Growing Up

On Friday and Saturday there was a clinic at my barn. I audited the whole thing (report on that coming, it's been hard to organize all of the information) but rode TC beforehand. I had initially wanted to do some work in the dressage court, but the footing was all pretty for the clinic so I didn't want to ruin it with my lopsided circles.

I love him! Pictures from Kate's visit!

He was kind of a derp in the beginning, I asked him to trot and could tell that he had a lot of energy and wanted to play, but knew he shouldn't, but wanted to. So I dumped him into canter and got up into half seat to let him canter it out, but all he did was crow hop and buck for a circle or two. But after that he was super good!

We mostly just hacked around, not working on anything special, other than just the normal steadiness in the bridle and please-don't-throw-your-head-in-transitions work. Even after two years of not work-work-working on Rico, I often feel weird to not be constantly working on something. Sometimes I just get on, walk trot and canter on the bit, then hop off and we're good. No thinking about shows or movements. But my trainer is a huge fan of that, he says that TC just needs a lot of riding time. Lots of time just trotting and cantering on the bit, learning that this is what he needs to do every day. And we're still building muscle. As good as he looks now in comparison to two months ago, his topline is still quite weak for where I want him to be in his steadiness in the connection. We're getting there.

Not terribly downhill for the downhill moment in canter

Kate came down to watch some of the clinic and showed up as TC was settling (then helped bombproof him by sitting on the rail lol). She was so kind to a) bring me a chai (quickest way to win my love is to provide me with chai), b) take video and pictures of us, and c) be subjected to me jumping off and being like WANT TO RIDE HIM!?!?

So she rode him! And they were both so good! TC was super for her, now that I've let more people (well, two friends, a student, and my trainer) on him, he's a lot more tolerant of other riders. He seemed to genuinely try to figure out what she was asking for and got better and better the more she rode him. In the beginning he might have smooshed her leg against the fence, which is something he has done with me too. And he did his obnoxious anticipation of the canter thing, but other than that, it was great!

It was SO fun to see someone else on him (I love watching my trainer ride him, but I'm used to him). I mean the first reason is because he's real pretty right now- he's finally looking like a real horse vs an awkward baby horse. It was also just really cool to see him go as a horse that I trained. I taught him to go on the bit! And now someone else can just jump on him and put him on the bit too! It shouldn't be surprising right... I mean I'm a horse trainer... but something about starting from the very beginning, and having it be my own horse, makes it that much more special. He's like a real live grown up horse who can be ridden by other people (who I mean, is a trainer herself, so it's not like throwing a beginner on him) and everything!

Wow I need to take a dressage lesson on this horse soon. But for
a canter that was once so ground covering, I couldn't canter in
this ring, damn. 

Saturday I watched the clinic in the morning, then had plans to ride TC in the early afternoon. I started feeling sick about half way through the clinic, and by lunch I was feeling real bad. I ended up just feeding him and heading home. Eh, TC can have a day off here and there.

After a rough night, I woke up Sunday morning still feeling horrible. But the fear of riding the baby horse on Monday after two full days off made me drag myself out of bed, meds on board, to go longe him.

I guess the barn just makes me feel better (of course it does), since I was feeling less sick when I got to the barn. I pulled TC out of his stall and threw him in the cross ties. As I was haltering him, I realized his bridle path had gotten out of control. Horse grows hair like no other. TC stood perfectly still for his bridle path to be clipped, which led to me wondering if he had been drugged or been running around in his paddock all night. Because he really is quite obnoxious (usually) when the clippers get anywhere near his ears. He even let me clip the little poofs of hair coming out of his ears. Weird... who is this horse?

If he got any rounder he'd be a beach ball

I threw his longeing stuff on and we wandered all over the barn in hand, including out to the field, where we hadn't been since he had been nutty. We even walked over poles in the jumping arena, which he thought was really fun. Either that or he was thinking about rolling, he kept sniffing at them as he walked over. He was totally quiet, it was almost a bit unnerving.

In the round pen, he was just as quiet on the line. No bucking, bolting, snorting, nothing. Granted, it was warm (not that warm though, I think it was in the mid 70s) and no horses were being silly in turnout, but still, a day off and some wind in the past would have made him at least bolt once. 

I hopped on after that, just planning on trotting a bit. Unfortunately the trot, which felt really good, made me feel sicker, so I popped into canter thinking it might feel better. And, actually, the canter felt AMAZING. To the right, when he picked it up, he stayed on the bit. I haven't been pressuring him too much about that recently, but it was a nice surprise. I think as he's getting stronger, it's easier for him to pick it up without the head toss. He's got such a big front end, he tends to throw it around sometimes rather than use his hind legs.

I love how much he lifts the base of his neck

The right lead felt super accessible. One of those canters where I'm pretty sure that I could ask him for anything and he'd just give it to me (except not because he's not trained yet). I started playing a bit in the canter with the uphill balance just by changing the way I'm sitting on him. He really stepped up to the plate and I felt like he was cantering much more uphill than before.

The left was shockingly good. The left lead has been feeling mildly out of control basically the whole time I've been riding him. His canter was kind of scary to me when he was three, I was worried we'd never make it past First level actually (now that fear has been squashed a bit). Very much on the forehand, hollow, running, covering way WAY too much ground. Even in the last few weeks, even just on Friday, his left lead has been really hard- lots of muscling him around lest I get smashed into the fence, just for a few good moments here and there.

But Sunday, his left lead was downright... nice... to ride. I felt like I could influence it with my seat for the first time. He actually stayed straight without me having to manufacture it for the first time. And you know what, I truly think the left lead is of better quality than the right. I actually got him more uphill with the change in my seat once as he gave me access to his back that way. Mind blowing.

A little retracted at first, I also was riding poorly in the beginning.
Probably not related, right?

After that, I let him stretch both ways and then be done. I really wanted to go in the dressage court and ride, but by then my illness caught up to me and I was quite done. I walked him on a loose rein for a bit, then hopped off to walk him back home. Right as I was opening the gate, three turnout horses lost their shit and started galloping. TC startled and then just stared at them until they stopped, no bolting, no spinning, nothing. Then he put his head down, flopped his ears to the side, and quietly walked behind me to the cross ties. Seriously, whose horse is this? He certainly isn't my nutty baby horse. Are we... are we growing up?