Positive Thinking and Plastic Bags

I had some errands to do on Thursday so spent the entire day in the car, boo. But I got to see TC! I headed straight out to the facility after the gym, lunch, and picking up carrots, which got me there just after 2:00. It wasn't as warm as it could have been, although quite warm in the stalls (even TC's water was warm, poor pony, he still drank it no problem though), so the fan was on. Excellent.

Return of the fan desensitization

I brushed TC and he's still shedding, which is kind of ridiculous. It's probably just warm enough out there where he's trying to lose extra hair to cool himself down. He looks really good, good muscle and even a bit of fat on him. The owner of the facility came over and asked me if he was too fat and I said no. He can be a bit of a hard keeper in work so I'm glad he's got a little extra. And they work with so many racehorses that their bit of extra weight is my throw that starving horse some more hay.

We talked about TC a bit, nothing is very interesting with him. He needs more of all his supplements so I ordered them and then cried. The magnesium may or may not be working so I ordered SmartCalm Ultra to see how that will work. Honestly those supplements are mostly for me at this point.

He's trotting 7 minutes now, and he'll make the move to 10 minutes (in two sets of 5 minutes each) probably this week or next. His leg looks good, no swelling and no heat, other than what I manage to convince myself I see/feel. He hasn't had any problems, and is even letting them walk him down to their third walker down below and he hasn't been an asshole about leaving his comfort zone. Well, not too much of an asshole. It's TC, the five year old, very fit, very nervous hippopotamus, of course he's going to be a little bit of an asshole.

He's never going to look not-awkward, is he?

I worked TC a little bit at liberty in the stall, and actually ordered a book about working horses in hand. TC is so in tune with me on the ground, it's really fun but it's also intimidating. I'm not very good at recognizing when I've made a mistake or he's made a mistake. Mostly because I honestly have no idea what I'm doing and I'm just guessing at whether it's correct or not.

Either way, he's so sensitive that I feel like he tells me what is right. At this point, all I have to do is a hand signal and he backs up, turns on the forehand, and he's getting better at yielding the shoulders (like a bad turn on the haunches), which is really important to me since he likes to bulge toward his handler. Mostly I just want him used to focusing on me whenever I'm around, but this is actually getting kind of fun.

I love how fast he learns and have had two separate people (a friend who is a trainer who breaks horses and a client who is into NH and does a lot of rescue rehab) offer to help me on the ground with him and bombproof him. I want to let BRH trainer work with me, but I have a feeling that's going to be mostly riding, so I'm excited to bring a friend out to learn a little more about it. But I have an idea for the next bombproofing lesson: umbrellas. Friend who breaks horses was working with a horse this weekend so I got some ideas.

Want carrots

TC's fan was on so I did some plastic bag desensitization. I was SO proud of him. He might be flighty and strong, but he learns fast and trusts me, at least in the stall. I got almost no reaction out of him while it flew across his stall. He definitely watched it, but more with curiosity than worry. The only time he reacted with anything other than oh this lady and her obsession with plastic bags again was when it flew up and landed on his face. Then he sort of backed up and away from it, then snorted at it when it landed on the ground.

At one point it landed on his body and stayed there. He just did this:

Why mom, why?

I fucking love that look on his face. That's his what the fuck is happening to me look. He stayed calm though, and I even got him to lick and chew. I'm super impressed and immediately wanted to bring him home. Like load him up into my car and let me at this horse. After returning to my comfort zone work-wise (still interviewing, so I won't be teaching this much for long), joining a gym, and riding a LOT, I'm feeling more and more confident about TC and my future.

Instead of running, he just watched it, go pony!

After TC I ran a few errands and then texted L since we had talked about hanging out that night at her barn. I was super hungry so offered to go get us dinner while she battled traffic. I picked up burritos for us and we ate while hanging out with Ramone. I took some pictures of her riding, but I literally have so many fucking pictures to edit, it's bad. So those will come out like way too late because I'm the worst.

After riding Ramone (me in my mud boots and jeans lol but he's a good boy and just went to work), we went to put him away and two little horses had escaped and were having a grand old time galloping around the property. FREEDOM! Oh dear. L threw Ramone in a stall and we both grabbed halters. One horse galloped into the paddock they came from so we locked that one in. The other one we managed to grab when he galloped into a turnout. He was NOT okay with me cornering him but eventually let me catch him.

Quite an adrenaline rush so late in the day!

Off His Pedestal and On a Trail Ride

I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I tend to put Rico up on a pedestal because that's where he belongs. It only got worse when TC was acting up. Rico is perfect and always has been and therefore TC acting up is so much worse than anything Rico has ever done. That's extremely false. He proved that to me a bit on Wednesday when we went on a trail ride.

He ran to the end of his paddock to avoid me, would
not come in for food

On Wednesday I decided to haul Rico out to Harvey Bear. I'm down to the last month and a bit of TC not taking over my life, and who knows when I'll get a job and be ridiculously busy again. I really want to go on some adventures with Rico while I still like horses and still have time.

When he saw me getting the trailer ready, pulling it out and putting shavings in, he walked quickly to the end of the paddock. I brought him a little bit of bute, something we've been doing for trail rides to help calm his coffin joints down (avoids the need to inject them since they only bother him on trail rides). He still refused to come in. I had to go get the halter. After that though, he was super on board with going somewhere.

He bullied me on the way to the trailer, trying to get me to move out of his way so he could rush in. On the way out of the trailer, he started screaming and staring into the hills, seriously thinking about biting me while I tacked him up at the facility. I had to double check his color and teeth to make sure I had the right horse, and hadn't unknowingly switched him and TC out at some point. Nope, this is my twenty year old very well trained dressage horse who was pawing and screeching at me.

Whinnying to no one

Omg we are at the trail ride place

Stop taking pictures of me and tack me up damn it
I think he's looking pretty good for being twenty and sort of neglected
since last summer

We headed out to the first gate and Rico immediately picked up a trot on the way. We got there, went through the gate, got past a few people hiking and then he picked up a canter. Eventually he stopped and tried to turn around. I kicked him forward and he picked up a trot. For a while he was like this- he wanted to go fast, but then he'd get tired and want to go home. Why can't you just walk, Rico?

I had my camera on me (and lost my lens cover, boo, had to order another one) so got some really cool pictures. I also got a bunch on my phone too (these pictures since the ones off my camera go into my massive editing queue). And I did enjoy the scenery as well. It was such a fun trail ride, especially since Rico was super into it.

Any time he was pointed up a hill or was on flat ground, he wanted to trot or canter. On the one hand, I love that he's feeling so good and having such a good time. On the other hand, slow the fuck down I did not ask you to do that you asshole and you are making that hiker you're following so closely nervous.

YASSS TRAILSSS

Second gate

Taking the "this is not a trail" trail

We saw a herd of cows about halfway through, which was fun. As was seeing that the little pond the cows were all enjoying was basically full! It's been years since that pond had any water in it, let alone been anywhere near full. I'm sure the cows enjoy that, and I know a hippo who would have dragged me down the hill to get to it.

Throughout the ride, we saw a few people. No one on horseback, but a few mountain bikers and hikers. Rico is so freakishly solid on the trails. I love being able to assure people on bikes that they can zip by us without a problem, like don't even slow down or give us any space. With TC I can't help but to try to prevent disaster, at least by shortening my reins and putting my heels down. Rico stays on a loose rein and I remain completely distracted by the scenery, my camera, or my phone.

Yay water in the pond!

Everything the light touches is Rico's, also everything the light
doesn't touch

He dragged me down this not-a-trail too

Loves cows

I had initially wanted to ride all the way to the top of the hill to see the lake on the other side, but chose not to because Rico isn't that fit.

I chose wrong! On our way down, Rico got more and more amped, with more and more random canter transitions on any sort of flat ground he was presented with. When we were almost back to the trailer, he zipped out along another trail.

For a while I was pretty convinced that this was because he didn't want to go home. I later found out that it was because he found two horses to follow (we hadn't seen any other horses out there). He got really obsessive about catching up, trying to trot and canter downhill to get to them. Because of his coffins, I avoid doing anything other than walking downhill. And he usually doesn't even want to walk very fast downhill.

Eventually we caught up to almost-creepy levels of following. At this point he was all worked up about them, whinnying and prancing. So I asked him to piaffe and passage along the trail. And he did, better than he does in the arena! All this after a nice long trail ride.

When we passed them (they stopped), he immediately tried to slow wayyy down to hang out with them. Until he saw the horses tied next to the trailer and then wanted to get to them as fast as possible. Seriously Rico!

He put his head down to snort at the shade

Cow!

Wouldn't get back in the trailer

It was super fun to be out and about with Rico again. I think we're going to go on some more adventures over the next month so that I can really try to enjoy the good horse before the bad one comes back. Although the good one sort of lost his place way way up on that pedestal.

Next up I'm hoping for another beach trip with him!

A Closer Look: Grand Prix

There are actually two tests at Grand Prix, but both contain the same movements. Don't let that make you think they're the same, remember how Intermediare II has the same movements too? Not the same. The pattern at this point is what makes this level so hard.

Rico and I earning my Gold

Grand Prix

This test is brutal. It does not set you up well for anything, it does not give you downtime, it does not care about your feelings, it will not bring you soup when you feel sick, it certainly won't do your taxes for you.

You enter in canter as always, halting and making attempts at breathing (oh, that's not written in the test directions, woops). Track left and an extended trot across the diagonal. You don't even get medium trots anymore.

First extended trot, you can almost see the panic in my eyes

He's such a good pony

One short side to recover and then you're in the steepest trot half pass by far you've had to do- K to B half pass right, B to H half pass left. After that you halt at C, rein back, trot on, do another extended trot, and passage out of extended trot at V. At K turn left in passage, piaffe at D 12-15 steps, then passage out until P and immediately transition to extended walk. Whew, a break.

Until you pick up the passage out of collected walk at M, turn right at R, piaffe at I 12-15 steps, back to passage, turn left at S, and pick up the collected canter from passage at E. Are you ready for the most downtime you get in this test? Because I sure was. You get to canter all the way around the arena to F without doing anything! But then FXH 9 two tempis, MXK extended canter, A down centerline for your zig-zag, MXK 15 one tempis, A down centerline for a full pirouette to the left at L, X flying change, full pirouette to the right at I, C track right, and M transition to trot. Thank god you're done. Wait.

From R to K you do another extended trot, which is nice of them, before you turn up centerline. At D you passage, X piaffe 12-15 steps, then passage to G before you're done.

Final piaffe on centerline

Let's look at those specific canter movements a bit deeper, since I rushed through them because that's what it feels like.

The twos are easy in that they're only twos and you've been doing those since Intermediare I. But nine of them is a lot to fit in on the diagonal (eighteen strides), so you have to start them right away. It should be okay because you have a lot of time beforehand.

Then the extended canter afterward is the last only nice thing the test does to you. The half passes, ones, and pirouettes are very back-the-horse-off movements so you need to get your forward in the half short side of downtime you now have.

The half pass zig zag is a 3-6-6-6-3 pattern, although the last 3 doesn't have to be 3 and the first 3 could be 4 if your first step isn't too sideways. The 6s are like riding a half pass within tempi changes. It's very easy to get way off centerline and then fuck yourself over at C (ask me how I know) if one half pass is steeper than the other, so you need to also keep that in mind.

At least his tail is pretty

Pirouette left

Then your one tempis are what they are. Hopefully you have fifteen, or at least can do one set of eight, take one two, then another set of seven. I had like... five at the most. That was not fun. In an ideal world, you'd center them over centerline, meaning you need to know when to start taking into account any mistakes you might make.

Then the pirouette pattern just screams I'M DRUNK PULL ME OFF MY HORSE at you when you have to do the damn pirouettes on centerline. It's very hard to ride that first step of pirouette perfectly straight, you can easily ooze and get yourself off that line, having to ooze back onto centerline, demonstrate your (probably) crooked lead change straight at the judge, and do another drunken whirl around for your second pirouette, likely oozing off centerline again and having to drift back before turning at C. I have watched a lot of GPs and have only seen that pattern done well by a handful of people, most of which have represented their country in the Olympics.

The last piaffe passage tour is rough too. The last three canter movements backed your horse off so much and exhausted them that the last thing the horse wants to do is passage and piaffe again. I was once told by a trainer that the last pi/pa tour is all heart.

This horse had a lot of heart

Coefficients are: both trot half passes, all piaffes, extended walk, collected walk, half pass zig zag, one tempis, and both pirouettes.

And all that is absolutely no match for the GPS.


Grand Prix Special

This test is a novelty unless you want to compete internationally. After looking at this test, I have decided that I do not.

It's so much worse than the GP, let me tell you.

You start out normally, centerline, track right, extended trot, and a nice long while in collected trot until you go P to S half pass left across the arena. This is just as steep as the GP, just no zig zag. At C you transition to passage from the trot, then at R you ride extended trot back to passage at F over to K. From K to V you ride collected trot, and then you basically do the same pattern again- half pass then passage at C, extended trot, passage again, this time to an extended walk transition at F. At S you collect the walk, and pick up the piaffe at G for 12-15 steps before transitioning to passage again. Passage from G to M to R to I and piaffe 12-15 steps at I before passaging a similar pattern to X when  you go into collected canter.

Passage

In canter you initially have a bit of downtime before riding a right half pass from K to B, flying change at B, and then a right half pass left from B to H before another flying change. After that is 9 two tempis from MXK, 15 one tempis from FXH, and an extended canter from MXK. At A you ride down centerline like you did in GP, ride a pirouette at D like you did in the GP, and then you ride 9 one tempis at the judge between your pirouettes. What the fuck. I've never noped harder away from a test, I feel like I threw out my back doing that. After that another pirouette at G.

The rest of the test is the same as GP- transition to trot at M, R to F extended trot, down centerline with the same pi/pa tour to your halt at G.

Piaffe

Why is this test harder? Let me tell you.

The ones on centerline were enough to clench it for me, I mean really? Both of those movements are hard enough to ride without getting arrested for riding your horse drunk. Putting them together is just asking for trouble.

The trot half pass might be a little easier of a pattern, and people might assume the canter half passes are easier too since they only involve one changeover, but for someone like me with a horse who would sort of auto-zig-zag, the idea of that steep of a half pass lest you not make it to your next movement is scary. That's a STEEP half pass even just in trot!

There's also a lot more passage, as well as two piaffes in one pi/pa tour, which the GP avoids (I thought that was nice). The walk to piaffe transition isn't an issue, since most people teach it out of walk anyway, but having to go straight from walk to piaffe can be tricky, as I at least usually start in half steps for a few steps.

Coefficients are the same as the GP except since you do two instances of one tempis, they've removed the coefficient there. So actually you could argue that the second set of ones is actually kind because you get a second chance to do them well. But who are we kidding, no one does one tempis well on centerline steps after riding a full pirouette.

All I wanted to do after a full pirouette was take a full nap

Overall

Phew! You just won dressage. How does it feel?

I was talking to a friend the day after she rode her first GP about that feeling. You expect this rush, this amazing feeling after finishing your first GP. I expected to be in tears. I thought I'd be so freakishly happy.

At my first GP I wasn't any of those things. I just felt disappointed because Leo and I hadn't performed quite as well as I knew we should have. At my second GP, the first one on Rico, I felt none of those things either. I had just trained a horse to GP, something I was convinced was a pipe dream. No matter, I'd feel those things when I got my gold. At my third GP, the one I got my Gold at, the one I scored 65% at... fucking nothing.

What I expected to be going through my head: Omg GP, I am so
happy, yay dressage! What actually went through my head:
OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT

I did cry afterward, but I cried because I knew Rico was retiring, and not because I had my Gold. They were not happy tears.

It felt like any other dressage test. I finished and was annoyed that Rico had halted in the piaffe and wondered whether the right pirouette was good or not.

But now, the further I get away from it, the more I feel like I'd give anything to be back there!

Or at least just let me wear this coat again!

Impatience

Saturday I stuck around at the show a bit longer and ended up talking to the Custom saddlery people while my student's saddle was getting reflocked.

I rode this guy afterward

She said that she had a bunch of demo saddles for sale and I said I better not sit in any or I'll have to buy one because my butt has a strong preference for things I can't afford. We laughed and I told her the story about mine. I also told her that I actually was going to need a new saddle for my dumb young horse who is both thankfully and unfortunately thinner built than my fat retired horse who I bought it for. I said I really wasn't looking forward to making attempts at finding that sort of money, but that my saddle needed to be padded up to ride TC and that was part of why I had issues with him- I really hate the feeling of floating above a horse and it makes me extra weary when shit hits the fan.

She asked why I would buy a new saddle when I could just have mine adjusted. I was like um because he needs a whole new tree size. And of course, Custom does that.

As if I couldn't fall for the brand even more! I had no idea my old crappy saddle could be adjusted (I thought it was just the new ones). So I asked whether she came down to where TC is going to be boarded and she said "all the time" so yay! I just saved myself at least $2500. Once as I get a firm date on when he's coming back, I want to try to get her down within the first week. I think it's part of me feeling safe on him, having a saddle that doesn't need to be hoisted up 2 inches off his back. I know my vet will say to wait, but as long as two fittings (one right as we start and one probably two or three months later as he becomes more dressage fit) cost less than $2500, we're good.

I'm only bummed that then it probably won't fit Rico and Riot, but TC is more important and I can just ride Rico bareback until another sub $1k 17" MW Custom comes along. Right.

Stealing all of TC's tack, but hey it was Rico's first!

Knowing that I would only have another month and a bit to savor riding Rico in a dressage saddle, I zipped down to the ranch after the show to get him and Riot out (and then hit the gym, it was a very active day!).

Rico was... a bit of an asshole to tell the truth. I got him out and he spent the whole time in the cross ties jealous that Riot was out on pasture and he was not. He whinnied incessantly, shook his head, pawed, bowed down like a dog, and tried to bite me. I tacked him up and was actually kind of excited, I love it when he's like this because I can usually direct this sort of attitude into work.

I had to wait for the rain to clear, and then we headed out. I stopped at my car to grab the gate opener and my back brace, leaving Rico standing in the driveway. He's usually fine about standing there and ends up dozing. This time he left. He started power walking away from me down the driveway towards the gate. I had to run after him and caught up with him when he was almost out the gate and ready to pick up a trot. I walked him into the arena and he bullied me up the small hill, trotting and throwing his shoulder into me. Uh, thanks.

Very frustrated

Rude, he probably hates that I put him in those amazing polos

So obnoxious

I hopped on and he went right to work. It was the best he's felt in months! He's never going to be 100% sound, and tbh, he really never was completely even anyway.

I mostly just worked on the tempis, pi/pa, and the quality of the gaits. Luckily I coerced my mom to come take a video half way through the workout, which reminded me that I'm riding horses way too slow recently. I dunno what it is, but I'm riding them really really fucking slow. I sort of slowed my client's horse down way too much, I noticed that I was riding BFF really slow the last time I was on him, and Rico is only too happy to embrace a lifestyle with minimal suspension and energy. Collection does not feel slow. How many times do I have to learn that lesson?

After seeing that in the video, I went to work pushing him forward and really riding his hind legs actively under him. This is going to help so much with the baby horse, since he's SUPER forward and the one thing BRH trainer always says is to go with it and push him past it. Make him think that I'm cool with galloping around forever. If he's bad, go forward. Keeps him from bucking, since as much as I don't want to believe it, bolting is safer than bucking.

Much more forward after canter

Erm not enough suspension, but a good boy

The other thing that bugged me in the video is that I rode him a bit too up. He's not strong enough to do that anymore, so he just goes on his underneck. This is partially because I'm in the snaffle and also partially just that his uphill balance has returned to its natural state, versus the uphill balance that I carefully constructed with years of dressage training.

What I was really glad to see in the video is that my position looked stronger than it has in months. I still look down, which is going to just be like that forever I think, but I was sitting strong and upright in the tack, and my leg hung really well. Yay! I also was glad to be able to ride him in TC's fat snaffle (despite riding him too up). It's not easy, but it's been really good for me to face that with Rico. I primarily rode him in the double, hackamore, pelham, and a thinner snaffle (like not that often though), so it's really nice to feel like I've come farther as a rider after riding TC. TC taught me how to ride without any sort of rigidity and I'm glad to see that change in Rico as well.

Trotting along

 

Flying change to counter canter

He can still sit even when I'm riding him too up

Passage, my favorite

Saturday I also rode Riot, who was awesome. I ran into a neighbor who also has a TWH and she said I was doing a good job! I really want to find a TWH trainer who will come out and give me a lesson, neighbor said that she'd be interested in a lesson too, which is great! I've mostly just been teaching Riot dressage, he now has a crappy leg yield and a decent shoulder-in in both his flat walk and running walk (are they supposed to do lateral work in running walk? I don't know, but he does!). So hopefully that lesson comes soon since I'm going to run out of things to do at the walk eventually. Next up: haunches in and half pass, and maybe walk pirouettes.

Five Minutes of Trot

Friday I started the day at 5:15 waking up for the horse show. My student rode second in her ring and I had to battle a bit of traffic to make sure I was there exactly on time. We ended up being early, which was good. Both days went well for her, the first day had some unusual mistakes, including one silly one that put her just outside the score range we wanted to be in, boo, but that's why we signed up for two days.

The second day was everything we could have hoped for. She got her score and the horse had five clean changes in the test, and one clean mistake change on centerline, woops, but yay clean changes. She's planning on moving up to 4-2 at the next show, we're officially (and have been for a couple months) in uncharted territory for me as a trainer. Yay almost having an FEI student.

Friday I stuck around a bit to watch two of trainer friend's students before booking it across the bay and the central valley (over 100 miles to get there, I'm dedicated) to see TC!

I'm not sure he'll ever not be kind of an awkward
horse... Can't wait to tackle that mane

I managed to get out to see TC earlier than normal (thanks, funemployment), which meant minimal traffic and the ability to get to the gym for my TRX class that night without having to rush through time with TC.

TC is always quieter the earlier in the day because that's when he gets worked and when he isn't starving for food/attention. Definitely makes me want to arrange to ride in the earlier mornings before work sometimes, as does the traffic I hit before the clock struck 6am.

He's actually always been better to ride in the morning, something I should have taken note of and changed my schedule for. I prefer to ride in the morning too, but not as early as I'll need to. In a perfect world, I'll find an office to work in that's ten minutes away from the barn and I'll take an early lunch break to ride him around 10:30-11ish. Too bad the barn is out in the country and I doubt that any farms have enough data to warrant hiring a data analyst.

He LOVES having his face brushed

He even opens his mouth so you can brush his lips...

Weird

I talked to the owners a little bit, but it's more of the same stuff. He's doing well. He's sort of weird and spooky sometimes. He loves swimming. No news is good news though and I'm glad that he's stopped destroying his stall at least for a little bit, and he only spooked a few times when I was there.

No desensitization this week since the fan was off and I had nothing with me. But we did a little bit of liberty work in the stall. He's really focused on me when I'm in there as he always has been. He wants me to move him around so that he has something to do, which prevents the spooking for the most part. I feel like I go in there and he's just like youuuu you tell me to do things, please tell me what to do, should I move my feet, should I smile, should I stand slightly too close to you? and just stands there staring at me like I should be telling him things. I'm used to a horse like Rico who wants you to say one thing (or nothing) to him and leave him alone.

He's not easy to take selfies with, he's too big 
and he's too tall and sometimes he smacks
my head with his face

At least he put his head down

He's also now trotting five minutes! And his leg looks good. I feel like only miracle vet and I are going to be able to see the difference between the legs (it looks obvious to me, but the owners have rushed over a couple times now to see... nothing, so I am Ricky Bobby). There might always be a bit of thickening and I might be ultrasounding it every year or two just to make sure, but I'm feeling fairly confident that we're in the clear. Well, sort of. Not really. Oh well.

I spent a good long while with him, which was really fun. I felt bad because a lady was there and kept coming over telling me how big TC was and telling me that he was a baby (okay). I don't mind catering to non-horse people like that usually, but I just felt like this was the one hour I get with my horse every week (sometimes skipping weeks) and he's actually being a pleasant creature that I want to spend time with, so please go away and come back when I have him at home and am sort of sick of him.

He ate all his carrots and smiling is becoming a trick that he does with minimal provoking. He even sees my phone and knows to smile and be weird for the camera!

Hey you're holding that little thing, I can smile

I kept telling him to stay back so that I could get
a picture of him, he was sad about that

After he was all brushed and happily full of carrots, I headed out, getting home just in time to change and zip out the door to the TRX class. It isn't quite crossfit, but it's good enough and my wrist doesn't hate me for doing it. Although we did partner work and I'm used to rushing to get done as fast as possible a la for-time workouts. Turns out that if you ended before the rest of the class, you had to do burpees. Lesson. Learned.