TC's First Clinic

Today was one of the weirdest days. First, the weather was way way off, very windy and cold but then suddenly warm and then back to cold and windy. Second, I got into this clinic so last minute that I didn't have time to really think about what I was doing. And third, it was one of the worst and best days I've had with TC.

For those of you not quite following, as I said in my last post, I signed TC and I up for our first Tracey clinic at the very last minute, about twelve hours before the clinic started! The organizer was able to throw us in the end of it.

He is so cute

We arrived WAY early, mostly because Ali likes to be early for her lessons and mine was after hers. I walked TC around the property a few times and then let him graze. He wasn't bad, but he was definitely very loud (whinnying) and very tense.

Ali tacked up about 30 minutes before her 45 minute lesson and I decided to tack up and follow her out to the arenas because TC gets so worried about being left alone and I didn't want to tack him up alone. But this meant that we were tacking up a full hour and fifteen minutes before we had to be on.

Enjoy these pictures from my first Tracey lesson ever
(because I didn't get TC pictures today, so sad)

I thought he'd prefer that, and he did for a while, but when Ali started her lesson, he lost his shit. A few things contributed to this:

1. His trailer friend (Ali's horse) was far away-ish, not out of sight, but further away than he had been
2. Icelandic horses are apparently fucking terrifying
3. Said icelandic horse was in the round pen, the only place where we could longe

So I had to fly my psychotic part-friesian kite around the parking lot while he went back and forth between freaking the FUCK out about the icelandic horse and freaking the FUCK out about the fact that he was alone (he was not, there were so many horses around).

It escalated to the point where he was galloping backwards and sideways away from me.

I finally got the round pen after about 20 minutes of this. Obviously it continued in the round pen. He darted around, not realizing that the round pen was ROUND because he kept knocking all four legs into it and then trying to climb out (luckily it's all plywood). He whinnied and leapt and bucked and shook his head. Then he FELL, yes he fell clear onto my saddle (I'm beyond sad about that, it held up okay but it's definitely scuffed up), leapt up from his fall and galloped off.

Eventually. EVENTUALLY, like about thirty minutes, right before our lesson was to start, he started to come back to me.

I was legitimately scared though. Not because I was scared to ride him, whatever, I can sit anything he gives me and I'm not scared of being fallen on. I was scared of what Tracey would say and how I was going to get to the point of having a lesson- standing and talking to her, standing and putting my radio on, putting my earphones in, and you know, generally being rideable enough where the lesson wouldn't just be about me staying on. He's such a sweet horse, he's so quiet. But this was another side of him, he was panicky and powerful and I had major doubts.

So I got on him. His whole body was so tense and all he wanted to do was run, but we had ten minutes before our lesson was to start. So I tried to quietly walk him around. I did our shitty leg yields and some terrible turns on the forehand.

Then we trotted and... he was fine. And he was fine the rest of the ride. What the actual fuck. I'm so proud of him but like, WHAT THE FUCK?! It's good to know that he can come back like that. I still can't explain it.

Look at young Megan trying to keep her left hand from going rogue

So the lesson started and I talked to Tracey a bit about him while he stood quietly after his couple minutes of trot. I told her that he was four, that he was learning how to go on the bit and steer and generally be horse-like, I also told her that he was a bit wild today (understatement of the century) so I wanted input on how to handle him in new places. She had seen him trot so noted a few things that I already knew- his neck gets short, he looks tense, and he wants to get his hind legs out behind him.

We went immediately into trot because it was what was best at the time, he really can't handle walking too much if he's tense and Tracey said that it would be easier to get him relaxed in trot.

We started on a circle and right away Tracey wanted me to emphasize the bend more and slow him down. She said that we needed the bend to get him to let go a bit in the contact and lengthen his neck and the slow to get him to swing more. Essentially he needs to swing his stifles under him and round his lower back a bit more, and he can't do that when he's too forward.

The slow to me was a bit too slow, but I did feel a difference in his way of going. It took a lot out of me- I have to remain so present with him. I had to keep my posting slow and keep my knee behind the block but then also not lose my lower leg because I had to keep him trotting. He was a little confused and kept giving me a very nice walk transition instead of slowing down. We just ignored that.

After getting the trot a bit slower and rounder, we played a bit with a large serpentine. He was so good and went to each outside rein easily (showing off dem figure-8 skillz). Tracey wants me to stop holding onto my outside rein as much and work to push him out rather than hold him out. I know I've been doing that, primarily in the hopes of keeping him on some semi-decent geometry. But Tracey emphasized teaching him to be pushed out rather than holding him out, she said he'd learn to stay out when he learned to step off the inside leg better, rather than being held out. This was HARD, especially to the right. I don't like the feeling of careening around, and he didn't quiiite get it today, but I think she has a good point.

Rico was so up and down and twisted in the beginning

We then took a short break and she asked about canter. I have never cantered him off the property (except at the neighbor's like twice) but I said I was up for it. She just wanted to evaluate it.

He kind of boinged into it, probably because at this point he was tired, but his canter actually felt pretty good, a bit tense but of decent quality. Tracey said that his canter was not at all lateral, but it was his weakest gait. She wanted me to just focus on going forward on long sides and introducing circles slowly. Basically what I was doing was fine, he just needs miles.

We ended after a bit more trotting, where she emphasized slow again. I feel a touch uncomfortable with that. I understand the theory- he needs to slow down so he can carry himself (to the best of his ability) and swing better through his hind leg while getting his front end out in front of him a bit more. But he was SO SO lazy as a young horse and I like how forward he is now. So we need to work on that.

The other thing that she emphasized throughout was not to worry too much about him getting his neck too short because I was talented enough to work through it (that was nice to hear). Basically the fact that I can keep him round without curling when he gets short is huge. She says not to be afraid to take him a little short in the neck to make a point (such as to slow him down when he charges) because she knows that I can get him back to reaching forward in no time due to my good instincts/talent/other nice things she says. She said he was tricky right now but made it clear that I was doing an excellent job.

In the end, we talked a little about him. I explained the situation- I am on a very tight budget and want a project to take to third level-ish. She didn't want to say whether she thought he could go there, but she said he had a high quality walk and trot, and that his canter isn't as nice but it was not lateral and should be fine. She said that he seemed sweet and that he had a lot of potential, but that he would take a long time to train and needed a lot of miles off the property. But she gave me her blessing to buy him! So happy, now all I need is a job (I have an interview next week), and a vet/farrier check. Oh and a place to board, gotta go get on some waitlists soon.

His canter was "prongy"

And I wasn't even that late to my party! Except that I definitely wrote the majority of this post while I was "getting ready."