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.