First Field Trip of 2017

On Sunday, I had the whole day free so decided to drag TC over to my parents' ranch and see how he would be. He hadn't been off the property since November, when I took him over there and then all hell broke loose over the winter. I figured that if I want to do anything with this horse, he needs more off property miles, and there's no better way to do that than taking him to the ranch. It's relatively quiet, it's pretty close to his barn, and there's no ring fee or events to work around!

So curious (hrrmmm why is my saddle dirty?)

He was great to load, but a pain to haul. He paws constantly. I mean just in general, the horse paws a LOT. But especially when he's in the trailer. We managed to get there without too many pawing fits and he unloaded well and immediately screamed for Rico, who ignored him. I love that horse.

In the cross ties, he was a bit anxious. He does best when he's given stuff to do, so when he has to fend for himself, he doesn't handle it so well. My mom was around so came up to see him and she (who has a ton of horse experience but not any young horse experience) was kind of surprised about how nutty he was being. Then I made him move left and right, take steps back, move left and right, take steps back, and he lowered his head, chewed, and rested a foot. He just likes to know what he should be doing. If you let him decide, well, he decides wrong.

He's like "omg I want to look" and then "okay fine I won't"
Also boo my new boots made my legs sore and I wanted to feel
comfortable riding off the property, so Dublins it was.

We started out with ground work (I put the rope halter on over his bridle if you're wondering what the contraptions were in the gif- it's not getting in his way). He was great on the ground, we even got a bit of stretching and relaxation in the first ten minutes. He wouldn't let me on him right away, wanting to wiggle away from the mounting block, but when I did finally get on, I was met with a familiar feeling. When he gets anxious, he shortens from nose to tail and drops the contact. It's not a fun feeling, but this time I felt much better about it. I immediately changed the way I was sitting and put him into some lateral work at the walk.

He never got as relaxed or accessible as he does at home, but he was super good! I stayed relaxed even on his spring board of a back, and slowly he started to focus more on me and less on everything else. And honestly he just seemed like he had a lot of energy and wanted to look at everything- not that he wanted to get rid of me or be naughty.

We trotted and he did his head wiggle, which sometimes turns into leaping, but I put him sideways in a shoulder-in and he stayed with me. Other than that, he was very well behaved. Even when a car came barreling down the road right next to the arena and then skidded to a stop in front of the neighbor's gate right near the arena. I braced for him to go nuts, and that was a bad idea, but he took care of me. It was probably the first time where I lost my confidence and he gave it back to me. I still yelled at the guy, drives me nuts when people speed by horses. It's fine to speed if no one is in the arena, but dude.

I love pulling on the left rein

The canter felt great. When he's super short nose to tail, he's a lot easier to maneuver, but his other issues come out more- like retraction in the neck, tightness in his back, getting up and down with his hind legs rather than swinging through, etc. But the canter wasn't bad quality or anything. The right remained better quality than the left, which has everything to do with him not wanting his left hind as engaged and me thinking that pulling on the left rein is the cure for everything.

I love that I was able to canter out there with no problems. The canter has been a source of fear for me in the past, mostly because it was just so big (it's SO much better contained now) and obviously when he bolts, he canters. It's not a rational fear, since he bolts less when allowed to canter, but for some reason I used to really not get that. Now that the canter is better quality than the trot, I can really maneuver him in it and get him more relaxed, which then translates back to the trot later, excellent.

And the trot did improve after the first bit of canter. I messed around with some of the lateral work in trot, though the arena is SO SMALL. I cannot believe that I got Rico to Grand Prix in this tiny arena (I rode in a slightly larger one during my lessons, rarely did I ever get into a long court, and when I did, it felt giant!), it's the same length as a short court, though a bit wider, but that's it. I couldn't even get TC straight down the long side for more than a couple steps before having to turn. So lateral work was mostly done on a circle, which is a useful tool anyway.

Canter right is so easy, he was a little balled up though

After the ride, I hopped off and hand walked him around the arena and ignored him in favor of watching the video I pulled these gifs from and playing with the Equisense app on my phone- it now allows you to check in on the ride as it's recording! So that was really cool, until he stopped. I turned to expect to see him staring at something or spooking. No. He looked like an elephant trying to balance on a ball, and then his knees buckled. He went to roll with my saddle on! I was like WHAAAAT ARE YOU DOING?!? and smacked his shoulder.

He got up reluctantly and then I pulled his tack, but then he didn't want to roll. Obviously. But hey he feels comfortable enough to roll there so maybe that's a good sign. My saddle was very sandy though, even though he didn't make it over.

I threw him in the cross ties and went into the house to grab something to drink. I watched him from the house as he went from staring toward me, deciding I had abandoned him forever, pawing like he thought digging to China was an option, standing with his foot straight out in front of him at 90 degrees, then rearing. I thiiiink he needs to be brought over more often to just stand in the cross ties for an hour and then taken home.

He was good to load back into the trailer and when he got home, he announced his arrival and no one cared. I hosed him down, put him back in his paddock, where he finally got his roll. Overall it was a great outing. I think we'll head back there in a couple weeks! This coming weekend though, we're going to a brand new facility...