Even More Distractions

Tuesday I got a late start to the day because we were prepping to evacuate from the fire very nearby. So far it seems to be heading away from us and this morning we heard it's supposed to be contained by Monday, so we should be okay to stay put.

This ended up being an unfortunate use of the morning because of the heat. I got to the barn and it was already over 100. There were a bunch of horses there who had been evacuated the night before. TC had a new neighbor, a big percheron (I think, I'm no draft horse expert) who was SUPER sweet but also made TC look like a tiny pony.

SO sweet, he loves TC and all TC wants to do is chew on him

Despite all the activity with the new horses, TC stood quietly to be tacked up. Gotta love hundred degree weather with a bit of a winter coat.

He was so wonderful wandering around the ranch. To the point where I got to do something I haven't been able to do in over a year... completely ignore him in favor of messing with my phone.

I can't tell you how much I have wanted to do this on him. I love wandering around the ranch. There's no trails, but there are a ton of little pathways to wander, where I could be on him for an hour and only cross my paths a few times.

It means so much to feel relaxed on him, even if the only reason is that he is melting into the ground.

We started in the round pen and then got into the covered. I wasn't riding all that great because it was sweltering and there were two lessons being taught to relative beginners (one was on a longe line, the other was a capable looking ammy but she was on a very green horse) so a lot of my ride was trying to energize TC enough to get him to be maneuverable to dodge these people. We probably did twenty minutes of work, then quit.

Far away mirror selfie

Wednesday morning I headed out early to ride a client's horse in the cool air, but it still wasn't too hot when I went to get TC out. We did another walk around the ranch, with me mostly on my phone reading your blogs. I can't quite type out comments on him yet, just in fear of accidentally pressing something weird, but I do get to read everything!

I met up with trainer, who said he'd join me on our haffie friend soon for our lesson. We started in the round pen, and I just wanted to trot a little bit in there. TC has been bucking and kicking a lot in there, so all I wanted was to trot a bit, do some walk halt transitions, and let him watch the people doing construction on the telephone pole nearby. I also love riding him in two arenas each day, I think it's going to eliminate any issue in the walk between warm up and show ring.

But trainer is a trainer so he wanted to work through the bucking rather than avoid it. He has a point. To me, the bucking ONLY happens in the round pen when TC thinks that I want him to canter, so I don't care to fix it because in the future, I'm not going to be riding him in there anyway. But trainer pointed out that 1) he can't fucking do that, 2) it will eventually make its way out into the other rings when I push him to go on smaller figures (since it happens when he is asked to compress- cantering in the round pen is hard), 3) it shows a general lack of respect on his part, 4) what if I have to ride him in there for an entire ride this winter because the covered is too busy (the round pen stays super rideable in rain apparently), and 5) HE CAN'T FUCKING DO THAT.

So we worked through it and he eventually quieted down. I need to just do that every day for a few weeks and it will go away.

Wandering

In the dressage court, trainer wanted me to trot around the outside following the pony. Bad idea. I felt like such a nightmare client being like um I don't like TC trotting next to other horses because he gets competitive and tries to play. And trainer being like uh that's a PROBLEM, Megan. And then me being like huh, yeah maybe we should fix that. Um yah good point. But not today please. I assigned that to trainer for his trainer ride next week. The ammy lifestyle is working for me already.

We had a great ride in the dressage court. TC was super solid on our serpentine, stepping really nicely off the outside aids and generally being quite rideable.

The canter was the only spot where I didn't feel like I could march him down the centerline at First level. I got frustrated by the transition, so laid into him a bit about staying with me. The canter transitions are rough (see video) because he abandons all straightness and throughness. So then you're immediately herding him back into place. I've worked on transitions in the past, but never really drilled them. It's time. No more loss of throughness.

Monday afternoon- so much smoke and it was raining ash too

To the right we actually got a few transitions that were acceptable. The quality of the canter immediately felt better too! I forced myself to sit down and ride it as well- after seeing the video, I saw that I was still against rhythm and needed to have a talk with myself about just accepting the way his canter is, digging into it, and fixing it, rather than just resisting it. Outside of my comfort zone, but that's where I need to be (boooooo).

To the left I really laid into him about the straightness as he went careening sideways. I took my outside leg off and kicked him. And TC jumped straight up into the air. Trainer was shocked- TC usually just takes shit. He actually probably takes too much shit. Everything I tell him, he just... does. If he's resisting, it's usually in the form of ignoring me rather than coming up against me. If I make my aid louder, like a kick, he'll just buckle down like oh sorry I didn't hear you. But this was weird.

But then I saw the butterfly. Oh. Okay. I got on his case again, got the response I wanted, and things were better.

Monday evening as I was leaving- craziness

We came back to trot briefly and then TC nearly halted, looking over at the judge's booth on one side of the arena. A kitten was on the arena fence near the judge's booth. I told TC that he had to be okay with kittens on the fence, because he was going to be a bombproof amateur's horse one day, and I can't sell him into a life of luxury with some wealthy amateur who would give him TWO loads of shavings each week if he couldn't handle kittens or butterflies.

TC was good about the kitten as long as we were going toward it. He would come around the circle to face the kitten and look quietly at it like oh, a kitten. The second we were sort of facing away from the kitten, apparently the kitten would turn into a cougar and try to leap off the fence at TC, so he would respond accordingly. I'd get him back, we'd face the kitten again, and he was fine. Then cougar. Then kitten.

This happened until I just decided to stop. He wasn't bolting, he stayed with me to the best of his ability, I wasn't nervous at all (and only slightly distracted by how adorable the kitten was). But I knew that if we kept going and going, he'd just get all worked up, and I had a schedule to be on so I just let him be done.

Hopefully the rest of the week doesn't include so many fucking butterflies and kittens.

A Year Apart

September 2015 I had one last clinic before turning TC's life (and my own) upside down and moving him to a new barn. After that, TC got worse and worse, then got hurt, got even worse, then came back and has been steadily getting better.

Every few days, weeks, months, of his rehab, I would watch the video from that clinic. It reminded me of what a cool horse he had been, why I was doing this. Because TC was not fun to ride in the fall after that clinic. 

Since he's come back, I haven't watched the video. At first I didn't want it to make me sad, because he's not the same horse that I could dump into the trailer and take to a new place without much drama. And then I sort of forgot about it. I decided to look at the video again because I wanted to do a comparison post, since I had some faith after watching the video from the other day, that we might be a bit better. 

Walk

September 2015

September 2016

Trot

September 2015

September 2016

September 2016- bonus lengthened trot!

Canter Left

September 2015

September 2016

Canter Right

September 2015

September 2016

Here's what I see:

I think my position is better now than it was in 2015. I don't know how that happened. I haven't taken any dresssage lessons literally since that lesson a year ago (wtf). But I think the months riding trainer friend's horses, as well as me being generally fitter right now, has helped a lot. 

His neck looks bigger now, but that's also just because he's being ridden more up. But his topline in general is better developed, which at first I found odd, but then I remembered that he was also growing at the same time as getting stronger. He's absolutely PACKING on the muscle right now. I actually should probably call the saddle fitter, ugh. 

I think he looks more relaxed in 2015 (living in pasture) than now (living in a stall and being a bit of a dingbat the day of the video), but that he looks stronger and more impressive now than in 2015. Now to combine the two... 

I'm naturally just riding him a lot more up and out (when I can) these days. In 2015 he looks like a solid Training level horse- I was still working hard to get the DOWN part of roundness. Now he looks like a solid First level horse with some issues leaving his hind legs behind him (which is what he does while tense so to be expected). 

The canter is fast, flat, and slightly out of control in 2015. I'm sitting tense in the tack and am against the rhythm. In 2016 I still have the tendency to want to get against rhythm when he gets a bit unsteerable, but he's slowed down considerably, is getting a bit more cadence to his canter, and... well, he's still slightly out of control but that's okay. 

The only thing I don't like is how the walk has developed, he nods a lot more now. He's always nodded a little bit, but now it's worse. It's only nodding now because I had to do a lot of work with that damn outside side rein when he was bolting a lot. So we've got that issue left over in the walk and canter.

His poll is almost always the highest point now, and I think he's steadier, though not as steady as I want him to be. 

He is keeping his shoulders up much better now, and showing the beginnings of taking weight behind.

In general I think we both look a hell of a lot more competent! I'm so happy with how he's going these days, even if I miss the more relaxed horse from last year.

Working Around Activity (and Butterflies)

Sunday after Vegas I decided that my lack of sleep, two days of make up (since the pool and the shower didn't seem to wash off all that was on my face, so Saturday I just threw more on top, like you do), and general exhaustion from humans, alcohol, partying, humans, dancing, and even more humans couldn't stop me from going to the barn.

I stopped in at one of the little festival things that my town throws, since I can't resist a good snow cone. I paid too much for a puzzle ring (that I haven't been brave enough to undo and then try to put back together) and far too little for a really cute little bamboo that the man said didn't need light so I could put it in my bathroom, before heading off to the barn.

I decided to just longe the pony, and I was so glad. It was over 100 degrees at 5:30pm and poor TC had to be absolutely dragged through the barn. I really had to chase him on the line too, until we changed directions and went to the right, where he scooted and bucked at the same time, nearly fell on his face, then quietly trotted around until we were done.

I'm the meanest

It wasn't much, but it made me feel better when I came back on Monday for my lesson. Trainer had a great ride on TC on Friday. His main goal is the same as mine (straightness), though we describe it in different terms, which is really good for me. I tend to hole myself up in the dressage world and it's really interesting (and sometimes confusing, I ask lots of questions) to see where he comes from. The horses he produces become really good dressage horses (a lot of the top trainers in the area send horses to him for breaking), and he has SOME dressage background, riding with Tracey for so long, but most of his breaking experience comes from race horses.

More on that later. I warmed TC up on my own in the round pen after a bit of longeing. I had him doing quick transitions on the longe line, which were very hard for his brain. Why do we have to walk if you're just going to make me trot right away? Why is it that sometimes when we break from canter and go back to canter, we go on the opposite lead, and sometimes we go on the same lead? Is cross cantering an acceptable alternative to both?

I hopped on and only trotted around a bit. He felt good, though wanted to curl a bit. He always feels a tiny bit curly after other people ride him, I try really hard not to move his face around when he gets a little off the bit because it annoys me when I have to pull a horse off balance to get them on the bit, but other people don't seem to mind so much. It's fine. I pushed him right into the bit and held my hands still, and he settled into softeness right away. I love that.

FINALLY a conformation shot. He still looks awkward but now
you can see all the awkward. I love his short back and steep croup.

We went to join my trainer, who was hopping on our haffie friend, in the dressage court. We wandered around first talking a bit about fear. I was telling him that my main fear right now is coming off. In the round pen I have zero fear because even if he gets away from me, he is fairly safe. If I come off in the dressage court, he could be gone and he could really hurt himself. I think I might start doing some emergency dismounts while trotting and eventually cantering and teach him to come to me for a cookie afterward. I dunno, thoughts.

Anyway, my main annoyance with fear is that I let the horse know that I'm apprehensive, which can cause training problems. BO once told me (after I expressed envy that she seemed to never be afraid) that she was afraid sometimes, but that she just didn't let the horse know. I have two issues with doing this when I get nervous- I stop riding (getting better) and I get pumped full of adrenaline. Both of those indicate that something is different and bad to the horse. Trainer added a lot of "take a deep breath"s into our lesson, which really helped, but he told me that I'm not nearly as afraid as I think I am.

The reason for the conversation about fear was because there was STUFF going on all over the arena. There was a man drilling into one of the judge's booths on the side of the arena, another guy driving a cart around, several people riding around the arena, kittens playing under the tree, a branch was down on the other side of the arena, several trucks coming in, a person loading a horse trailer parked right next to us, and a man was doing some sort of construction by the mini donkeys. Basically, we were surrounded by activity.

I did a good job of letting TC look while not telling him that I was apprehensive. If he looks at something, and I immediately tense up, then every time he thinks that something is different, I will tell him that it's bad. Trainer talked about making sure that I give TC confidence by telling him that everything that happens is no big deal. That's hard. But on Monday I was quite successful and got quite a lot of good work from him despite the activity. Which then gives me confidence that he doesn't care about all that stuff, which then prevents me from feeling apprehensive in the future.

Smile, TC!

Surprise, after the training ride, trainer's main complaint about TC was his straightness. Though it was described as TC locking up his shoulders. As I've said in the past, TC has been a bit of a struggle to get accessible. He didn't start out as a super rideable horse, and only because he's got a good brain, has he become more and more rideable. This is our last struggle- his damn shoulders. The second he's off balance, he's outta there. If you watch the video from yesterday at the canter, you can see me having to make fairly large moves to get him to not careen over the rail. Ugh.

So we worked on basically walk pirouettes with no bend (cue cringing from me as I told trainer that my only request during this exercise was that we not turn them into roll backs). This was really helpful and TC clearly had already been over this with trainer on Friday because he was quite good about it. Trainer's advice was to always warm up with these, then ride him a little counter bent, then change to true bend with a square turn whenever necessary.

In trot we worked on me not holding at ALL with the inside rein, which then made me supremely ineffective at putting TC on the bit. I've... um... been the trainer in this situation, but I still got super frustrated until I realized two things: put your inside leg on, you idiot and the opposite of using an aid too much is not dropping it. So then I touched the inside rein lightly and put my inside leg on, and TC was right on the aids. And he felt great!

We mostly worked in trot, and then just did a bit of canter at the end. The canter was surprisingly good, though not nearly as good as it needs to be, which I know is an ongoing theme. The right felt okay, but man, the left is going to be quite good. He's always going to have a more spectacular trot than canter, so my goal is really to just not have people go "oh, shame about the canter" when they watch him. The left lead made me feel better about that.

As we were cantering to the left and I was enjoying myself... I saw it.

A butterfly. Just flying along right where my circle was.

Fuck.

Horse is such a nut about butterflies. I put my heels down and prepared for the inevitable. The first thing I saw was his ears point directly at it. Then he arched his neck and jumped up to strike at it.

But then he was fine. He showed that butterfly. And he got right back to work.

I really need to stop laughing at this behavior, I mean how sellable is this horse as an amateur's bombproof dream horse if he attacks butterflies and bird shadows? But still, it's HILARIOUS.

TC loves hugs

It was a really great ride! It's really hard for me to hand him over to my trainer, but I'm going to have to get used to that. Starting in October, life circumstances are requiring that my trainer take a day and we'll back off to only two lessons a week. I do like how much better he felt, and as a trainer, I do find that I'm a much better teacher if I ride my students' horses frequently. Still doesn't stop me from texting him non stop until I get enough information about how the ride went.

In Perspective

I'm not up for a full post, so here's a short one with some media!

Thursday morning I got one last ride in before heading off to teach, then go out to dinner, then go to my brother's place to spend the night before getting up at 4:45 (4 hours of sleep ftw) to get to the airport and head to Vegas! It was an amazing weekend, but this blog isn't about that, so let's talk ponies.

For that Thursday ride, I managed to grab the video camera and a minion so ACTUALLY have some video of my horse and I.

From the video

He was a piece of shit in the round pen, bucking a lot and just being resistant to everything. No matter though, since he's been like that in the round pen but been better in the dressage court. Gratefully, the court was open, so we headed in.

Unfortunately, TC was pretty bad in there. He was super tense and kept shrieking his head off. Several times he thought about getting away from me, but didn't, which was nice, but it was still annoying. By the end of the ride I just... ugh. Why that day? Why the one day when I have someone to video me? I talked myself down and told myself that it really is the state of where we are- some days he's SUPER good and other days I feel like I'm just barely keeping the lid on. The fact that the lid stayed on without help from my trainer was huge. I only had to resort to desperate measures (a quite tight small circle) once, and I never once felt scared, only annoyed. So at least our bad days are manageable.

After putting the horse away and taking a deep breath, I watched the videos. I've compiled most of the footage here and I promise it's not cherry picked, though I didn't show the small circle.

Also don't you love the random clip where it turns black and white? Thank 

my cat for that, she ran across the screen and I literally had like 20 minutes 

to edit it and get it up so I didn't watch the final version before it was on 

Facebook and I was waiting for a student at my first lesson. Woops. 

Hey I mean if that's what we look like on our bad days, I'll take it. He feels completely unrideable, and I can see all of our issues (hey I mean we haven't had a dressage lesson in over a year), but it's for sure not as bad as I thought it would be!

Much Improvement

By the time this post goes out, I'll be on a plane headed to VEGAS! Growing up, I always wanted a sister, but was given an annoying brother instead. Now he's somehow convinced my amazing sister-in-law to marry him (not really sure how he did that, she's no sucker) and we're off to celebrate in Vegas for her bachelorette party! Because I was out last night, I wrote this post earlier in the week and you'll hear how TC was today and over the weekend later.

Somewhat recently, Nicole did a really cool post where she went over things that Murray had improved on. Sometimes we forget how far our horses really have come and it's nice to lay it all out. TC wasn't as um... quirky as Murray, but he has improved in a few ways!

Not that quirky, just a baby horse

Then: TC used to not let me pick his feet, he'd paw his fronts out of my hands and kick at with his hinds.
Now: TC lets me pick his feet, he only tries to kick very occasionally (and no longer AT me).

Then: TC used to paw his food.
Now: TC stands quietly (mostly, I heard him pawing the other day, but he doesn't paw so vigorously to dump his food) while he eats.

Then: When leading, TC would spook on top of me.
Now: TC understands that when jumped on by a large Friesian cross, I instantly become scarier than anything he could be spooking at.

Then: TC would get really impatient while being groomed and would paw incessantly until I led him out of the cross ties
Now: TC loves being groomed and will let me take my time grooming him

Then: TC used to walk away while bridling.
Now: TC stands still but is still kind of a dork about it sometimes.

Then: TC would kick when I put back boots on him, I only managed to put polos on once.
Now: TC lets me put polos on without kicking, but he will kick afterward.

Now we just do this

Then: TC always chewed his wraps off.
Now: TC only occasionally chews his wraps off (he isn't wearing wraps anymore, but he got better by the end of wearing them).

Then: TC would throw his head way up when I tried to put the fly mask on, leaving me to have to throw it up at him like a weird ring toss.
Now: TC lets me put the fly mask on.

Then: TC wouldn't stand still in the cross ties.
Now: TC stands perfectly still in the cross ties, though still chews on the ties, which really annoys me.

Then: TC used to dance around while getting a bath.
Now: TC stands still now, and he even lets me spray his face without too much complaint.

Then: TC would reach around and grab the billets while I was tacking him up
Now: I tie him shorter now

Sometimes it's nice to remember that he actually IS growing up!

East Meets West

On Friday afternoon, I picked up Kate and we arranged a kidnapping. I drove us up to the airport, grabbed our victim (who came willingly, muahaha), nearly killed us leaving the airport, stuffed everyone full of tacos and froyo, dumped our victim at a hotel nearby to sleep and run (???), then kidnapped her again and made her ride five horses.

That person was Austen! And now the running makes sense.

I was super excited when Austen said she was coming into town for work. She came in a day early so that we could have a day full of ponies before she started working. 

Including this pony!!

And this pony! (though that's me on her)

Friday was one of those days where you're made painfully aware that cars are dangerous machines that we let idiots (me) operate on a daily basis. I really struggle with driving in the city these days, given that most of my driving is country driving to the barn(s) and back. So poor Austen was probably wondering if I had a death wish or wanted to kill her. I did not.

After struggling to find a taco place (since the one that got great reviews was in a terrifying part of town, woops), Kate, Austen, and I ate tacos and talked ponies. It was really fun to hear about how Pig was doing, since Austen doesn't overshare on her blog on a daily basis like I do. We also chatted about Emma's new horse (so that conversation plus the blogger fitbit group meant that I got the inside scoop before she posted about him!) and life in DC!

We found a froyo place that was rampant with children, then sat outside and enjoyed dessert while talking about the blogosphere. And after that, we found our way to Austen's hotel to drop her off, since it was basically midnight her time.

Lucy is the best dog

Ginger is adorable

The next morning, I picked her up at 8am, and she had already run and had some coffee! I forgot that 8am was really 11am, so I was sort of barely awake. After getting even more coffee and forcing Austen to get socks at Target, we headed down to TC.

There was a tack sale going on in the field that TC was SUPER good about. We wandered out there in hand and he just watched curiously. No spooking, though I didn't tempt fate and walk him near anyone, lest he run into someone's car or take down a tent.

We headed to the round pen, where I warmed TC up and then Austen hopped on! TC was a sport for yet another new rider, I think I'm well on my way to having a super amateur's horse that I can then sell for millions of dollars, right?. He just buckled down and did his best. I love that brain! I love it most when he is using it though, yesterday's ride was completely devoid of brains.

He handled all the people walking by, a tractor dragging the nearby arena, and the whole tack sale thing like a pro. We didn't have him out for that long, because were due up at Kate's barn fairly soon.

I don't look sooooo big on her

After grabbing us lunch, Austen and I joined Kate at her barn for a picnic. Kate has the best group of students who readied a couple of horses for us while we were eating.

Austen hopped on Tango and I rode my favorite little pony, Ginger, to start. Then I hopped off the pony and put Kate on to play with passage! Unfortunately with very little notice, we hadn't prepped the pony quite as well as she should have been prepped, so we found a few holes to fill in before the next passage session. Like I've said before, the higher level the horse, the faster passage comes on, and poor Ginger is a fairly solid First level horse, so not green, but certainly had no idea wtf was expected of her. Sorry pony! We're still bffs, right? I'll be keeping my heels way down if I jump her again, lest she remember the passage training and chuck me into a fence.

We played musical horses and I hopped on Tango, while Austen rode the pony! Kate told me about her recent lesson with Tracey on him, which I tried my best to think about while riding him- I feel like I'm learning a lot from Kate's lessons with Tracey even just in our conversations. Tango is super fun! His canter is dreamy and I played with his trot a bit too. Definitely one of my favorite thoroughbreds I think!

Tango!

We had horses awaiting us when we got back up to the barn. This time Elrond, who I'm fairly certain will fit in my car, just saying, and Junior, a dutch horse who is basically Rico's double. I played with Elrond first, while Austen piloted Junior around. Elrond felt SUPER in comparison to the last time I rode him (which is saying something because he felt amazing then). He was incredibly steady on the contact, light, and just a dream to ride. I told Kate that I was going to employ her to find me my next horse. I want a horse exactly like him.

Junior was SO FUN! Fairly nice to sit, although after four horses, my abs were complaining loudly so when Kate told me that she could sit his trot all day, I was like omg no. His canter was comfy too. He's basically just a large couch, which made him remind me of Rico. Looking down at that little brown neck, black mane, and brown ears made me a bit nostalgic.

The day went by in a blur and I dropped Austen off at her hotel for her conference, but with the promise of dinner on Tuesday!

I'm getting a pony like this next time!

Basically Rico

Tuesday night Austen had the night off before her flight home on Wednesday, so we arranged a mini blogger meetup at a pizza place nearby. She had already met Kate and I, so may as well add others to the mix! Olivia and Figure (and Kate's boyfriend too, who I hadn't met yet and who is awesome!) joined us for dinner and we had a great time talking blogs and ponies.

It was all over way too soon and Austen flew back yesterday. I contemplated kidnapping her but I've been trying to do that less often. Hopefully she comes back soon and hopefully I can get myself out to DC one of these days and meet those adorable huskies and both Pig and now Charlie!! Definitely envious of Austen who I think is meeting Charlie very soon.

Austen, Me, Figure, Olivia, Kate, Robin the honorary blogger

Finding Our Show Trot

Tuesday's ride was probably the best ride I've had on my own yet. I've been feeling slightly desperate for a lesson with a dressage trainer to give me some direction, but my lesson on Monday with my trainer gave me a lot to work on. I'm thinnnnking I might try to get a lesson next week with Tracey, fingers crossed!

Wandering around the ranch

We started with some work in the round pen. A new horse had been added to the turnouts and they brought out the one horse who is a shit starter to put him next to the new horse while I was walking TC. I kept TC marching along, working on halting (the aid for which broke overnight) and reining back (which is always hard). The horses exploded and were cantering around, but all that work that I've done with trainer helped both of us handle it totally fine. TC never got upset and I didn't get nervous, back off my aids, or over ride him.

We played with the transitions to the right with much success. The canter felt really great, quite relaxed and not too humpy/bucky. The left though... ugh.

He immediately had a stick up his ass about going left. He gave me two options- we could canter on the spot, or we could buck. I was irritated with him, since he doesn't do this in any other arena. So we had it out. I stuck some pretty big bucks, and there was only one time where I thought I might come off. Woops. But man he was good after that.

We headed out and toward the dressage court and we ran into trainer. I told him about the bucking but that I think I figured it out. He gets TC on Friday because I'm out of town, so hopefully he can continue working on that obnoxious behavior.

Unfortunately in the dressage court was someone I wasn't thrilled about riding with, so I headed to the covered arena. In there was a sweet little western horse. Excellent.

I put polos on his hind legs- he let me put them on and then did
this for a while

We started in the warm up trot so I could gain access to his shoulders and back and then I picked him up into the show trot. I touched on this in Tuesday's post and JenJ wanted expansion, so here we go.

Long about First/Second level, I was taught to warm the horse up in warm up gaits before bringing them into their show gaits. The point was to stretch the back out a bit, get the throughness, establish connection over the back, etc, before you really put any pressure on them to carry themselves. Put them a bit low (not curled though) and start checking off the first few rungs of the training scale. Really focusing on suppleness, throughness, and connection, as well as addressing rhythm/tempo/energy. And straightness, which at this point with TC is majorly connected to throughness and suppleness anyway.

Then once as you warm up, you bring the horse up in front- poll the highest point (though relative elevation rather than absolute- basically I don't lift my hands up and pull his face up), lifting through the shoulders, and becoming more uphill- while engaging the hind quarters- hind end under and, in TC's case, change the mechanic of the hind end from pushing to carrying since he naturally wants to push. Then add expression with increased power and collection. The idea is to maintain all the basics from warm up into the show gaits.

TC is just starting this. It's honestly just a change in frame at this point to make it easier for him to understand sitting down a bit. After months of encouraging him to go down down down, he's maintaining throughness in his more uphill place, and I can now start to work on the mechanic in his hind legs. Once as I get a bit of passage in the trot, I can get that super flashy front end coming out of the base of the neck and hind leg snapping up under him. But for now, we're just changing the mechanic, which is easier in the show trot.

It's pretty at the ranch at night 

We played a bit with that, and TC felt excellent. The mirrors helped me out a lot, since I could time my aids better to get his hind leg under him a little more. He felt super soft up there, though I could tell every now and then I'd lose him to his underneck. So we did a lot of transitions between warm up and show trot to make sure that he wasn't getting tired and trying to find other mechanics to hold himself in that position.

The canter is obviously not in a place where I can distinguish between the two yet. We're still working on roundness and straightness. It felt really good though. He's still really struggling with the straightness, but I worked super hard to get the softness that I had gotten in Monday's lesson. Hands together, use the left rein but not holding it, sit on the right seatbone, oh my god. But it's still so freaking hard for both of us.

In the mirror, there were even more moments than last time where TC looked great (there weren't that many last time). The canter at least looks better than it feels most of the time. The left is still the problem direction, but it has good moments, and actually the right is looking and feeling good a lot of the time. I finally feel like I can relax on it and RIDE it.

He knows the routine

We ended up doing the same figure-8 simple change exercise again (and I made a student do it too), which went super well! He figured out that we do have to change leads, which made him think that every time he broke, he had to pick up the wrong lead, but it really helped with the exercise. It's hard to keep all the parts together though, especially as I started to get the transitions closer together. The thing I need to do is make sure that the first transition goes well, because that leads to a balanced and round trot, which means it's easier to change the bend, and then get the new lead. Sounds simple. Actually a lot of riding sounds simple.

But it was hard, sometimes the downward would lead to a trot that was simply too large, and the horse overreacts to half halts (hah, or you know, I over aid because he's a horse and I've got a bigger brain so to blame it on him is stupid) so we get a herky jerky trot and then he comes off the bit into the new lead.

We had some really good work though! And this sort of thing seems to be correlated with him not bolting as much. I think it's hard enough for him that he's more focused, and trainer really wants me to do lots of changes of direction to keep TC's shoulders from locking up, since that is definitely a precursor to acting up.

So itchy!

Just as I was thinking that I was done with the ride, our little western friend left the arena, so I kept TC working. It was tricky, since he kept trying to look at the horse by retracting his neck, which caused tension, which caused unrideability. Gah. But we DID get it back and I was really happy that he settled again.

This weekend my trainer gets him while I'm in Vegas for my SIL's bachelorette party, so I'm hoping that he'll ride in the jumping arena by the driveway. It's the only arena with good footing (the arena by the road is getting its footing redone soon) that TC hasn't been in yet. And of course, lots of walking around the ranch, because by next summer, I totally want to be able to hop on bareback and wander a bit.

Less is More

Monday I was on the phone with L as I got TC out, wandered around the ranch, and started working in the round pen. TC was a sport and I'll throw that onto the list of things I couldn't do before but can do now- ignoring him in favor of talking to friends. Only once did L have to hear me say SHIT when TC spooked and we laughed that at least I didn't fall off, so she didn't have to make the decision to call 911 from 500+ miles away (boooooo).

My trainer came over and told me that my one lesson this week needed to turn into two since the training ride he was going to do Saturday wasn't going to happen because he's unexpectedly out of town. No problem since I'll actually be back in town on Sunday in time to longe. And yay, extra lesson!

It was an awesome lesson too! Trainer rode with a trainer this weekend and threw some new stuff at TC and I, which was exceedingly helpful. It was the first lesson where I felt like 90% of it was devoted to riding a real live horse, while only 10% was dedicated to baby horse management, because we did crash through the court again. Woops. Power steering fail.

This guy wants to destroy dressage arenas

The theme of the lesson was less is more. This is so true on this horse. He's not been the most accessible animal. Reading back through posts in the beginning of riding him, it's quite apparent that this has been our major struggle. It took SO long to get a turn on the forehand on him, numerous wall-facing leg yields to get any semblance of lateral work on him, and let's not talk about the canter.

This is the most accessible he's been in a long time, and it's still so hard for us. Not helping is me, who wants to override him all the time. The biggest example of this is at the canter- he struggles to move his shoulders over, so I take both reins and half halt big to turn his shoulders, which turns into pony wrestling. The problem with that is that I'm totally going to lose, I mean he weighs nearly 10x my weight!

Trainer had me keep my outside hand down and connected, and just touch the inside rein to direct him, but I had to reduce muscle tone after a step. I didn't release like he initially wanted, since I'm not a fan of the big give and take hand movements (and neither is TC), but my issue is rigidity. So aid, then soft and steady connection, then aid again if necessary. It's that whole "the opposite of a problem is not always the solution to the problem," you know. So annoying, why isn't throwing my left hand forward and dangling the rein the answer to my left hand issue?

So yah, that made a huge difference. Other than our leap out of the arena, he was quite rideable at the canter, even to the left!

Hey look, a canter to the left that isn't the worst thing ever.
PC: Austen and I'll explain that in tomorrow's post.

The other major thing we touched on that I haven't worked on too much was the collected trot. Or basically catching the hind end up to the front end both literally and training-wise. Tracey mentioned recently that TC was a PSG horse up front and a training horse behind. Typical of his type, and I'm cool with that because I bought it and am stuck with it. I've worked hard to get him to be the sort of horse that goes into the bridle and over his back, since it's easy to ride a horse like that dropped in the back and behind the contact. But at some point he also has to learn to stay up and come under behind. So we played with that.

Guys. This horse. We got a few steps of what I would consider show trot (since at the upper levels you have a warm up trot and a show trot) and damn, it felt great! I want to get a little passage on him probably next winter to get the trot to spectacular levels but this is definitely on the right track for that. It was super hard for him though, but a year and a half's (erm, plus a 7 month break for, you know) hard work on getting him to lift his back and lower his neck meant that he never dropped his back or got behind the bit. Phew! We didn't hold it for too long, don't want to get him fatigued up there since that's the first step to encouraging him to do those things.

Sometimes not as pretty, thanks Austen for the pictures!

We then worked a bit on getting TC to give me more access in his shoulder. This is the main issue that makes me feel like he's unrideable. This is also what contributes to the bolting. When he is soft in his shoulder, the change that comes right before the bolt is more apparent and I can direct it easier. The problem is that I don't strive for as much accessibility in the shoulder, very likely because he was not the most accessible horse in the first place and in comparison to when we started, he feels supremely rideable most of the time. So I need to ask myself if counter bending is a possibility at all times.

I was surprised (lol) to find out that pulling on the left rein and leaning off my right seat bone did not a supple horse make. Once again, less was more, and by the end of this little bit of trot, trainer had my hands close together and not doing anything, just pure connection. It was amazing. He was so steady and soft, so rideable off the seat and leg. I just need to remember that he can be like that and make him do it!

He's so fun

The last exercise (that I had been considering working on but haven't done yet) was the trot changes. Trainer had me do them on a figure-8 (like two 20m circles rather than diagonals), which was super helpful. I've sort of done a few on diagonals, but TC isn't ready to pick up the canter on a straight line. I would ride a circle at B, then coming back to B I would trot, cross the centerline, change bend, and canter before C.

He struggled a bit to understand, but eventually he figured it out and wasn't offering me the wrong lead anymore. The downward felt super balanced most of the time, and the upward is still recovering from the week of bucking. The only nice thing about the bucking is that it seems to have improved the quality of the canter. So, uh, bring on the bucking??

I was so happy at the end. I love this horse! His work ethic is so refreshing, the horse always steps up to the plate and more pressure on him (not physically, but mentally) always means better work. I'm so glad I ended up with this horse, even if some/most/almost all days he's exhausting in one way or another.

Test Riding

Friday morning I had to squeeze my ride in because I had a bunch of stuff happening in the afternoon (including a meeting with my thesis adviser that went super well and I should be defending in a month!). Luckily TC was exhausted from our awesome Thursday ride so we had another great ride. Tired baby horses are good baby horses.

Tired baby horses + dressage courts = fun!

I hopped on him to wander around the ranch and it was the first time he seemed excited to just walk around. I think normally he is so energetic (he was SO lazy on Friday and Saturday, back to normal on Sunday, that Thursday ride really wore him out) that he just wants to go go go and he's sort of unpleasant to walk around. I legitimately walked him around on a loose rein the whole time. Including to the trail course, out to the field, and in the arena by the road. He spooked a couple of times but no bolting, just a startle and then relaxed again. Who is this horse?!?

I can't tell you how much fun that was. What wasn't fun was working in the round pen. He was good, just not in front of my leg. We worked on getting a nice prowling walk and halting from that, reining back, and then getting it back. Reining back is still in its primitive form of shuffling/being pulled backwards, so getting a forward and through walk afterward is rough. After that, we did some walk-trot and trot-halt transitions, which are getting quite good! In the trot to halt, he tends to get slightly crooked, haunches left and shoulders right, which is to be expected.

Ugh the canter. With all the bucking, the canter has gone majorly downhill. I got a few laps each way that were sort of on the bit and then I stopped. Ugh cantering in that damn round pen is so hard. But recently I've been saving the dressage court for lessons, since he can really get away from me out there. But also... the canter was so bad... so we left.

Kate sent me this and it's everything

Walked on a loose rein to the dressage court, where thankfully we were alone- I need to get BRH trainer on that when he rides him. We walked around the outside of the court on a loose rein while I looked up Training test 1 (because I can't get the GP or PSG out of my head, but T1 falls out all the time) and took pictures of his ears. Then I switched directions, picked up a trot, kicked him when he shook his head and whinnied, then rode two back to back T1 tests because why not.

The first test was fairly bad, rusty as I am and green as he is. He was straight on centerline and into the halt, but we shuttered on the line trotting out. The first turn was wobbly, and in the first trot circle, I lost my head and made it shallow on one side. All three training level tests have you canter left first, which sucks for us. It's the weaker side by far (though the right was quite bad too) and starting out on it, well at least we get it over with? Oh well. We made our circle into a square and headed down the long side.

The downward is tough for him on a straight line so he came a touch hollow, which meant that he careened a bit in the corner and made his walk transition slightly rough. All the movements are interconnected, and I worked tirelessly to make Rico rideable in such a way that I could recover from bobbles. We're not there yet! It's mostly just needing to test ride more, I'm fully capable of riding him through these tests, just out of practice and trying to ride the test rather than the horse.

At the walk I had a talk with myself about preparing him better and then we had great work to the right. A soft and round trot transition, a circle shaped trot circle, something that could indeed be described as a circle at the canter, and a good downward and centerline.

Wandering

Instead of walking afterward, I just picked up the trot again and started the test again. It was much better! All circles were rounder, transitions were cleaner, and overall he was more rideable. There was one moment there though...

We were cantering on the left lead down the long side when a bird flew overhead. It's shadow came up behind us and passed on the right side. Remember how TC gets distracted by butterflies and feathers floating around under his nose? So the shadow comes up alongside us and he thought that was just great. He stuck his head on his chest and struck out at it. The eagles have come to take him to safety and he jumped up, hoping to be grabbed by them. Alas, not an eagle but a pigeon. I was laughing so hard that yet again we missed our downward and walk transition.

So maybe our first show will be at YY where the show ring is an indoor. But then there may be feathers floating around... 

What TC expected.

I can't tell you how damn excited I was about Friday's ride. This was huge for a number of reasons. First, I have not felt comfortable walking him on a completely loose rein around the ranch. Second, I rode him in the dressage court without my trainer. Third, I actually got to ride a test. Fourth, I have started disliking the round pen in much the same way I disliked the arena at his breeder's barn despite him being bad (tense/forward) in the neighbor arena. Eventually I preferred the neighbor arena, so I'm looking forward to preferring the dressage court!

He's such a fun horse. I just love him. He's so soft and steady (as long as I am) and we're having some really good days these days. Just trying to enjoy that before life and weather get in the way!

Over Confident

Thursday was a great day! I rode my friend's horse in the morning in the dressage court, I think riding other horses out there (and in general) makes me feel better about TC in there. Gotta train myself too, dressage court = good rides, have a sugar cube and a kitten cuddle afterward.

TC came out of his stall feeling like he had been declared the Best Horse Ever. He has shoes now (so do a lot of horses). He's a grown up (no he's not). Everyone loves him (do they though?).

I love this picture

He stood in the cross ties and tried to bite me, his tack, and the cross ties themselves. I had gotten him bell boots, since my shoer had recommended he wear them for a while. I tried to stick them on him while he pawed at me.

Then he marched around the ranch like he owned the place. He reminded me of young Rico- over confident and assuming that everyone's default attitude toward him was to worship the ground he walked on. I'll take it though, this TC is confident and not spooky!

This TC bucks like an asshole though. I longed him first in the round pen and he bolted from walk at the beginning each way. I got him under control and then saw his trot. Holy shit. I laughed to myself thinking that if his old owners had put shoes on him, he would have been out of my price range. I've called him baby Totilas in the past when he got all expressive in front and tight in his back. As he lightens in color, it doesn't make as much sense. But baby Totilas was back and wow he can move.

I got all grabby hands and got on him maybe too early. The change in his trot was evident undersaddle too. I think the added weight makes him fling his legs up and out a bit more. And the added stability made his bucks bigger too.

Very annoying. Those bell boots are XL and he
makes them look little

Luckily my trainer came over after our first bucking fit. We worked through it- I just got up in half seat and kicked him until he went forward.

Trainer thinks that the bucks are just him being a powerful young horse (the way my trainer, who works with racehorses, called my horse powerful was slightly unnerving). He's stronger now, more coordinated, and has it in his head that bucking and switching leads at the canter will make it easier, more fun, deliberately more obnoxious for me (much of his behavior seems to be directed at annoying me, which seems fun for him), or what not.

Honestly, as weird as it might be (is it though?), I would rather have this bucking than the bolting. They're not tiny bucks, but his head is up, and even though I'm more likely to come off a buck than a bolt, I don't get that moment of "omg going to die" when he bucks like I do in the bolt. Honestly, I would rather he not do anything bad ever.

These guys are so fun, I'll be sad/happy when they go to their
new home

After the bucking to the right (which only happen in canter, so easily avoidable if my back is hurting or what not), we worked on transitions within the trot- slowing the trot down using my seat, then pushing him forward. He struggled to maintain energy in the downward, and was reluctant to change his hind leg mechanics from carrying to pushing coming out of the pseudo collected trot. It was so much fun. He is so in tune with my seat, I actually way way over aided for the downward and got a walk a few times.

Doing this work is really good for him if he's having an over-confident young horse day. Trainer basically told me to show him what he doesn't know when he's like this, make his work so challenging that he backs off and is like whoa okay hold on. Luckily TC loves work, so making him work harder just puts his mind into his work rather than messing around, vs a horse who messes around to get out of work. We did some tighter figures (8m half circles in trot) and lots of transitions, and TC was right there and focused.

To the left I rode him counter bent. I don't like doing it, but it majorly resets my aids and gets my rogue left hand under control. He didn't like that and more bucking transpired. The bucking is making the canter ugly, and the left lead canter is ugly even without bucking, so it was pretty awful. I'm a little disappointed about that, but he goes through these phases with bucking and always comes out better when the bucking stops.

So cute

After some really great work in the round pen, we headed into the court. We walked out there on a loose rein and got into the court and started walking on a 20m circle. My first thought wasn't oh no what if he's bad or don't let him know you're apprehensive about this. My first thought was what a lazy asshole, walk FORWARD, damnit. And the whole ride was amazing- it was the first one where I felt 100% safe in there, even when TC whinnied to other horses or got a little rigid. Nope, go back to work, do your shit, I know so much more dressage than you do and let me show you all these things you don't know.

And I had a blast. I packed on the pressure and TC stepped up. He felt like a First level horse except when I would assume he knew to turn at the corner and he'd threaten to jump out again. I think as he gets ridden more in there, that will go away. Horses eventually figure out that they need to stay in, right? Or maybe Rico was just so lazy that turning > jumping out of the 12 inch court.

Kittens!

The first exercise we did was just figures- going into the corners and then going across the short diagonal (that is a TIGHT turn), riding figure-8s and serpentines, and tossing in 10m circles because why not. He was great for those, shortening into the corner and lengthening a bit coming out, an exercise I was taught to make the corners look smoother. I sat the trot some, thinking that TC is coming to the end of his 5 year old year and is ready for a little more of that. Also 10m circles are much easier in sitting trot.

After that, we worked on leg yields. They were SO much better after I was reminded yet again about not holding the left rein like my life depended on it. We had some excellent leg yields to the right without him being overbent. The main issue now is just getting him a little more supple in them (and obviously adding steepness and cross over) because he gets a little rigid on the contact in the lateral work, as I've previously noted.

We ended with a few short lengthenings and a really mean exercise where I would have him on a 20m circle right, then turn off on a 10m circle left in sitting trot to really make sure I wasn't holding with the left rein.

Haven't gotten a mirror selfie in a while, I keep
focusing on the dressage court, but the covered is
important too

During walk breaks and at the end of the ride, I would drop the reins to chat with trainer or give TC pats. Just two rides ago, there's no way I would have done that.

I would have stayed out there all day, but TC is still on rehab of course. So he went in. Later in the day I got an email from my vet saying that TC is cleared for turnout pending the result of another ultrasound! Given life circumstances, I'm going to try real hard to get him in over the next couple of weeks. Fingers crossed he goes in soon and his leg is magically healed forever and he can go in turnout and finally be a horse again (and stop bolting omg)!

Moving the Strings and Other Little Things

On Wednesday, TC had an appointment with my farrier to get his first set of shoes! My plan had been to ride him in between my lesson in the morning and him getting shoes, but my farrier was over an hour early so instead I just gave TC the day off.

Which means that I basically have no blog post for today. But I've got a bunch of little things that don't warrant their own posts to talk about. First though, shoes!

SHOES! I can't believe how good his weird feet look. From this
angle the left front almost looks normal (I swear they're the same
shape, it's just the angle)

Shoes
TC was GREAT for the shoes. I mean horses get shoes all the time, so I knew he'd be fine eventually, but he handled it a lot better than I thought he would. He stood still, didn't try to pull his foot out of her hands too much, and he LOVED his shoes. It was really cute actually, he had one on for a while as my farrier had to shape the other one (horse is a size 4 and needs a fair amount of banging on the shoe to get them wide enough for him). He kept standing on his shoe with the left front, then pawing or holding his other foot in the air like SHOE THIS ONE PLEASE.

The funniest bit came at the very end when he had to walk out with them on. He walked like he was wearing shipping boots at first. I let him just hang out for the rest of the day so that he could get used to them. We'll see how he moves in them today! He better be sound forever and move beautifully given that I just doubled my shoeing costs.


Fall Plans
I texted my trainer friend from my old town and asked if she was going to the show at the end of October so that she could give me a lesson there. I told her that TC and I were coming up so I could coach and TC could be an NC horse. I meant a non-compete horse, meaning I'd pay for a stall and a small fee for using the facility, and we'd not show at all. But trainer friend gave me a bit of shit thinking that we were going HC. She said I should just show because she's an enabler like that (five minutes after I got my Silver medal, she started talking about my Gold).

I KNOW I could probably show him this fall and score in the mid to high 60s at Training. I know that. But there are a few reasons why I don't want to. 1) I don't want to hate showing and if he's a piece of shit I totally will hate showing. 2) I don't want to put bad scores on his record (honestly I want his average above 70 at Training if I can swing it). 3) I have to buy a LOT of stuff before showing (new jacket and show boots = not cheap) so would rather not hurry and do that given my summer has been tight.

Put my other shoe on, woman!

Then we're also going to hopefully be an NC horse at SVE in November (depends on if I can get the facility owners to let me use the covered round pen there), where hopefully Peony and Kate will be, along with several of my barn friends and students. If my own trainer comes, I'll save my lessons for the show and make him ride him there. If not him, then I might grab a lesson/training ride with a trainer up there, since she's a fabulous rider and comes highly recommended from a friend. And Kate has volunteered to be my crash dummy too, so that's awesome since she rode him beautifully last week. OR I'll do all three. Horse can get used to more riders while I'm willing to hand him out, eventually he'll be far enough along where I'll get real possessive.

Sooner than those though, I'll be taking him down the road to the local show facility with my trainer, and I'll be taking him over to my parents' house just to hang out one day.


Progress
I'm getting frustrated over our progress recently. It's not that we're not making progress. Because we are. It's more the feeling that I just want this to be over already. I want to school in the court without worry and I want to ride him around the ranch on a loose rein and I want to just love riding my horse ALL the time and not just in specific areas at specific times in specific weather with specific people (or, preferably no people) around me.

This is totally unrealistic and mostly stems from me being envious of people with 4, 5, and 6 year olds who are super quiet and fun around the ranch. He's been back to work for maybe 70 days now. He can't be turned out or cantered very much. He's going through that evil five year old phase. And sometimes I do need to just suck it up and push myself a bit more fear-wise because I probably could be doing more in the court and more around the ranch.

In four years I won't look back on this time and feel frustrated that it took so long. I'll be like yeah that sucked but look where we're at now! It's the same way I feel about his rehab. I remember writing those posts about how long it was taking and how scared I was of him coming home. And now he's home and all I can think about is how long it's taking to get to a point where he's quiet at home. And soon he'll be fine at home and I'll be bitching about how bad he is in new places, how long it's taking to get a change on him or a pirouette.

I have to stop moving the strings (inside family joke- my dad helped dig out what he thought would be a small basement at his parents-in-law's house and my grandfather hung strings to show how far he wanted the guys to dig- every day the strings were moved back and the small basement turned into a huge two bedroom apartment). I have to let myself enjoy him right now even if there are horses who are a year or two younger than him doing so much more. Whatever. My horse is awesome too, it's just taking us longer a completely reasonable amount of time to get through this given what we've been through.

These guys are SO CUTE

Talking to the Vet
I emailed my vet to see what he thought about turnout. There are 24x24' turnout paddocks that TC can go into each day and I want to see if we can do that at the beginning of October. Either before or after another ultrasound (ka-ching but you know, ponies). I desperately want him in the big paddocks, but he needs turnout first. With a big paddock, he can't be brought in and I can't change my mind if he races around. And he's going to race around.

I want to let him race around because then he'll be happier and less bolty, he didn't bolt at all (like maybe three times in nine months) when he lived in pasture. But I also don't want to let him race around because what if he gets hurt? So the vet needs to give him the okay for that. I'd rather have him go lame and me think oh well I was just following vet's orders vs if I just dump him out there, I'll feel worse. I think I'll feel terrible either way though... But my vet is quite conservative so that's good.

Haven't heard back so I'm still waiting.


Lesson
I had another lesson with my friend's trainer on her horse. It was really great! Even though it was another solid ego slashing, which is good for me even if it added a bit to my feeling down about progress with TC (which again is totally unfounded). I'm happy to report that I didn't fuck up as many changes as I did before (I didn't practice because I didn't trust myself to not fuck them up on my own) and I'm starting to get used to what feels like counter bending the horse into the change.

We also worked on my previous weakness- half pass right. It's my left leg. It's TOTALLY my left leg. I found that in the Tanya Vik clinic when I was riding leg yields off that leg. Once as I really worked to get that leg working, the half pass was a million times better. Later that day, I rode a client horse and worked the hell out of the right leg yield so I could force my left leg to work properly. I'll be doing that on TC today.

All it made me want to do is take (dressage) lessons on TC. But my lesson budget is small until I can take TC out of training with my current trainer, who is very reasonable for part training and VERY good to ride with, but it's not free. But I think it's important to take a lesson with a dressage trainer once a month, it doesn't add that much to my training costs but it will at least send me in the right direction position-wise and dressage-wise. And we'll see when I get an office job (if, ugh, still waiting on that), I bet I can throw more money at training forever a while. All I want to do is take dressage lessons every other day!

She (he?) is the cutest little thing, reminds me so much of J that
I totally just want to steal her

Hopefully today's ride goes well on TC's new shoes! It will be weird to pick them out for the first time. I think I have a lesson with BRH trainer, and my goal is to ride Training 1 in the court if he's good out there. Because I posted about it though, we probably won't get to that. But I'd love to have a baseline (maybe we can video it) coming into fall. I can judge it for myself (despite, you know, not being a judge, but I'm pretty good at guessing) and then judge it again in the spring!