places

TC had a big weekend!

Yesterday we hit the trail out at Harvey Bear. The horse is just a dream out there, I can't say enough good things about TC the trail horse. He's quiet, not spooky, and obviously has fun without physically getting nutty. It was such a nice time after a mildly stressful week as I enter the last month before I graduate.

This horse loves trails

Today I woke up real early to ride the little paint (client owned). He's doing quite well, the canter felt super uphill and I was able to do a bit of canter half pass, which he is new to. We got one good change the good way but nothing the other way. I think with his canter being more uphill like this, he's struggling to get the hind legs active enough to change. I like the difference in the canter, so I'm choosing to keep that over the other canter that may be easier for changes. Why? Because my clients are Tr/1st level riders and don't need changes but DO need a horse that is easy to ride at the canter. As he gets stronger, I'm sure the changes will come back.

I zoomed back home to make dinner (crock pot ftw) and then headed off to the ranch to take TC out.

Ali was having a lesson with Tracey and had invited us to tag along and school in the arenas. I emailed the BO and she agreed, so we saddled up and hauled on out.

The place was actually Woodmyst, where I kept Rico last winter and where I usually rode with Tracey. It's a great facility, lots of arenas but still that feeling of being a small barn (as in, not sprawling like the horse park and GG where we showed).

At the trail facility

We unloaded and the screaming started (and never stopped, ugh young horses). We had a LOT of time so I handwalked TC all over to get him away from Ali's dressage horse, who he just adores. He screamed a lot, interrupting my conversation with the BO, but I do have to say that he never once did anything BAD. He just whinnied and stuck his head in the air, but no acting up.

I decided to throw him on the longe in the round pen and the poor guy. The round pen is set up where the fence is all boarded up so the horses can't see anything unless their heads are way up. So he'd start to relax and stretch down (I did put him in the chambon a bit) and then he'd get nervous because he couldn't see so his head would fly up again.

After longeing, I hopped on and headed to the arena where Ali was warming up.

He was excellent! Still a little tense to begin and we never really got very round, but he was very rideable and only spooked once. We mostly trotted around on circles, across the diagonal, etc. The arena was HUGE and for the first time in a new place, he didn't seem agoraphobic at all, he marched down to either end and did just as good work away from the gate as he did near it. Progress!

They were dragging the dressage court as we warmed up but finished after about 10 minutes. So Ali and I headed over there. The dressage court was where Ali's lesson would be, but Tracey was a little late so I got to ride in there for about 15 minutes before she showed up.

In the dressage court, we played a little bit on circles and worked on relaxation. I think TC is starting to understand the dressage court a bit better. He's now seen one three times at three different facilities and each time we've warmed up in a separate arena.

This time, he picked up a lot easier than at the show and at RG where we had hauled out the first time. We did a few wobbly serpentines, some great diagonals, and managed to do a somewhat round circle in each direction.

Such a pretty place

I decided to take a little break and walk around the outside with Ali, but then Tracey wasn't there and I was like "eh, I have the court, may as well do a little more" and TC wasn't having it. He wobbled up centerline and then as we went to turn down the longside, I could feel him gearing up to charge away. I spun him around once and said "knock it off" in my best mean voice. Then the horse REALLY quieted down and did a good job. We had some of the best work in a place that isn't our covered arena sanctuary at home. He was soft, round, and stretching forward and downward, totally relaxed and perfect.

Just as I was ending, Tracey showed up to teach, so I vacated the arena. I'm not ready for her opinion yet on this horse so I had decided to do some more exploring with him while Ali worked with Tracey.

I untacked and we hand walked everywhere! He was excellent again, aside from the constant yelling in my ear (I have to commend myself for not murdering him, I HATE horses that scream directly into my ear for no reason). No spooking, just a little curious about everything.

My view when I was sitting with him

THEN, the best baby horse let me sit on a jump and watch 15 minutes of the lesson while he stood totally still and watched too. He's such a busy baby that I couldn't believe he was capable of being so patient while Ali finished up her ride.

I got to catch up with a friend and talking with her made me think of Nicole's recent post on what a ten means.

Friend said "wow he was CRAZY in the round pen earlier" and to me, he was actually REALLY good in the round pen. No bucking, no leaping, just got a bit fast and nervous here and there but generally settled down into his normal quiet self.

I had been really impressed with him the whole day so to have someone say he was being crazy surprised me. BUT friend admits to having some minor fear issues and I'm also used to this horse. He's part friesian so he's very high headed and he carries a lot of tension over his back when he's nervous. So he LOOKS a lot crazier than he is. But I've never had him do anything truly crazy, the worst thing he's done is think that bucking was a good way to get balanced for the canter and that was over about a month ago.

It was especially funny to me because I knew that the racehorse trainer was just down the barn aisle, and that my ten is maybe a two to him and friend's ten is probably a five to me.


We headed out and Ali said she had noticed that TC was still dropping weight so we're going to start giving him more food. Now that I live down here, I can give him extra food on the days I don't ride. I really hope that this is just temporary. The point of me buying a horse who can live in pasture is so I *don't* have to go to the barn every day. I bet I can arrange for someone to feed him on his days off but maybe the horse could just grow a pair and kick his roommate away from some food and keep weight on himself. He's definitely the bottom of the totem pole.

After the ride, he's slowly looking like a real horse. Here's
hoping the front end keeps growing up!

Progress in the Canter

Lots of things keep happening in my life so I'm a bit late to post about a few things!

First, I've been getting a few callbacks for interviews, so that's awesome. Included in that is a second interview at the company I'd really like to work for. It's central to my whole life, I can live in a relatively affordable (who are we kidding, this is the bay area and my apartment will probably cost me just shy of a million dollars a month) area, and it's reverse commute to the barn I'd likely put TC at. ALSO it's close enough to where I'm living now (about 1 hour 15 min commute in traffic, 40 min if I can get them to let me get there early) where I don't have to hurry up and find an apartment (and go into debt) before starting.

There are likely to be a few more interviews since I've only really talked to people out of state so far, I assume that I would have to be interviewed by my future boss soooo yeah. But I graduate in a month so that time frame isn't that bad. Oh my god a month, how time flies.

What am I going to do when I have a job where I CAN'T watch
Game of Thrones?

This morning I headed off to crossfit knowing that I was going to complain the whole time. We had a weird workout. Warm up was tabata double unders, which are like one tempis where you get one of them at a time but stringing them together is a whole other ordeal. Then we did a 5k row for time, mine was under 30 minutes and I consider that a victory because I am the world's slowest rower and I thought it'd take me several hours. Then we did 3x8 bench press and 3x4 back squat. I was really really happy though, because the weight I ended with the back squat was only 10lbs lighter than my 1 rep max, and I did all four reps! So I think I'm baaaack after two months off and then three months trying to get back to it.


I headed over to the ranch after stuffing myself with protein when I got home. There was a surprise waiting for me in one of the foaling stalls: a baby! I don't know much about the baby, but she's a chestnut filly out of a really pretty bay mare and by a really expensive chestnut stallion. I think she's either all warmblood or warmblood x thoroughbred. So cute!

So cute!

I want to squish her so much 

TC was happy to come right up to me when I came to get him, but was kind of fussy tacking up. He IS better about tacking up than he used to be, but still not the sort that is going to fall asleep in the cross ties while he gets tacked up.

Unfortunately there was a gate open in the arena when we got there. He proceeded to try to duck out of it the first time we came around in trot, thought better of it, and slammed my knee into the wooden fence. Ouch. But mostly, my saddle got a bit of a scuff :(

I KNEW this was going to happen sooner or later, since he hasn't really slammed me into anything in a few months. He got a strong talking to and he actually zipped away from the gate every time we passed it. He was not going to risk that again.


We did our normal leg yield routine and he's definitely coming off of a lighter aid now. He's slightly crooked/over his shoulder, but I don't really care about that yet. We're at least a year away from showing First level, so it's fine if it's bad right now. What I really want is for him to learn to cross over and to increase his flexibility. Then we'll go for pretty.

After the leg yield, we cantered. Ah you guys, the canter is finally coming off the plateau (where it was for a week or so) and definitely has improved the last few rides. Today he was able to come on the bit to the right, and was using his neck better to the left. In general, the canter is much more uphill, much more engaged, and much more balanced. It used to feel like we might die coming around a turn and now it only feels like we might be seriously injured. Nice!

Progress!

We returned to trot and just worked on circles. I had told Ali that I wanted to start walking TC on a little trail ride after our rides (there's a loop through the neighbors and along the road) so that he can get used to trail riding alone. BUT he had never been on the loop before, so she offered to grab a babysitter horse just to make sure that we were safe out there our first time.

Ali hadn't seen TC go in a while and was super impressed. He's definitely feeling rideable now, but there's just so much more to do before we are solidly at Training level where he still feels so out of control to me. It's also hard riding 3rd level + horses and then coming back to him since he's so far out. I need a First level horse or something. But I was happy to talk with her about his progress and to be reminded how far he HAS come over the last month.

He was great on the trail ride, so I'll start throwing that into our rides when I can. I want him to get used to cooling out on his own so we can eventually do more things by ourselves instead of relying on poor Ali and her horses to babysit us.

My favorite neighbor cows are back!

Ali had great ideas for this weekend too. She's riding in a clinic with Tracey and is going to contact the barn owners and see if I can come over to ride TC around while she's taking her lesson. I don't want to do a lesson with Tracey just yet. TC is such a nut in new places so I'd hate to have a bad lesson (and pay so much money for it) just because he's nervous. So my plan will be to longe him and then explore, working a little bit in the arenas if we can do so without traumatizing anyone. He's totally fine wandering around new places but man, you ask him to work, and sometimes he really loses his shit. Other people don't seem to find that very endearing.

AND we're talking about doing a trail ride or taking TC and Ali's dressage horse over to my parents' barn on Friday. Lots of fun adventures coming up as we close into our next show. Intro B forever!

I jumped this fatty over a cross rail today,
he was so happy

Naughty Baby Horse

I'm glad most of you seemed to like my post on flying changes, if there's any other theory-based posts you want me to do, please let me know! I'm weary about shoving my training opinions into this blog, since although I have trained a horse to Grand Prix and riders to 3rd/4th level, I am by no means a big name trainer and don't want to imply that any training practices on this blog are the end-all-be-all of dressage training. It was never my intention to become the best of the best (hence my career change), I just enjoy riding my horses and blogging about it.

But I could definitely go into detail about some of the lateral work (I have a lot of Tracey info about half pass that is lodged in my brain), walk pirouettes, canter pirouettes, and more basic stuff like diving further into straightness or dissecting the training scale.

My first lesson with Tracey was mostly walk... 

Yesterday, I took Rico out on the trails to get him to shed some of his lard. I actually think he's trying to eat himself to death. He was so so happy to be out, despite how freakishly hot it was (I actually took my camelback, which I just got for hiking, out with me and it was amazing to have!). He wanted to run at any given moment, so we did a lot of cantering.

Unfortunately, I took him out tonight to ride and he was really sore on his little back feetsies which are still learning to be shoe-less. So we're going to put iodine on them and I'm going to get him walking on gravel more often. He was totally fine on the dirt trails, but the gravel down the road after a hard ride made him ouchy.


I headed out to ride TC today after sealing my fate in terms of soreness this morning. I chose to do crossfit two days in a row in addition to running the day before last. Right now, as I sit on the couch, I can feel my body stiffening to the point where I question if I'll be able to get up to eat something or if I'll just live forever on this couch.

Anyway, TC was excellent today. It was also outrageously hot and I rode him around 2pm so yuck. He was much easier to tack up when he was standing there feeling a little bad for himself that it was so hot but really happy for himself because he was getting attention.

We worked primarily on the leg yields and the canter. I'm working to get the leg yields to be a bit quicker (he slows way down and really has to think) and coming off a softer aid (I still have to shove him over). He's definitely getting it, and it was surprisingly better off the left leg than the right today.

The canter was pretty good today, he's plateauing a bit in terms of quality, which is fine. But I do love the balance that he now has in the canter, it makes me feel LESS like we're about to die. Awesome!

Cuteness

Ali was riding TC's cutter roommate today and then in between canter sets, she left the arena. This, apparently, was a DISASTER. TC seemed relatively normal, he normally watches other horses leave and gets a tad distracted, but isn't bad. This time he was BAD.

I asked him for the trot and he immediately scooted away from me at the canter in something that would have been a bolt on any other horse. But he's big and slow and not very confident so it was just a fast canter. I turned him into the fence and told him that it was absolutely NOT acceptable for him to do that.

I love it when this horse acts up, because he just takes his punishment and tries extra hard. His punishment is basically me cracking down on the stuff he normally gets away with and sometimes I say "knock it off" in a mean voice and turn him in a small circle. Anything more and he cowers, poor pony.

We did a bunch of walk-trot transitions, some canter transitions, and I got after him for falling out a bit too. After that, damn. He felt amazing! He was super balanced and through and responsive. Maybe he'll be bad more often so I can crack down on him more often. I don't want to make work unpleasant for him, but man, when I tell him to shape up, he really does.

Afterward, we wandered down the road and then he got his grain. What a lucky pony. Someone needs to give me a job so he can be mineeee. Applied for six more positions today. Tomorrow is another application-filled day. I think it will be easier when I'm actually graduated and I don't have to be like "I only have four more weeks of class and then I have my master's so hire me now!" But I want the pony nowww, and to stop driving like a maniac.

So cute

Installing the Change

Not on TC! He already has them... well, he does on the longe line when he's being a brat and they're clean so I'm not complaining.

**This post is for big, clean (both front and hind legs change at the same time), tempi-worthy dressage changes; this post is also based on my own experiences and training practices**

Every horse is a bit different when it comes to lead changes. Some horses have them naturally, some don't. Some horses have a tendency to change clean, some change late behind, late in front, together behind, together in front (weirdos- Rico did this a few times, real weird). Most horses are different left vs right, most riders are different left vs right.

I've put changes on a handful of horses. My advice to someone wanting to put changes on their own horse would be to sit on a few horses who already have really good changes and take a lesson from someone who is really good at teaching the biomechanics of the change. THEN attempt them on your own horse. I have gotten significantly better at teaching and improving changes in horses and riders since taking a whole bunch of Tracey lessons focusing on getting Rico's changes to be better.

Tracy drilled quality of canter and quality of connection most  

Every horse seems to learn them a little differently, but I have a list of prerequisites that I like to check off before I teach the change:

1. Excellent simple changes
- This means through the walk. I like the horses to be super easy to bring to a very collected canter, back to a walk, then canter within a few steps. VERY straight, which is covered below, and maintaining the uphill balance the whole time.

2. Straightness on both canter leads and in canter-walk transitions
- In order for a change to be clean, you really do need a horse to be straight on both canter leads. Shoulder-fore at the canter is an excellent straightening exercise, so I normally teach that first.

3. Counter canter
- IMO you can do one or the other first, but due to the way I like to climb the levels, I always seem to teach counter canter first. It strengthens and straightens and gives you a lot more control over the shoulders. If a horse was particularly change-happy just naturally (or coming from a jumping background where horse was taught changes first), I might teach/clean up the change first.

4. Collection in the canter
- Well this is kind of a given if you can do the above, hopefully. But collection should be easy and not stressful for the horses (as in, minimal tension within the collection). The change needs to come from a collected canter, so the collection itself shouldn't be a stressful thing.

5. Deciding when
- With lead changes, you don't want to put them on at a time where you have to punish the horse for doing them within the first 3-6 months of putting them on. So I tend to try to put them on at the end of their second level show season over the winter, then clean them up and reteach the counter canter before the first show of the year.
- The last thing you want to do in the beginning of teaching the change is punish the horse for accidentally changing in the counter canter (I actually put counter canter on hold for a few months) because that creates tension in the change. Once as the horse is pretty solid in the changes, then they can learn the other important aspects of the change: accuracy, responsiveness to the aid, roundness, straightness, expression, etc. That is when it is appropriate to tell them that they can't randomly change.

Rico understands that uphill balance is very important...
FYI this was in a piaffe to passage transition, not a lead change!

After all of that, I've had a lot of luck with the following exercise:

Go across the diagonal, set up, ask for change, *poof* lead change.

Most of the horses I've taught have learned them just on the diagonal. I don't typically use any fancy exercises (although I did teach one horse changes by doing renvers in counter canter and switching to shoulder-in in true canter with lead change- that horse was weird) and have had a lot of success. My previous trainer (who helped me put them on Rico) did the same thing, when the horse is ready, it's usually pretty easy to put them on.

Rico's 4 tempis at 4th level

Within the 3 tempis at PSG, better throughness, better rider

I've been installing them recently on my favorite little paint horse. He has them over fences about 30% of the time from when I had him going a few years ago, but he's always been way too crooked and way too tense to get them reliably and quietly on the flat.

He's now being ridden by a couple of kids who ride him at training level and schooling a bit of first, while I school him on occasion at second/third to keep him tuned up and serious about his work. So now is a decent time to put them on because the kids aren't doing counter canter yet.

My goal with the changes for him are to get them easy enough and quiet enough for the kids to eventually learn changes on, mostly just for fun. I also fucking hate simple changes of any sort and would rather be able to change directions at the canter with a change rather than a simple change.

As you can imagine, collection is hard for him 

So let me dive into detail for fun.

He is weak on his left hind, and this causes a multitude of problems. Tracking left, the left hind falls in like a kickstand, the right shoulder falls out, and he overbends left and overreacts to the right rein to straighten him so will counterflex and throw his shoulders in. To the right, he struggles to keep bend through his body and instead falls out with the left hind while spinning around the middle and falling in with his right shoulder. He also does like to counter bend this way, but he's been told he can't do that, so he tries to weight the right front without counter bending, causing him to refuse to step to the left rein.

Okay I just made him sound like a lost cause. The amazing thing about this horse, which we have developed over the years, is that he's extremely easy to move around and has excellent lateral work. So these are just his tendencies and he can be ridden very straight up to both reins.

You can imagine what he is like to teach on though! Muahaha he runs kids into arena fences. But boy do you come off of him with an excellent feeling of what straightness truly is.

Alright so to the changes. He meets most of my criteria. The simple changes are easy (even the kids can do them), he can counter canter for days, he will canter on the spot if you want him to, and like I said, he CAN be ridden straight.

That damn left hind, which you can see collapsing to the left

As you can imagine, the left to right change is good. Unless he's feeling anxious (he may be a paint but he is very hot and nervous sometimes, especially when I get on because he knows that I know more than him), he will almost always get the change that way. It wasn't always true, but over the last few months, he has really gotten it.

Unfortunately, I haven't had much luck with the right to left change. He knows what I want, but it's SO hard for him to take that left hind underneath him. Now in the RL change, my left leg is behind me coming into the change, holding that left hind, then when I switch the legs, he falls in with the left hind and then can't change.

So I've been drilling both leads on straightness and keeping his left hind under him using my left seat bone rather than my left leg. He's now responding quite well for that and in our last two rides, we were able to get one excellent change (per ride- more than one change each way in a ride makes him stressed) in each direction.

Luckily for me, he's quite clean when he's set up properly. Naturally unclean changes are tough, and a discussion for another day! But from my experience, unclean changes seem to come out most with straightness problems, balance problems, and/or trying to do changes too early. So usually I'll address straightness and balance in an unclean change.

Lots of lift with this one

Inside the Box

On Sunday, I headed out to the barn to ride in the morning because my brother was coming down to hike with me (poor innocent soul) in the afternoon.

Enjoy pictures from the hike!

On our way back down

TC was all excited to come see me. The day before, my best friend and I hung out and she had never met him, so we went over to the barn. There was no time to ride, so we just stood in his pasture and pet him. He was in heaven! He kept putting us between him and the other horses so that we'd protect him. So Sunday he was more than happy to come right over to me and stick his head in my arms for more cuddles.

He refused to stand still in the cross ties getting ready. Other than that (which has been a theme for a month or so), he's so much easier on the ground. I can throw boots at his legs now instead of carefully placing them near his legs. I can pick most of his feet without being nearly stepped on or him trying to paw his foot out of my hands. He's even starting to enjoy brushing- not that he ever hated it, but he just seems to like it a lot more now. I think the routine (I do the same things in the same order every time) is helping him become more confident. He also LOVES the sugar he gets with his bit, definitely his favorite thing about the tack up routine.

My favorite tree again, this time from a different angle with me
being on the ground rather than on a horse!

I hopped on and we started out by just walking and trotting along, working on forward and general steering.

As horses become more advanced, they obviously become more rideable. I feel like the rideability is most obvious to me when it comes to the amount of control I have over 1.) where their feet land and 2.) where their balance (and therefore, where their body) is. Take Rico for example, I could put him in any place I wanted. Like if you drew a small box on the ground, I could put any one of his feet in that box at any gait. I've been riding my little second level schooling third paint horse this week and he's also pretty maneuverable, but not as much as Rico is. The box is bigger for him.

With TC, the box has always been just fucking enormous. I've had very little control over where his feet go and where his balance is. Sunday though, I noticed that the box is significantly smaller than a few months ago. I was able to differentiate between turning across the middle of the arena (short court) at B/E and going across the diagonal for the first time today. I also noticed that I was really, truly, getting bend to the right almost all the time and to the left a good amount of the time. I could increase or decrease the bend to an extent without messing with the circle too much.

Love this place so much

Ruby wasn't sure what she signed up for

We finally FINALLY hit the fun stuff.

As the ride progressed, he got better in the bridle, and as such, more rideable. His canter transitions were spot on (except that he wouldn't pick up his right lead at first wtf) and he was not even thinking about bucking or hopping. Once again, the canter itself was pretty good. I'm still riding on light contact so he can figure out his balance, and I've been encouraging him to go more forward on the long sides and come back to me on the short sides. I think I'll check the field soon to see if I can get him out in a larger area to canter and really get him to gallop.

I decided to focus on the leg yields today after working on the rideability. It's getting to the point where I want to work on EVERYTHING. I want to teach him some lengthenings, I want to teach him the stretch circle and improve the free walk, I want to get him really good at spiraling in and out at the trot, and maybe even start a little shoulder-in soon.

But yes, leg yields today! I began with the leg yields along the wall, as we normally do, and those were basically perfect. So after one in each direction, I started to push him into a leg yield from the rail to centerline. They're not *good* per say, but they are leg yields and he does cross his legs over. We really need to drill the on the bit part as well as the straightness part, but for a horse who seems to be the least laterally coordinated animal on earth, he's doing very well!

We ended by working on some stretch circles, which continue to get better and better each day, and called it a day!

Most terrifying bridge out there (according to baby horses)

It won't be green for long...

After I put him away, I came back to the ranch to change into hiking clothes. I'm trying to go on a hike once a week (in addition to crossfit 2-3x per week and adding running in 1-2x per week) because best friend and I talked about doing the really strenuous 6 mile hike with a HUGE elevation gain at Pinnacles (where exbf and I went camping last month). It has amazing views but damn do I need to climb some things before then.

So I coerced my brother into hiking with me because his fiance (from now on known as SIL so I don't have to keep saying brother's fiance) was not around and best friend had a 10k because she's obnoxiously fit. Poor brother plays hockey and does fitness things on occasion, but isn't as into it as the rest of us weirdos.

I took him on a pretty decent hike at Harvey Bear. Almost 4 miles with a lot of climbing for a relatively short hike, but nothing near what Pinnacles will do to us. I feel pretty good (and even went to crossfit Monday morning for some squats and a horrible burpee/kettlebell swing workout, ugh) but brother was NOT having it. At one point, he and Ruby sat in the shade together while I waited for them. Lazy! But lots of fun.

It was Ruby's idea first...

Worst. Hiking partners. Ever. 

Love this place, glad I get to live here for a month or two while
I search for a job! 

Unlocked

Job interview went well! It's an interesting position, not one that you'd think of when you think of my degree (experimental/research psychology), but it definitely seems like a really cool place to work! It's in PR/Marketing and I would be doing "data correlations" (so like data analysis using zero order correlations?) for various clients hiring the company to do PR for them. I am primarily looking into more researchy positions rather than JUST the data, but the data part is my favorite part! So that could work, plus let me tell you, zero order correlations are super easy, they'll be getting a lot more interesting things! But I have no experience in PR or marketing soooo we'll see what they think. I emailed them to thank them today so that should get me extra points. I've also applied to maybe 15 positions since then so now we just wait and see (and apply to more positions!).

Today, after crossfit murdered my wrists with some overhead squats, I headed out to the barn to see little TC. I've been taking it easy on him all this week, mostly because of the horse show and my questionable mood. I basically just wanted to have fun with him so that I don't risk transferring my (now only occasional, yay) crappy feelings to him. So he's been getting extra pony cuddles, extra easy work, and just plain having fun.

Who loves progress pictures? Our second ride ever in January

Same day

We started at the trot and I worked on my position a bit while he stared at a blanket on the fence much of the time in warm up. I keep getting way way too far forward with my shoulders because he's so unpredictable with his balance and sometimes I get left behind. Well, a slightly closed hip angle is no excuse for leaning forward, looking down, and piano-ing my hands! I miss taking lessons and not sitting at a computer most of the day. 

Back at the walk, we really drilled the leg yields. He's getting much better, especially when I have a whip! I need to make sure not to hit him too hard, Rico needed a good wolap with the whip and I tend to over-whip horses sometimes (that sounds so mean! But it's just muscle memory). The one time I did smack him a bit more than he deserved though, he just shuffled sideways a bit faster and I prasied him and he was much better after so it doesn't help that my behavior is being reinforced. I need to ride one of my clients' mares with a whip a few times. She tried to launch me when I smacked her once. Good. 

First ride in the field (I think in February some time)

Same day

Same day

We tried a few leg yields at the trot but he's really not ready for them just yet. Good to know, he just kind of went faster and got confused, he wasn't upset at all, which made me glad that I could push him a bit harder and not break his confidence. Definitely couldn't have done that a month ago. 

Back to the trot, he was super super forward and wanting to canter, so I let him. 

And let me just say: DAMN.

Suddenly, over the course of like, two days since I last rode him, the horse has started to unlock his back and neck while cantering. For the first time ever, we had some sort of neck oscillation. The canter was MUCH less lateral and much more rocking horse than washing machine. He was better balanced than he had been in the corners and happily half halted (first half halt ever at the canter!) before the corner came. 

With the unlocking of his neck/back, the true quality of his canter is really starting to show. I KNEW it was in there. I always said "well his trot is nice, he'll make an okay third level horse for an ammy, his canter isn't good enough to go further" and I really believed that. 

Maybe in March? I'm not good with keeping track of these

Same day

BUT a few weeks ago, my mom (who knows a fair amount about dressage just by listening to all my lessons as a kid!) pointed out "but Megan, isn't his walk good? Doesn't that mean his canter should be good too?" and that is when I really started to believe that deep inside this horse is a good canter that was being stifled due to tension and lack of topline. Usually the walk and the canter are connected like that. So the other day, before the show, when I really let him gallop at the neighbor's, I could feel him start to change a bit. And now I'm feeling it in the small ring! 

Ahhh yes, I can just feel the stretchy fabric of my shadbelly all around me now! Or maybe he should learn to leg yield at the trot first... But damn, today is the first day that the fog truly cleared and I could actually see where this horse could really go. 

Back at the trot, we drilled the stretchy circle. He stretched better forward and downward than he did during our last ride, and was much more consistent! Love it. He tries so hard. Now that he knows what I want him to do, he basically just works on it on his own, I don't have to do much, just say "good boy!" when he gets it right and ignore him when he doesn't. He's a freakishly easy horse to work with. 

I ride again Sunday, and if I don't have to go into work, I'll be riding Monday afternoon too! 

First show (early April)

Same day, even though he was tense in these, he is SO much
better than the other pictures!

In other news, I've started running (for realsies) again. I'm mostly doing about 30 minutes of running, which at this time is an embarrassing 2.5 miles, about 3x per week. But my future sister-in-law offered to do a 5k with me, as long as it involved running at a 12 min mile pace and a fair amount of wine afterward. I thought that would be great! So we're looking into the Dionysus runs at local wineries and maybe some color/mud runs too. Even my intense runner best friend offered to jog quietly with us at a 12 min pace and talk at us (since SIL and I will be heaving and not talking haha) while we ran and join us for wine after. Fun!

For those of you who hate running, I highly recommend the (paid, but not too much) app: Zombies, Run! It keeps track of all your stats while also making scary zombie noises at you to get you to run faster. There's also a nice storyline about fighting the zombies and you end up "gathering supplies" as you run and then can build up the base. They have the regular app (which I use now) and the couch to 5k app (which I used a couple years ago), both are excellent. I always said that I would never run if I didn't have something terrifying chasing me, so there you go. It's entertaining and gives me incentive to run so there ya go!