Typical Behavior All Around

Saturday afternoon after driving almost three hours in the morning, I got home and figured I hadn't driven quite enough that day (regrets, so many regrets).

So I hopped in the car and headed an hour south to see my favorite.

I was still feeling terrible, this is the never ending plague cold, but man is Rico just the best pick me up, even if I could barely ride him.

I didn't leave my house from Sunday night until Wednesday
morning so I did the most crazy-cat-lady thing ever: cat photoshoot

Lucky Rico has been out on pasture all day for over a week so unlucky me had to pick out his damn feet, which were packed with mud. I had to grab a screwdriver, but managed to get his feet all picked out. Then had to go sit down and catch my breath.

He wasn't as disgusting as he was the last time I had to brush him, which was a welcomed change. He is shedding like it's his job though, so I got a lot of his hair off of him. TC is also shedding, though smells much better as they keep him bathed. Rico's worst nightmare! And TC's by the sound of what he's been doing about the wash rack.

I actually put on a saddle, bridle, and polo wraps (glorious bright blue camouflage ones too, gotta be fancy sometimes, Rico) on Rico, and real boots with spurs on myself. I even grabbed the stock whip just in case he needed some more motivation (he did but only twice). That horse was going to work! If I could just... stop... coughing.

so cute!

Rico was great to ride. We started with some canter to warm up and he felt downright strong in the forward-and-back exercise I played with. Just wanting to make sure I had access to his different canters from the get go- especially without him getting crooked, which is what he tends to like to do.

I read back through all the lessons I took on him (you really run out of internet after 2 days in bed) and straightness is such a theme in every lesson. This gives me hope for TC since that had been one of the main things I focused on all last year. I'm excited to take some lessons on him this summer with Tracey to get him all straightened out so that we don't have as many issues as Rico and I did. Reading back through the lessons made me appreciate that, while I didn't want one to begin with, having a hot horse means that I won't be so focused on forward. Because that was another theme.

I gave Rico a nice break after warm up to hang out before starting the piaffe and passage. The piaffe was pretty good, although leaning on his left front, which is pretty normal these days. His right hind has the ringbone and has always been weaker (maybe because the ringbone was developing? unsure). The passage felt powerful and not as uneven as he usually has been. We even did some transitions between piaffe and passage, which I haven't done in months and months. I love coming out of a good piaffe into a really powerful passage, that feeling is so fun!

the best model, she was staring at birds

At the canter I schooled the changes, which were surprisingy obnoxious. Rico usually has really good changes, and even when they're not, they're always clean, which they were on Saturday. But they were what I would consider labored. The twos took a lot more effort than usual. I mean he's the sort of horse you point across the diagonal and swing your legs wildly and he just sighs and does two tempis. So effort means that I actually had to ride them, oh what horror is this that I actually have to ride? But I at least got the single changes pretty easy.

We also did a couple of pirouettes. The right one fell apart and the left one was good. Sounds about right. I realized that I have a lot more anxiety about pirouettes when I'm in the saddle with all my weapons than when I'm on bareback with just a set of western reins to smack him with. Interesting.

Either way, I think I'm going to put a hold on schooling those, he just doesn't feel strong in them and I don't want to ruin his soundness for a movement that I don't particularly enjoy. Passage is one thing... pirouettes? Meh.

Pfft clean apartment before taking pictures of cat? nah

I lasted about twenty minutes and then was exhausted. To make matters work, I stubbornly agreed to dinner that night with some family friends and basically spent the entire night coughing and feeling like shit. Then drove home late, couldn't fall asleep despite copious amounts of nyquil and woke up the next day extremely sick. Just in time for the horse show, which I barely got through physically.

But my student did well and trainer friend scraped a 60 and change at Grand Prix despite winning the warm up. And I spent the entire show leaning against things and taking pictures that I *actually* managed to edit on Monday because I spent the entire day in bed feeling like shit just in time for another day (Tuesday) spent in bed feeling like shit. Maybe next week I'll be able to work an entire week. Boo.

I'm back at work today though and feeling as normal as I've felt in a couple weeks! Which isn't saying much... but still!