I Want to Get Off the Pony Ride

Tuesday and Wednesday of this week I took off from riding. Sometimes you just gotta see less ponies, right? Also I can't ride Tuesday nights unless I'm riding with Tracey since I don't want to share the arena with her lessons. And Wednesday TC got a day off since I'm trying to give him two days off a week now.

Look at that terrible no good too tight flash noseband
that is so offensive... you can seriously put a fist in it

On Monday, our ride wasn't so great. It was cool and windy out, so TC walked around the ranch terrified of basically everything. The arena work was fine, but he got scared of a motorcyclist who kept zipping down the road nearby so we had a series of bolts and I ended up stopping early and just putting him away.

TC got a trainer ride on Tuesday and got a good report. Wednesday I headed out to the barn after work to give TC his grain and say hi to him before I went to dinner. I ended up getting there quite early, so had about fifteen or twenty minutes to kill. So I hopped on him bareback. BO stopped me afterward and asked me if I was CRAZY. She knows the issues I've had with fear. But this horse is super quiet around the barn... like I'd never take him in an arena and try to work him bareback because then I would die.

My face when I hopped on and didn't die... yet

By Thursday, I was itching to ride my pony. I managed to get out of work on time and zipped out to the barn. I spent much of the day feeling excited about my lesson (which might be canceled due to rain) and reading all your thoughtful comments on yesterday's post, so I got TC out and brushed him and was ready to ride!

Walking around the ranch, TC was great, I mostly just talked with a friend who I rarely see since we usually ride at different times. Trainer found me and we headed out to the round pen. TC seemed so calm (friend even said "wow, he's so calm," which should have told me something) so I opted to just ride him in the round pen instead of longeing. Man guys, I should have longed him.

We started out okay, a lot of bucking- maybe a bit more than normal, but he always bucks in the round pen. He settled and was fine for a bit, but then the horses next door started galloping around like idiots and TC squealed and took off with me. Okay fine. We were tracking left so I kept him in canter and decided to make his work harder. That will show him. The canter felt AMAZING. Hell yes, let's do this, TC. I put him on the bit and... then he started broncing. I pulled his head up to be like NO and then put him back on the bit. More bronc bucks.

So I grabbed his face up again and told trainer "I LOVE THIS CANTER BUT I AM TOO AFRAID TO PUT HIM ON THE BIT" and we had a good laugh.

Good life choices right here

I got him back to trot and then the horses spooked him again. I felt a wave of adrenaline and told trainer that I thought it was a bad idea for me to try to work through it, maybe I should just fucking longe him. Trainer said no, just ride the horse. Damnit, trainer, my quarter got lodged in the pony ride and now it wont stop and I JUST WANT TO GET OFF THE PONY RIDE.

Eventually he settled and gave me some spectacular trot work. I felt really great about the ride and after some walk-trot transitions, it was getting dark and I said "that's good, we can head out now." And trainer agreed, and said that we can move to the covered arena now.

Wait no, what happened to getting off the pony ride?

So we walk in there and immediately TC is on edge. I'm happy to report that other than some head shaking and a bolt or two, most of his energy came out in a) being really fucking amazing and b) squealing.

The squealing is something he does sometimes. It's a high pitched EEEEEEEEEEE that he makes when he wants to whinny but is like too tense to get the whole whinny out? It's completely ridiculous.

Could have at least put on a bareback pad

But man, the other half of how he used his energy was awesome. I got his shoulder with me and put him on a 10m circle to do so. It's hard enough where he has to kind of sink or swim, and he really stepped up to work as he always does when he has to work hard. We did some 10m figure-8s and then I was thinking that it'd be easier to do in sitting trot, so I sat right down.

I've sat his trot a bit, but it's always been really unpleasant. This time it was great! It was the first time that he really kept his back up (I had stuffed it up there with the small circles, also I guess he was kind of humpy to begin with) and I got to feel the trot that I've always wanted out of him. It wasn't smooth... but it wasn't that sort of jarring trot that he's been showing me. I was able to sit into it and wrap my leg around him. Trainer was super impressed, he said he wished he had a video camera (and I was not about to stop and hand him my phone).

I played with the trot some more, including a little bit of lengthened trot (not sitting though... just no), and then we stopped. Like actually stopped. No reason to push things too far. Also I probably asked to get off of him like six times. It was not a fun ride! I'm glad I persevered and I'm glad things ended up being good, but I also just wanted to go home and relax instead of dealing with baby horse antics. Just one of those days.

I'm a bit over the evening rides, when is summer again?

I decided to hand him off today to trainer again. It's supposed to rain all day and the last thing I want to do when I get off work is drive to the barn (through lots of traffic because the first storm of every year seems to make people drive like they've never seen rain before) and ride my dumb young horse in the rain in the covered arena. So trainer can have him. I'm still going to the barn to ride my friend's horse, who is a gentleman in all weather conditions and who won't make me feel annoyed by getting there a little late since he's great in the dark too.

As much as having a few bad rides in a row sucks, I'm really happy that bad rides don't seem to get me so upset anymore. Some days, weeks, months, seasons, are just going to be shit. I've stopped asking why. Trainer taught me that real quick. He's just young. He's young and he had a day off and it was cold and windy and dark and there were horses running around.

The nice thing these days is that I still do get good work out of him even on our bad days. I might have wanted to get off of him for most of the ride, but I've never had so much fun sitting a trot on a figure-8.