A Relaxing Break

Last week was the first time I spent a prolonged period off at home in a very long time. I mean I had to travel a little bit (3 hour drive) to Thanksgiving and stayed overnight there. But no airports!

Instead of packing my schedule like crazy, I just... did whatever I felt like each day. And that felt REALLY nice. But it means that I didn't do much. I did ride my horse almost every day though!

On Tuesday we wandered around and ate food, yum

On Tuesday I had to take my saddle to get repaired. It's a normal thing that happens with it- the stitching on the monoflap gets worn down with use (where my leg sits) and then pops. This time the right one popped first, which is unusual, me? Using my right leg? What is this insanity? But luckily the guy was done by Wednesday! Woohoo. 

Unfortunately Wednesday, my first day off for Thanksgiving, I forgot my back brace as I went down to get my saddle. So I ended up just long lining TC using the clicker. He was SUPER good. He was a bit high, having both Monday and Tuesday off, but he only took off a couple of times and we got super far along in his training with the clicker. He would eagerly trot off after I had clicked and given him a bit of grain, stoked to go back to work and do more good things for more clicks and grain.

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I just did dressage rides. Thursday I had to ride quick and early since I had to zip up to Thanksgiving, then Friday I rode in the afternoon.

Lots of wandering

Both of those rides were good solid rides with minimal bad behavior. TC's fun thing the last week or two (or more actually) has been to balk and buck when my leg comes on for the first upward transitions of the day. From walk to trot in the beginning, and trot to canter later on. It starts with him retracting his neck, then balking, then if I press him, he bucks/kicks out.

I experimented on Thursday with a lot of walk halt transitions, getting him SUPER into the bridle before asking for trot, and we got a better first transition. Still sucking back from the contact but not being so shitty about it.

I didn't think until Saturday to add walk trot transitions to warm up too. I think he just gets stuck. He's the sort of horse who really needs a good warm up before he really gets moving, so I think that now that he's a bit out of shape, warm up is even more important. The longer he walks and the more transitions he does early on, the better the ride goes.

He's such a pretty color now, pls stay this way

Saturday I didn't ride for as long. I started in the court and wasn't in a great mood to begin with, so without the mirrors, I struggled to get the right feeling over his topline. I decided to just leave and go to the covered to help myself out. That worked out super well, we got some good work with no bucking, and ended early.

I decided to bathe him that day too. I scrubbed him all over with whitening shampoo, something I've started using on him despite him not being white just yet. I also scrubbed his mane, which I don't usually scrub because I like keeping it a bit dirty for braiding, and I tended to only bathe him before shows this summer/fall.

I also attacked his nasty brown/yellow tail and got that as white as I could get it. I basically decided that I didn't care if it turned purple, so I left the blueing on it longer than was recommended, and let the shampoo before then soak in for quite a while. Turns out it was the right amount of time because his tail looks great! And not lavender/blue. I might push it for even longer next time (I want to wash it every week or every other week to try to really lift those stains). I don't mind his tail being a bit blue at this point lol.

Wandering

After the bath I headed out to Kate's new barn and hung around there. She had me help her ground drive Kat- I was the clicker person. It was SUPER helpful to get even more practice with the clicker and Kat looked amazing by the end of it- stretching over her back and lifting her shoulder (in a good way, not in the way that she prefers sometimes). We headed out to dinner with some of her kiddos afterward, which is always entertaining.

For someone who used to interact with teenagers on a regular basis, I really have lost my touch with them. They're just so... young. And their slang is weird. I dunno. They're still such a great group of kids, even if they are confusing to me sometimes and I don't know what to say to them. At least at my job at the college, I'm locked away from all the teenagers.

Sunday I just fed TC in the morning because I spent the day with L and Kate! But more on that later.