A Enter Spooking

The second day of the show started off well. TC actually let me braid him without taking everything out of my pockets and distributing the contents across the cross ties. It was much cooler that day, so I was glad that I got to the show facility a bit early. TC and I went for a short walk to go get my First 1 test from the day before and visited the warm up.

He was thinking about playing here and I look like I've  never
been on the back of a horse before, but I love this picture

I read the comments from 1-1 and was a bit disappointed. There were moments where she threw us 7s, but the overall comments cited needing more impulsion. She really wanted him to cover a lot more ground, which is totally fair. She also circled suppleness of the back and engagement of the hindquarters, and also noted that he "explodes at times."

At this point in TC's abilities at shows, this is too much to ask of him. I can get more oomph in his gaits, but that's at the expense of tension. We're still working on relaxation in new places. So as I was walking around, I decided to scratch my First level test that day. It's just not worth it if we're not meeting the general expectations of the level. I'm not willing to push him past positive tension in the show ring. He just needs to mature a little bit more first. I'm glad I did it the first day, even just to know that First is still beyond our capabilities in a new place.

When we get a little tense, we get a little expressive

He's actually putting on muscle, yay

Knowing that we just had one test, I did some extra work in warm up before Training 2. TC once again started out a bit tight and then settled in that arena. It takes him a good five minutes to settle in a new arena, which is pretty much as long as a Training level test lasts. Cool.

Warm up went well, I was able to do some more transitions than before and also cantered him a fair amount. I figured I wanted a different problem than the porpoising from the day before (spoiler alert, I got it).

We headed over to the dressage court early and I used their small square arena off the show ring to trot and canter around. I figured it'd help a lot, and he did porpoise a few times there, so that was good. I shut him down a bit more firmly than I had in the show ring the day before, and soon he was quietly cantering around.

Around the outside of the arena, we trotted and trotted. He felt really good! I was thinking that this test may actually go pretty well. Then we entered the arena.

A: Enter Spooking... ugh

Why did I name my stupid blog the way I did? It was just a placeholder name but then I got some followers and it seemed odd to change it. I'm still thinking about changing it even after so many years!

So yah I literally turned up centerline and he was like FUCK YES SHOWING and tried to take off into the arena. I shut him down and then trotted over to X and halted, laughing. The judge gave me a 6.5 (the halt and after the halt was quite good) and said "nice recovery :)"

After that, the test went super! I let him out further for the stretch circle, which raised our score from a 6 and 6.5 the day before to an 8. The canter work was pretty brilliant, grabbing us a bunch of 7.5s. I was pleasantly surprised by that. He did go to play a little bit in each direction, but I stopped him and it actually just made the canter more impressive. The judge said "good call" for one of them and "he responded!" in another. Good pony.

We only had one more issue in the ring, where instead of doing a quiet walk to trot transition at C, in front of the judge, he tried to take off again. Again I stopped him quickly and went to work, but that gave us a 5 and the following trot circle was tense.

Across the diagonal

Thinking about running off but making the right decision

Overall we grabbed a 70% and second place, right behind the judge who was judging at the show three years ago when I got my Gold! I don't mind losing (only by three points, why did you zip off with me twice, pony!) to someone like that. She's an amazing rider.

The overall comments were great, the judge clearly was a lot happier with him the second day (and he was more relaxed so that makes sense). Said that if I could get him softer in his poll and more connected, that he was going to be great. That's exactly what we're working on! So that's great to have everything really consistent like that.

Across the diagonal

Such a good pony

The whole show was such a good experience. Even though the scores were not as great as they could have been, I was so happy by the end of the weekend. We went to a new place. We competed in a rated show. We didn't totally embarrass ourselves. I wasn't scared.

We have a long way to go still with showing, but given that I wasn't riding this horse at the beginning of the year because he scared me so much, I'm REALLY happy.

Our fall adventures aren't quite over, but the show season is. I have some fun stuff planned this fall with TC, but the pressure is off until the spring. It feels good to have had almost a full season with him, definitely didn't expect that at the beginning of the year!

Loves to Show

This past weekend, TC and I were at our final show of the year! I had been feeling very apprehensive coming up to the show. Very apprehensive. Like to the point where I wanted to scratch. Even putting him in the trailer, I thought about turning the other way on the freeway and heading down to the one day event that Kate and her crowd was at the same weekend and just being like "I JUST WANT TO PLAY IN THE WATER COMPLEX AND JUMP A TINY LOG OKAY?" but no, I paid for this show, and we were going.

So much could go wrong. TC hasn't been to a brand new facility since the Jeremy Steinberg clinic, where he was fine, but very tense. This was a brand new facility. I had also had my Tracey lesson deflate me a bit, so the last week of riding, TC had been bucking in the canter like... the whole time. Or slamming on the brakes as we went into canter and sticking his head straight up in the air. Or running sideways kicking out at my right leg/seat bone/side in general. It was a rough week.

AND because I'm a genius, I signed him up for First 1, why not try a new level while we're at it?

I do like how his canter is developing rideability-wise

Such a good egg

But this show is important to me. It's the show I got my Gold at three years ago. I wanted to do this show the first year I had TC, but then he was a little nutty. Then the second year I almost signed up but he was still really not quite there. This time, we were going. I tried to feel the nostalgia and look at my three medals in the mirror as much as I could, but I was mostly in survival mode.

TC came off the trailer as he always does in a new place... with lots of presence. He was definitely more relaxed than he was for Jeremy's clinic, so that was good to see. He hasn't traveled a lot this fall due to me being sick and then gone for like every weekend. But he's slooowwwwly starting to figure out that the places I'm taking him are not horse cemeteries.

We went on a short walk near the show ring and then into the warm up. I've never thought this place was spooky, Rico never cared about it. And TC was surprisingly unspooky. He just hated the eurocizer that you had to walk by to get to the warm up arena. You know you've been on one, right, TC? I trotted him in the round pen near the warm up and all he wanted to do was stare into warm up and poke the people sitting near the round pen with his nose.

So I figured, fuck it, took him back to the trailer to tack up, and just got on him right then. I had my longe line, but never needed it.

Floppy ears :) 

Sassy 

The first five minutes of warm up were me riding a basilisk. He snaked his neck around and around and bounced around at trot and canter. At first I was pretty certain that I wanted to get off the pony ride. A few people goosed us and he was threatening to take off with me. I really didn't want to be THAT person in warm up. Luckily, the weather was on our side. It was 85 degrees outside and he still has his winter coat. It only took about five minutes for it to really hit him, so by the time I was even thinking that this whole show was a bad idea, he settled into work.

We had a GREAT warm up. My plan was to go and just get as far as we could at this show. By the end of warm up, he felt super through and quiet, but not too tired. At that point, I was ecstatic to be at the show. Talk about feeling ALL the emotions that day.

Despite the good warm up, as we walked to the show arena, it really hit me. I'm about to go into an arena my horse has never been in, and put a permanent score on his record. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. I started to really get nervous.

Me wondering if this is a good idea

Looking mostly under control

But there wasn't toooooo much to be worried about. TC trotted around that arena like he owned it. He didn't care when the horse in front of us left. He didn't care when a guy at the house nearby started murdering babies cutting wood or something. He didn't care about a motorcycle going by. He didn't care about the automatic gate opening for a trailer (he cared a little). He just strutted his stuff and we got some really good scores. Lots of 7s and even an 8 on a canter transition!

Unfortunately, strutting his stuff meant LEAPING in all the canter work. Remember my issue keeping him in front of the leg in the show ring? Well, we now have a new issue. I asked him to canter and he was like FUCK YES I LOVE TO CANTER LET'S DO THIS and porpoised down the long side, then put in a respectable circle. The other direction he picked it up real nice (8!), then porpoised for most of the circle (5!). Mmmkay.

The last bit of porpoising was kind of hilarious. I could tell he was just SO EXCITED TO BE SHOWING. I really love how much he seems to love showing. He gets nervous in new places, but I think I've done a good job this year with all of the shows, making it super fun for him.

Too fun.

I got to the end of the test and dissolved into laughter. It was such a bad test. But I mean, I walked him out of this brand new arena on a loose rein and he was totally chill and proud of himself.

Coiling

Could you not?

A few strides later I mostly had him under control. PS, I stand up
when he acts up because of my back injury, I'm safe from whiplash
up there and better able to control him. It just looks silly

Our First level test was nothing to write home about either. He squealed into trot while going around the outside of the arena, so we had some rough bits in the trot in the beginning. Then he porpoised in the first canter transition so refused to do his canter lengthening at all (he gave me a "but I'm so tired after leaping, could we not?"). Then threatened to run off with me the entire fifteen meter circle and onto the diagonal.

The other way at the canter wasn't too much better, though we did show a lengthening! The highlight for me was the last trot lengthening, which just felt downright powerful. But he was a bit tight over his back in general in it though, so the judge marked us down accordingly.

Honestly, I wasn't in a great mood directly after the first day because it just felt like a letdown. We started the year scoring in the 70s and we were now solidly in the low to mid 60s (61 and change at 1-1 due to some unfortunately placed 5s; 66 and change at T2 again due to unfortunate lower scores in the double coefficients).

But when I got home I realized that being annoyed at the results was, in itself, a win. He was so good there that my annoyance wasn't "my horse ran away with me every ten steps in the show ring" or "my horse wouldn't get near the judge's booth" or "my horse terrified me and I don't want to ride him anymore." It was "my horse thinks that showing is the most fun ever and couldn't contain his excitement enough for me to get higher numbers written on this piece of paper."

Trot trot trot

He is always SO proud of himself after tests

We still had the next day, so I was eager to just get more miles put on him and ignore the scores. There is time to obsess over scores later. I was not going to let it ruin the fact that I had a really fun day with my horse at a brand new place. It was the first fun day in a long time. He is hilarious and maybe thought that leaping through the tests was a good way to cheer me up. In a way, it definitely worked.

The Aftermath

I mentioned in my post yesterday that I was struggling to process all of the information that Tracey gave me in my lesson last weekend. I mean, the post itself was long, evidence that I got a LOT of information.

Morning rides are the best (except that it's been a bit cold so TC
has been a bit up)

But Tracey lessons are really hard for me, mentally, especially when I haven't taken one in a long time. I've told Kate (who also rides with her) that I've never been a better rider since starting to ride with Tracey, but I've never felt worse about my riding.

It's not that Tracey is mean, it's that she's thorough. She's not the kind of trainer to say "hey I can see you're having trouble with this, let's work on it later and do something else" or the kind of trainer who is your own personal cheerleader. She is honest, and not afraid of saying anything to her students. She is detailed and persistent. She knows exactly what she wants you to do and she will not let up until you do it. Even if it's hard. Especially if it's hard. She's no stranger to keeping someone on a circle or on a specific exercise for an entire lesson. I've had lessons where we've barely left the walk.

She's kind of rubbed off on me. And you can see it in my teaching. I've become more detailed, more demanding. I've not shied away from making someone push through the hard stuff and not letting them have a second to rest. I'm still maybe a bit too nice/cheerleader-ish, but I like being that way. I still try to be very honest, even if it risks me losing clients (mostly because I don't need them now). I don't like catering to people, but I do like being nice. I love what it has done to my teaching and my riding. I don't think I'd be able to ride TC very well without all of the knowledge I have gained from riding with Tracey.

But... why not? 

But the lessons can really get to me. I can feel this pull between KNOWING that I'm a Grand Prix rider, knowing that I trained my own horse to the level in weekly lessons, knowing that people actually think I'm good enough to pay to say words to while they are riding... and yet feeling like I can barely sit on my horse correctly. Even just her sheer knowledge is intimidating and makes me feel like I don't know what I'm talking about.

When I'm in weekly lessons, I embrace this. I love feeling like there's so much more to learn. I love the effect she has on my riding and my horses' ways of going. I was going down such an unfortunate path with Rico and she cleared a better path ahead of me, then kicked me down it and it kind of hurt.

When I only see her once every couple of months, it can be demoralizing. When the lessons are close together, my confidence doesn't grow too much and I don't stray off her path too much. The lessons are still hard, but it's more building on concepts and she relaxes because she knows she doesn't have to stuff everything she wants to say in. I know this feeling well- the way I teach regular lessons is very different from the way I teach clinics. When the lessons are far apart though, I get a bit confident because I do know how to train horses and TC is very trainable, so we make progress, but down a mostly parallel path that slowly grows away from hers. So when I see her, she has to yank me back, pivot me, and push me forward again. That kind of deflates me for a few days.

He always wants to hang out with the horses
in turnout near the road

So the good news is that since the lesson on Saturday, I've been able to mostly recreate what she's having me do. I feel like I really understand what she was getting at. And as such, I can feel the changes in my position and in the way TC is going. I also am not too concerned for the show this weekend. Well, I mean I'm REALLY concerned because I'm worried that he'll be a dingbat. But other than that, not too concerned. I picked these tests because they're very doable for us. And I'm fairly decent at applying new things in the show ring with a moment's notice.

But the bad news is that I'm still recovering from the lesson in my confidence. And that just means more lessons. So this weekend I'm showing (and if the show goes bad tomorrow, I'm scratching and getting a lesson on Sunday). Next weekend I'm in DC. The weekend after I have the ability to start weekly lessons if I want. I haven't decided when TC's winter break will start, and how long it will be, but it's good to know that I can do a few extra lessons this fall if I want them.

Knowledge Dump

On Saturday, I had my first lesson in two full months! Tracey normally comes to my barn once a week in the evenings, so I don't typically need to wait until weekends for lessons, but unfortunately she's been injured so hasn't been able to drive all the way out to my barn. So I had been going to see her on weekends, but then in September, the only weekend I had available, she didn't. Boo. Now she's feeling better and can travel to my barn, but I still can't see her on the weekdays because she can't yet drive at night.

So finally, FINALLY, she had a weekend open where I was in town and I got to go ride with her. Unfortunately I couldn't bribe anyone to come get me any media, but I still got a lot out of it (is that even possible? If you take a lesson with no video, did you even learn something?). The very next day, Kate came out and took some video though, so yay!

Love the clouds after it rained last week

The first thing we tackled was my crooked position. I have had a lot of trouble sitting on my right seat bone for the last six or seven years since my SI injury. It doesn't hurt if I have my pelvis tipped off my right side, so I've sort of calibrated myself to feel like that's straight. It's not. But I can't feel it. I can't even see it in the mirror! And since I've been the only one training TC for so so long, we've worked out how to deal with it where I've even convinced myself that tracking right is the better side.

The position problem is so bad that it completely ruins my feel and ability to sit the trot. I essentially have my right seat bone on his spine and my left seatbone dropping off the side of his back. In order to be able to feel what he is doing, when he is about to do things (like run off), and to be able to have any semblance of sitting trot, I prooooobably should be sitting on his back muscles. It really explains why I've been struggling very randomly to sit the trot. Some days I sit it just fine, other days I just freaking can't sit it at all. Of course I can't sit it if I'm literally like... on his spine. That shit doesn't have any give.

My hands are also more rogue than Tracey wants. I got the usual "he's more trained than you give him credit for" lecture about keeping my hands more together. Yeah yeah yeah, it's just hard when I've been riding him since he was a widdle baby horse and he's also tricking me with his dark color. No excuses. Keep the hands together.

My right hand also apparently lives by my ear given how often I was told to keep it down. I know where this is from- she had me ride him much more into the bridle and I tend to bring my hands up when horses lean on me. He's not leaning... but I am sensitized to any pressure in the reins since I'm just not used to it. More on that later.

Figuring it out

So all of that position stuff has me convinced that the right feels great! Despite it being a bit of a hot mess. So once as she got me sitting where I needed to sit, I was to put him into the right (inside) rein. She wanted him a lot heavier in the bridle than I usually have him, and said that it was okay if he retracted a little bit. He really needs to embrace stepping IN to the bridle from my leg, rather than now where he happily connects lightly but doesn't really take me with the bridle. Well, I felt like he was taking me. Not nearly enough though.

At the same time as straightening him on the outside rein to get him to step into the inside rein, TC needs to be a bit lighter off of my inside leg. His tendency is to lean into my leg with his ribcage, rather than engaging his inside hind leg and stifle under him. This leg is definitely not as flexible as his other one, it's for sure the one that likes to get stiff when he has time off.

Once as we had him pushed into the bridle evenly, TC was not about that. He didn't do anything wrong, but he did get really reluctant to push through. I told Tracey that when I feel him hesitate to go forward, I primarily determine that there's too much contact on the reins and then I soften to him, which allows him to go forward and reach into the bridle. But he needs to be taught to push through despite the pressure. He needs to be taught to take my hands forward rather than wait for me to make room for him. My calibration was way off, because what I felt like was heavy was where he needed to be. And I've said it a million times to clients but refuse to believe it myself!

It took a while in the walk, and then longer in the trot to get this on the twenty meter circle. We did it in both directions and then did some ten meter trot circles to prepare for the show. They were not good. I mean to the left, which is the direction I dread, they were fine. I just needed to make sure that his right shoulder kept tracking around. But to the right, they were awful at first. Apparently I slow him down too much in them, which was made more dramatic by him struggling to step into the bridle in the way she wanted. I also need to push him off my right leg in the last half of the circle, since I kind of let him fall in. Basically at all times he has to come off my right leg.

All seems to be going okay... 

We touched on one trot lengthening, which Tracey said was great. She warned me not to push for too much. I need to keep his confidence up in them and keep them contained so that he doesn't learn to go wide behind. Where she wanted it didn't feel like that much of a lengthening, but this horse has GAITS so while he was probably at about 50% of where he could have been, it was plenty plenty plenty for First level. Apparently. I don't know.

After that, it was time for canter work. The canter has been feeling so much better recently. And Tracey kiiind of confirmed that by not working on the same things we were last time, so that was nice. But man, this shit is hard.

She wanted the same level of connection and push through at the canter as at the trot, but TC is definitely not as comfortable in canter with that. He responded by kind of diving downward in the canter and putting me at the front of the saddle. So I had to fight that and pull him back with my seat. That tipped me forward and Tracey and I went through a three bears moment trying to get me to sit where she wanted me to sit- not too far forward but not too far back.

Nevermind

Once as I was in the right place, I had to keep my leg present but not as much ON as I keep it. That was new because again, TC is slower off my leg when leg means go INTO the bridle vs go forward. So he kept breaking. So I'd swat him with the whip. So I got told not to do that. So I stopped and he broke more. So I used my spurs. But I used them too much, so stop doing that. So I just kind of accepted my fate. And I got told to keep him going. I just kept pressing through though, and soon we were doing canter lengthenings and shortenings off of my seat in the better connection and I got a couple of "good"s which seemed like they'd never come.

She definitely wanted his neck down and out a bit more in the canter, which is where Jeremy said not to have it. But honestly the canter felt a lot more pure where she wanted it, and that's a big thing for him. So sorry, Jeremy.

At the end of the lesson I was exhausted, nearly crying, and very frustrated. But this is what happens when I don't ride with her enough. Tracey isn't mean (well, we've had our problems but she's not mean on purpose) but she is the most demanding and most detailed trainer I've ever ridden with. Ignorance really is bliss.

The new work in the connection retracts him a bit

We got to talking about TC. Why is this so hard? I kept asking. Why am I not feeling these things? But Tracey stopped me and confirmed that TC was out of a friesian mare and by Ideal before explaining her ideas. Apparently those two things make him a VERY tricky horse in the bridle. I've always felt he was straightforward since he doesn't lean on me or refuse to connect. But she said no, he's very tricky. She said that she's only seen one horse by Ideal who connected really well, and that horse was ridden by one of the top trainers in the area (Tracey's mentor who died a few years ago).

She said all of the Ideal horses that she has seen seem to disconnect in the same way. And I was like wait... connect? She said no, disconnect. You really have to TEACH these horses to go to the bridle in a way you don't have to teach a lot of horses. That coupled with the fact that TC is half friesian, a breed known for not wanting to connect over the back, and I'm basically fucked.

He's beautiful and he goes to the contact... but he only just goes there

Tracey made it clear that what I was doing up until now wasn't bad. I'm not so far off the path. She said we could go a long way on the path I'm on. But then there will be a time in the distant future where I'm going to need him to be INTO the bridle and he won't know what that is and he'll be incapable of certain movements.

Passage. Extensions. One-tempis. All of those require the horse to really push through into the bridle, to reach through the bridle while maintaining the engagement in the hind legs. And TC will be fine for a long while without true extensions (I mean how many people showing at Third+ have a true extension? Not me until I was riding at like I1 or I2). He can easily make it rather far in the place he's in. But I don't want to just go far. I want to go all the way. So this is the utmost priority.

So is getting more lessons with her. Because the longer I wait, the more likely I am to cry in a lesson (but I didn't! Yay!). Fingers crossed the show goes well this weekend. And then we're in for a long winter of learning.

Girth Hunting

I've been slack-a-lackin' on this blog this week. It's mostly because on Monday I was going to post about my lesson with Tracey, but then I had a lot of trouble processing all of the information from that lesson. I'm still working it out mentally, then will hopefully have a post done for tomorrow.

But at my Monday ride, I had something happen that I didn't need to process.

I wrote that I had the saddle fitter out a week or two ago and that I basically paid her a lot of money just to tell me that I needed a new girth and then try to sell me one.

Mom I hate girths, ride without one instead, okay?

I immediately did some research online, decided that all anatomical girths are WAY WAY WAY too expensive. I ordered two of the Total Saddle Fit girths from Riding Warehouse because they're the best about returns.

For a couple of days, things seemed fine. His saddle was staying back where it needs to be and I was pretty happy with the quality of the girth. The saddle fitter was all "you get what you pay for," meaning that the $130 TSF girth would be far inferior to the more expensive one she was selling me. It's a nice girth! The only issue I sort of thought might be an issue is that TC is very narrow through his girth area, which means that the elbow clearance was a little off for him. I did have a size smaller girth, but there's no way that 1 inch on each side would put the swoop where it needs to be. He simply needs the part that swoops forward toward his legs to be narrower.

But I mean, I got it to keep the saddle back, not give him optimal elbow clearance. So we went along our way. TC seemed... about the same in this girth. I appreciated not feeling like the saddle was hitting his shoulder, and I'm sure he also appreciated that. I learned in my Tracey lesson that I sit really crooked, so I might not have the best feel.

I do, however, have eyes. And on Monday I took his girth off and noticed a bit of a red tinge on it. I checked his elbow and yep, it had worn a hole in one of his little elbow fat rolls.

It looks worse than it is

I know it didn't happen when I was putting it on, since I always check that. But I do tighten the girth usually one hole on each side while riding. And my horse has no manners, so he probably went to lean forward, leaving his left elbow back under the girth while I tightened it. He honestly told me while riding- he skittered sideways away from the left side into the canter and then bucked a lot. Maybe he shouldn't use the same response for bird shadows as he does for pain and I would have noticed sooner! Silly pony. It wasn't a deep cut, just took the first layer or two of skin off. So don't feel bad for him, he got lots of cookies and apologies.

I washed it, put some stuff on it, and have ignored it since. Today I'm going out in the morning and trying to come up with a plan. Luckily it's so far forward (like literally on his elbow), that it probably won't get in the way of any girth as long as I'm careful about tightening it. I think I'll try the smaller TSF girth today even just to move that point a bit away. I also have Rico's super cheap ovation (I think) girth that isn't anatomical but does have a little cut back.

My horse sweats a LOT

Still, I think we're looking at a damn narrow gauge anatomical girth. JenJ recommended the ProLite, which looks promising. The site that sells them in the US is really stingy about returns though, so I'm a little bit nervous. Especially because I've never used a girth with no elastic before. If anyone has any recommendations, I'm all ears! That narrow gauge seems hard to find, I've only really found it in the Fairfax girths (who also make the ProLite), which again, no elastic.

Figuring Out a Gym Schedule

One thing I've been consistently missing out on in my goals is to get a gym routine down. It's hard to find the time because I have to work 8.5 hours (HAVE to take a half hour lunch break- also no gyms in my work's area are affordable, if you know where I work, you get it) and I drive 2.5-3 hours a day, plus am at the barn for 2-2.5 hours and like showering. And bf and I have a standing Skype date at 7:30pm that I try not to miss too often. So basically I either get riding or gymming, not both.  I have a really good idea for a gym routine, it makes me excited:

Monday- ride TC, no gym
Tuesday- TC off, evening TRX class
Wednesday- ride TC, no gym
Thursday- ride TC, no gym
Friday- TC off, evening TRX class
Saturday- ride TC and go on a hike
Sunday- ride TC and morning TRX class

Isn't it wonderful? Ever since having to take a long break from Crossfit because my wrist hates it, I've struggled to get into a good routine. Everything seemed too easy on my body or too hard on my wrist. Yoga and Pilates weren't hard enough, anything on a bike hurts my wrist, Body Pump hurt my wrist... TRX was the answer! It was still easier than Crossfit, but I used to pair it with 30 minutes of weightlifting afterward.

When I started my current job and I had this commute, it killed me at first so I stopped going to the gym. I started back up again when I couldn't ride TC this last winter, but then I started riding him again right around when I started traveling a lot, so I stopped going again.

This is my kind of exercise. I missed that shit
by ONE DAY damnit

Soon, I was basically as unfit as I've ever been. I've always had more than one horse going (Rico + client horses) and/or always been in a gym routine. I KNOW it's really important for me to cross train. I KNOW that I will never be able to compete TC above First without killing my back if I am not physically strong. But the time just sucks.

Traveling is hard because it means that TC gets lots of time off, which means that when I get back, I can't conform to my regular schedule. Last long trip I got home on Sunday afternoon, but I couldn't just take Tuesday off to go to the gym. I ended up riding him every day until the following weekend when I was gone again.

On top of that, they canceled my Friday TRX class, boo!

But yesterday I finally had a normal weekday where I could give TC a day off without fucking up my schedule, so I opted to go to the gym. I fed him in the morning, drove to work to be in by 8:45, left at 5:15 and was ready for class at 6:30.

I decided to just basically go to the gym and do whatever fucking class was around. I don't care if it hurts my wrist, I don't care if it doesn't do anything for me. Just get in the routine. If my schedule isn't going to be flexible, I will be flexible with what classes I do.

For real

So on Thursdays at 6:30 is a pilates class. Cool. I have a strong core, right?

Let me tell you, the few pilates classes I took coming off of Crossfit felt like a joke. I kept running to get heavier and heavier hand weights. I kept holding the poses for longer than was asked. The only part that sucked were the planks. Those sucked in Crossfit too.

But let me tell you, after two and a half years without Crossfit, I am WEAK. That pilates class last night KICKED MY ASS. I grabbed the lightest weights I could find that weren't too weeny looking (5lbs, I was using 12-15lb ones before) and while I was doing the movements I felt like I wanted weenier ones. My arms hurt literally from just laying on the ground stretching my arms over my head. I couldn't do ANY of the stretches I used to be able to, and that's saying something because I thought I was the world's most inflexible person ever THEN.

So gym time, I need it. I literally feel like I'm going to die in ten years if I don't.

TC will appreciate it too if I don't have to mentally prepare myself for sitting his trot. Now just to get creative with my schedule... and figure out how to work out while traveling! I have some ideas. By the way, none of my ideas are running because RUNNING IS THE WORST.

The Saddle Fitting That Wasn't

So I've been the worst owner, and even though TC has changed a lot in the last year, I haven't gotten his saddle fit. He has been seeming fine, the saddle looks fine based on my semi-educated eye, but I knew that as I went to sit his trot, I should at least get the thing reflocked.

I finally, FINALLY, got the saddle fitter to come out on Tuesday afternoon. I had to get up early, leave early, spend a LOT of time in traffic to get to work early, just so I could leave early to meet the saddle fitter. And the appointment was... not so great. Let's just say that I already have the contact information for my NEW saddle fitter.

First, it's been a pain in the ass to even get the saddle fitter to come at all. I finally basically said that I'd meet them this week or find a new one. Second, this whole debacle.

Smiling after our ride

 I've been thinking that TC needs a new girth for a while. The one I'm using is a 24 inch girth. It was a little bit small for Rico, so it got hand-me-down-ed to TC when he was 3 years old. He's now big enough where the girth barely goes around him, which is a pain in the ass to get on when my fingers are cold in the mornings.

In addition to not wanting to wrestle the girth on, TC's saddle seems to like to slip forward. That's weird in itself because the horse is vehemently NOT downhill. I figured it had something to do with his peanut of a body, so I started looking at girths that allowed more room for his shoulders. I'd heard decent things about Total Saddle Fit and tossed one in my Riding Warehouse cart even before meeting the saddle fitter.

Saddle fitter came out and looked at TC's saddle with no pads. They said it didn't look so bad, but sure enough, the saddle was placed much further back than I've been putting it. I noted that and the saddle fitter explained that TC had a big ribcage but a narrow girth groove, as well as a girth groove that was a bit more forward than usual. So it's apparently no wonder why the saddle hits his shoulders.

I mentioned thinking about buying a Total Saddle Fit girth, especially because it's a money back guarantee sort of situation, and while I do love the idea of a girth that doesn't break the bank, I do want to be able to sit my horse's trot without him hating me.

Wandering around on Wednesday morning

The saddle fitter ran off and brought back a Prestige girth, saying it was the best one. Cool. I don't need the best things. But I was curious so I tried it on. Saddle fitter asked why I used a half pad. I said it was because he sweat through his pads. She seemed to consider for a second maybe adjusting my saddle... which seems like it'd be a good idea if she thought it fit well with no half pad... but nothing happened.

I rode with the girth and it did seem to help a lot in keeping the saddle off his shoulders. I did feel like the saddle sat lower into his withers though, but I didn't notice how much it irked me until my back was sore much later after the ride. Really wish I said something, luckily he should continue to pack on muscle there and I have some shims to put on if I really can't ride in it.

So I said that yes, I could feel a difference. Saddle fitter then took that as an opportunity to try to sell me the girth. I asked the price, choked, and then said that I would have to think about it because yikes. And also that TSF girth was a little more than half the price. Saddle fitter got salty and said that you get what you pay for.

Which like... sure. But I also don't need the best most supple wonderful leather in something that is going to get soaked with sweat every day and cleaned once a week. I don't need it to last beyond my death, just as long as TC is with me, which won't be forever.

He hates these mats that have been here probably
for longer than he's been alive

So after that, saddle fitter basically said that unless I wanted to replace my saddle with something with a front gusset to keep it off his shoulders, there wasn't anything to do. So... uh... okay. I gave the girth back and wrote a rather large check. I wish I made that much in thirty minutes of barely doing anything. I get that I need to pay for the ranch call and all that, but it seemed a little weird to basically pay someone to try to sell me a girth.

And TC is really so straight that he hasn't crushed one side of his saddle that needs to be reflocked? TC is really so undermuscled that the same saddle that fit him when he came out of rehab fits him now? It just seemed fishy to me.

I dunno. So I have an email into the other saddle fitter. I don't think it's necessary to do right away, but I definitely want to switch. And I have two TSF girths coming my way to see if one will work for us. Such a weird day. At least TC and I had a mostly good ride afterward with a good 1-1 test run through.

Test Riding Preparations

Last Friday I signed up for TC's next and possibly last show of this year. I put us in for Training 2 and First 1 both days, with us hauling in both days from home. I figured it'd be a good next step to see how he handled two days in a row. The show is only about an hour to an hour and a half drive away, so I didn't sign up for a stall. I will see if they have any availability if I have to show real early on Sunday, but I, as everyone, am hoping to have rides between 11am and 1pm each day.

As I've mentioned, I'm a little bit nervous about moving TC up to First. TC is more than ready at home, but the last show at Training didn't go so so well in the canter work. Things have changed a lot since that show, but I haven't had a lesson in that time, so I'm concerned that I might have accidentally wandered off the path I was on. But at my last lesson, Tracey said that I was ready to move up whenever I wanted. And we have a lesson this weekend.

In the mean time, I've decided that I'm going to just test ride the hell out of this test to see when and if mistakes will happen. And so on Monday I started my test riding craziness.

And on Tuesday afternoon he got a bath because he was gross

Warm up went well, though I probably would school a lengthening or two in the show warm up to make sure we had brakes and weren't SO EXCITED to be finally allowed to go VERY FAST.

The centerline rode well, though I do need to ride about 10,000 more before the show. He just stutters slightly off of his line in the halt and when he does that, we lose a point. Why should I lose points on such an easy movement? I shouldn't. The one thing I am really glad about is that he marches right off of his halt now.

At Training and Intro, you are allowed to halt through the walk, and trot through the walk leaving the halt. You shouldn't have any walk steps starting at First level. That doesn't stop a lot of people, but I'm becoming more of a stickler for making sure that my horse is not only capable of doing the hard stuff at the level, but the simpler stuff that is easy to ignore. There's a reason why a First level horse is expected to go from trot to halt and halt to trot without walk steps.

The half circles are good, though to me they feel a little bit like 3/4 of a circle rather than a half circle, I need to straighten him more coming out of it. Both rode equally as well and he seamlessly changed bend and went nicely into his corners.

I miss that green grass, but not the rain that it requires

The stretch circle is perfect. The end. Well, I mean obviously it can always be better, but he's really figuring it out and is confident in it. No reason to fuck with a good thing.

On Monday the first lengthening rode well. I'm concerned that he's leaving his hind legs out behind him a bit too much, but it's just a lengthening. We'd get dinged in a medium for not being engaged enough. But it's a lengthening. He's powerful but needs me to slow down the front legs to keep him connected. If I just toss him across the diagonal and kick, he's likely to either get strung out, break to canter, or come off the bit. He's still learning!

The walk work rode okay. I knew by introducing half steps that I'd improve our walk to trot transitions (picture perfect) but be at risk of making our medium walk kind of slow. Sure enough, any leg at the medium walk meant he'd offer half steps. So I have to be careful. The free walk also rode badly because I had to get after him in the medium walk for jigging that I just sort of ignored the free walk. Definitely doing a lot of that in our upcoming rides.

The free walk to medium walk to working trot to working canter to lengthened canter rode SUPER well. I am the queen of randomly taking a break during my rides to check my phone, talk to someone, try to remember a test, take off a jacket, tell a cat that it's cute, or anything else. So he's used to wandering around aimlessly and suddenly having to go back to work. I love that he's happy to do that. It makes this movement ride super easy.

Heading back here this weekend I think

He did, however, squeal as we started the lengthening. I mean, I guess I like that I have a horse who adores his job. But like... please. It took all my bravery to let him keep going and risk the bolt. He honestly needs to learn that he can't bolt in the lengthenings, which means that I need to bait them and then punish them when they happen. He didn't bolt, but it did feel possible. I love that the lengthening ends in a circle, the first half of the circle was... uh... not the most in control, but after that he settled and we headed across the diagonal.

The transitions rode well, he's definitely not so great at trotting out of the canter, that comes from him breaking from canter and me telling him that he CAN NOT break from canter. Now he doesn't believe me that I want him to trot so I sometimes have to pull on him to get him to trot, which causes him to toss his head up a bit. But these transitions rode better than they usually do.

The next lengthening rode just like the first but with no squeal. He settled on the circle sooner and I wasn't as concerned that he'd take off. So that was nice! The trot lengthening rode super well as well, he's really figuring that shit out. And then we headed up centerline to halt.

I can't believe he used to be so small

Overall I was super pleased. It was one of the best tests he's put in at First level and there were just some minor places that I wanted things to be better - the halts, his confidence in the trot lengthenings, and my confidence in the canter lengthenings.

I'm sure at our lesson this weekend, Tracey will have some good constructive criticism for us. Hopefully I can convince her to watch my test and help me with that. Really looking forward to our first lesson in two months! Less looking forward to the show, but hopefully it goes well. I'm trying to focus more on getting our Training level certificate than the move up to First! And either way, by then we'll know the results of All Breeds!!

A Magical Weekend

So ever since Harry Potter World was a thing out in Florida, I've been dying to go. But I'm not the sort of person who wants to drop a thousand dollars or more to fly out there, get a hotel, and go to the park for a few days (because why spend all that money to go for one day?). I'd rather be the sort of person who rides horses, apparently. No regrets. Maybe regrets loving an industry that pays terribly, but no regrets with what I currently have leaving my bank account every month for the pony.

Then when Universal Studios in Hollywood came out with their Harry Potter theme park, well, I just haven't made time to go. Until my AMAZING siblings decided that it was high time that I go, so they dragged me down there this last weekend for my birthday (which was in July, we literally have not had a free weekend between the three of us since then). Bf flew into LAX to join us, which made me so so happy. And not just because four people at an amusement park is always better.

Magical place

I took the day off on Friday to give me a great start to an even better weekend: a leisurely ride on my horse after sleeping in a bit! But you heard about that yesterday. After my ride (and siblings' half days were over), we piled into my brother's car and began the trek down to LA.

The drive went by quickly, we only hit a bit of traffic right as we went into LA! Once we acquired bf (who flew in earlier so got to go eat a bunch of tacos), we made our way to our friends' place where we were staying. From there, we walked out to get some delicious ramen and then came home and played some board games before calling it a night.

The next morning, we made a quick Target run for some sunscreen and for my brother to get shorts. He's not the over-packer of the family. Then we headed out to the park!

Entrance

Hogsmeade Station

I love me some Harry Potter and I do really like amusement parks (though never seem to make time to go), so both combined was AMAZING! I know the Florida one is supposed to be a million times better, but let me tell you, this one is really well done. They very clearly put a LOT of effort into it. You get totally immersed in the experience. I forgot I was at an amusement park sometimes (except there were lines of people there).

The first thing we did was go get a wand, because with a wand, you could do a number of spells around the shops and stuff. Our friends had given us a wand, but I totally left it in the car. So the wand became one of my few souvenirs because I signed up for a show and texted my trainer for a lesson on Friday.

HONEYDUKES! 

Monster Book of Monsters! It spun around and
growled at us

Zonko's!

After finally deciding on a wand, my SIL and I ran outside to find a spell to do. They were fun, there were people around to help you, but we figured it out quickly.

We were all getting hungry, having skipped breakfast that morning, so we went to the Three Broomsticks and got some food and our first Butterbeer. We also tried Pumpkin Juice, which tastes exactly like it sounds. The Butterbeer was GREAT, our friends said to get the frozen Butterbeer, which I can confirm is much better than the iced version (You could also get it hot, but it was REALLY warm outside so no thanks). The food was surprisingly good for amusement park food, and bf is half English so he appreciated some Shepperds pie and fish & chips.

Frozen butterbeer :) :) :) 

From there we wandered through the shops. Everything obviously was expensive, I had to resist buying a time turner necklace (when would I wear it?), a few shirts (seriously when would I wear them?), and a scarf. I did break down and get a Chocolate Frog though, haven't eaten it yet (as of writing this), but I did check my card and found that it was Gilderoy Lockhart. Not too excited about that but the box is super cute.

There are only two rides in the HP park, so we rode both. The first one we rode was the tour through Hogwarts, which I thought was SUPER well done. I love rides where the line is an experience too. The line took us about an hour, but it wound us through the castle into various rooms (and it was cool in there).

We had a ton of fun looking at the moving portraits, including a room where the portraits of the four founders were talking about us. There was also Dumbledore's office with a pensieve, a Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, the Gryffindor common room, and the Great Hall with the sorting hat at the end. By the time we got on the ride, I was legitimately kind of sad that we were done wandering through the castle. But the ride was SUPER fun too.

Gryffindor in first place! Poor Ravenclaw, boo

Portraits, some of them moved and talked

Pensieve 

Sorting hat

Coming out of the ride, we were in another shop (typical) and as tempting as it was to buy a real Maurader's Map (one of them was interactive with your wand! But bf talked me out of it), I only grabbed a Ravenclaw patch. I have a bunch of saddle pads that are kind of boring and figured I could stick it on one. I also have two friesian sporthorse patches to put on saddle pads too. I'll be getting crafty soon.

The other ride wasn't as fun, it was more of a kid's ride and the line wasn't as exciting, just through Hagrid's hut and all that. But it was part of the experience so we did it!

Hagrid's hut, you could hear Fang barking behind one of the doors

When we were done with HP, we still had some time left in the park. SIL told me it was necessary to do the studio tour, so we did that. It was a little hokey but super fun, and honestly at that point, sitting for an hour was wonderful. From there we went down to the other half of the park for two rides- the Jurassic Park ride and the Mummy ride.

I hate hate hate getting wet on rides (unless I'm wearing like a bathing suit or something) so the Jurassic Park ride basically involved me complaining and saying "no no no no no" whenever we got sprayed with water. But the Mummy ride was super fun- again a line where it was an experience, though I've never seen The Mummy so I have no idea whether it was well done. Just being inside where it was cool was nice though.

After the whole day, we were exhausted but really happy. We came back to the apartment, grabbed our friends, and went out to an all you can eat Korean BBQ place. Any hope that I had of not being totally sick on Sunday went straight out the window. It was AMAZING.

Walking into the castle :) 

The weekend was over too quickly and we headed back on Sunday afternoon. The drive seemed to take longer going back than getting there, but soon we were home. Monday morning felt like getting hit by a truck (especially when TC saw me, squealed, and cantered around in his paddock, oh man). But it was totally worth it and I loved every second!