A Closer Look: Training Level

In hopes of fostering discussion and giving me some more things to write about while waiting for the pony to get better, I came up with an idea for a series.

I've written about the dressage levels before, but kind of sporadically, and I suppose we did go over the new tests last winter... BUT I think it'd be fun to dissect each level and each test within the level. My main goal is to look at the progression from Training level to Grand Prix and see how each level (and test) contributes to the training of dressage horses.

So, without further ado: Training Level

Featuring: Rico and teenage Megan at Training level!

Purpose of the Levels

To confirm that the horse demonstrates correct basics, is supple, and moves freely forward in a clear rhythm with a steady tempo, accepting contact with the bit.

My interpretation is that Training level is a test of the basics (which take a while to get right). Can you get through a whole test while keeping your horse a) forward, b) steady in the tempo, and c) on the bit? Great, you'll be fine at Training level. Um, we have some work to do on that.

Two notes for this level are that 1) the halt can be ridden through the walk (and should not be marked down for that specifically) and 2) you can ride the trot sitting or posting (except for the stretch circle is always posting).

Training is where a lot of people start when they start showing at rated shows- and at schooling shows too. Actually my trainer friend told me the other day that since I was an FEI rider, I couldn't start at Intro at a rated show. She seriously had me convinced. But then that's apparently just her rule that she's applying to me. We've already done intro at a few schooling shows, so I'm on board with starting at Training level this summer (PLEASE) or fall (slightly more reasonable) or next year (likely).

Beginning of free walk, quit poking that lazy horse so much, Megan
Ah but you won't learn that for another 7 years

Training 1

I do think that T1 is a nice first test. The trot work is pretty standard- circles in the middle, which I think are easier for people to make the correct shape, since lots of people tend to fall into the corners when the circles are at A or C.

The canter work is set up well for a lot of horses. For others (ahem, mine), that openness going from the short side to the long side as you ask for the canter may encourage some to leave. But it could be good motivation for a better trained lazier horse who may feel like there's room to pick up the canter vs on a short side. I think that's probably why they moved it from picking up the canter in the second half to picking it up in the first quarter.

The free walk is in a great place and only across a short diagonal, this way you have enough medium walk to theoretically get the horse back to you and take your time. This is great for a tense young horse, I like having that extra room to get everything in gear before I have to relinquish contact.

I like that they dumped the stretch circle out of this test. I think it's a lot to ask of a green rider or green horse to be able to correctly stretch down at a show. T1 now allows you to not have to either a) practice a shitty stretch circle and b) not give away your reins and resort to wings and prayers to make it through a whole circle with reduced control.

The coefficients are on the trot circles and free walk, making the score pretty friendly for a horse with a better trot than canter.

Nice trot, Rico!

Training 2

The thing I love about this test is how much trot there is (but don't get your hopes up score-wise, since the canter work has a double coefficient- means both trot and canter are weighted basically the same). It's a bit longer than T1, which is great for a young horse who needs to settle down or a rider to chill a bit. I think one downside for a young horse though, is that you switch directions right before you canter, so the horse has only one bit of a taste of the new direction before you have to canter. But they put the transition in the corner, so that's nice.

The canter is again set up in a way where the horse is looking down a long side as you pick it up, which can be helpful depending on your horse. Unfortunately for young speedy horses, you need to make it half way down the long side before you get to circle, this could lead to exciting things. Hence the increased difficulty of the level.

The stretch circle returns at T2 and it's not located in a very kind place IMO. Some horses do stretch better after the canter, and for those horses, this is an excellent placement. But I think for a lot of horses who may get unbalanced at the canter, the stretch circle adds some difficulty. The best thing to do is just get your trot transition as early as possible.

The coefficients are the canter circles and the free walk. I think it's great they don't throw a double coefficient on your stretch circle at this point.

Damn he was a nice horse, now he is fat and furry

Training 3

This is a great test. I think it's a really good stepping stone between T2 and 1-1. There is added difficulty in a few places.

First, the trot work involves no circles. I, for one, am reliant on circles when my horse has a case of the dumb, so that alone makes it a good test of the general influence the rider supposedly has over the horse. The loops are the bane to a lot of peoples' existences and I can see why. The movement basically makes fun of any idea of straightness or suppleness you may think you have and puts your failure on display. For this movement, practicing it is key, but the best way to really get better at it is to make sure that your horse is supple in both directions and is even in both reins and off both legs (hey sound like familiar requirements for the leg yields coming up? especially that zig zag).

Second, the canter is quite a bit longer. This is a great thing for some horses, but for a lot of them, it's a lot. Especially when you consider that 1-1 has the exact same amount of canter (but I think that's more 1-1's fault than T3). I think it's a good thing though, it's a fairly safe/generic series of movements and from now on, the canter work gets long, so you may as well jump right in.

The coefficients are the free walk and stretch circle, pretty normal coefficients.

* Yes there is a Training level Rider Test, I'll be doing the three rider tests together because they're more similar to each other than to the level they are at. Look for that probably after the Second level edition of this series. Unless I forget. Then look for it much later.

Haven't quite learned how to sit the canter yet, or put him on
the bit, both of those took... um... quite a while

Overall

I like all these tests, I think they are fairly cohesive and provide decent stepping stones from Intro to First level. As we look at First level (next week or whenever I get along to writing it), keep in mind the trot loops and where the downward transition was placed (X) in T3. Those are hints at future movements.


Feel free to add any thoughts!

Walking on (in) Water

I got a voicemail and a text about TC on Tuesday afternoon. It had good news and bad news. The good news is that TC started the aquapacer this week! The bad news is that he was a bit of a jerk about it and tore up a hind foot (just a big chip, apparently very common for barefoot horses on a treadmill).

How FREAKISHLY accurate is this?! 

Their aquapacer is set up like a narrow grob. It's only a little wider than the horse itself. The horse walks down the ramp onto the treadmill, which is underwater, and then when finished, walks forward up the ramp in front of them.

Rico was in one about 7 years ago that actually was just a treadmill with sides, that would be slowly filled with water. I like that idea more I think, as a person who does not ever have to deal with it ever. First, the horses can get used to the treadmill first, THEN deal with the water. Second, the horses are kind of trapped in there, so they can't do what TC did.

I guess TC was super thrilled about water and marched right in.

Then walked out. Without actually staying to walk on the treadmill...

I'm not surprised. TC is a big horse and when I started working with him, Ali warned me that when frustrated or cornered, he often just went through whatever was in his way. Including people, or horses, or fences. Apparently when he was a two year old, someone cornered him in a pasture and he went through a fence to get away from them. It wasn't like he was being abused or anything, just that he wanted to leave and she said no and he said "through this fence then."

I've worked really hard on the ground with this horse to make sure that he doesn't walk all over me, especially while spooking. I've worked to teach him to slow down and stop when he gets scared, then he responds to the words "take a step" and he's only allowed to move one foot at a time. It was a long, hard process with a lot of running away from things, but eventually he started to slow his brain down and evaluate situations when he got scared.

So now he has had no ground work since early December AND he's very frustrated about not being able to do anything. Not surprising that he'd walk right through the people trying to keep him in the water just to get out when freedom is on the other side.

They worked with him and eventually I got this (kinda crappy but you get the gist) video:

I'm SO glad that he is getting such awesome experiences. But I'm MOST glad that I'm not the one having to introduce him to them!

Here's hoping he comes back totally sound and much more experienced with life. Then a few months in training and I think next winter will be a lot more fun and relaxing than this winter has been. Three more visits, including one TOMORROW, until we have our ultrasound.

On the Other Side

For the most part, my teaching job doesn't feel like a second job. It's like a hobby. That I get paid for. It's a nice contrast to my quiet office job. First, I get to spend time outside, which is awesome, I love outside! I get really cooped up if I'm inside too many days in a row. Second, I get to yell at people. This weekend I yelled a lot. Not in a mean way, just in a this arena is too big and I'm bad at projecting my voice sort of way.

The storm coming in at TC's rehab center, obviously it rained
all weekend and now that I'm at work all week with no ponies,
it's been warm and sunny. 

Lots of lessons meant no Rico this weekend, so sad! So my plans of dragging out a week's worth of posts for one weekend already failed miserably because the only thing I really did this weekend was teach and hang out with my brother and SIL.

I figured I'll go through some lessons this week, since I don't have a week's worth of content without talking about my lessons. Also it's been requested more than once, so here you go. Buckle in for some theory, yo.

New wall art = Rico at Grand Prix :)

The first lesson of the weekend was with the leaser of one of my favorite horses of all time, a horse who I've had in my barn for maybe seven or eight years? I did all of his dressage training (he had jumping training before, didn't go on the bit but did wtc) and I know this horse extremely well. Usually when the kids say something is going wrong, I know exactly what is happening. This means he's a fun one for me to teach on, even if he's a bit quirky.

For example, he does this thing that I like to call "inducing chaos" where he makes quick turns and pops his shoulder and zips around like a nut. By doing this, he gets a rider to ride him reactively, which then he takes as a personal insult. He's stumped even my upper level riders with this behavior because it's kind of unnerving- it feels very out of control and makes you feel like you need to scramble lest something scary happens. The solution is to just sit your ass on him, tell him to get over his shit, then "take over" and ride proactively.

And obviously I had to frame this picture

Another thing he does is negotiate. He manages to make you feel like you're right on the brink of getting him round at all times. He will get riders to make small adjustments or wait him out. Or he'll negotiate a longer neck or a lower frame in exchange for him not throwing his head in your face. He also fakes being round by coming out SUPER hollow at first, then slowly allowing the rider to feel successful as he transitions from hollow to being on the muscle. He did that to me in the first year or so I was training him.

He also fake stretches, if the rider lets go, sometimes he'll start to stretch, then "hit" your hand and pop his head up all upset like. So he encourages a rider to let go completely, where he dumps his hind legs out behind him and sniffs the ground like a bad western pleasure horse. He trained a student to warm him up like that once. She told me it was for his back and I watched as he trotted around nose on the dirt with his back all tight and hind legs like a sewing machine. So sneaky.

Love those little ears, even if between them is a conniving little
paint horse

One of my favorite things about him is that there's a special middle ground between laziest-horse-ever and complete-loon where he is shockingly rideable. When he's like that, he's probably one of the most rideable horses I've ever had in my barn. I can get him into canter with just moving my inside seatbone forward, I can get him to go from a medium canter to a school canter by scooping my seat in a different way. Lateral work is a matter of shifting weight.

BUT this special middle ground is in between two very fine lines. On one side, we have the world's most lazy animal. He will not move, even if you poke him with spurs or smack him. Sometimes he kicks at your leg or even your seat instead of going forward (cannot shove your seat on this horse or he will balk and kick at you- yes the saddle fits, he just doesn't appreciate butts). On the other side, we have the world's most reactive animal, one who you have to be so so still on lest he get insulted that you want him to go straight, do a lead change, and get even more insulted that you "asked" him for a lead change.

No more media, enjoy some pictures from last winter

When my student told me that he was feeling heavy in the bridle, I selfishly (he is so fun) offered to hop on. I had a couple of ideas as to why this was happening. First, he lost some fitness during my student's finals, so he's not super strong. Second, he's being ridden once a week or so by my newest bronze medalist, who is a fantastic rider, but who has always ridden strong horses and tends to ride the little paint slightly heavier than his rider does (actually where I like a horse like this to be- he used to nod on the contact). Third, and this is the one I wanted to make sure wasn't happening, if you get rigid in the hand, he will lean. Guess how I know that, me desperately trying to step down from my throne as the queen of rigidity in the last several years.

Luckily when I got on, I realized that I was both right and wrong. The first two are true- he feels a bit unfit but I could get him very well connected. The third wasn't happening- my student maintains a very steady but light connection, there's no bracing there. He wasn't dead in the connection (he actually felt amazing, props to you, teenager with very minimal dressage experience), so that told me that she hasn't been braced on him. I expected that, she is a good rider.

Trees!

Too... good. As when I got on him, I realized that she had stumped me with his crookedness. The horse was leaning on his right shoulder, but my student was hiding that a bit from me (not a bad thing, she's able to keep him straight enough where I wasn't noticing it because I didn't look for it).

He's got a weak left hind leg, always has, so his weight gets distributed onto his right front leg. This means that he leans on his right rein a bit. Now, student said that he was heavier to the left, which makes sense because he's quite well trained (ahem) and he takes more weight on the outside rein when being bent to the inside pretty naturally (he doesn't tip his withers). When he was tracking left, he put even more weight on the outside rein. Tracking right, he evened out a bit better, and my student could use uberstreichen to get him even lighter on that heavier inside rein.

Love these trails

At the canter, my student said that he's easy to the left and hard to the right. Before I explain, something to know about his canter is that he's very sensitive to the seat. If you half halt and then sit the canter that he gives you, you can basically canter him in that same balance on a loose rein. So to the left, he's better because a) you can really half halt that rein that he weights (vs on the other side he would just fall in with a half halt on the outside rein) which b) means that he's easier to keep straight and c) he will willingly take weight behind. Which then you can keep by riding him on your seat and lighten your hand and poof- self carriage.

To the right, he struggles for several reasons- first, he doesn't take weight on his left hind as willingly, which makes him crooked, which makes you fall in the hole he creates on the left side, which makes you stand on your left stirrup and pull on the right rein to keep your balance, which further encourages him to lean on the right rein. So to fix it, I had my student sit on the right side of the saddle, bend him to the inside, uberstreichen the inside rein, connect him on the outside rein, half halt the outside rein, and activate the outside hind leg. Also rub her stomach and pat her head. Yep.

Need to get back out there

I could get the canter really great both directions, but my student, still learning about the biomechanics of the rider's seat at the canter anyway (and also who doesn't naturally tip left like I do- which made me feel like I was going to fall off if I sat in the hole), struggled to the right. But it was still much better.

I love these sorts of lessons, and this lesson shaped the rest of the weekend's lessons too. Understanding the biomechanics and how that relates to straightness and connection. Ah I love my second job. But boy am I happy sitting in this nice cozy office right now though!

My favorite tree!

Getting Ahead of Ourselves

Work was incredibly light on Friday, so I ended up getting loads done early and headed out to see TC before the storm really hit us. I was early enough where traffic wasn't even so bad and I made it out to see him in record time, even taking into account how long I putzed around at the fruit stand to get him some carrots.

He's kind of a doof, but I love him

TC actually whinnied at me! He hasn't been whinnying at me in the last few weeks, mostly because I feel strange yelling "baby horse!" in my weird voice in front of all the workers. No shame this week I guess.

He was pretty demanding when I got in there so I made him earn his carrots. We did lots of stretching and I reinstalled the "get the fuck away from me" button (aka backing up without me having to shove him). Apparently he's been quite rude to the workers, trying to stand as close as he can right next to them and not letting anyone do their jobs easily when they work with him. I'm going to have my work cut out for me in terms of ground work when he comes back.

I brushed him all over, brushed out his mane and tail, and then he coerced me into itching his diminished topline. He's never been a very itchy horse, but I think he's missing the social aspect of chewing on his neighbors and having his neighbors chew on him. I had to get after him for biting me once, and then he settled into being scratched.

He's really annoying to take pictures of these
days, not made easier by my phone refusing to
get out of selfie mode

His weight looked better, not 100%, but the lady who runs the place told me that he was looking better. I don't mind that he's a bit of a skinny minny, since the less weight on his ligament, the better. But obviously I don't want him to starve. He gets all the hay he wants and they've got him on extra grain too.

Apparently he starts the aquapacer this week! I'm really excited for the video they promised to send me. He'll probably start out a bit drugged at first to get him used to it. I'm glad for this, when I was there, a horse was being loaded into it and the horse tried to jump in and there was a huge ruckus. TC is so interested in water (he marches right through puddles) that I think he'll be fine, but I want him safe.

I remain so impressed with this place. It's a bit pricier than having him at home, sure, but it's quite a bit cheaper if you take into account how much I value not getting up at 4am every morning and having to hand walk that shit in the rain. He's always clean (much to his demise I'm sure), his massive tail is brushed out every day, his stall is spotless, water is clean, and generally he looks as good as you'd think he'd look being locked in a stall for a month.

Aww so cute

I find myself making plans for him this summer, even despite not knowing if he's even coming back (will know mid-Feb if his suspensory is trying to adhere to the splint, which, well, we're not talking about that).

If I get into the barn I want to be at for training, he'll be settled in at that facility enough where I could probably show there- they hold three rated shows a year there. Their first show is in April, which is obviously too soon, but their second one is in August. August would be great if I could get him back before June 1st and have him cantering by July 1st. I'm hoping that with the help of a trainer, 2.5 months will be enough to get him fit enough where I could do the show in August. I'm thinking T1 and T2 because of the canter likely being weak.

Then hypothetically he'd move to ideal barn in September, because hypothetically everything will go perfectly. It will take a bit of time to get him going there, but I still want to plan on the show at the training barn in October. I also have my brother's wedding in October, which is a week before the show. At first I was thinking that I'd only be gone a day or two for it. But we're arriving to the place on Friday at 3, which means that I probably can't ride that day. Then we get home Sunday afternoon. After a weekend of partying, it'd be nice not to have to ride right away.

Look at that blurry nose

SO I was thinking hypothetically that I'd send him to my trainer (who I haven't met yet- see what my brain does when I don't have a horse? gah) on Thursday or Friday before the wedding, have her ride him Friday and Sunday (and Saturday off or eurociser), then keep him there for the week leading up to the show.

This will allow him to get used to the barn again, allow me to ride in the show arena a bunch, and then we'd show and come home the following Sunday. Sure staying and taking lessons makes for an expensive show, but I'd need to pay someone to take care of him anyway when I'm gone for the wedding, and I may as well get a few lessons before DST when I have to suffer through another winter.

For this show, I'd hope that we'd be ready to go at T3 by then, but I might hold him at T1 and T2 until the next year, and then just do T3 and 1-1 for a bit the following year. With Rico, I was on a time crunch with him that I'm not on with TC. So I'm going to do my best to take it slow and not feel the pressure to move up earlier than is necessary. It makes for better scores and less training holes.

You know, you just gotta be honest with any potential trainers

Annnnd yes I'm aware that it's January. And we'll see how this ultrasound goes. But it's fun to think that I could be actually showing this horse at a couple of rated shows this year! Next year we'll aim for starting at Training and ending at First. And maybe a 2-1 by the end of the year for kicks. He already has canter to walk and shoulder-in, that's all that counts, right? Then a year at second and then we'll see Alfredo and then we'll put on changes and... I'm very desperately wanting the next three visits to go by quickly so that we can take another small step forward in all these plans: finding a trainer.

Puddle Jumper

Sunday morning I went to audit a clinic. I've audited this instructor once before and she's not my favorite, but I always find something to take away. This time it was just about being patient. I'm quite patient with my horses and how they progress, but I rarely give myself any of the same. As I'm working toward going back to crossfit and working toward riding TC again, I need to make sure that I stay patient both with him and with myself. Other than that... well, there's a reason why I stick to auditing (and that reason is free chai and a scone... lol no I do enjoy it, I just have other clinicians that rank higher on my To Ride With list).

Since the clinic was down the street from my parents' place, I had stayed overnight. This meant that I got to ride Rico too! And my parents wanted to ride with me once as I said that I wanted to go down to the winery.

He's so comfortable

Rico was pretty happy to have me aboard, although outright refused to do anything other than jog quietly to catch up to Stretch and Riot on the way out. I asked for passage once and he just yanked at my arms like fuck you, no.

We got to our very favorite puddles that Rico hates, and Rico seemed to be having fun balking at the puddles and picking an argument with me. I got both front feet sort of in, but then he rocked back on his hocks and jumped... but only half way so he landed all four feet in the puddle and trotted out. Weird. He did the same thing with the other two puddles on the path, reminding me of a little kid jumping and splashing in puddles after the rain.

We crossed the road and his whole demeanor changed. Now we were going on a *real* trail ride down to the winery. After being reluctant to trot, he was trotting and cantering on the trail by the side of the road without much encouragement. It was SO fun, because he was super energetic because of the misty rain and getting to do more than trot around in the arena. I asked for passage and he stuck his head between his legs and propped into some mini bronc bucks. Better than the hand yanking, I guess?

I grabbed his head out from between his knees, which was not easy- we were in the hackamore- and then asked again. He gave me a pretty good passage, although it was a bit too much front end with not much engine to back it up. I had no whip or spurs so couldn't activate the hind legs enough. Oh well, we're not going to win any awards with that, but it's still fun.

The hairiest horse

It's so pretty when it's green

Unfortunately it got QUITE wet and everyone wanted to go home. Rico was super amped and kept holding back so that he could trot/canter to catch up. We got to the busy road where we were crossing and some people were driving up the driveway to the winery. They stopped to take a picture of us (ugh) and ended up getting out of the car to really get a good shot. That spooked Rico INTO ONCOMING TRAFFIC. But luckily there was time for me to yank him back and probably ruin their picture by giving them a bit of a dirty look. It wasn't their fault, my soon to be 20 year old horse really should know what slamming doors are and he really shouldn't leap into oncoming traffic ever.

Once on the access road I let Rico wait for Riot and Stretch to go past the puddles before letting him canter quietly toward them. The puddles are set at a bit of an angle so we had a nice diagonal line across the road. He jumped the first one, put a tight two strides in before jumping across the second one, then one stride to the big one, which he landed in, then took off leaping and wiggling before catching up with Stretch, who was now trotting alongside Riot (who was doing his fancy running walk that I reinstalled the previous weekend).

Side saddle!

I held him in collected canter and made him do two tempis for some of the rest of the road, then brought him back for some pretty powerful passage and piaffe.

On the way back he was warm and tired, so I let him graze. I sat on him side saddle to take a picture of my parents being all cute with their painted ponies and then I flipped over so I was facing backwards and could lay on his butt fat, which is quite comfortable.

My dad said jokingly that I should ride back to the barn like that and I took that as a challenge. We even piaffed and trotted (no passage, I probably would have fallen off!) with me on backwards. Rico is a complete saint of a horse.

Poor Rico

He's so good

Visiting the Pony

On Friday I drove out to the rehab facility to see little TC again. I think this is the third time I've written this post. Oh well. If I had more content I could dump these boring posts on Saturdays, but I have almost nothing to say about my weeks now that all I'm doing is going to the gym kinda and playing with my cat. I love Fridays with my pony!

Look at that pony, so cute

Unfortunately, traffic on the worst highway ever was pretty bad and I ended up getting there a tad late. I still managed to stop at the fruit stand and get him a bag of carrots though, because, you know, priorities.

TC looked like TC when I got there. He's shedding a bit so he's getting even more gray. His topline looks terrible. But he's the same sweet little guy. A bit impatient as usual, but I think that's because I'm always there right as they're feeding, so he's desperate for carrots.


While I hung out with him, I talked to the owners. He's out of bute, so they're ordering more from the vet clinic (yet another moment when I'm grateful that he's there, I would have had to drive across the bridge to pick up bute for him). He's also looking a bit skinny, so they got permission from me to pack on some more weight with a bit more grain. He's getting all the grass hay he can eat, plus a couple flakes of alfalfa a day. For grain he gets a pound of rice bran and a pound of this low sugar grain from LMF. I gave them permission to throw him on whatever, they know their shit with all the performance horses they have there.

He was also a bit wet when I got there, apparently they gave him a bath! They said he was kind of bad for it. First, the wash rack is in a different part of the barn than he's used to. And second, uh I dunno if he's ever had a bath. Certainly not in the last year because of the serious water restrictions. But we've been in this drought for a while and his old owner/breeder was pretty strict with water restriction every summer.

Poor TC! But he's seriously cleaner than he's ever been, he smells amazing. His tail was for sure the worst, it still has dandruff coming out of it. Hopefully all the rain this year will mean that we're not on water restriction this summer, though that's probably not a realistic thing to hope for.

That TAIL is insane

They told me that he's quite bored, and I feel terrible for him. I told them to put him in the larger stalls, but he paws so much in this stall that they're worried he'll hurt himself if he had more room and friends. They want to wait and talk to my vet. I agree to an extent. More room, more friends, and less solid walls could mean that he quiets down, chews on his friends, and generally feels better about his situation. Or he could leap right out of the stall, flip over, and break his neck.

I was feeling like the worst horse owner ever until I realized that once again, this is just another good experience for him. He's always been quite herd bound, and I remember one of my barn owner friends (from old old barn) telling me that when she gets herd bound young horses, she puts them in stalls where they can't touch noses for as long as it takes, she says it helps them get more independent. I feel terrible, but the reality is that we KNOW that TC is safe in there. This is temporary- just for another month, three months at max. The majority of his life he will spend with other horses, but learning to be okay on his own is important. Very important if I want to have him be okay to travel to shows, since most show stalls are fully enclosed too.

So cute

I hung out for way too long, brushing him, insisting on pulling his mane, trying and failing to teach him to smile, doing carrot stretches, and brushing out his tail.

It's really fun to see him and I find myself cherishing the 30-40 minutes I get with him every week. I do miss him so much, I really want to get us back on track this summer like we were last summer before all the drama with moving him happened. I think it will be a great summer- he'll have been out of his pasture for nearly a year by then, I'll be working with one of a few amazing trainers I have access to, and we might get to do a rated show!

But for now, we count down the four more weeks (four more trips out there sounds like less time) until his next ultrasound where we find out if his suspensory is adhering to the splint bone (I'm trying not to think about what will happen if that's true) and we set a real timeline for when he starts trotting, and then for when I get to bring him home.

Look how gray he is!

Hypothetical Advertising

People used to harass me lightly about whether Rico would be for lease. Over the last year or so, I feel like I've quelled the desire a bit by throwing the horse out into pasture and letting him go from this:

Look at this horse

Who wouldn't want to ride this thing?

And that tail! 

To this:

Super derpy, and so fat

Look at that mane (and that goat!) 

No more clips for this horse, he doesn't even have a bridle path

Still though, every now and then I feel bad that I didn't lease him out. He could have given a rider so much. But the truth is that Rico is so much happier now than he's ever been, and he already gave me so much, so what does he owe a stranger?

I feel like it's the best decision to give him a sound retirement. He can gallop around in his pasture, harassing Riot and running away from me. And he gets to be my family's trail horse- my mom has plans for when her horse fully retires, and I'm going to teach my SIL to ride for real this summer when they house sit for my parents. He's the best beginner horse because he doesn't want to do shit and is pretty well trained at liberty so I can free longe people.


And anyway, at this point, he'd be hard to lease out for the following reasons:

1. he needs special shoes (which are now not so special because he isn't doing shit), he needs frog support pads and custom rocker toe shoes in front every 3 weeks, a straight shoe behind every 5-6 weeks. The horse cost me more in shoes per month than TC costs me in six months of trims.

2. he needs lots of joint maintenance. We're talking hocks and coffins (and probably his new fancy ringbone site in his right hind pastern) every 6 months. Maybe more often. He'd also need his fancy joint supplement, that costs $3-5 per day.

3. and he also would need to go back on his prebiotic, probiotic, hoof supplement, and probably core builder (so tack on... I don't want to think about it, without board he costed me more than TC does each month though, NOT including lessons/shows/injections) to build him back up.

4. riding wise, he doesn't go well in the snaffle, so whoever wanted to lease him would need to be able to school him in the double regularly and probably wouldn't be able to show in the snaffle because he knows that in shows you can't punish him so he would try some shit.

5. but he shouldn't be doing anything above 4-1 because he probably won't stay sound in pirouettes

He's an expensive piece of shit, but he's cute

Here would be his ad:

Grand Prix dressage horse for lease, scores to 65% with questionably effective rider. Anyone can ride him (not well, but he won't hurt you). Fun out on the trails and over fences, but if you want him to stay sound, you won't be able to enjoy any of that. Needs serious, expensive maintenance for feet, tendons, and joints. Not quite sound currently, not sure if he will be sound in full work even if you pump your paycheck into his joints every month, that's your risk. Doesn't go well in a snaffle. Bad attitude about work. Won't let you catch him in pasture. Hates you already for thinking about leasing him. Will probably yank you to any green grass like a pony regardless of what bit you have in his mouth. Limited to working at Third level only. Levels above are too hard on him. Levels below will be too hard on your arms and your ego. Clips without sedation (bonus: he appears to be sedated at all times), will leap into a trailer but refuse to get back in once he is at a new place, ties to anything, including nothing. Sometimes bites, but then knows he did something bad and freaks out like you're about to abuse him if you express any disappointment about his behavior. Paws incessantly when you're not watching him. Will pout about baths and act like being clean is worse than death. Really good about cold hosing, medicating, and rehabilitation, which you will likely experience within the first few months of leasing him. No backsies.

But unfortunately for any victims takers, he's happy in pasture and ready to get ridden again tomorrow by yours truly!

And today I'm really really really hoping to get enough done on this big project for work that I can justify taking off on time to go see my baby horse. I might just go anyway and then come home and work all evening.

A Day with Rico and Riot

I had less lessons than I thought on Sunday so despite being so incredibly sore that I thought I might not be able to move at all, I dragged myself down to ride Rico. Which makes the cumulative driving from Friday to Sunday 635 miles (only 275 on my car though), which works out to just under 11.5 hours. Worth it.

Sunday morning I woke up SO sore, but only in my upper body (weird because my legs were killing me the most while snowboarding). My SIL texted me to see how I was doing and I said it felt like death was pulling me into the depths of hell by my wrists. But I still felt good enough to drive and ride and teach, so it might have been a bit of an exaggeration to say such things.

Feeling good enough to jump this guy too! I totally matched
his polos to my shirt for the day. They don't look as matchy in
this picture though.

Rico was mildly happier to see me this Sunday than he had been last Sunday because he had been locked onto his paddock all week due to the rain. How sweet of him to not gallop away from me and taunt me. Not that he had the room, muahaha.

He was very content when I took him out to brush him. I dumped a ton of detangler into his long ratty tail and made it look a little more acceptable, brushed out his long mane, which looks unacceptable at all times, and picked out his feet, which were not packed with mud. Whew. That was a good thing because I don't think my body would have consented to leaning over picking feet for a long time. Especially with Rico who now gets impatient and judges me if it takes me longer than 20 seconds to pick out a mud packed foot.

I rode in the arena, which was wet but not too wet. My dad had told me to have fun in the arena since he was sealing it for more storms this week. Which means that this weekend I'm probably going to be either trail riding in the vineyards or hauling out, fun!

My body was NOT happy with riding, so I kept it fun and easy. Just walk trot canter on the bit. Except that Rico is now ignoring TC's light soft snaffle, so it's time to stick something else in his mouth. He doesn't go on the bit unless he has to, and he really doesn't have to if the bit is a big fat snaffle. Rather than digging through a pile of bits or fighting with him in a bit he doesn't notice, I just accepted that it was not a day for any fun dressage. I primarily worked on my seat at the canter. It was getting a bit rusty after struggling with TC's not-as-nice canter for so long.

Eyeing the grass

I had to take my jacket off so I put it over the cross rail in the arena, which gave me an idea. I hiked my stirrups and turned our slightly unpleasant dressage ride into a very pleasant jumping ride.

I pointed him at the now terrifying crossrail and he jumped the shit out of it. He was seriously thinking about stopping so I had to haul on my right rein a bit to keep him from darting left.

Sure enough, when I put the fence up to a vertical (about 2'6 I think), he darted left. I kept him straight enough and kicked him over my makeshift standards, but he crashed through and I had to leap off to pick up the damn fence and my jacket, which then when I put it back on, made it look like I had fallen off.

We jumped it again and he leapt over it. Around that time I saw my dad, so I called him out for a video. It was fun to see myself on video for real (vs fence video), even if I was jumping an old crippled horse in a dressage saddle. Rico looks decent when he's moving at least! He looks like a bit of a tub of lard when he's hanging out.

Fence video, this was when he was less impressed by the jacket.
Oh and look who can still sit on those old hocks, asshole told me
that pirouettes were a no-go last week. 

After jumping, I let Rico be done, it was a big fence for him and I do want him to stay sound especially while TC is out. I actually have time on weekends to travel to ride, and Rico is my favorite.

Because my dad had been so nice to video me, he hinted pretty heavily that it'd be nice if I could ride his horse, Riot, since he didn't have time to get him out. So I hopped on little Riot.

Riot is a TWH and he doesn't trot or canter (well he does but we don't encourage it since my dad has back problems). He has a walk, a running walk, and a terrible pace thing. My main goal when I ride him is to get him more rideable and to work on the running walk. He'd rather pace and although my dad likes the pace better than the trot, we all prefer the running walk.

D'aww, love the little Riot

It's always interesting to give him a school because I've never ridden a gaited horse other than Riot. It's a bit new to me. But so many of the same principles apply. He is stuck on his left side, which causes him to get on his forehand, which causes the pacing. He also likes to curl. He's never really been ridden in anything but a western curb bit, so that's probably part of it. He was never really taught to seek contact. And honestly, it's not something I want to work on. There are more important things to work on for my dad.

So my main focus was getting the running walk stronger and straighter- not falling into the pace when he gets crooked or stuck. With this in mind, my goal was to get him more supple on the left side, then maintain straightness, lifting the left shoulder and engaging the right hind, then push him forward. His old owner described the aid and it's similar to passage, so it's literally the exact same aids and series of movements that I used to help Rico's passage.

Soon little Riot was zipping around in running walk, and I was laughing more than I had when Rico was jumping. It's such a fun gait!

The most obnoxious part about this is that my dressage saddle
fits him perfectly- he is the only horse that it fits this well.

I already have plans to go ride both horses again this weekend if the rain doesn't pour down. Either way, my family is doing dinner and a movie together (we're so cute) so I'll get my pony fix even if it's me just brushing Rico's tail and making him do his tricks. Or hopefully I can haul out to TC's breeder's neighbor's arena so that I can get both horses ridden in a covered arena.

Second Visit

Friday was my second visit out to see TC!

Unfortunately when I was down to see Rico last weekend, I had forgotten to grab TC's brushes and mane/tail spray. I was pretty intent on brushing that damn thing out, so I stopped by the big tack store earlier that week to pick up supplies.

Needs treats

I figured eventually he will break his mane and tail brush, so I will just replace it with the cheap one I got, which he will break and I'll have to replace it yet again. Will someone make a heavy duty brush for big fat Friesian tails? Eventually we'll run out of mane/tail spray, so I will just use the one I picked up. And the body brush was softer than my regular body brush so he NEEDED it. And the mane pulling comb had something I could use as a hoof pick on it. I'm sure he gets his feet picked but I like to obsessively poke at them. Yep, just making adult decisions over here. At least I didn't get the overly expensive brush container thing (that I do need because he kicked and shattered my last one).

The drive out there is quite pleasant, even though much of the drive is on the world's most annoying highway. But when I leave early enough, there is minimal traffic. I did not leave quite early enough. Apparently traffic starts at 2pm! Yikes. But I made it out there by 3:30 and even stopped by the best fruit stand ever for a bag of carrots and an apple for the pony.

He is so hard to take pictures of!

TC was so much better this time. I mean he looks like shit. However, while he was very happy to see me, he was not as frantic and desperate for my attention as he was last time. He didn't even whinny at me, which is kind of sad because he almost always whinnies at me. But I can't blame him, I'm not around much.

I gave him his carrots and apple, although I think next time I'll get a different kind of apple (or no apple). He ate it kind of half heartedly and then I stuck it in his hay for him to eat later. He much prefers the carrots and was mugging me for them the whole time.

When his dinner came, he did chill about the carrots and eat. I got to brush his already clean body with the new body brush and brush out his already brushed out tail with the new tail brush and picked out his already picked out feet with the little hoof pick. I still went through the motions of it though, it felt nice to spend time with him and I wasn't about to complain about him being taken care of so well.

Apparently he is really quiet. He stall walks a little bit, but he might be moving to a bigger stall soon where he'd have neighbors. I think that would make him a LOT happier so I said yes. But the problem is that the stall has one side where he could climb and I told them that they would need to put something up (like plywood) so he wouldn't. I need to reiterate that and tell them that I'm happy to pay for labor and materials if they wanted to do it, since I think it'd make him SO much happier. Not that he's unhappy now though.

I had to put his apple on the ground because he
was being gross with it

He really looks forward to his eurowalker time. He gets all excited about it when they come to put his boots on, but he's apparently very polite about it. And he stays quiet inside. I was talking to them about the plan when I was bringing him back. There is a barn I'm looking at that has one and is semi-reasonable about the price to put the horses on it. I figured he could get on that on the days where I couldn't get out to the barn.

We got on the subject of me bringing him back and I said that I was nervous about him launching me and then galloping around. And they said "oh no he'll be strong enough to handle cantering around," and I was surprised, but apparently they start the horses trotting in the eurociser! So by the time I have him back, he'll be already trotting and I'll be able to work him for longer. No walk 1 minute, trot 30 second sets for us! Phew. But I'll still be looking into putting him in training just to get us working together again.

Unfortunately I found a potential barn that is just as cheap as my old barn with better footing and it's very quiet... so I'll be looking at that one too even though there is no trainer. Gah, it'd be nice to save money, but if I DO get bucked off, I'll be cursing not putting him in training at least for a month.

Eating his dinner, lunch in the background, he basically has food
all day

It was so nice to hang out with him. I love this horse, I'm so glad I'm doing this horrible rehab (rather than just throwing him in pasture and when he comes back, giving him back to his old owners). It's a lot more money and a lot more hurt emotionally than I had wanted in the first six months that I owned him, but it really makes me think that he's the right horse for me at this time. He's not that fancy, he's probably not going to be my next FEI horse, but goddamn is this horse just incredibly fun to be around.

Apparently everyone feels this way about him! There is a girl who works there who has taken a liking to him. She grooms him every day and does a lot of his treatment. I'm glad he has a person to bond to who likes him. I can't say I'm not completely envious that she gets to hang around him every day while I work and miss him, but it makes me glad that someone looks forward to hanging out with him since she probably spends a little extra time with him (clearly, that tail takes a LONG time to brush out).

The visits aren't easy on me, but I really appreciate him being close enough for me to visit, even if it's only once a week at max. I figured that over time I'll get used to it. And like I said last week, I'm finding things to do to keep me entertained and I'm trying to enjoy the free time I have as much as possible. Like snowboarding this weekend, which you get to hear about tomorrow!

Catch Ride

This week was the first week where I really felt the absence of my pony. I kept myself pretty busy, but clearly not busy enough. Finally, Thursday, last night, I rode a pony! I'm sure it's a clear sign of my severe addiction to horses that I was feeling frustrated about not riding by Wednesday night. I had ridden Rico on Sunday. Three days. I need to work on this.

She's getting kind of fat, but she's still so cute

But part of riding, I realized, is this blog. I love blogging about my rides and hearing what people have to say about various topics. And I mean this week has been fun, especially hearing everyone's ideas/perspectives on my happiness vs success post. But the truth is that I'm reaching the bottom of the barrel of my drafted blog posts and there will probably come a time where I'll have to press pause (or at least slow motion) on my blog until TC comes back.

Luckily this weekend should be great fodder though. Today I see TC, tomorrow I go snowboarding, and Sunday if I'm still alive, I'll be teaching lessons. Where I may or may not leap onto clients horses whenever possible. I always hate being like "ugh okay let me get my helmet, I will fix that" and this time I'll probably be teaching in all of my riding gear looking kind of twitchy.

Late night impulse buy on amazon, no regrets!

Last night, I got to ride a pony thanks to trainer friend. She's so sweet to let me ride her fun horses, and it's nice that we're on similar schedules with work so that I can actually ride for her during the evenings, since on the weekends I teach or can ride Rico and don't need so many ponies.

Because I'll be riding this horse semi regularly, I figured I'd introduce him... sort of. I don't like talking about other people's horses on the blog, I just feel weird about doing it without permission. But I'll keep it vague.

Let's call him LB, standing for long bay. We call him that sometimes (he has a real name) because he's a HUGE bay warmblood gelding. He's super well built uphill and moves like a dream, but he's a bit long nose to tail. Props to whoever broke him because I bet he felt like they were riding two different horses.

I've ridden him a couple of times and he's been a bit inconsistent each time. Not during the ride. But like he's being trained and I don't ride him regularly, so I figured him out the first ride, then by the time I rode him the next time, I had to relearn all his new stuff. Luckily this was my second ride within two weeks on him so I figured I'd be okay.

Nothing beats this view

But in the last few days, unfortunately LB has been feeling a bit funky in his pelvis and he was extra tricky to ride last night. With the soreness in my hips (brought on from new workout routine and just general shitty hips), my stirrups felt too long and I found myself committing some of the same crimes that Tracey had pounded out of me years ago (which I know is going to happen being outside of regular lessons for a year and a half, but it still gets me all irritated with myself). Tipping off my right seat bone, tipping my head, twisting in my upper body, and my left hand wasn't being as weird as it could have been, but it was pretty weird. I fixed all that, but then LB would get a little rude and I'd snap back out of place.

It was so frustrating to feel so uncoordinated. TC demanded a lot of coordination but he was so much easier to ride (which to me is so funny because he's barely schooling Training and First while LB is schooling Third). You could put TC in a place and tell him he was doing a good job and he'd stay there. So it was like putting a puzzle together and by the time you're a half hour into the ride, it's all pretty. Last night LB was like putting a puzzle together during an earthquake, where the pieces go where you put them but then rumble out of place, by a half hour into the ride you're a little closer to completing it, but not as much as you should be.

It was a little discouraging, but it shouldn't have been. I don't know him that well and I don't ride a million different horses every week anymore so I can't adjust myself to new horses as easily as I used to. The majority of horses I've ridden in the last three years have been horses I've trained. Not that my trainer friend isn't an amazing trainer, but it's easier to ride my own horses than it is to jump on others. And TC is just... totally my ride. I don't like having to put a horse together or convince them to work so much, TC comes prepackaged and excited to work. I'm going to have him on a pedestal by the time he comes back, only to be severely disappointed. Oh well.

But I get to see this face today!

But trainer friend gave me some help and I got some pretty fantastic canter work out of him by the end. It definitely motivates me to do a couple of things- 1) I need a gym routine for sure, I'm just not strong enough, which affects my coordination and 2) I absolutely need to be in lessons the first month or two of bringing TC back so that I don't bring any baggage to the table. I also think I do better with a trainer, I don't think I want to be without regular lessons for a while (1x/week ideally but 2x/mo would work- gotta work that into the budget). Good information.

Next week I might get to ride more horses! I need to get my schedule in line so that I can get out to ride a bit earlier.

But before then... SNOW!