Inadvertent Dressage Training

Yesterday I did my very first handstand push up! It was kipping and against the wall and I was on three abmats but who cares. Handstands are fun!

Except when horses do them (no handstands were performed in the making of this post).

Instead of riding in the ring on Wednesday, Ali and I hit the trail. It was about ten million degrees, so when we got there, we and the entire property promptly burst into flames. We managed to still ride our normal short loop (which isn't that short, it takes about an hour).

TC was excellent except that as we work harder on straightness at home, I begin to notice it more on the trails. He likes to randomly lean against my legs laterally when he gets tired. Like he basically just falls sideways while I hold him up with my leg. Boy is that getting old now that I notice it! So I'd kick him off the leg he was falling on and he'd promptly fall to the other one.

Enjoy these pictures from the trail ride! Except this one, it's
from the open space where I sit to wait for traffic to die down
after work (and most of my thesis has been written there)

So today when I got on, I wanted to focus on getting him to step off my left leg and connect better on the right side. However, I was warned that there was an obstacle course in the arena for the camp kids (who have a horse show today so as I was leaving, they were decorating their horses and omg so cute, none of them quite reached the excellence that is Bobby's outfits though).

We got into the arena and I realized that working on bending wasn't going to be easy. The arena (which is a little wider than a short dressage court) was filled with stuff. There was a barrel pattern in one corner (not regulation size), bending poles, four poles (which I later noticed were about 9' apart), and randomly placed poles and cones EVERYWHERE.

When we walked in, TC was bug-eyed but in a good way. All he wanted to do was touch and play with everything. He knocked over a bending pole, picked up a barrel and shook it, then put it down and made it sproing (it has a spring in it), insisted at stopping at every cone to touch it...

We managed to do some of the bending work in the walk and trot, and did get some good moments, but I ended up giving up on trying to work on this amidst all the stuff. But we were only fifteen minutes into our ride and I didn't want to leave just yet. I had no idea what to do though, there was no room to circle, leg yield, etc. I could have done lengthenings but he was so focused on all the stuff that it was a little hard to get him to relax.

He loves looking out on the valley

I decided to trot him through the canter poles just to get him lifting his shoulder a little bit more. He thought that was really fun and was enthusiastically looking for other poles after he finished those. I noticed that they were about two trot steps apart, which is when I realized they were set like canter poles (the kids are all beginners so I'm sure this wasn't planned out for them- they don't canter yet).

Then I got a ridiculous idea.

TC has never cantered over anything in his life. He's trotted 18" logs and has landed in canter, but never ever cantered over anything.

So obviously the first time he should canter over something should be four canter poles, right? But my brain didn't get that far until after the ride.

I was walking down the long side and none of that went through my mind, the only thing I kind of connected was poles = set for canter therefore horse = should canter poles. Very simple thoughts. So simple that I stuck my outside leg back and cantered over to the poles.

HOLD ON. Did my four year old just do a walk to canter transition!?!?! Yes he did, and he did them in both directions after that! Whaaat?

So pretty

Okay back to the poles.

I helped him out with the distance, moving him up so he could make the strides and he just... went. It wasn't a big deal to him at all but I could tell that he thought this was AWESOME. We came around the other side and I did the same thing, helping him find his spot. After that, I let him figure it out. He messed up twice, once getting in too small and once getting the wrong distance. After that, he nailed every single distance with me just keeping his canter regulated (he wanted to get there faster because poles are fun!).

After a few times, he thought he was the SHIT. I mean, his travel bff (Ali's horse) was in the arena and HE wasn't cool enough to canter through poles. And TC, well he cantered over poles which is pretty freaking special.

After the poles, we came back to trot (and I had to keep a hold on my outside rein so he wouldn't drag me over to the poles again). With his new found confidence, he was SO easy to ride. Super steady in the bridle, easy to maneuver off my left leg... huh.

Ugh love this place (wish it was green though)

I was so happy with him. I'm trying to have more fun with him and get myself out of my old habits of work work work work, which I developed when I had Rico going at the FEI levels.

And it really pays off workwise too.

When he has fun and thinks he's amazing, he is a lot more receptive to what I want him to do. And if I hadn't tried the poles, I wouldn't have inadvertently installed a walk to canter transition on him. It's not pretty (a bit off the bit and kind of boingy instead of striking off properly), but it will help him understand the trot canter better and help with him learning to coil up a bit in walk and in canter.

Such great views from up there

This weekend I'm off to the El Dorado County Fair with brother and SIL. I've never been. So that should be fun! And I get to hang out with my brother's soon-to-be-in-laws, who I've only met once.

Speaking of brother and SIL, I  got some fun news! I'm going to be a bridesmaid in their wedding! But it's not until October 2016 so I have to wait, boo.

What the actual fuck?