Lazy Sunday

This weekend was my brother's wedding! A great time was had by all and it was wonderful to see all of my family, my SIL's family, and all of their friends. It was amazing and beautiful and perfect. My SIL (now official!!!) is one of my very best friends and it was such an honor to be standing up there, sobbing, while she walked down the aisle.

I wasn't alone though, in that moment, my brother cried (YASSSS I love it when the groom cries), several groomsmen cried, and every bridesmaid cried. More crying happened when I went to hug my brother- we both started crying and stayed away from each other for a while. And two groomsmen started crying during some pictures and I told them that anyone who is crying has to turn around since then that made most of the bridesmaids (in the picture) cry.

It wasn't all crying though, seeing my aunts and my mom on the dance floor was AMAZING and I got to see family members I normally don't get to see. We ate delicious food, partied late into the night, and generally had a blast.  I'm exhausted and sore and not at all ready to work this morning but I'd do it all over again in a second.

Don't worry, this post isn't all about the wedding, this is a horse blog, after all.

Even though I missed out on riding TC on Saturday, I did book it home on Sunday to get him out in the middle of the day, a major priority of mine. Mostly because it was literally the only day I had free to work on my thesis, but also because ponies trump all.

So cute!

TC had Friday off and then was ridden by my trainer on Saturday. I like this schedule of having trainer deal with him after days off, even if I don't like having two days of no riding for myself.

After last week, all I wanted to do was have fun on my horse. I have a tentative lesson with my dressage trainer on Tuesday, so I decided while I'd still work on my crookedness in Sunday and Monday's rides, I'd leave all the stress and frustration for her.

TC felt relaxed and confident walking around the ranch. We wandered down the back road, where we normally don't go because I like having a place to circle him without the risk of landing in the agg fields next door. But he walked with his head down, swinging his back, and a long rein the whole time.

He tried to get me to do another loop when I pointed him at the covered arena. I had wanted to ride outside in the dressage court, but I vowed to force myself indoors because that's where I'm stuck all winter. I stuffed him into the arena past some very scary things (I called bullshit on him because he switched what he was scared at like three times and then almost poked his nose with a cactus) and we went to work.

Felt so good to be back on this guy

Went kayaking on Friday!

He felt lazy, wanting to drop his withers and propel himself over the ground rather than sit down. I went to pick up the trot and his head popped up, a very unusual behavior. Wait, unusual? When I was surprised that his head popped up, I realized that we had now fixed the walk to trot transition! I hadn't noticed that it had become something so solid that I didn't give much thought to unless it was bad. Crazy! Clearly progress happens without us even knowing sometimes, and I'm pretty quick to pat myself and TC on the back for any minuscule amount of progress.

I put him in canter to help get him more forward. He felt good in the bridle and over his back so I started playing with some forward and back. TC understands the forward, but the back part is hard. He thinks it means trot, so he goes forward into a not-quite-lengthened canter and then I half halt and he dumps into this horrific trot. I started tapping him when he did that so he would pop back into canter and eventually we got a really janky downward transition, but at least there was no break.

FIFTY FIVE BOBBY PINS guys

While cantering around to the right, I came across the diagonal and TC felt exceptionally balanced. I had read a couple years ago that trainers often quietly ask for lead changes here and there throughout the 4, 5, and 6 year old years before actually putting changes on. Just in case the horse does it right, so you can reward and then they have a knowledge of that movement well before you need it.

I did that with TC his 4-year-old year to no avail. We went across the diagonal and I asked and... nothing. 4-year-old TC had no clue what I was asking. Not wanting to get on his case about it then (obviously), I ignored it.

My mom! She is the best

So now, his 5-year-old year, but honestly not even really six months more riding, I felt him set up. I asked and he swapped one step late behind. Okay, it was a response, but I don't want to encourage a late lead change, so I vowed to try one more time, use my timing skills to tap the inside hind leg to remind TC that it exists, and if it was clean, great, if not, then, well, we're waiting until next year to put them on anyway.

I came around on the right lead, set him up, tapped his inside hind leg at the same time that I asked and... a buck but a CLEAN LEAD CHANGE. I stopped him and told him that he was the smartest animal there ever was.

Wanting to solidify the concept, I came around again, tapped lighter this time, and just got a slight hop sideways with the inside hind during ANOTHER CLEAN CHANGE! I let him stand in the middle getting a lot of pets for about ten minutes.

While standing in the middle being a good pony

We absolutely are not working on these. I love that the change is clean and prompt and on the aids. I do. But the way he's doing it (with what will eventually be a VERY expressive hind end but for now is a big crow hop), he's not capable of maintaining any uphill balance, so if I continue to train them now, they will become croup-high and I'll have to retrain it later, which will be much harder than being patient now. I need to wait until he's stronger so that he can bring the front end up too. But I'm super glad that we have a change, since you always kinda wonder about it until it happens.

As I was petting him, I thought about how much my trainer believes in him, and how sometimes I think it's unfounded and that my trainer is a little delusional (barn friend told me yesterday that trainer told her that he never wants to get off my horse, yay for trainers liking my horse! I know I like him, but that's likely the result of a sunk cost). But that day made me really think that this little horse is something special. Clean changes his first ever time schooling them. What the fuck is that? I'm sure that's normal for most UL riders on their young horses, but it felt pretty amazing!

Hair took 2 hours, make up took like 40 minutes
in between hair (they did my bangs last, hence the
clip) can I just get this tattooed on my face?

Seriously I'm not a big selfie-taker but maybe I
would be if I could make my face look like this
all the fucking time

We then had about ten minutes of disagreement because TC-logic stated that since he got praised at the canter, we should canter FOREVER because canter = praise and trot = boring. I finally got him trotting and we played with shoulder-in, lengthenings, and leg yields off the outside leg (to sort of bait the canter so I could tell him no). The trot felt great, though again still slightly dropped through his shoulder. The shoulder-in helped with that and soon we were trucking around in our show trot, which wasn't as intimidating, and therefore I felt like was lacking some pzazz. Damnit TC, I need you to scare me a little bit for me to know that we're really reaching all that you're capable of.

Back in canter, I got on his case to the left about staying round. I had to do this to the right a few days before he really started being reliable. It's time. I really want November to be all about getting a really solid WTC on the aids, through transitions, etc. No point in having a shoulder-in if he can't stay on the bit in trot-canter transitions.

Today

After the ride, a wander around the ranch, and a bath, I finally headed home to relax work on my thesis defense. Overall, a great weekend and a great ride and I'm all ready to consume a LOT of caffeine and get through the next week.