Bitless Week

Yesterday evening I hit 70 pages on my thesis. It is so brutal right now, I feel like it's actually killing me. I can't wait until it's over. It doesn't seem like it's ever going to end though. My adviser has canceled or postponed our last three meetings so I'm kind of flailing with very little guidance right now (we've only met maybe three or four times this YEAR, I need help). Cue panicking in about 2 days when I get down to the wire on finishing this thing before I move/start my new job.

So much of my thesis has been written like this- sitting in my
car between lessons at the preserve

The horse situation is a bit boring this week. I have one more ride (today) where TC gets ridden without a bit and I'll be using the Zilco Flower Hackamore. I want to express my love for Riding Warehouse, as their free overnight shipping to California meant that I got to try out the hackamore less than 24 hours (on Rico, TC had already been ridden) after I ordered it.

I will write something about it after today's ride in it on TC, but the way Rico went in it suggested that TC will like it a lot. So far I love that it's so easy to change where the reins are (I need english clippy reins, which I will pick up soon). But I did notice that when it's on the leverage setting, the flowers sometimes tilt in a weird way, if I notice that again, I'll get a picture of it. I think if you're really going for a lot of leverage though, you'd probably want a mechanical hackamore.

Rico loves the new rescued mare/foal along the road

Tuesday was my second bitless day. I got the new hackamore that evening, so Tuesday's ride was once again in the makeshift side pull that I created by taking the reins off the normal part of my mechanical hackamore and putting them on the loop where the curb chain attaches.

I've been pretty happy with him like this, though not willing to take him anywhere but our home arena because he does have a (waning) propensity to bolt in places that aren't his home arena. 

We have been somewhat productive despite the lack of a bit. Some horses go well without a bit, you basically can't tell the difference on Rico in a hackamore vs double bridle. And some horses, TC it seems, don't go well without a bit. He really likes to seek contact and has been kind of annoyed that there is only pressure on his nose when he tries to connect. He also continuously puts the curb chain in his mouth when I bridle him. But honestly re: bitless bridles allowed at USDF competitions. I don't care. I really really don't.

He's pretty stylish

But yes, productivity. My vet (who did TC's vet check) has a lot of knowledge about fitness and he told me that TC was undermuscled and didn't appear very fit. Well yes, he is four years old and only being ridden for 30 minutes 4x per week. That's only two hours a week that he's working, maybe a little more if you count walking to the arena and back work. One thing that stuck with me though, was that my vet wanted me to really address the lateral suppleness because it's good for his neuro-coordination or however he phrased it. In essence, I think he meant that he wanted TC to feel more comfortable on his feet and with his own balance. 

So that translates into a LOT more lateral work. 

It's not like I haven't been doing lateral work, but I haven't really drilled it since this spring when he was just learning to leg yield along the fence. My current rides have been mostly transitions and bending on circles rather than leg yields and shoulder-in. The lateral work, if I do it, is placed randomly throughout, mostly if I accidentally turn early. 

On our evening hack 

So this week has been lateral work boot camp at the walk, as I want to avoid too much trotting and cantering around off the bit. 

He's gotten pretty good at leg yielding. I can get him to step over just by shifting my weight now. He's still a bit slow about it, but the angle is fantastic. He can nearly side step now. 

Shoulder-in is also a thing that we do now. He's really good at it. That makes sense, since (1) it's one of my stronger movements and (2) he has a good amount of lateral suppleness. So those paired with his full understanding of the leg yield means that I can put him in shoulder-in pretty easily now. 

Haunches-in is a struggle. He will do it, but it gets leg yield-y. That makes sense because it's one of my weaker movements and he is definitely a lot more movable in the shoulders than he is in the haunches at the moment. That will get better! 

More snakes in the house! This one was so small in comparison
to the one that came in last year

We did trot and canter, mostly working on responsiveness in transitions and geometry of our figures. Kinda not much to talk about when he can't do anything other than flail around. I guess that's what happens when a horse has been ridden on the bit since 30 days undersaddle. He really struggles to be ridden off the bit (goooood muahaha).

Today I'll ride him in the new hackamore and hopefully get more done. Then tomorrow we're back in the fat snaffle and I get to legitimately ride my pony again. Yay! Until then... thesis panicking.