Whispering

So I thought I had my start date all set up, but apparently I did not (it was written all over my application)! So when the hiring manager asked when I could start, I said I COULD start on the 24th but that housing was being a bitch (not my exact words) and that it'd be ideal to start the 1st. He said yes. PHEW. So I get an extra week and a Monday to figure out where I'm going to live. I think I found a PERSON to live with, now to find a PLACE to live, which is arguably more important, no offense to my awesome future roommate.

This also gives me more time with my thesis. Which hasn't made much progress because my cortisol levels are so high that they are making it difficult to read. I had a glass of wine and watched a chick flick last night so that I could get this post proofread! But too much wine and too stupid of a movie to make any progress on my thesis, oh well.

AND most importantly, more time with my pony being normal before he goes crazy when he's told that he has to live in a new place and in a stall/paddock and by himself. I think new trainer is going to hate us for a few weeks.

Whinnying because he forgot how stalls work
and that food was outside while he was inside

Speaking of the best baby horse, our ride yesterday was amazing. He got trimmed in the morning by his current farrier. We spoke a little about putting shoes on him. Apparently his foot is so big that the farrier said they may not make aluminum shoes big enough for him. He said that some farriers can make them, but it's tricky. I have six weeks to find a farrier though, so I'll be calling a LOT of farriers asking them LOTS of questions. I'm going to measure his feet today or tomorrow and figure out how big they really are so I can tell future farrier and see what their reaction is. Ugh, complicated animal.

So I tacked him up (he stands still to bridle and ground ties to be fly sprayed now!) and we got out to the arena. He was in a really good mood. I think he was just so happy to be home and back in a normal routine after his crazy day on Tuesday.

So happy for food

We started with a lot of walking, I need to get in the habit of a long warm up if he's going to be in a stall vs a pasture soon. We did leg yields, free walk, and small circles. He's so fun on the small circles, he's going to have a ridiculously great walk pirouette on him one day because he's just so damn maneuverable when he wants to be.

The leg yields were good, I just need to make sure that I ask with as light of an aid as possible. It's funny, he'll leg yield off a normal leg aid with a little spur, so then I ask without the spur and he goes over too... and then I just shift my weight and he's moving over. So why use the spur at all? Old habits die hard, Rico always needed a little spur for lateral work to be cadenced enough (he'd do it with just a shift of weight but it was slow). Light and responsive is my new (well, continuing) motto- I need to whisper my aid, not say, yell, or shout it.

Those ears are just ridiculous

The trot was excellent, the more he walks on the bit, the better the trot is. We did spiraling in and out in both directions. The left was absolutely perfect, he spiraled in and increased the bend easily through his whole body, then leg yielded out and was much more supple on the larger circle.

The right was not great, but it wasn't the worst. First, there was another rider that got in our way a bit so that really affected my ability to go where I wanted. But really, he's just not maneuverable that way. He's stopped leaning on the left side as much (thanks Barbi!) but he still darts around a little. Not particularly noticeable if I want to go on a normal sized circle, but the second I went to change the size (as in spiral in or out) he'd take it way way too far. Again I need to be careful to use light aids, because he responds nearly equally to both. In the case of the spiral in, lighter aids made for a more refined shape of circle. I need to whisper the spiral aid, just hint that I want it, because he'll dart inside and I need to not play ping pong with his body.

Pure bliss

The canter was pretty good, I feel it plateuing again, probably due to lack of muscle right now, which will be remedied soon when he's in a stall and gets hill work 2x per week instead of 2x per month. He's round for about half of the canter though, and the other half he's on the muscle. I need to buckle down and fix it, but with how stressful things are for me, and how stressful things are going to be for him, I'm giving it a month before we really buckle down at the canter again.

He is improving in the transitions though, both up and down. He easily picks up the canter both ways with just a light leg aid. The downwards I'm really proud of. Despite not being totally round and on the bit at the canter itself, he is always round coming into the trot and stays with me easily.

Oh and he totally gave me a stretch circle in both directions at the trot in the end!

I was super pleased with myself in this ride too, I worked really hard to keep my hands incredibly soft all the time. It's funny because I feel like the more I post about his rigidity and my struggles with it, the more I feel like it seems as though I'm this rider with incredibly hard hands who is just totally braced on this poor horse all the time. In reality, I'm a pretty soft rider with an incredibly soft horse who goes from being super soft and light to rigid in a matter of milliseconds and my first instinct is to match the rigidity (as I think most people's instincts would be) rather than stay soft. It is definitely improving though, and I'm glad that he's making me a better rider!

Dusk at the ranch

Back at the barn, Ali had the vacuum out! I didn't realize we had one, so obviously we tormented TC with it. He's never seen it and after a couple of cautious snorts, he was ALL about it. He was leaning into it and really enjoying it. He even let me do his ears and his forehead! Then he played with it and got his lip stuck in the vacuum, which he thought was a hilarious game.

I went through all of my barn stuff last night too. I have my trunk totally packed with all of Rico's old stuff. I also have a first aid kit now, and grabbed a bunch of weird stuff that my mom had left over from when she was the perfect pony club mom and got prizes for our annual PC show- stuff like Cowboy Magic Green Spot Remover, which she doesn't use but I was going to try spraying in his brown tail to see if we can get any of the stains out. It's all ready for moving, whenever that will be.

Today we are hitting the trails and then Friday I'm driving up to look at apartments all day while TC gets his teeth done! I also have tentative plans to do an awesome last (or second-to-last) trail ride with Rico on the beach this weekend if all goes well. Damn I miss riding that horse.