Putting Together a Plan

Tuesday started out MUCH better. I got 8 hours of sleep, which felt great, although I have a lot more sleep to catch up on. I forced myself to eat breakfast and went back to setting alarms for my meals, something I have to do when I'm busy because I will just not eat for a day and then wonder why I feel so shitty. I also had a nice drive to work without much traffic, which was pretty shocking. Maybe everyone had a bad Monday and no one wanted to go to work on Tuesday. I sure didn't.

But while driving to work I realized where I had been going wrong with something at work and I now have a working statistical model. It's so pretty. I also made a plan for TC, who I was liking much less than this model this week.

Enjoy some old behind the ears shots from more fun rides

The biggest thing that is going to help him is time, which I cannot control. I can control my response to time and how much pressure I allow time to put on me, so I am focusing in the moment as much as possible- no more stressing over next year's show schedule. 

The second biggest thing that is going to help him is me acting like me so he has some stability in his life. Just like I am surprised that my horse was suddenly replaced by a monster horse, TC probably thinks that his once very confident owner was replaced by someone who is uncertain (uncertain because of him! But he doesn't know that). I'm not afraid of him (I AM afraid of rafters), but my uncertainty probably makes him feel a little less stable.

Exploring the back trails by ourselves? Not going to happen
right now

Plan: ride 2 days on 1 day off. Why? Because he's only used to getting ridden 4x per week and because it will feel like the never ending shit storm of hell if I can't take some days off of riding him and generally dealing with his baby bullshit.


Riding days-

Longe before riding, as minimally as possible but enough to get him at least responding to me. Lots of walk-trot transitions, minimal cantering. Look at the bright side- by the time he is back to normal, I'm going to have a fucking awesome longeing horse. This will be good because I'm thinking of letting him go to an HA pony club rating next year just to get some more experience being handled by someone new in a new place.

Ride for as long as it takes to get SOMETHING out of him. Be this a few steps of focused trot work or even just a few turns on the forehand. Five minutes or thirty. No pressure. We have no agenda this winter. Remember that I used to HATE riding at the neighbor's arena because he was so bad. Remember how I LOVED riding there when we left because he was so forward and fun. Things will change, life goes on, no need to panic.

Trail riding next to the road? Also not going
to happen

Days off-

Ideally I wouldn't have to come to the barn for these because going to the barn every day burns me out, but I want to do ground work with him until he feels more confident there and until I feel like I can leave him for a day and not have him go nuts when I try to ride him the day after. So ground work it is.

Problem: TC actually has excellent ground manners (not while tying up right now, but while leading he's a saint). I have no idea what to do with him. I don't subscribe to any natural horsemanship stuff, but I do value my horse's ground manners. He stops when I stops, he goes when I go, he turns when I ask him to turn. He even does lateral work in hand- some shoulder-in and leg yielding.

What I do have is access to a lot of *stuff*, the barn is filled with decorative things, tarps, big balls, gates to open and close. So I'm going to start introducing him to whatever he gives the hairy eyeball to. And I'm very much up for anyone else having recommendations for things I can do with a horse who already has a lot of respect for personal space and excellent basic ground manners, but just needs to use his brain to learn new things.

I miss my kitty! She is MY kitty, but my mom told me that
she was a ranch cat so I couldn't take her to any of my apartments,
therefore, she isn't so much my kitty, is she? I miss her though

Tuesday's ride with this plan was a world of difference from Monday, and not because he was all that much better. First, I made sure to treat him like I'd treat him at his old barn, and that meant addressing bad behavior. He doesn't get to walk all over me just because I feel bad that I removed him from his comfort zone. He doesn't get to yank his feet out of my hands, slam my saddle against the wall, try to escape while bridling, or paw the wall. He doesn't get to drag me clear across the arena, down the road, or away from cows. These behaviors mean consequences, and he figured that out quickly and was very submissive.

I longed for quite a while in the outdoor arena. Other than said cow related spooking (he lived NEXT TO COWS at his old barn, but these cows are different cows apparently), he was okay. We had one other incident where he was upset because a horse was let out in the pasture nearby and quietly walked to the water trough. Oh the HORROR.

Climbing mountains, not yet

I had to make myself get on him. He was standing like a fucking maniac. I can't believe how high up his stupid adorable face can get into the air. His entire body was tense. He was generally just looking like he was going to murder anyone who got on his back. But I got on anyway. He immediately zipped a little sideways and started frantically whinnying. I put him in trot and it was actually not the worst thing I've ever felt.

He was completely retracted in the neck, busting through the right rein, and couldn't hold a steady tempo, but it was rideable. That's what I was forgetting on Monday- sure he's stronger and more coordinated, which makes him more powerful and power in a young, frantic horse can be intimidating, BUT it also makes him more rideable. So he wasn't great, but he was rideable.

No cantering and I still led him home, but it was progress and I'll take it.

No cross country schooling for a while

After I rode him, I headed out to trainer friend's barn. She may or may not become new trainer, only time will tell, I have reasons to go either way. My hesitation comes from the wish to preserve our friendship and the knowledge that I am hard on my instructors. She put me on her second-schooling-third horse and I played with straightness and activity within the collected canter, as well as some shoulder in. He's a fun horse!

Then we worked the passage on almost-GP horse. I helped her with the ones as well, just as eyes on the ground since I can catch them when they're together behind a little easier than her students can. It was super fun! Except that it meant that I went grocery shopping at 9:30pm and ate dinner at 10.

Today I'm finally making an Ikea run and TC is getting a ground work day hopefully not in the dark. I'm going to look up some fun stuff to do with him. Get his little brain working!