Back to Work

So Friday morning just as my post went out, I got to the barn and found that TC's abscess had burst! It was coming out of the top of his medial heel bulb on his right front.

So I washed it and wrapped it and put him back. He was still feeling iffy and his leg was still swollen. In the evening, I came back to see him and saw him trotting around in his paddock totally sound, yay! But once again he'd tried to destroy his wrap, so I just washed it and left it open. I took him on a walk around the ranch and he was amped but paid attention to me. Only once did I have to get on his case when he saw a horse who he deemed was his new best friend and wanted to visit, when I said no, he got a bit shitty with me.

When I put him back in his paddock, he went galloping around. Sooo if he didn't have a tendon injury last week, maybe he'd have one this last weekend? Ugh. Horses.

So happy to be out and about again

Saturday he moved to his new paddock. The enormous one he was in (48x120ft) is actually designed for two horses, and two horses were moving in. But another paddock came open (48x70ft) so we moved in there. Shout out to my barn for dealing with all the shit these last three months, I've been rather indecisive about TC's living situation. But if he's going to be okay, I'm happy to spend a bit more to keep him at my current barn rather than moving to a place with one small covered arena (even though I do love that barn too, it's just harder to be a dressage rider there, I say, like a spoiled DQ with mirrors and a dressage court to ride in every day).

I got there in the afternoon after going on a long hike and teaching a couple lessons. The horse was happily munching on his hay in his new paddock! I checked his abscess and it had totally burst, had a nice line across his heel and was dry. I figured that as long as he was sound, working him was probably a good idea, so I pulled him out.

He was super happy to be back to a normal routine. He stood quietly while I tacked him up and impatiently snatched the bit into his mouth. I thought long and hard... he's had five days off... the intelligent thing to do would be to longe him first, right? Fuck it. I'll just get on.

Hmm it's so hard to see, it's right at the hairline
on his heel 

So I did. And he was amped, but he stayed with me. We positively strutted around the barn spooking at random stuff. I felt okay though, I think the bombproofing clinic really made me understand quite a bit about this horse, so I stayed relaxed and confident, which helped him a lot.

They were redoing the footing in the covered arena (it's so fluffy now!), so I headed to the dressage court.

We started with a lot of lateral work, and he felt great. The leg yields were excellent, and I really worked to get them steeper and get him stepping off my leg easier. The leg yield right was easier than the leg yield left, but both were quite steep. We're almost able to do them on the short diagonal (like from K to B) at the walk. Yay! Now to develop them like that at the trot, it's still so hard for him.

Into trot and he was sound! And SUPER up. In the past this would have sent me jumping off and grabbing longeing stuff, but I decided to just keep him thinking.

I mostly just pushed buttons rather than worked on anything new. He felt excellent in the bridle and light off the leg but not reactive, which was nice since I was sort of expecting the latter. I took note of any buttons that felt good- the walk trot transition is now always reliable, he's feeling really straight to the left, which is surprising because I'm basically the destroyer of all that is good to the left, and the quality of the gaits felt quite good. Of course there were weaknesses, the number one being the trot canter transition. It's always been tricky for us because he really needs to GO in the trot before the canter, and then I feel like I lose control both of my body (left behind) and of his body (as he slides sideways into canter). Boo. But not the day to work on it.

Cue irritation that I only ever go to
the right, but it ended up being unfounded,
I was mostly walking to the right!

Sunday was though, and after teaching five lessons for Kate while she was in Omaha (her kids are SUPER fun so that made me slightly less envious... not by much as she snapped a bunch of videos to me!), I zipped down to the barn with the idea that we'd be fixing that damn trot canter transition.

I think it stems from his previous weakness at the canter and my tendency to underpower him in general. The canter is now feeling pretty good, but I know there's a LOT more canter in him and I have to work up to that for me. Riding him on the edge of where I'm comfortable isn't where I want to be right now since we're still rebuilding our trust bank. So this is where it's coming out- picking up an underpowered canter from an appropriately powered (though not nearly as much as he could) trot is not a recipe for throughness. Add to that the struggle with throughness when he shortens his step in general (this has been a theme with him for a long time, covering more ground almost always results in more throughness).

After focusing on the trot to canter transition itself (mostly in straightness and convincing him that even if he gets slightly braced in it, he doesn't have to toss his ears into my face), I decided to play with the collected trot. I figured it'd kill a lot of birds with one stone- let me practice sitting trot, improve the trot to canter transitions, give him an idea of what is coming in the future (half steps-wise), and change the mechanic of his hind legs, which is really the problem I've had with all of these things.

He's still being so spooky about shit

I was really impressed with him in this work. He tends to want to be a pushing horse, though he is so willing to work that the collected gaits haven't been much of a struggle (yet). We've played with both collecting the trot and canter, but this time I wanted to push him even further.

I can count on one hand the number of times I've sat his trot longer than a few steps, and this time we did the whole exercise in sitting trot. Once I found a trot I could sit easily (and was surprised to find such a trot), we swung the pendulum toward working trot and then back toward collected trot, swinging it more and more toward collection. He struggled a bit in the throughness department, wanting to retract his neck rather than stay out to the bridle, something I completely expected and was glad to fix immediately.

A few times he thought walk, and a few times he responded to my quick taps (to engage his hind quarters) by slowing the hind legs, but other than that, he was great. As we went on, the trot got easier and easier to sit and I found myself not really even noticing that I was sitting it. Like it was easier to sit than Rico's, which is VERY weird and it's not a good thing. I'm not a better rider than I was back then and I'm quite a bit weaker. So either I'm on my way to a back injury but don't realize it, he's magically becoming smoother to sit, or I'm not riding him forward enough. Proooobably that I'm not riding him forward enough. But see my earlier point about staying firmly within my comfort zone. So who cares.

Driving back from Saturday's hike, could see the whole south
bay area!

I was so glad to have my horse back for the weekend! I hate it when anything derails my weekend riding. It's never the end of the world if I have to skip a weekday, but I'm really attached to my weekend days with this horse. It's also when I get to see barn friends and when I'm not hurrying out of the barn to get home.

I was pretty impressed with his willingness to jump right back into work without having to be longed down. Granted, I'm pretty sure he ran around a LOT after it burst on Friday morning, where by the time I rode on Saturday afternoon, he was relaxed and happy. But meh, I'll take it as a giant win.