Spirals, Transitions, and Pony Cuddles

As expected, life has been really weirdly different and pretty shitty having to suddenly move out of my amazing house and down to the ranch. The internet here is slow, the commute sucks real bad, but I get to wake up every day to the sight of my favorite fat bay horse and baby TC is a 3 minute drive away. This is especially helpful because, as he's turning four very very soon (or may have already turned four, dunno his birthday but I've been told it was the second week of April), I'm hoping to bump him up to riding 4x per week. I also want to add Rico into the mix too!

I've always heard that until 5 or 6, they should be ridden the same number of days per week that they are old. I dunno where I heard it from or how correct it is, but it stuck with me. With TC being two slow growing breeds (warmblood and friesian), I wanted to take it slow like this with him. Three days a week has been totally enough to get him fit enough to do what I want and trained well enough, but I would like to get on him 4x per week. So the plan is to add Mondays to go Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, with ideally one of those days being a trail ride.

Gotta work on that tension

In other news, my job interview is scheduled for TOMORROW, which is intimidating. I have everything all ready to go, including a portfolio of my work, which is becoming more of a norm in my industry (and as it is so new, there are no fucking examples out there for exactly this position and I just grabbed random work to throw in it so we'll see). I'm totally going to look like I'm trying too hard, but that's okay. This week I've seriously applied to maybe 5 other positions (complete with cover letter/trying) and thrown my resume at probably 8-10 other random positions that I likely won't get but still want to get my name out there. Job hunt round II officially begins now.


Today I got to ride baby TC for the first time since the show. Poor guy doesn't have a blanket (he will be getting a bunch of them when I buy him!) so he was out in the cold rain this week. That, in addition to the extra work and the lack of food for the last few days, meant that he was looking kind of skinny again. I'm extra sensitive to it because I'm used to superfat Rico who looks like he ate a medium sized pony. So Ali told me that I could give him a hay bag whenever I wanted. I might stop by tomorrow (since I can go every day if I want now! Silver linings, seriously) and let him have a flake for lunch.

I opted not to longe him because there was a spring break camp happening in the arena. I couldn't avoid it. Because of the rain, the field wasn't useable, so TC and I came into the arena amidst crazy crazy kids.

Can't wait to use the field again!

I stood and talked to western trainer who runs the camp and she kept apologizing. I was like NO DON'T APOLOGIZE! I want TC to be super bombproof anyway, so kids galloping around out of control on buzzy horses with lots of screaming and shrieking and general craziness going around is quite excellent for him.

Not only did he put up with that in the best possible way (standing in the middle of the ring, resting a foot, with the reins loose), once as the kids were off the horses, they went running around in the roundpen, outside of the arena, and even a little inside the arena before they were herded away. TC never reacted. In the round pen (attached to the arena), a longe whip being waved around and around in the air by a shrieking kid while another one is running around? Nothing. He quietly cantered by on a loose rein and didn't even look! God this horse, you guys, he keeps getting better and better. He's only just barely four years old! I think Rico would have even looked at that.


So onto the actual ride. Overall it was a nice ride. I had really wanted to work on circles and getting him better connected and responding to the outside aids, but there was simply no room for the exercises I chose. The little kids were gone but older kids were in there and the arena just isn't meant for four people to be riding in it (it's slightly bigger than a short court).

We did some leg yields along the fence (these are pretty good but only when I release my inside shoulder back), turns on the forehand (please stop pulling my arms out omg), and I introduced spiraling in and leg yielding out on a circle. He felt AMAZING on the spiral in and out at the walk, this is definitely an exercise we will be doing every single day. We started the trot work but like I said above, too many people to get an actual circle to work on.

So cute and so unsteerable

So we switched gears to transitions. The walk trot transitions are getting better, but every now and then he just loses it at the walk and can't trot without wiggling and being smacked by the end of the reins (really need to bring a whip). I don't know why, I think it's a relaxation issue though.

We had some really nice transitions, and as they got better, he offered me a stretch circle. Well, stretch-like. He stretched longer and lower than he had ever done before, which is REALLY not saying much, but it was a massive effort on his part so I told him how great he was.

After that, we popped into canter. The canter transitions were excellent, including even a walk-three steps of trot- canter transition! He thought cantering was really fun, even in the small arena, western trainer was like "he looks like he's having so much fun!"

At the canter, my primary goal is to get him to use himself better to develop a better quality canter. I think two things are going on: first, he doesn't use his neck or back enough in the canter so he never really "lets go" while cantering. Second, and a possible explanation of the above, he simply doesn't have the muscle to hold up a big canter, so he stifles himself.

So to address this goal, riding him more and working him in the chambon in the canter should address my second point- building muscle to help him hold himself up a bit better. I'm also going to try to canter him primarily in the larger areas- the neighbor's arena and the field, rather than the small covered arena at the barn.

After the canter, I let him be done so I could pump some food into him before I had to go get a clients' horse out.

I sat and cuddled with TC a little bit. I don't normally do that because 1.) I want him to stay an investment horse for me so that he is easier to sell and 2.) I don't want him to be a jerk about needing attention all the time (and being rude to get it), but I've been kind of meh the last few days and needed pony cuddles.

So cute and cuddly

And let me tell you, this pony is so cuddly. He stuck his nose on my face and let me squish it against my cheek for a while, then stuck his whole face in my arms and let me hug him. He was in pony heaven, but he shouldn't get used to it! It's nice to see him like this though, I can see an AA or a JR being soooo happy to find something so completely bombproof, cuddly, and presumably one day trained!