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.