Installing Lateral Work

Sunday was an amazing day for TC and I. Like probably one of the best rides behavior-wise that we've had in a very very very long time and I'm still walking on air about it (actually, I can't walk because on Monday night he stamped my foot when he spooked super hard while I was picking his feet, so I'm limping on air).

I got out to the barn in the middle of the day after riding Rico and Riot in the morning and it was warm and pleasant. I got finished tacking up and thought I really miss riding him around the ranch, so I ignored the intelligent part of my brain, put his lead rope around his neck (so I had it if I had to transition to hand walking), tightened the girth, and hopped on him.

Wait... ears picture with SUN and outside a ring?!

He immediately wanted to trot, and this has been happening recently. His winter rearing habit always happened in the halt to walk transition from mounting (and also in general, and also from walk to trot). So when I started riding him again, I would make him trot IMMEDIATELY and if he didn't, we'd have a discussion. From then on, butt in saddle = GO FORWARD OR DISCUSSION IS COMING, so he's a bit hot to trot these days. I've been now working on quieting down that response, but I wasn't surprised when he trotted first.

But then he chilled out, and we had a downright PLEASANT ride around the ranch. Like a majority of the time we were on a loose rein. He was walking kinda slow, but his head was down and he wasn't tense, so I was fine with it. We walked all over, the only place we didn't go was around the front of the covered where people drive in, back to the trail course (it was muddy), or behind the riding school (because I don't have a death wish).

My plan was to go back and ride in the round pen, possibly longe first, but someone was in there. I could either wait, ride more around the ranch, or go in the covered ring. I decided to check out the covered. I've been avoiding riding with too many other people these days, a lot of it is that I just don't want to have long conversations about how things are going- I've kept it short and sweet that things are going great when people ask. I also don't want TC to get goosed or me to get distracted by people talking to me where I ignore him and he gets away with being an ass. My goal is to get him super solid on his own first, get my confidence back, then start dealing with the stressers of riding with others.

His head looks so giant when he has no neck

There were a couple of people in there just walking around, so I decided to just go for it. Now, for a long time I've been trotting him before, but he was being so good that I just picked up a trot. And he was SO GOOD.

The first lap was a bit lazy and stuck, but after that, he relaxed and moved out quite nicely. We did large figures, since I'm trying not to drill small circles into him with his balance being questionable and his mystery problem still lingering in my mind. We worked mostly on the connection and suppleness, which is made more difficult by not being able to be on curved lines too often. He was just right there for me over his back and into the bridle, more so than he has been for a long time.

We walked for a bit and I started playing with all the lateral work. Saturday convinced me that while he's being good and while I can't do anything super fun with him (canter work, lengthenings, etc), I may as well teach him all the lateral work. I mean there's no reason why he can't come out of rehab doing walk pirouettes, right?

I even rode him out here, but mostly to get this
picture... 

So we worked on everything. Haunches-in is definitely tough for him, mostly because he's just so short backed that he has to be QUITE haunches-in before he's on 2 tracks. So right now he's getting lots of pets and good boy's if he does anything. The walk pirouettes (technically TOH I guess) are coming along super well. He does quarters pretty well- there is at least two super super good steps in there.

I'm choosing to treat them like canter pirouettes- if he gives me a good step or two, he comes out. I don't want him to tire or get confused or what not in them because that can lead to sticking or stepping out. Right now they're perfect steps so we're keeping them that way and working to add more, not messing with the pirouette to get a half turn and then having to go back and fix it later when we want the actual tight pirouette. It's so funny to go back and train these things that I royally fucked up with Rico.

The half pass... exists. It's not my strength and he again is struggling with the haunches in. I figure it's fine to struggle through the half pass a bit too, both will improve as the other does and half pass gives him a slightly different way of thinking of how to place his body that includes getting his outside hind leg under him.

Even rode down the back road! Crazy

We went back to trot and did shoulder-in and leg yields, both of which I would consider sooooo close to being show ready. his shoulder-in left is for sure ready for the show ring, it's steady and easy. He just plops into it and is easy to straighten as well. The right is okay too, I certainly had worse shoulder-in when I was showing Rico Second, but there is a stutter step coming in and out where he wants to swing his haunches left rather than bring his shoulders to the inside.

The leg yield is perfect. At this point I'm just working on myself getting out of his way and not overriding it, since he's happy to let me do that. It feels so good to have a decent leg yield on him- I worked tirelessly two years ago when he was even younger and dumber than he is now at just getting him to understand sideways. Lateral work is tough for him, but this is starting to feel super easy.

We finished with a nice long walk around the ranch. It was ridiculous fun to be back to working on real dressage for what feels like the first time in a long long time.

Trade coffee for tea and that's me this week

Obviously this wonderful love of the horse couldn't last for long. After all, this has been feeling like the world's most dramatic equestrian blog in the last year, and TC was not about to make it boring. Monday night I went out to ride him and it was windy, so I grabbed his quarter sheet along with my saddle. Normally I remember to put it on after brushing him so that it can warm up his back before I slide it back to his butt and put my tack on. But I left it sitting on my saddle. Whyyyy.

I went to pick his right front foot and the quarter sheet moved, causing him to fly backwards, stamping my foot with his foot. I immediately got after him but then had to sit down because fuuuuuck that hurt. Nothing like a horse stepping on you, let alone smashing the foot down in a spook from picking-height. I ended up having to hobble back to the stall with him (not before flapping the shit out of the quarter sheet near him until he stopped being afraid of it), put all my stuff away, and delicately drive home so that I could get my boot off. It doesn't seem broken, just really really unhappy.