Fluctuations

Okay first, I need to brag a little bit. One of my awesome students earned her USDF Bronze medal yesterday!! She earned all of her scores on a horse she trained herself from four years old. A horse she also events and is consistently winning at Training level. So yay! I'm so happy for her.

So happy for her that I'm making letting her ride my baby horse this week. It's a good thing for everyone, she gets a free lesson on a horse who is very different from her own horse, TC gets to learn about being ridden by other people, and I get to work through some of his shit from a place I feel very comfortable- teaching. She's a strong, bold rider with an amazing seat, I'm super excited to see her on my weird little animal.

I'm not sure which one of them is going to enjoy it less

Saturday morning after watching a friend at the show (LOVE being so close to dressage shows now), I zipped off to ride TC. He was so good tacking up and I was feeling lazy, so I got on at the barn and walked up to the arena on his back, all of my longeing stuff hanging from his saddle like he was a pack mule. But then I got a stupid idea, as one always seems to do on weekends, and decided that I really wanted to be able to trail ride before it got rainy.

Last time I trail rode him, it was fine until it really very much wasn't. But I was also trail riding in the flat pasture, which has horses in it. There's another pasture that is on a hill and that pasture has cows. There's a wide path that goes straight up the hill at just enough of a slope to make it difficult to be an asshole on. Perfect.

He opened and closed both gates really well (go pony!). He loves to "help" by pushing the gates, which I'm fine with, but I know I shouldn't be. Whatever, the gates get opened and shut.

I then pointed him straight up the hill and let him walk until he was a bit sassy. Then I got in two-point, grabbed mane, and kicked him. He went trotting along up the hill, then cantered, then wanted to walk. Because damn, the hill just kept going, poor horse. We got to the top and stood for a bit, just looking around at the view. There were two narrow trails I could have taken, one leads away from the barn and one leads back to the barn. I didn't want to push things and get stuck on a narrow trail, so I headed back down the wide path. He got a little bit ornery on the way down, so I immediately spun him into the hill and made him canter all the way back up. On our second ride down the hill, he walked quietly on a loose rein the whole time. He learns quickly when hard work is on the line.

So much fun

We went immediately into the arena and I decided that I'd forgo longeing as long as he was being good. I put the longe line on the fence and rode him with his chambon and side reins clipped up (so obviously not in use, but we looked really ridiculous).

HE WAS SO GOOD.

The thing I love so much about this horse is how unreasonably accessible his body is for such a young horse. I can shift my weight to shift his balance, I can turn him with my outside thigh, I can even just think half halt and he sits right down. I haven't had a ride where I felt that in a while.

But Saturday, Saturday my accessible pony came to visit (and then promptly left by Sunday morning). He was still a little short in the neck, but offered his back up immediately and let me push his nose forward and soon I had as close to my amazing baby horse as I could have hoped for. He was light, he was steady, he was through... it was the BEST.

He was so sleepy in his last turnout, wtf

We actually got to work on real things, picking up sort of where we left off in most places.

The stretch circle is still terrible. I think I'm going to be plagued with bad stretches my whole life, or at least I hope so, since uphill horses with high neck-sets (my fave) tend to struggle with that. He was willing to stretch more on Saturday than he has in a long time. The thing with his stretch trot is that it FEELS like he's stretching a lot, but he's not. How do I know? I have a makeshift mirror in that arena- there's a house nearby and we reflect off of the windows! I love it so much, but those poor people next door having to deal with me as I stare into their living room every time I pass. Luckily the curtains are closed all the time.

We did some figures, he is falling out over the outside rein more now, possibly because I've been using crappy lateral work to gain influence over him and keep any antics from occurring. So it's time to work on the straightness again, which is so nice to say. I've avoided straightness because a lot of the time straightness = stiffness at his stage of training. So we've been expert shoulder-poppers recently to avoid rigidity.

Then we did some center lines, the turns of which were plagued by his rogue shoulders, but the lines themselves were very good. His halts are excellent, but he still struggles to get out of the halt with any sort of grace or urgency. He wiggles and then has to haul himself back into trot. So we have lots of those in our future.

Almost to the top!

I actually cantered him. I had been taking advantage of the amount of longeing I had to do by longeing him in his chambon and an outside side rein. By the time I got on him each day, I had been pressed for time due to the looming darkness that most of the time I opted to not canter him. Cantering means opening a can of worms sometimes and a lot of the time I can't get him back to me for a while- risky when you're being chased by darkness. So he'd get his canter work on the longe line, we'd work to get some good trot work under saddle, and then we'd be done.

But he was being good and hadn't had a longe that day, so we cantered! And holy shit. The canter is so different. I remember thinking that all the longeing was going to do a good thing for him. I haven't felt that at the trot as much, although he is, I guess, a little steadier, but he was always steady. But the canter is a whole different gait after three weeks of longeing.

First, it's a lot less frantic and quick. He just feels comfortable in it. He's comfortable being round in it, he's comfortable cantering without eating up the ground so much. He's just pleasant about it. Second, he's SO much rounder. And he stays there, so I can actually start riding it more correctly, following his neck oscillation with my hand, and sitting down into it. Third, it's starting to be adjustable. Like there isn't just one frantic gallopy canter. Yay!

After the canter I opted to be done. I was kind of tired, I'm the sort of dumb person who stays up later than normal on weekends but then has to get up at the same time to get to horse shows to watch friends. I decided to ride him down to the barn and he was actually great! We walked quietly on a loose rein the whole time. Normally when I lead him back, there's at least one stupid baby moment.

Looking down on the little valley

SUNDAY, however, my monster pony was back and even after a LOT of longeing (where he was SO fancy, his trot is the SHIT you guys, but he can't just take off in that trot and blow off every aid), I still got on to a horse who had been set on fire.

He was SUPER forward, something that I do appreciate at times, but not when it's coupled with tension and antics. I rode for a LONG time before having to zip over to the show and coach. He didn't get that much better, but I was feeling pretty bold and ready to address the problems head on. So I didn't back off my aids at all when he was being an ass.

The other thing I noticed was that I feel much stronger in sitting trot than I do in posting, so I would sit every time he was bad. That helped sooo much. I don't want to have to sit the trot on him, but if it helps me nip this in the bud, I'm game. It's also nice to see that there is a place to sit on him now. His trot isn't even that bouncy. Yay!

I think on days like that where he doesn't clam down on the longe line, I just need to just get enough out of him to call it good, cut my losses, turn him out, and then put him away. He clearly needed to run (which he gets today) but for some reason I thought it'd be better to ride. So lesson learned (again and again) and the rule is that if he's nutty on the longe, it turns into a ground work and turnout day.

He's pretty cute when he wants to be

So clearly we're fluctuating back and forth like we never have before. I'm starting to notice that he's worse when there's a horse in the covered ring, which is within sight. There's nothing I can do about that, but it's good information. I'm going to keep track of that.

But I was happy enough about the show that I didn't feel that bad about the ride. It is what it is. I don't feel nervous anymore, I don't back off my aids anymore. I feel like I have the tools to fix it and a solid plan at least through December. Things are still up in the air after that, but I have some good ideas.

Mom, hurry up, it's the best time of day: FOOD

You don't understand, I'm starving