Steady Progress

The last couple weeks have been really good for TC and I. Pretty much every ride is a good one, even if they occasionally have young horse moments (like when a flock of birds took off from the roof of the covered arena and he was like ME TOO LET'S GO). He's becoming a super reliable, fun horse to have around. I get excited about riding him and it feels like every ride we just get a little bit better. 

Even this week when I've been sick with the death cold has been good. Yesterday I was feeling particularly bad so I just rode him bareback around the property mostly on a loose rein. The other day I got done cantering, didn't realize I had been breathing so shallowly for so long, so I basically collapsed into his neck and coughed for a while. He just stood there casually looking at a cat until I was done and went right back to work like nothing was wrong. 

He's not taking things as personally now, he's not as nervous or anxious about his work or his environment. I don't feel like I have to be as careful with him. He's just settling into his life. It's almost like the last couple years he went through his teenage angst phase and now we're on the other side and I have a young adult who may party a little too hard sometimes (like when he still goes to buck and run sideways in his once problem corner every now and then) but is generally a solid citizen. 

Since I have no other media, here is a few pictures from TC's
like... second or third schooling show when he was 4- over two
years ago!

The work itself has been really good too. The level of throughness he's been bringing to our rides has been great. The connection feels really reliable and steady. And I've been perpetually working on getting him a little sharper off of my leg. It's not that he's behind my leg, but he's still working at a lower level of responsiveness than I want. That coupled with knowing that in the show ring, we get ourselves all tangled up behind my leg makes it really important to work on.

This has been especially important in the walk, even though the canter is what is causing problems in the show ring. The walk work is correct, just it looks like someone slowed it down. I want him to march a little bit more, and he finds this hard. He also finds it hard to shorten the step while maintaining activity and setting back on his hocks at the same time, something that will be really important in the walk pirouettes. He's doing turns on the haunches now, which have so far been biomechanically correct, though again, slow. So I get a little worried that he'll learn to stick. We've been doing a lot of half or quarter turns, then walking forward out of them, picking up a trot, then walking and riding them again. Keep him on his toes. 

What actually was this color? Also PHEW I thought his tail was
looking more yellow than it used to but it does not. Still not totally
silver but we're getting there, purple shampoo ftw

The canter feels like a totally different canter than before and I really want video to see if I'm correct or just delusional. It used to feel like I had to keep a certain amount of tension (more than just tone) in my body, especially my seat/hip, to keep him cantering in the first place. I think it had to do with him having to have a little tension under and a little behind the saddle TO canter in the first place. Now I'm feeling like that tension is going away. 

And without the tension, the throughness is FINALLY happening. He hasn't been like... off the bit at the canter, but he hasn't really been fully through yet. I think with the emphasis on the canter for the last couple of months, he's really figuring out how to utilize his whole body in the gait. It's making the canter feel a lot less fragile and a lot more rideable. This is especially noticeable in his sudden ability to canter on small circles and his ability to counter canter. 

For a while cantering on small circles just wasn't possible, he really struggled to bend at the canter while on the smaller figures due to the tension in his back. So instead of bending he'd just fall out with his haunches or break. Now, he's learning to flex his pelvis and support himself with his hind legs AND turn his shoulders around on the circle without pivoting through the middle. The counter canter isn't yet where I want it for Second or anything, but he's maintaining the throughness and staying quite rideable in it. I no longer worry about him breaking or swapping, and the quality of canter is sometimes better in the counter canter than the true canter, which is excellent. 

I can't believe how much both of us have changed

Despite not being able to actually sit the trot in like a week because I've been sick, I have been working on it. I'm still working on creating a trot that is easy to sit. It feels really hit or miss every day. Like some days we're good and I can sit it all day long. Other days I get half way through our work and it's just too much to sit. I don't know if it's me, since I do have back problems, or him, since he can definitely be a little different day to day in terms of how much tone he wants to bring to the equation. Tracey calls it "going friesian" when he loses tone, and that's when he gets a little tough to sit. So we've been working on putting a bit more oomph into the trot without losing him mentally. 

And that's been really helpful for the outline too. He is starting to really look like a First/moving toward Second level horse in the trot. Poll the highest point, stepping further under himself, even taking more weight behind here and there when I can convince him to. 

Because of this, all of the trot work has been super easy lately. The shoulder-in and leg yields are show ready, the haunches-in is at the very least a thing we do, and sometimes it feels surprisingly great, especially tracking right. The half pass is coming along too, again better in the half pass right than left. 

He used to be so... flat lol and small, I looked so much bigger on
him than I do now. And I haven't gotten smaller. 

So yeah, everything is going well. Except I can't really breathe. And I can't stop coughing, which at least is making my abs hurt like I did seven hours of pilates straight. So I guess that's a good thing! This weekend we're going to have to take it easy, which is too bad because I had really wanted a lesson. Hopefully next weekend when I'm feeling a little better.