Getting Stronger

Dover post tomorrow for coordination's sake.

Sunday I had to teach all afternoon so I got up early to ride Rico so I could sit on something other than a fence all day!

I really think that the tea place I like down there should open earlier than 10, since I had to stop on the way out from Rico rather than on the way to Rico, terrible. I also think they should close/move before I move TC down past there, since then I will be quadrupling my tea consumption every week. No.

The fuzziest horse

Unfortunately I got caught up playing with my parents' dogs, who gave me the BEST greeting when I walked in, that I didn't have much time with Rico. Poor Rico, but Rico doesn't give me awesome greetings like the dogs do. I opted to ride bareback in the hackamore, not because I wanted to, but because of the time. Rico was totally okay with this.

All of the horses are shedding, but Rico really has never embraced his California life and continues to grow a winter coat that would not look out of place living outdoors in Germany (or the North Pole for that matter). I tried to brush him really quick with a regular brush, but that just seemed to create MORE hair so I grabbed the shedding blade and cleared a spot for my bareback pad.

Rico also had a TON of mud packed into his feet so I continued destroying my wrist by picking them out. I say continue because on Saturday night I went to the gym to run but then got bored after a mile (hey a mile is good for me) and did kettlebell swings but went a little too heavy and it flipped over backwards and my wrist wasn't too happy about that, woops!

If I were a horse, I would own me.

Rico wondering why, just why

I finally jumped on and did a bit of canter work while I was trying to post a picture of him on Instagram. He was not happy with my distraction (he is NOT appreciative of being the subject of many an instagram post) so he kept trying to break. Eventually I got him going pretty well when I put the phone away and actually used both hands on the reins.

We did a bit of piaffe and passage. The piaffe was excellent but the passage was a bit lazy. He definitely felt iffy on the right front- he's been doing a lot of running around in the pasture and given the number of rocks I found in his feet (and the farrier said that his toes were a little thin these days), I didn't blame him. He was sound, just not wanting to pound on those feet in passage.

The canter was great, he's feeling really strong in it these days, which is fun since over the summer he had felt kind of weak and I was worried that he was on a fast track to full retirement. We mostly just worked on changes at the canter. He was falling onto his left front leg and I had major flashbacks of his crookedness from years ago. For a long time he weighted the left front leg and it was super hard to get him to bend left. The techniques I used to get him off that left front (namely pulling on the left rein lol) made him fall out and become even worse to ride.

It was almost fun to have him back where he was so many years ago where I found him SO difficult to ride, since it was an exceptionally quick fix. Connect the outside rein, inside thigh lifting his wither, outside leg engaging right hind. Done. Soft and light on the inside rein/front leg, no pulling necessary. All those lessons really paid off, can't wait to take more this summer!

Roses + green at the ranch!

I then just trotted around and worked on my sitting trot. My goal is to get my seat back to where it was a year and a bit ago so that I can feel really confident when TC comes back. Rico is perfect for this- just bouncy enough to make me work my abs but not so bouncy that my hip wants to get tight. I really worked to loosen up the hip flexors that have been so tight since starting my job and not riding in sitting trot as much anymore.

I felt as close to my old seat as I could have been (and later that day rode my favorite paint horse and was FOR SURE back to normal- I felt so strong, phew). And Rico gave me some great half pass and shoulder-in just for entertainment so he didn't have to trot around like a lesson pony.

We ended with some stupidity. So grateful to have this horse while TC is at rehab. I love riding other horses, but Rico is one of the highlights of my week every weekend. This coming weekend I'm at the ranch both weekend days (and Friday night, I might ride him in the dark) so Rico will get as many rides as I can squeeze in. Poor Rico, hopefully one of those days will be hauling out to the trails though.

The best horse