Yesterday we were back at the same place for another rated show. Two shows in one week, TC!
My initial plan had been to do both Saturday and Sunday, but after him having so much time off in the month of July, I wanted him to be fitter to do two days. It may seem kinda silly that a horse couldn't do two back to back days of training level dressage tests, but I also really didn't want him to get pissy/burned out about hauling back and forth and back and forth, and I have our first overnight trip of the year planned for August (for a clinic vs a show) so I can learn to manage him at other facilities overnight without the pressures of scores.
This show was a different judge, so I was a little nervous that our first show was a fluke and that we'd get the lower scores we deserve at this show. I was also nervous that TC was fluke-ly good the first show, despite some bucking, and that he'd be nutty at this show.
I don't like that his withers are down but I like this picture anyway
These mild nerves were not made better by having two terrible rides in between shows. He got Thursday off, then I had a very short time to ride Friday morning before my morning meeting (which was then moved, come on guys). He ran off during that ride but there was a TON going on at the barn so I didn't blame him.
It was my birthday Saturday so I decided to do lunch and a cider walk with the family. I decided that it'd be a good idea to ride in the evening vs the morning just so he didn't have tons of hours between Saturday's ride and Sunday's. Well, that was a bad idea because it was cold that night and I was maybe not in the best place mentally. So we had another couple of bolts and I got into a bit of a fight with him about that and his incessant spooking.
The thing about his spooking is that it doesn't get better if I get after him for it. So dumb. So so dumb.
He's so cute all braided
So the day of the show I was a little bit nervous we'd have a bad ride. But I also figured that it'd be nice to even just get off the property and pay the world's most expensive facility fee to ride there. Plus, TC thought showing was super fun the other day and maybe he'd be more tolerant of my shitty riding at a show where everyone is fawning over him.
And it did go well!
The show was even smaller than the Wednesday show, so we were by ourselves in our tests. That meant automatic blue ribbons! But our scores were quite good too- a 71.3% at Training 2 and a 70.4% at Training 3.
Unfortunately I didn't get video because I couldn't find the videographer and forgot that I could ask someone to video on my phone. Oh well. The tests were very similar to how Wednesday's tests went.
So lateral balance is still hard but his tail is pretty!
Warm up for Training 2 went well, and we headed up to the show ring. Once again he was super chill in the show ring- like too chill. Part of it was that I rode him pretty hard on Saturday, part of it is just again my inability to add energy within our test. I noticed it a bit on Wednesday but certainly by Sunday had it pegged as a problem. A lot of our comments said "nds NRG" which I had to ask Tracey about and she was like "uh, it means energy" and I was like ohhhh duh.
The whole test was quite smooth, though the judge is what I would call a "5-6-7 judge," where he's reluctant to go too low or too high. We did earn 8s on our two diagonals, but it was very different from the Wednesday judge who loved TC but also gave us low scores too. Interesting how math works.
But we got 7s and 7.5s on a TON of movements. It's actually easier to just say that we got 6.5s on our walk work (because no energy) and on our stretchy work (because he was just a touch tight). We also had a 6.5 on a canter circle because he crow hopped again.
The judge wasn't as impressed with TC's gaits- we got a 7.5- but was happier with his submission and impulsion (7 and 7.5). Didn't like me so much, I got a 7 on rider but a 7.5 on effective use of aids. There was just one comment about not using my spur before my calf because of the buck, which also said something about the spurs. No other comments, so that was weird. Oh well. I'll take my 71 and keep quiet about it.
Better lateral balance but ugh lateral canter, we'll always have a bit of that in there, oh well
Between tests I didn't have much time so I watched the musical freestyle and then hopped on to just trot around once and do a canter transition in each direction.
Training 3 went okay, though things were just messy IMO. The halt was a bit abrupt and early so he oozed out of it and a little hollow. The loop went well and so did the canter work, but he was a bit tired in the walk. The right canter transition was our first real oh fuck moment, where he came off the bit and we got a 6, boo. But then we came back with a 7.5 for the canter circle, so that's nice. Overall our only scores below 7 was that one 6 and then a 6.5 on the stretchy things- free walk and stretch trot. This judge wasn't impressed with our stretch trot, and neither is Tracey so, homework.
The collectives were the same, except the submission was a 7.5 and impulsion came down to a 7 citing TC's slow walk as the reason. The only comment was "nice test" and while I do like more comments, I'm not complaining.
Hello uphill balance
I was super pleased that TC was good for the show. I'm still nervous about the ramifications of arguing with him on Saturday, but I think that the show helped reset us. He did feel slightly on edge about my riding, but had a blast showing and getting attention and carrots.
And again it was so fun to get a couple more good scores on his record! I also found out that I was indeed high point at the last show, but they weren't doing high point at that show. I'm thinking I won't get it at this show because there was someone on Saturday that scored above my 71. Oh well, it felt good getting the high score (and second high score actually lol) on Wednesday even if I don't have cool satin to show for it!
He's a good egg
Next show isn't until at least the end of August, so we're going to keep plugging away with the takeaways from these shows. I'm so glad that we finally made it to the rated show ring! Now to eagerly await his name to show up on my centerline scores along with four scores in the 70s!
I had wanted to post a little about the show yesterday and be able to split this post into two pieces, but I had a ridiculous day dealing with my car that started shuttering on the highway. That could be a whole post in itself. But this is a horse blog, not a complain-about-my-car blog.
About to turn up centerline
There are two major parts to this post that I had wanted to split. Because not only was it a literal win in that TC and I won both classes with scores in the 70s, but it was a figurative win in that for a very long time, I didn't think we'd ever make it into the rated show ring.
I'm going to start with the latter because I can be quick. This horse has been a real tricky horse for me. Not because he's some special snowflake horse who needs a special snowflake rider who is the only one who understands him, but because he came into my life at a time where I was transitioning from professional to pro-amateur (a pro living an ammy lifestyle?). He then got pretty seriously injured right as some behavioral issues reared (literally and figuratively at one point lol) their ugly head. So when he came back to me from rehab, not only did we have the physical issues of his previous suspensory injury to deal with, we had those lurking behavioral issues.
Aside from all that, we also had a very green horse without much life experience that needed to be trained and exposed to everything. And he proved tricky in that way to me too. Behavioral problems, physical problems, experience problems, and training problems. Only one of those things (the last one) did I feel comfortable with. But we pushed through and here we are.
First rated show, first test, first time wearing all my medals in a rated show, first forelock braid
So this show was a win before we were winning everything, even just signing up was a win. Because three months ago we were in schooling shows and I was wondering if I'd ever feel confident enough at a new place to buy his memberships.
Six months ago I was terrified of riding this horse because every time I tried, he stood on his hind legs or galloped away with me.
Nine months ago I was still in training and struggling to ride him in the covered arena, especially when horses left the arena, you know, like they do in the show ring.
Twelve months ago I was riding in the round pen and my trainer had to ride him first each day.
Fifteen months ago I was driving out to see him in rehab every single week to hear about how nutty he was and how hot he was and how reactive he was.
Eighteen months ago he ripped his suspensory out of its origin site and I wasn't sure if today would ever be possible.
And two and a half years ago I started riding a horse who was just about 15 rides undersaddle, who showed me only a fraction of what he is capable of today. I didn't think much of this horse, guys, I thought I was settling because of my budget.
Not settling
..... but we won everything!
My ride times were in the early afternoon so I drove over hoping to get there early enough to wander around the ranch with him. He's been to this facility three times now and has always been SUPER good, but you never know- especially with the tents and loudspeaker for the show.
TC came out a little excited, but we immediately walked over to the show ring. He tried to take me into warm up, but I saw there was someone in there longeing and didn't want to disturb them. The more we walked, the better he got. He's still very concerned about traveling, but the moment you put him to work he's totally chill. Some ground work as we were walking (halt, walk on, halt, walk on) was enough to help him relax.
Canter work, she liked it, I felt meh about it
Much to my pleasant surprise, we were allowed to walk around the outside of the show arena since the show hadn't started yet. TC didn't look at all concerned about it, but I figured it'd be a good idea anyway. He didn't care. Like not at all, he stretched out and peed as we walked slowly around the outside of the ring (then lol he spooked at his own pee spot when we came back in to show).
I tacked him up and we headed into warm up and he was just perfect aside from the canter transitions. They weren't bad, but they weren't good. I knew we'd have issues with the canter and so I did a few in a row.
Tracey was nearby and gave me some quick tips about the work to the left, which seemed to work because our left scores were better than our right, despite me really feeling like I just can't ride left anymore.
I didn't really do much in warm up other than some transitions though. I knew his stretch trot would be fine (8.5) and his free walk was just going to be what it was (7.5) since no amount of warm up prevents him from going OMG WHAT IS THAT (happened in T3 lol). And Training 2 really has no other interesting bits in it. So off we went. I hope the video works. There's a lot of me dicking around at the beginning waiting for the bell.
Training 2 rode pretty well and started off with a bang. We earned a 9 on our first center line, a 7 on our first circle (to the right, the right scores were lower than the left), and an 8.5 on our diagonal. The canter work was a 6 for the transition because I literally had to smack him and kick him to get him into it. Then a 6.5 on the circle saying that he was a bit resistant. Yeah I'd say that since he tried to stop the whole time. Those lower scores killed us because the canter circle is a double coefficient.
We came back with an 8 on the downward and an 8.5 on the stretch circle (never thought I'd wish for the stretch to be a double coefficient!). Downward was an 8.5 and then the free walk was a 7.5 because he was stepping a bit wide with his right hind. Noted. The judge really nailed me on my ability to ride to the RIGHT vs the left. So now I can't ride in either direction? Ugh okay.
The high and low scores continued with an 8.5 on our trot circle, an 8 on our diagonal, and an 8 on the downward. But then we also got a 6 on our walk to trot transition, which was silly of me, he got a bit retracted, a 6 on our canter transition which again was lethargic and off the bit. And then stupidly, he started bucking in his right canter circle so we got a glorious 5.
Overall marks were exciting. An 8 on gaits with the comment "bounding gaits, articulate," a 7.5 on impulsion, and an 8 on rider position. Dragging us down was the 6 on submission becasue of his canter transitions and a 7 on rider correct aids, probably because I poked and prodded him through the canter work. Comments were about getting more throughness on the right side and shifting my weight right, which is definitely a problem of mine.
Final score was a 71.923% and first place out of one! But I'll take the ribbon, that was the high score so far that day.
Centerline
I put TC back at the trailer to eat and he hung out until my next test. I ran up to get my T2 test and to watch Kate go (she did AMAZING at 1-2 on Mox with a great score, I'll let her tell the whole story though).
Back on TC for the second test and he felt great. My main goal was to basically just go in and have another test like that. I knew that if I just rode him the same, he'd get another 70. No need to put any pressure on. I did, however, want more energy out of him just because he was a bit tricky in the canter and I didn't want to have any more bucks. A few more jazzy transitions in warm up and off we went. Again hopefully this works, and again lots of dicking around as I just wanted to stand and wait for the bell vs trotting around and wearing him out.
We again grabbed a good centerline score- 8.5 Then a really exciting 8 on the first loop since I'm kind of awful at those. It felt good to get that! We had better canter scores this time- a 7 on the transition to the left lead and a 7.5 on both the circle and across the diagonal. That to me felt slightly out of control, but the judge LOVED his canter, said that he had "nice jump" which is so funny since I don't think his canter is all that good but he sure does have jump. We got an 8.5 on the downward from trot to walk saying that he was quite uphill. Then a 7.5 on our free walk because he stared literally right at my people who were watching and was probably like "GUYS LOOK I AM WALKING AREN'T I BEING AMAZING?!?!" He'll figure out how to ignore his friends soon.
We then had a 7 on our next loop, citing a loss of connection, he basically didn't really come through in the right turn, so then the left turn wasn't great. Ugh oh well. We got a 6 on the following canter transition too because he was peetering out and I had to poke him into it. But we came back with an 8.5 on the canter circle! Good pony with apparently nice jump and balance. Wow for a horse who had no balance to speak of in the canter when I got him, sure feels nice to get such a high score on a canter movement!
At this point I'm cantering down the longside and totally forget my test. I know we do a stretch at B and then centerline, but I forget if we trot at M or C. As I'm debating how to do that (do I skip M and trot at C and risk a bell? Do I trot at M and take an error or a point deduction for trotting early?), he broke right at M. I got a 7 with "nice balance" but then a -2 for the error. Oops. I was so distracted by my incompetence that I forgot to really get him bending before the stretch, so we got a 6.5 on that and then a 6.5 on our final centerline, both because he was leaning on his right shoulder, which he does when I'm not fucking riding him. Ugh. Don't dwell on your past mistakes and plummet your scores, Megan.
Canter slowly becoming more uphill, also he looks ENORMOUS when my leg slips back lol
Collectives were AMAZING once again. This time with a bit more pizazz in his trot, he got an 8.5 on gaits!! That doesn't happen! Rico would get 7.5s at the most, maybe an 8 every now and then. But for my cheap young horse to get an 8.5?!
We also got a 7.5 again on impulsion, this time with the words "nice connection" written in. What. This horse put me through hell and back with his sensitivity in the bridle and tendency to get super btv and curled when he was a young horse. Nice connection. Yes, yes it is.
I got demoted to a 7.5 for rider position, probably for my ugly riding at the end and general need to poke him at the canter to keep him on task. And then a 6.5 on submission, probably up because we didn't buck (yay). And our usual 7 on ride effectiveness.
Score was a 72.272% and first place, this time against a couple of other riders! As I left the ring, the judge called out to me "I like your horse!" and I said "me too!" or something of the sort. I couldn't remember, I was just so happy.
TC likes the camera the most, this was during my free walk in T3 lol
Overall it was an AMAZING show. TC was perfect, I was... fine, the show was super well run, I loved having friends there (Kate and then I ran into 2-3 other people I knew) and my mom and bf came to watch. TC totally improved his image in bf's eyes, since the last show bf was at, TC was a bit of a nut.
It was so fun to feel 100% ready for my tests, I haven't felt that way in a very long time because I was always pushing myself to get medals and move up quickly. There were a lot less nerves on my part, which helped TC learn that shows are super super fun! He got lots of attention and pets and even some carrots.
On our crappier loop
So, officially TC has a show record now! And I told him this year that I'd buy him a new browband (as if he cares) if he either scored in the 70s or earned a show high point ribbon. He did the former, so he gets a browband. If anyone has any ideas, let me know, it just has to be a V browband and price point under $100- colors are silver, white, black, gray, and navy. I have one in mind but I'm open to suggestions.
TC also earned a score above 65% at Training 2 or above, so when I send in a copy of his test, he will be a Bronze Elite Friesian Sporthorse in the FSA (vs right now he is in the main book). They do it for geldings too, so that's cool. Next stop for the Silver is Third, so we have quite a while. Fun to have him earn a little award already though.
He can look pretty fancy sometimes
After this, we have another show on Sunday at the same place. Different judge, so I have no expectations. I know TC isn't everyone's cup of tea, so I'm curious to see how he scores. I gave him yesterday off so we only have two more rides until the show, not enough time to fix anything. I'm mostly just keeping him exercised and trying to make sure I don't fuck anything up. Easier said than done!
An unofficial blog hop keeps popping up about supplements, I think it originated with Olivia, but I actually have my horse on supplements now so I figured I'd join in.
Why I want to feed him money, I don't know
In terms of hay, TC gets 5 flakes a day. Two are alfalfa and three are grass. Our grass is of good quality, so he is pretty much meeting a lot of his nutritional needs with hay. But I'm definitely a sucker for feeding him money, so he's also on some grain and supplements.
He gets 3 quarts of LMF Gentle Balance. He could probably go on something else at this point, but he was originally put on it because it doesn't make horses hot. And he was a bit hot on rehab.
With his grain, he gets some supplements!
10,000mg of MSM
TC has been on MSM since I bought him when he was four years old. It's cheap and makes me feel better about joint support for him.
5,000mg (I think) of Glucosamine
I wanted to add another level of joint supplement now that TC is working harder. I looked into different combinations of joint supplements that had both MSM and Glucosamine in them, but it ended up just being easier to get them separately. Maybe next year I'll put him on something fancier. But he's only just now starting to school the collected work so he's probably good.
1/2 cup of Omega Horseshine
I know you can feed up to a cup, but there are other coat/hoof supplements out there that are cheaper if I had to feed that much, so TC is on just the half cup. So far he DOES seem a little shinier, but he also rolls in the dirt, so he could be covering up a lot of his shine. I'm not totally sold on it, I think I might want to switch to farrier's formula to focus more on his feet and hope that has a good side effect for his coat. I feel like it doesn't matter how much I try to get his coat looking good, he's just going to roll in the dirt and make himself look terrible.
1 scoop of Muscle Up
I threw him on this when I was at Expo and they were offering me a buy two get one free supplement deal. I don't necessarily think TC needs a muscle supplement, he gets lots of protein from his alfalfa, but I was curious. So far he looks pretty much like I'd expect him to look given his level of work. Soooo we'll see. He's only been on it for a month and had a week off recently. What I am curious about is that he definitely has felt less muscle sore than usual recently. I'm not sure whether that's this supplement or just that he's finally fit/strong enough to not get sore.
6,000 IUs of Vitamin E
I've always fed Vitamin E, I get the little gel capsules from Costco super cheap and I figure it can't hurt to give it to them. Rico gets them so TC gets them too.
Psyllium (for the first 7 days of every month)
TC eats on sandy dirt, so I'm pretty paranoid about sand colic with him. The psyllium flushes him out every month.
That's what he's getting right now. I'm still working out exactly what I like and don't like to feed. I do like hearing what other people feed, even if it just enables me!
Saturday morning I set out to have a lesson with my dressage trainer. My primary reasons to get a lesson were to both school at the facility where we're showing pretty soon, to see where we were at in terms of trainer's super long to do list for us to fix, and to continue to work on my tracking-left and right-canter-transition woes.
I was probably a bit too trusting of TC when we got to the facility. He was a little nervous, but I could tell he wasn't thaaat nervous. He whinnied once or twice, and was doing some half-assed pawing. He got in trouble trying to walk off while bridling, and I probably got after him too much. He was pretty upset after that and didn't want me to get on. I hopped on (shoulda done ground work first, oops) and he went to go backwards, but then spun and I had to kind of growl at him to get him forward.
That turned into him having what used to be a mental breakdown and what is currently just too much negative tension as he screamed and spooked and jigged down the driveway. All the while I stayed on a loose rein and talked to him about how he's fucking been here before, twice. He wanted to go in the covered arena, but I saw a poor innocent soul in there who we might accidentally terrorize, so I walked up to the dressage court instead. He settled for a second on the way up, then spooked hard at a pile of shavings.
I wasn't too upset that he was upset. Trainer had said she was in the car so I was happy to have a lesson if he was a little up. There's a very real chance that he'll pop out of the trailer even worse at the shows and I was happy to have help.
Only got video going left, oops
In what is becoming true TC fashion, however, the second we were in the arena walking around the outside of the dressage court, he took a big deep breath and while he maintained some spookiness (horse is just spooky), he was totally fine for the rest of the day, even not caring about the shavings pile on the way back to the covered arena to warm up. Horse loves his work. I still want to work on him being more confident just walking around places, but I do like that I can put him any work environment and he settles in.
We warmed up in the covered arena, and things went super well. He was a bit up, but settled right in as we started working. This amount of up really worked for us, I felt like it was the exact amount of positive tension I wanted in him. He was maneuverable and had a bit of pizazz in his step, but he was still relaxed, aside from the occasional spook, he's a spooky horse so whatever.
The only thing that wasn't better was the canter. His canter in non-home places is still taking a while to develop. Tracey complained about that in my lesson- that he seems to just give me one canter. At home I feel like maybe I'm willing to take more risks in my half halting, or maybe that he's less distracted or less tense so he's willing to sit down more. I dunno. Either way I took note that his canter felt less than stellar adjustability-wise.
When his rider learns how to sit properly, he's going to be so fancy
After warming up down below, I headed up to the dressage court to find it vacant, great! Tracey joined me after I trotted around a bit and I told her about my canter transition woes. I also really stressed that I'm riding in a couple of shows coming up so I knew we couldn't totally fix them and I really didn't want to get on his case about him. But if we could at least diagnose the problem, that would be ideal.
We worked a bit in trot first though, and I'm happy to report that I didn't get as many comments about his connection as I had in June! I got a lot of comments about how I need to ride in a court more often (our court is the last arena to have its footing redone so I've been avoiding it) because I was riding a bit drunk. But that's something that is easily fixable. I was more focused on the lack of comments on his connection! Fuck conformation excuses! Go TC!
After fixing the trot work, I was told to sit the trot and then go into canter. I've sort of been avoiding the sitting trot, having figured out how to ride a shit canter transition from posting trot. I went to sit the trot and he immediately hollowed his back and went to stop. Tracey told me to take weight from my seat and distribute it down to my thighs to sit a little lighter. She said 60% weight in the seat, 40% in my thigh.
The difference was astounding. Not only did TC keep his back up and not go to stop, he gave me STELLAR canter transitions. And sure he's again not completely through, but at this point I will take him just picking it up when I ask him to without any delays or theatrics.
I struggle so much to the left ugh
We played a bit with the T3 pattern, the loop always gets people, and sure enough, it got me a bit too. Tracey wanted me to show a little more changes of bend, and watch that sometimes I overshoot my centerline. This is again just a symptom of not riding in the dressage court enough.
TC chose this moment to suddenly be terrified of a bush in the corner. Tracey said that every horse thinks there is a rabbit living under there, probably a killer rabbit. Other than that though, everything rode super well, the whole test feels like it's edging on too easy. I'm kind of addicted to this feeling though- that there's no movement in the test where I feel like the apocalypse might happen. With Rico moving up so fast it felt like a big gamble a lot of the time. I know that if I ride well and if TC keeps his head about killer rabbits, we'll be okay.
Tracey agreed, and said that she thinks TC's gaits are a 7. She says that she would start at a 7 but take him down to a 6 or 6.5 if he spooked. She said he wasn't being bad, just young and she doesn't like punishing riders for that too much as long as the horse is doing what they are asked of. So where the score comes down isn't the spook (which she doesn't consider a disobedience, at least at Training) but if he gets himself retracted in the neck or tight in the back. Then she'd say 6, braced. She also handed me my ass by telling me that any score below 7 that isn't because of a spook is therefore my fault for riding my geometry poorly. Ah okay.
Just a couple more rides to go, and all I'll be working on is geometry and making sure I don't fuck up any more transitions. Or maybe I just won't ride until the show and let TC practice without me.
One of the trickier things about TC for me has been walking the line between positive and negative tension. Rico was the sort of horse who really didn't exhibit a lot of negative tension that wasn't directly caused by my actions. Pull on horse = tension. But I could really amp Rico up and things just got better and better. Part of that is just who he is as a horse- he's got a nice relaxed warmblood brain- and part of that is his age/experience/training. I bought Rico at 8, two full years older than TC is now, so he had a lot more time to grow up before I started working with him.
TC on the other hand is a more sensitive horse. He shows this in his lightness, in how simple he is (deceptively simple) to ride, and he shows this in his struggles with negative tension.
The hard part is that while rhythm and relaxation are way down on the dressage training scale, a completely relaxed horse is not brilliant. So this is where positive tension comes in- TC needs to be able to carry some positive tension in his body without it worrying him.
I'm not terrible at adding positive tension to a horse, I did it all the time with Rico because he'd be lazy and I'd need to amp him up. But I am kind of terrible at recognizing when that positive tension is turning into negative tension and when it needs to be dialed back. And that has led to some moments, like the one I described in this post where I had brought his canter into collection, then subsequently lost it as he ran off when I didn't change my seat quick enough to get him relaxed.
A bit toward negative tension over here
One of the ways that I've been combating this is just kind of riding him underpowered and quiet. This has been deliberate, since I have shows coming up and I don't want to stress him out. When he gets stressed, he either goes forward and/or upward, and then it takes a bit of time to get him back to me- a couple of weeks last time. He's also extra hot at shows, so if I practice amping him up every ride, then I'll get to a show and struggle with sitting softer and deeper.
But this obviously has an effect on the way that he's going. And I realized that with the extra bits of relaxation came a very unimpressive working trot. Sure he was on the vertical and tracking up, but he was for sure more on the forehand than he needs to be, and he was just... soft. There was no brilliance, just quiet work.
And don't get me wrong, I so appreciate that. I can RIDE him when he's like that. And that's huge, I'd rather have a quiet horse I can pop on bareback and wander around on vs a firecracker who is sometimes GREAT and sometimes INSANE.
I made the above chart to illustrate what I'm talking about with TC. The light blue section is where I'm most comfortable with him- I love that I can hop on him bareback now, that I took him on a trail ride, that he's becoming this totally chill relaxed guy. And sometimes I push that up to the first line where he looks better and we happily sit there looking like we sort of know what we're doing.
But I know that it's not quite enough to get the scores and put on the muscle I know he's capable of. First and foremost he is my dressage horse, and I want to be able to get halfway decent scores and be halfway competitive maybe in some of the classes I enter. I also do want to move up the levels. I'm not as hell bent on zipping up the levels to the detriment of my scores as I was previously, but I don't want to get a hundred percent at training level.
To do both of those things, I really do need to figure out how to bring more positive tension into TC's life without stressing him out (negative mental tension) or making him get mechanical in his movement (negative physical tension).
It's not that I don't know how to ride him in the middle of the bell curve, it's not a matter of ability in that sense. I think the solution involves two things:
1) the realization of where I'm at on the curve at any point
2) the influence over how much tension he has in his body
Love this level of tension, though it's not a competitive level lol
First, I need to be able to at any moment while riding know where I'm at on the curve, especially with regard to the line I need to ride up to. Am I slipping down into the valley of doom without realizing it? Or am I not even close to the level of brilliance I could have safely? Am I on the brink of an explosion?
This is for sure a problem of mine, I tend to be having a lot of fun riding him when he's up and then suddenly it's not fun anymore. Or I ride him too quiet, and then I'm having fun riding him because I think of how far we've come and then I look in the mirror and I'm like DAMNIT he's so unimpressive.
Quite relaxed
Then, I really need to ride him up and back along the line to get him used to changing how much tension is in his body. The ideal is to have his mind be alert but relaxed, and his body only tense in the structures that need to be tense to do his job. But horses aren't born with this ability.
I figure it's going to take just a lot of repetition. He needs to trust me that I will always bring him back to a moment of relaxation (reinforcement) after I ask him to carry tension in his body. He needs to feel physically capable of doing his work without me having to put any major pressure on him. He needs to be both ready to add and to reduce tension at a moment's notice.
So that's just practice. Bring him up toward the brink then bring him right back down. Medium trot to stretch circle, simple changes to free walk. Over and over again.
The goal: quiet but brilliant
Just more of the things in my busy mind as I'm riding my even busier minded horse! Maybe riding would be easier if I turned my brain off and just fucking rode my horse.
My family SERIOUSLY has the worst luck with horses. Now that everything is resolved and I actually had time to sit and write this post, I'm going to update you all on how little Sunny is doing.
I have no new pictures so here's him when I rode him to try him out
Sunny is my mom's new horse who she bought back in May. Since then he has absolutely been her dream horse. She's only had to put me on him twice- once on the first ride and then once when she was riding him bareback and wanted me to canter him. She and my dad have hauled out to ride at a few trail facilities and he's perfect. The best part is that he whinnies at her every day. She totally deserves a horse as great as this.
And it's a good thing that he is so great. Because just after he was purchased, it came out that he has silicosis. It's a disease that affects only horses boarded in a certain area in California, where Sunny was from. It essentially breaks down the rebuilding of bone, so the horses will basically start to develop what appears to be arthritis, but is actually bone pain. Some horses also/instead develop lung problems, but so far (fingers crossed) Sunny seems to just have the problems with his bones.
My mom found out because he seemed to be acting weird- on the first day I rode him he was very hesitant about going on the bit (I mean I don't want to brag but I *can* put a horse on the bit), then he was being weird about putting his head down to eat. So she took him to the vet and *poof* silicosis. Damnit.
So cute
She contacted the old owner but let's be real here- we didn't expect the owner to take him back or anything. Plus, I mean, my mom isn't going to ask much of this horse anyway, there IS a treatment option (but it is expensive and long term effects are still unknown), and he is legit her dream horse. So when the owner refused to take him back but instead offered some of the purchase price back, we were cool with that.
Since then Sunny has been treated and is now off of previcox! He will probably get a bone scan this year to get an idea of what his baseline is. My mom had gotten insurance on him, so all of his treatment is covered this year (including the expensive shot). She's also looking into some good bone/joint supplements, so if you have suggestions, please leave them here!
Outside of the silicosis, Sunny remains a dream. It's so fun to see my mom have her very own perfect horse. Hopefully Sunny will remain rideable for many years and his silicosis won't prove to be a problem for my family, but he is quiet enough where if worse comes to worse, he can transition to a life of leasure being a grand child pony while my mom leases/buys something else.
My mom says he likes that he's so photogenic. All of her horses have been photogenic so she's been spoiled, TC sometimes looks like a donky
Let me say that this horse REALLY lucked out. He'll have a home with my parents forever, even if he can't be ridden. He seems to know how lucky he is, he whinnies at everyone and is just perfectly well behaved. My mom says even more perfect than Rico, but I just don't believe her.
In a summer filled with too many vacations (which I know is a first world problem, but to be perfectly honest, I just want to be home enough to put some training on my horse who I am showing very soon), bf and I hopped on yet another plane last Friday and took off to see his parents.
His parents have a lake house and were so so generous to let us come hang out for the weekend and relax. Despite just being on Lake Superior in Michigan, where we did lots of lake activities (kayaking, stand up paddle boarding, relaxing in tubes), this was a very different lake experience, because we went out on the boat and did some more extreme lake activities. I have some battle wounds to show for it.
Look at this beautiful lake, it wouldn't maim you and leave you for dead!
We landed on Friday night and they swung through town on their way so picked us up with bf's childhood dogs. We got to cuddle them all the way back to the house, which was awesome. Love dogs so much.
Saturday morning we ate a delicious breakfast and headed out for a day on the water. To be perfectly honest, all of the days ran together, so just assume that at one point or another, the day started with a delicious breakfast and then we went on the water. We were there three days and flew back Monday night.
Lake activities for me included knee boarding, boogie boarding on a wake surf board, and wake surfing. Also lots of sitting on floaty things and drinking vodka + juice, which tasted mostly like juice until you realized that you just barely escaped saying questionably appropriate things in front of bf's family by taking another sip.
Knee boarding was the easiest for me, it was a lot like my jumping lessons this winter: sit down, shoulders back, hands up, don't lean forward my god you might fall on your face. It involved more core and definitely felt like contact on a horse (well, contact on a horse I wouldn't want to ride lol).
As good as it got, then I fell
The first time I tried wake surfing I failed miserably. Looking back it's because I ride goofy, but the boat was set up for me to be normal (muahaha I am never normal) so I shot off in the wrong direction and was really uncomfortable trying to pull myself back the other way. But bf's brother had done what was basically boogie boarding instead. I've boogie boarded a lot so asked if I could try and despite lodging probably 4 gallons of water into my eyes, had a lot of fun doing that!
On the last day I finally figured out what was wrong with the wake surfing and opted to try it with the wave facing the other way and FINALLY made it up and over there! I fell a lot and still struggled to get up, but it was super fun. I had a few good runs, but nothing like bf, his brother, or his dad, who were all expert wake surfers.
We were going to celebrate my birthday two weeks early since his parents don't live anywhere near us and wouldn't be able to come up to visit. But unfortunately bf got sick so his parents went to get us food (and literally brought back five desserts for my birthday, omg they are the best) while I commiserated with him and we watched some tv. After dinner, bf was feeling better, so we all played some card games, where the entire family turned on me as I was winning and from then on I was known as "that cheater, Megan" which was hilarious. Sorry that you're so bad at card games, bf's family.
Two minutes after getting on my horse after three days off and I'm already putting safety third
It was all over too soon, though I was eager to get back to TC. Poor guy has had 3 1/2 solid rides since July 1st and we have a show soon. Good thing the horse is a rock star and does better with time off than his terrible, terrible owner does. We have six rides until then though, so we'll be fine. The tests are easy and fun and I'm mostly just excited to get his name next to mine on Centerline scores, then we can worry about actually being consistent.
I'm all for some blog fodder these days so here's a blog hop that Spotted Dressage set up for us. Major thanks to everyone who creates these blog hops, gotta love easy content, and seeing how everyone answers the questions is fun!
1) Where do your current riding horse(s) hail from?
TC was bred and spent the first four years of his life just twenty minutes north of where he's living right now. He was kind of a eh fuck it baby.
His older half sister was thought up and carefully bred- her owner had a thoroughbred mare and wanted to cross her with a good natured warmblood stallion. They chose Ideal, an Oldenburg stallion known for being an improvement sire and having good rideability/trainability. The thoroughbred mare was a handful, so Ideal was a good match. When the filly hit the ground, the owner talked to TC's dam's owner about possibly giving her the remaining sticks. They contacted Ideal's owner and said "what do you think about a friesian cross?" and they went for it!
Wow it looks like he is the bringer of death
As a yearling, he started working on that dip in front of his withers real early (pretty much gone now!)
TC was born and they really didn't know what to do with him. He was slow to mature, slow to learn, a bit too chill about everything (I just remember leading him in from the pasture when he was three, the horse walked VERY SLOW). Supremely not talented- his canter was downhill and lateral, his trot was choppy with his hind legs out behind him. They thought he'd make a good husband horse because of his mind.
I came along when Rico needed a few months off due to his coffin joints acting up and thought he'd be a fun project. We all know how that ended, and I'm really glad that he's turned out to be the diamond that I really hoped was in all that rough.
Rico on the right of the picture, obviously
Rico's sale picture, always happy to lean out over his chest
Rico, on the other hand, was bred in Germany and then imported with his partner Limbo to be a combined driving horse in the states. I really don't know much about his childhood (vs with TC I have baby pictures and a detailed account of everything he's done since he was a little horse fetus), but I bought him when Limbo went lame and Rico was too lazy to be a singles horse. His old owners sent him to my previous dressage trainer, Heidi (who my trainer at the time was riding with at the time) and she told me that she'd found my ideal horse. He, er, wasn't my ideal horse for a long time- I rode him badly and he scared me- but I do not regret one moment with that horse, given how far we went.
2) What is the number one thing that makes your riding horse(s) unique and enjoyable for you?
With Rico it's for sure how safe he is. I would do anything on that horse, take him anywhere, and always, 100% of the time feel like I was going to be totally and utterly safe. I can trail ride him tackless, I can put ANYONE on him and know exactly what he'll do, I can do anything to him and know that he's never going to be unpredictable or really do anything other than stand there and wonder when he's going to get his next meal.
TC has been trickier for me. But I so so appreciate his work ethic. The horse tries so fucking hard. Every aid I use, even aids that I'm not sure I'm using, go through to him. If he's not doing something, it's because he's physically incapable of doing it, the end.
TC is uh, not there yet
3) What is the proudest moment you've shared with your riding horse(s) in the past 3 years?
I think the moment with Rico is predictable- when I earned my USDF Gold Medal on him. I had bought him about 30 days undersaddle, did the bulk of the training in weekly lessons (in the last five years of our relationship, I had exactly one trainer ride), and he debuted at Grand Prix only a year after his Prix St George debut.
With TC we haven't had any major milestones or anything. We haven't even showed. But I think the most salient milestone I've hit with him has been our trail ride the other day. That trail ride showed very clear progress toward him being the horse that I want him to be. Just knowing that six months before that moment, I was terrified of him and thinking that I'd never ride him again, let alone be wandering the trails on a loose rein, taking pictures behind the ears... it was just amazing.
Gold Medal
Recent view :)
4) What have you struggled with the most with your riding horse(s) in the past three years?
Honestly Rico and I haven't struggled much riding-wise because we just haven't been riding much, but one thing that I've struggled with has been his age and illnesses/injuries. Rico has been an older horse for a while, but he's always been so strong and powerful. I remember hauling out to lessons and people being shocked that he was in his late teens. He debuted at the FEI levels when he was seventeen years old, earned me my Gold at eighteen. It always felt like, although he did need injections (though not til he was sixteen), age was never going to affect him.
And it really didn't for a while. But when he was diagnosed with neck arthritis, Internal Pigeon Fever, Peritonitis, and Hepatitis in a matter of six months. When I watched him struggle for his life, rushed him to the hospital in the middle of the night, saw all of his muscle and fat melt off of him... that was really when I realized that he is indeed an old horse. Almost losing him was terrifying to me, and he's not very rideable anymore. I remember when I started riding TC that I was so glad that I had Rico to play with, even just to passage around and feel the changes. Now I don't have that, and I can't remember the last time we did those things. TC better step up his game.
Also struggled with modeling recently
TC's struggles are obvious too. His suspensory was a major blow to us, and I'm still struggling to believe that he really has recovered. Every day I go out to the barn with an inkling of "are you going to be sound today?" in me.
Then the behavioral issues were awful. After lots of reading and reflection, I think they were caused by a) too little turnout, b) me being nervous and not giving him confidence, and c) the wrong program. I'm really proud of how far we've come, and I feel like I'm only a year or two away from him surpassing Rico in how safe and rideable I feel that he is, but the behavioral problems were real and the fear was real. I remember feeling more and more anxious as the workday went on, having to go to the barn afterward and be taken off with. And that was even when he was rideable and not standing up whenever I got on him.
Sometimes I really can't believe that this is the same horse- the horse that I now will trail ride and canter around bareback on.
Rode bareback the Friday before vacation
5) What type of riding do you do?
Dressage! I've been competing (well not for the last three years but I'm hoping to remedy that) since I was eighteen years old. Earned all three medals and now I'm back at the beginning again. Rated show debut isn't too far off.
6) What are you hoping to accomplish with your current riding horse(s) this summer?
Well, I mostly just want Rico to stay comfortable and happy this summer (and forever).
With TC, I have three big things on my plate: I want to trail ride him, I want to show him at a rated show and not completely embarrass ourselves, and I want to do a clinic or two in a new place. Everything is on the calendar and it's just a matter of holding ourselves together!
For real this time
7) What is your next long term goal with your current riding horse(s)?
Hmm basically what I just said- continue to trail ride, learn new things, and show! Long term with TC I'm looking at a few major milestones. The first one would be to get my Bronze Freestyle Bar. And maybe an All Breeds or CDS award or something. I dunno, I rushed up the levels with Rico so fast that we were never competitive, so winning SOMETHING would be nice.
The next big milestone would be to get him to the FEI levels. In my dreamland he'd be nice enough to dabble in CDIs on the small tour (and I'd have the money to do it, not sure what is less likely) for a year or two. Then it will be getting back to Grand Prix. I really want to earn all my Centerline Scores stars. If TC gets to Grand Prix, I'll have no trouble doing that. And in a crazy dream world again, the large tour CDI stuff would be ridiculous fun. Or probably just cause me way too much anxiety to want to do it at all. So scratch the CDIs even just based on my mental state, completely ignoring that TC is absolutely not nice enough to do it.
This last week, TC and I hit a big milestone. I've wanted to be able to do a rated show on him for years now. I thought we might be able to do one the fall when he was four years old, but I got my previous job and moved him to a place where I had no trainer, no trailer, and eventually no confidence. Then he got hurt.
The next year (last year) I had wanted to show him but he was still so much horse for me and was a dingbat in new places. I was also recovering financially from vet bills and being unemployed, so it seemed silly to show him when I a) needed to buy all his member$hip$ and b) didn't think we'd score well anyway.
Then this spring he and I worked on our relationship and took the pressure off of rated shows. Coming into the summer though, I was itching to get out of the schooling show ring and put some real scores on this sucker.
He's getting so light in front, I mean this was back in May but still!
I chose two shows at the end of July that are held at my trainer's barn. The major pros of doing these shows are that we have been to this facility twice now with no theatrics, it's not a million degrees there for a July show, the shows tend to be small and quiet, and the judges weren't too terrifying (though they aren't the world's most generous judges either). The only con is that there is no place to longe, which isn't a problem for us because I just do ground work before getting on. Oh and I struggle with hauling in there because it's a bit cramped for turning around, but luckily it's been long enough since I've shown where my mom wants to come watch!
I'm just going to do Training 2 and 3 at each show. I want to make an attempt at All Breeds, and you have to get eight scores from four different judges at four different shows, including two at the highest test of the level. So by the end of these two shows, we'll be halfway there. I just felt like First level was too much of a push because he's still learning about counter canter and I have a less rideable canter in tests. I'd rather not rush to get shit scores on him when we can totally do training level easily.
Free walk can look like this all day long
So what better way to celebrate buying his memberships and planning for a show than to test ride (and probably call the vet because any time I try to make plans for the future something explodes). And on Tuesday night we did just that.
I warmed up pretty briefly. I had wanted to ride both tests back to back, then work on some lengthenings. The day before we had done a ton of collected canter work, so trot lengthenings sounded like a good way of making progress without making him sore or sour to the collected work.
The tests are getting easier and easier to ride. I mean they're easy tests. But his rideability is so much better now. I don't feel like I'm having to do any sort of oh god hold it together let's just get through this type of riding. Except in the left lead canter sometimes... But we're getting there.
Remove boots, braid pony, put on show clothes, and just do this
Training 2 was foot perfect except the right lead canter transition. The geometry was easy, the transitions were prompt and through, the centerlines were straight, and he even halted square both times. But damn that one transition. He's still a little weak in his canter transitions in general, and this is definitely a tricky thing to fix. He stays most through and is most prompt/unlikely to make a mistake when he's a little amped in trot, but if I ride him that amped in trot, he's like riding a powder keg and I feel like he's going to explode at any minute.
Doing that in a show is a bad idea.
So what I need to do is a) more canter transitions at home to prep, b) more canter transitions in warm up, and c) amp his trot up right before asking. I did none of those things for this test, so he hesitated, so I tapped him, so he took off in a giant trot, so we had to come around again. Once in canter though, it rode super well, so just need to work on solidifying those transitions.
Good pony
Training 3 rode super well too. Except that he was probably on the edge of powder keg mode. I know it's good to ride him when he's like that, he's more likely to be like that at shows, and he's not being bad, he's just SUPER ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT WORKING. And a lot of my riding needs to be redirected at keeping him quiet. But even then he gets really enthused about listening to me about THAT so then he slows down too much. I'm slowly becoming more seamless about how I'm handling this- add energy to my seat when he gets behind me, take energy away from my seat when he gets amped. With time he'll settle, I'm sure.
But even with having to manage him, the test was again super easy. The only thing I noticed that could use work is that I played with not changing my posting diagonal for the loops and that was a bad idea. It's probably me but switching diagonals as I pass quarter line really helps me with the geometry and bend. As such, the bend in the middle of each loop wasn't great. I feel like he never really shifted weight to the new outside rein/old inside rein so was then tighter on the new inside shoulder.
The canter work went well except he went to break as we passed C in the first canter where he needed to go across the diagonal. As such, we lost tone in the canter and he got flat and quick. Definitely need to practice that and ride it more firmly. The downward was shockingly okay though, actually all of his canter trot transitions were really good all day- schooling simple changes has really helped him figure out how to actively slow down.
Generally I was REALLY happy with where both tests are. The major goals for our first rated shows are as follows, and I think we'll be okay:
- earn above a 65% on either test (this is for the FSA bronze elite status that he can get)
- keep our median Training level score above 60%
And of course, have fun, be sound, and stay in the court so that all four tests count. Other than those two things (and really, I just need the 65% at some point, not at this show), I have no expectations!
Literally could we just have a repeat of this schooling show at the rated shows?
On the to do list was to get memberships (check, I gave all my money and one limb to USDF/USEF to get him lifetime memberships and to renew mine), to get his ownership transferred to me in the FSA (ready to mail), to pull his mane (ugh), to practice braiding his forelock (he is going to be so obnoxious), and to get another lesson at trainer's barn. Then it's show time!
