WW: Rico's Debut at First Level

I debuted Rico at First level in the summer of 2005. That was nearly thirteen years ago! This was way back when I had shown dressage for about a year and a half, had shown at First level just a bit on my previous horse. This was also back when you had to sit the trot at First, which was terrible for me on this giant mover. 

The show went well and I think we got a 67% at First Level Test 1. I dunno. It certainly doesn't look very good in my current opinion. Which is to be expected. But that makes me feel quite a bit better about TC going First this year! 

A: Enter working trot while slightly off the bit

X: Halt, stare off into the distance, salute 

Between M and C, get tired and lean way way back while your
horse tries his best. 

Between F and A, seem to kind of look like you know what
you are doing. 

E: Circle right, and make sure you kick your left leg so far back
that you're probably at risk of spurring his kidney

B: circle left, again look just sort of vaguely like you know what
you're doing

F: Forget to stop aiding for the lengthened trot by throwing your
horse's shoulders down

Between M and C: fatigued again, really lean back this time

G: halt, stare off into space, wonder if your rider will ever get
her shit together (she will, just give her eight years)

A Couple of Stupid Breakthroughs

TC had Friday off, so I had two nights of sleeping to get my new sitting trot lodged into my brain. I spent half the day on Friday with Peony and we talked a LOT about engaging the backline. I think weightlifting needs to be in my future again. I showed her the exercise from the Mary clinic - sitting in a chair with feet on the ground, pulling your feet back and trying to feel where along the backline the engagement stopped. And it occurred to me that simply sitting and doing this at my desk and while I'm driving (on cruise control and only when safe obviously) would be a good start.

When I was at the clinic, I could only get my backline engaged to the middle of my thigh, which explains why my leg stays under me well, but then I lose it further up my body. If while sitting (which I do a LOT), I can get my backline more willing to turn on further up, maybe I can translate that to riding.

He deserves a good rider

So then Saturday I got to practice for 2.5 hours before riding and it made a huge difference. I thought about really engaging my backline and keeping my shoulders forward. When I was riding Tango, Kate had said to think about how I could really make space for the horse under my seat. I've definitely taught that and been taught that, but I didn't realize how much that concept had to do with my backline and how my weak backline, despite me having some weight in my thigh and not being a super heavy seat-grinding rider, was preventing that from happening.

I didn't really feel the back come way up on Tango, not sure if that was just me not quiiite getting the seat where it needed to be or just that my weak backline doesn't shut him down the way that it shuts TC down, but either way, I kept that idea in the back of my mind.

Trying to sit in my old sitting trot (and not quite getting back to it)

Trying to sit in my new sitting trot (and not quite getting it)

I got on TC and he was feeling a titch behind my leg at first, which is fine by me, though often leads to me chasing him over the ground and him falling on the forehand, so I kept note of that. We got to the sitting trot before the canter work and I decided to video my attempt. I had the videos Kate took of me on Tango and figured that a comparison would be good.

At first I had to keep him in a really slow trot, but then it was like something switched when we went to track right (which is my better direction anyway) and his trot got super lofty.

Getting my new sitting trot pretty much down (for at least some
of the steps!!)

I can't believe the difference in TC when I changed the way I sat. And on Saturday I was still struggling with it in comparison to Sunday.

Sunday I had a couple of breakthroughs while riding. In terms of engaging my backline, I really felt like if I emphasized feeling my backline engage through my glutes (but still seat bones on my saddle ugh) and in my shoulder, I could kind of connect the dots everywhere else. I definitely needed to think about keeping my shoulders forward and waistline back, but I felt like I was able to keep the structure in my body a lot easier.

I also had a stupid, stupid, stupid breakthrough. TC and I have always struggled with transitions together. I think the biggest thing is that I just don't nearly do enough of them. Transitions tend to amp horses up and doing them a bunch on TC can lead to... bad things. Like him squealing and bucking in the canter after our fourth transition on Sunday. But part of it is that I make stupid decisions.

From the trot to the walk, for example, about half way through the transition I tend to lose my new Mary position and just flop into him. Obviously this leads to him putting his back down and his head up, and that obviously makes me want to pull on the reins. Always the right answer. Instead, on Sunday, I really focused on my position in the downward and he stayed through. Yeah. Turns out the same thing happens from the trot into canter too. Ugh.

Guess who has a little half pass?

Generally I feel like we're making some good progress. I REALLY want a lesson though. And I think I'm getting my wish! We got into the clinic this weekend with a trainer who I've ridden with a couple of times and have generally liked a lot. I reconnected with her at the Mary clinic and I have a lot of hope for her as my future trainer. But no pressure.

It's supposed to rain so I'm kind of dreading it, but I need to just keep him working this week (he got a light long line today) and hope that we can keep it all contained in the lesson itself!

Weak in the Backline

Monday afternoon I followed Kate back to her barn to play with her mare. Before that though, she had to teach a lesson and had an extra horse for me to ride, so I joined in! We had talked a bit about Kate doing a realignment on me at the clinic itself, but we were both so exhausted by the end of it. I still really wanted help with everything though. Despite learning SO much from the Mary clinic, I still hadn't had anyone really help me from the ground on the concepts. I can only do so much with the short side of mirrors and a sometimes ridiculous horse under me.

I rode Tango, a super sweet thoroughbred gelding who I had ridden before. I warmed up and put Tango through his paces, talked to Kate a bit about the second toolkit stuff I had played with (since Tango would rather not use his right hind leg thank you very much), and then came over to do the realignment!

Pony: looks good. Rider: needs realignment (also gets left behind
when coming down from sitting the lengthened trot, which is what
this picture is depicting, he looks good though!)

We started by putting both of my legs in front of the flaps to feel my seat bones. My seat bones are pretty easily accessible so that was no problem. Kate then put both legs where they needed to be, which didn't feel tooo far off from where they tend to live. But the rotation was definitely a bit more dramatic. This could have been that Tango is much narrower than TC, which meant that I really needed to think about the middle of my thigh a lot, which is usually an area that is taken up by wider sprung ribs.

From there we did a few resistances. Kate put her hand on my heel and had me push back against it. Then said no, like really do it. I was. This means that my backline is SUPER weak. Sure enough, when she put her hand on my toe and had me push forward against it, I was much stronger. This goes back to the Mary clinic when I was doing this exercise in the chair. I could feel my back line only up to the middle of my thigh, while I could feel my front line almost all the way to my collarbone. Interesting.

Typically a weak backline can be seen in a rider who wants to sit in a chair seat. I definitely have had this problem in the past. But years of being told to get my leg under me have led me to sort of artificially keep my leg back. This whole ordeal is not made easier by the fact that unless I am standing or on a horse (which, let's be honest, I work an office job with a long commute... it's not often), I have a long loose backline and a shortened front line. Even sitting here writing right now, my legs are out in front of me, my back is curved, I'm leaning down. And then I'm like, hmm I wonder why my backline is so weak.

Not as obvious in the canter but still there

It's not as apparent in the canter other than in my propensity to look down, which I feel like I'd do no matter what. It's not even all that apparent in the rising trot where you really see it is in the sitting trot. And it's most obvious on TC.

I've mentioned before that TC is one of the biggest, loosest movers I've ever ridden. I remember riding him as a three year old being like "welp if I get this one I'll sell him before I get to Second level," but over time his trot did get a little bit reined in. He's learned to shut it down nicely if you get in his way, but I don't want that.

Think of a horse's movement like wind and my weak loose backline like a heavy sail. If I'm on a small mover, the sail maybe flaps a tiny bit but I can generally keep it looking somewhat taught. If I'm on a moderate size mover, the sail probably has a good curve to it, but maybe not too obvious still. Then I get on TC and he hits my backline like a hurricane, sending it flying backwards.

I didn't edit this one because it's way ugly. He's up against me,
there's a random horse butt coming out of his nose, and I'm
obviously not sitting well. You can see what my backline wants
to do though, it's not good. 

Luckily for me, Tango is not a small mover, but he's certainly no TC. He was enough to get my sail ruffling in the wind but didn't create the above position like TC does. So it was enough to get me a bit out of whack (so I could feel the muscles I needed to engage to get me in the right position) but not enough to really make it impossible to figure out what to do.

I started to sit the trot and Kate told me that I was still too far back. So I brought my shoulders forward. And I was still too far back. Even more forward. Still too- FINE I will LEAN forward with all my might. Yep, that's it, that's vertical. It felt insanely forward. And there's really not that much of a difference. I have video but haven't gotten the video up to make gifs out of. But it really didn't feel very good, but it looked MUCH better.

Tango let me sit his trot for quite a long while like that (all the while being reminded to give me an even place to sit, poor thing) and then I came out on Wednesday and Thursday determined to replicate it on TC.

Riding is at least fun even when it's really fucking hard

I failed miserably. I need an actual TC lesson soon (the clinic next weekend filled up and I'm so sad), but I did my best. I managed to get myself in the right place shoulder-wise, but then I'd pop up off my seat bones, or my seat bones would be pointed backwards and my back would be hollow. So then I'd try to get my backline on without shortening it and it'd lead to me pressing backwards against it, which led to me rounding my back too much and getting left behind.

Meanwhile TC the saint is just trotting around like "hmm rider seems real weird today, whatevs" which he would NOT have done last year, so yay for grown up ponies.

I'd love to say that I had a huge breakthrough and am now sitting TC's trot like a boss. I am not. I left the barn on Thursday with a sore lower back for the first time in a very long time and feeling a tiny bit deflated. I know this is going to be absolutely key to access his fabulous trot one day, but today is not that day. Tomorrow looks bad too. Maybe Sunday, but probably not. It will take time and effort. And a lot of exercises to strengthen the muscles in my back so I can actually use them.

And perhaps a shorter commute? Or being able to work remotely once a week? Orrrr not. Okay I'll work with what I've got.

Different Butts

One of the fun/terrible things about TC is that I've pretty much been his sole rider for his entire life. It's not that he hasn't been ridden by other people. He's been ridden by quite a few, but in terms of time-in-the-saddle, mine is the butt that has been on his back, for better or for worse.

Dude is that my pony, maybe my butt isn't so bad. Look at his
though! That pelvis tuck! Impulsion: check

He saw Kate in a place where humans don't
go normally and he was like WUT

I want to change this in the future. I'd really love to be able to have him coming up through the levels while also being able to step in as a horse I can give a lesson on here and there. I'd love to share him with my friends in the way that I never could with Rico (since I was too paranoid about his soundness, I'm paranoid about TC too, but it's just not sustainable). I'd love to be able to have a trainer do a training ride on him.

So far I've been okay putting people on him in the round pen. But I'm still really careful in the arena. TC can go from being totally quiet and downright lazy to galloping away with you. And Tracey had a good point about the kind of rider TC needs when I talked to her about him this summer. He needs someone who is really tactful, since he's a sensitive guy (mostly emotionally at this point) but because of the remnants of behavioral issues, he needs someone a bit ballsy. Someone who is just going to bring him back to work when he randomly takes off, someone who will recognize when he gets balky and not pull him up into a rear, and someone who can... er... sit some shit if he goes after the pigeons.

Enter: Kate. The ballsiest tactful rider I know, or the most tactful ballsy rider that I know. This is the rider that TC needs. So I somehow convinced Kate that she should come ride my horse here and there. It's really good for everyone involved, even Kate seems to like riding him. It's great for me to see someone else on TC. My end goal is to be able to sell him, and it's not good training if no one else can ride him. So it's great for TC to have a different butt on him. But not a butt that is going to be scared of him or a butt that is going to do weird shit to him. Kate and I have very similar training backgrounds and she has to listen to me talk about my horse ALL THE TIME so she can probably ride him in her sleep just based on my rambling.

Such a good pony

So beefy, possibly too beefy

Monday morning we met at the barn and it was COLD and WINDY. Like cold wind. It was really miserable. Both of us and TC hated it. TC was probably the one who hated it least though. I threw him on the long lines again because I didn't realize it, but my near miss on Saturday made me a bit of a wuss. I mostly wanted to get him through that ten minutes of being super quiet and relaxed before he explodes. And explode he did, except it was my fault because I didn't attach my long lines to each other and he bucked and kicked the outside one out of my hand, then it chased him. Soooo okay not his fault.

I brought him back to the cross ties and really contemplated telling Kate that we should seriously just put him away and leave. But Tuesday morning I had to go into work early and I really didn't want to get on him Wednesday after a day off. So I was like "I'm getting on him to trot and then we'll put him away, sorry I'm the worst most annoying nervous friend" except maybe I left out the last bit. I was thinking it though.

We got into the covered and for the first bit of walk, TC was a bit tight. But we settled into some really good work! I mostly just exercised him, nothing too exciting. I did take note that his canter transitions on the long lines are now better than the ones undersaddle. Sigh. Okay, thanks TC, I'll work on that. But that was really the only "bad" thing he did- get hollow in the trot-canter transition. I felt so silly being so nervous about him when he ended up being totally good. I need more faith in my horse.

I'm so bundled up, it was super cold that day

Kate on TC!

After I played with him, I asked Kate to ride him! It's been super fun having her ride him over the last year and a bit. She felt him pretty soon after rehab when he was still pretty green. And since then they've both been getting much better. Kate is putting in the miles/lessons/rides on Mox and all her other horses and TC has been trained by me in all my mediocrity (lol no but really he's coming along so well even despite no lessons for nearly four months now).

This time it was like magic, they got along so well! Literally Kate rode him just the same as I did with a reminder from me to not let his chest get forward against his knee action and to keep working his neck longer and lower. They did so incredibly well. TC felt really safe and comfortable thanks to Kate's confidence and secure seat, and I'm sure Kate appreciated that the horse has come along a bit further now and is so much better in the bridle.

The fact that someone who he doesn't know very well can just get on, pick up the reins, and put their leg on, and he's just right there? I mean, I don't think he'd do it for just anyone, but the fact that he's doing it for SOMEONE is amazing to me. I was so excited that Kate got on and rode him so well. I think it both speaks to his training, sure, but also her riding, since he isn't totally easy in the bridle yet and is certainly a big mover when you unlock him. My goal is to get him so good that anyone can ride him like that.

It will be a while before I feel comfortable putting everyone and their mother on my horse, but for now I'm grateful for ballsy tactful friends like Kate who are willing to introduce TC to more butts.

WW: Upswing Progression

TC has never had a great canter. When I first started riding it, it was flat, out of control, and lateral. I still don't think he has a jaw dropping canter (and he never will), but it has changed quite a bit! I love how much more engaged (bend in the hock in the stance phase) he has become, and I also much prefer riding him now that he's not completely out of control. His color has also changed quite a bit!

September 2015- can we just note that I have not shrunk over
the years, he's gotten so much bigger! 

Fall 2016

Spring 2017

Summer 2017

Summer 2017

Summer 2017

Fall 2017

Fall 2017

Winter 2018

Winter 2018

Winter 2018

A Long Fun Weekend

This weekend was a four day weekend! I had both last Friday and yesterday off for President's day and it was a really great to have some time off without anything to do. I decided to not do anything, really, just hang around at home, get some stuff done, see friends, and ride horses. So many times I try to pack my weekends with stuff that I don't really get to just hang out.

Also media, I love having media

Friday I mostly just caught up on stuff. I tend to have to do most of my chores on the weekend because with riding, my commute, and work, I don't have tons of time during the week. So Friday was dedicated to running around and doing stuff. I dropped some stuff off at the post office, I got my car over to the shop for an oil change, I did a whole bunch of laundry, and then I went to the barn.

At the barn I rode, and then did a bunch of barn chores. TC got a bath and I got to put bluing in his tail, which has been my go-to tail whitening stuff for a while now. It definitely helps keep it slightly less... yellow... I feel like it's only a matter of time though. While that sat in his tail, I cleaned all my tack, which I've been trying to do every weekend and it's really helping to keep my stuff from seeming toooo disgusting.

Also let him graze for a bit, happy pony!

Saturday I rode TC and was able to wrangle my mom into coming to take pictures of us. She hadn't seen TC in a long while so it was fun for her to see his progress. Unfortunately she didn't get to see that, because despite it being a totally warm pleasant day, TC was an absolute nutcase that day for some reason. I was really impressed with my mom though, not only was she not afraid of TC or afraid for me, she kept yelling to me that she was getting GREAT pictures of his antics. Cool. I would have really preferred a boring ride with pretty pictures but I'll honestly take any media of me riding at this point.

From the barn, I zipped up to the peninsula to teach a few lessons. I've been kind of randomly teaching this winter while I figure some things out, but teaching is always super fun. It does make me envious of people who take lessons (even from me lol) because I am so missing having lessons right now. On the way back from the peninsula, it turned out that Kate was driving toward me and we were going to pass each other, so we figured we'd stop and get dinner!

Catching a picture of me laughing to my mom after my horse
nearly bucked me off. See my lost stirrups? Totally obnoxious.

On Sunday, my aunts came to the ranch, so I spent the morning with them and my parents as they looked for birds. The aunt who is my dad's sister is SUPER into birding. She knows so much about birds and she and my other aunt/her partner have traveled the world finding birds. My other aunt is maybe not aaaasss into it as my dad's sister, but she totally puts up with it and they're a great birding team. My dad is kind of getting into it too, so it was fun to hang out with them and borrow their binoculars to see all the birds at the ranch. I had to leave shortly after lunch so didn't get to see all the birds, but apparently they saw 20 different species of birds! I guess that was less than a few weeks ago when they saw 27 species, but I guess the wind makes the birds not want to hang around to be seen.

I zipped out to TC and found that I wasn't in the greatest mood. Unfortunately work has been a bit stressful so I found myself thinking about it more than I usually do on the weekends. That plus being super annoyed that TC hasn't woken up as a coming 7 year old and decided to become a brand new horse with no bad behaviors... I decided to just long line him. I wanted a positive interaction with him. The long lining/clicker training helps so much because it gets his brain working and it's also really structured so I don't tend to feel very frustrated/annoyed during that work.

Long lining is my favorite

I have a few posts dedicated to my Monday with Kate, but a quick rundown. Monday morning Kate met me down at my barn and rode TC with me! I was super excited to get Kate back on TC, every time she rides him they both are a bit better, and sure enough, this was the best ride yet. After that, I put him away while she went to teach and then we went to get poke together! From poke, we went up to ride horses at her other barn, where she actually did a realignment with me. It was amazing to have some feedback about my position and the horse I rode, Tango, is a much smaller mover than TC (but I wouldn't call him super smooth or anything) so it was nice to be able to totally focus on myself.

I will post a bit more about Kate's ride on TC and my ride on Tango featuring the first steps toward fixing my sitting trot later. For now I'm just getting ready to go back to work after four fun horse-filled days. TC gets a day off and I will probably work a bit longer hours to catch up on stuff. Then back to trying to sit the trot properly on Wednesday! This time on a gigantic mover, gah.

Instability to the Left

Seven years ago I was working full time as an assistant trainer at an event barn. I was a bit of a crash dummy type, getting on everything and anything, in addition to teaching and holding down the fort when the main trainer was out and about. One day I got to the barn to ride a horse who I thought had been longed the day before. We had just had a big storm and the horses didn't get out for a few days. This horse was particularly obnoxious when not exercised, he had a really bad habit of rooting and bucking.

This one wouldn't know what being obnoxious is like, he is
always the most perfect

I hopped on him and headed up to the arena to ride. Things were going okay until he grabbed the bit and bucked HARD and twisted. I didn't come off, but something was VERY WRONG with my lower back. A shooting pain was sent down my right leg and I hopped off, took the reins off over the horse's head, and limped down to the barn to put the horse away.

Unfortunately I didn't have health insurance, but after a week, I still couldn't ride without being in pain so I went to the doctor. I refused to do any tests or physical therapy due to the expense, but was put on high dose NSAIDs and told to take time to rest. Instead of resting, I took the meds and rode through it. I didn't keep track of taking them very well, I just felt pain and took them. That was dumb, as one would expect.

Fast forward through a stomach ulcer which caused me to drop a ton of weight I didn't have to drop, which caused me to get weaker and weaker, which caused me to fall off into a fence and get a concussion, but I couldn't take a day off work because #horsetrainerlife and so I went to work the next day and almost fell off in the same way (in the same helmet because couldn't afford a new one, it's winter), which caused me to go home and sign up for classes again. Which got me my bachelor's degree and my master's and led to a job and my pony! So it wasn't all bad.

This isn't in my favorite part of the step but I love my position
here reflecting, somehow, all the Mary stuff I've been working on.
There's still so much to fix but it's coming along!

Sooo that was a long story, what was the point? Well, that SI injury still hasn't been dealt with. I occasionally have sciatica due to it, which chiropractic care helps with, but for the most part, my asymmetry has protected the joint. Riding doesn't hurt it, but I think if TC's bucks get twisty, I'll be singing a different tune.

The trainer putting the Mary clinic on is a physical therapist, so when I put the franklin ball under my heavy seat bone (the left side), which dropped my right seat bone, and felt a TON of pain, I went to talk to her about it. Without poking at me, she told me that it's likely that the ligaments on the left side of my SI joint are longer than the ligaments on the right side. The shorter ligaments draw my right hip up. She said I needed physical therapy and I needed it as soon as possible.

So I think that I will be prioritizing PT very soon, but for now it's a lot about dealing with my asymmetry without increasing the pain in my SI. Luckily, despite all the pain I am in when I work on it on the ground, I have not been in pain yet working on it undersaddle. I don't know why, but I'm not complaining. I haven't yet had any riding-induced SI pain and I haven't had any sciatica either. Fingers crossed it stays the same. For now, I think addressing my asymmetry undersaddle is hopefully the first steps in getting myself all sorted out.

You can see my asymmetry here a bit. Much tighter on the right
side than the left. 

The asymmetry is essentially that the right side of my body is shorter than the left side. My right thigh falls away from the block and gets loose. My right seat bone sucks up away from the saddle. My left leg gets heavy and tight against him, my right leg hooks around him and/or slides forward. When tracking left, I can't close the door on the right side of my body. When tracking right, I can't ride him off my right leg correctly so he often rides with his rib cage too much to the inside.

On the ground this is pretty apparent. At the clinic we did a partner exercise to examine our asymmetries and I'll try to explain it. Stand as if tracking to the right- right leg slightly ahead of left leg, feet shoulder width apart, a slight bend in the knee. Have someone about your height stand behind you and put their hands around your ribcage, up near where an underwire would be on a bra. Have them pull back on you and you resist. Then have them pull back on you down near your love handles, and on your hips. Repeat the same thing tracking left, right leg behind left leg with both knees bent.

And you can see it here too, though damn look at that pony's
uphill balance! But to me, I'm so much looser in my left oblique
than in my right, and so unstable tracking left.

For me, when tracking right I was pretty stable when Kate pulled against me. I forget exactly, but I think I was a titch weaker pulling against my love handle area, but mostly pretty stable. To the left, Kate nearly pulled me down. I got very unstable laterally, kept shuffling side to side trying to keep my balance. Mary wandered by and I immediately jumped on her (well, not ON her), asked her why WHY was I so unstable to the left. She did the same exercise with me and nearly threw me to the ground as well. But then noticed when her hands were on my waist that I engage my left oblique when traveling right but not when traveling left.

This is all due to that left side being longer and looser. If you think about my spine as a tent pole and the left and right sides of my body as strings holding up the tent pole up. My left string is long and loose, my right one is tight, holding the tent pole up. If I think about lengthening the right side to match the sides, I'll lose stability that the right string has in it. If you are looking to create stability in the tent pole, you tighten the loose side, not loosen the tight side.

 Switching to front and back lines, one of my strengths in the
canter is not tipping my shoulders back behind my hips in the
down swing, and not thinking that this time is a good one to
pull on the reins either. So he can really stay up through his
shoulders! Good pony.

Translating this undersaddle, it means that I need to tighten up that left oblique, plug my right seat bone in, snug in my right thigh, and think about shortening the space between my left armpit and my left hip bone.

It's been an absolute GAME CHANGER, this work. I never used to be able to sit the trot tracking left. I felt like it was all TC. He was weaker that way. He didn't want to come through on that side, on the right rein. He didn't want to keep his left hind under him. He gave me nowhere to sit. He was being a jerk. He was trying to get out of work.

Wait. That's not how horses... work.

Instead now that I'm hyper aware of what is going on, I realize that he doesn't feel bad that way, I feel bad that way. I feel unstable and loose in the tack. I don't keep my right side on him. I don't keep him in the middle of my body.

Trying to stay into my right hip and right thigh but man is
that super fucking hard!

And sure enough, when I really focus on this stuff, he's right there for me. The stability that I provide him allows him to come better through and more engaged because there's room there for him.

It's REALLY hard though, my rides make my brain hurt and my abs hurt every time. But the feeling that he gives me is so addicting that I just don't care. On Friday I exhausted myself to the point where I felt like I was going to pass out when I got off of him (must get in better shape...). I know that the more I put into it, the faster that this type of riding will feel like I'm doing nothing. So I'm on this shit.

Lengthenings and Leg Yields

The first show of the season is coming up for TC and I. Our first rated show probably won't be for a little while, but we're going to go play at a schooling show in about three weeks. While we may stick to Training level for our first rated show to keep it safe, I definitely want to see how First level rides at the schooling show.

To be able to ride those tests though, we kind of need to look at movements. I haven't done much work on movements since early October when he was schooling some of the Second level stuff too. We kind of casually throw them in here and there, but most of my work since then has been on getting his connection and impulsion up to where it is now and I'm feeling like he's going around like a pretty solid First level horse now. We're even playing a touch with increased engagement and collection.

With good basics comes good movements, so I wasn't surprised to find out on this last week that the leg yields and lengthenings weren't too bad!

It was windy and cold on Thursday morning and
he was a huge dork about it

The trot lengthening is quite good, he definitely is covering quite a bit more ground than he has in the past, and his shoulders are looser than they've been in the past. I think in the future, he's going to have a really stunning extended trot, but at this point, I'm very aware of his old injury and his tendency to get super tight over his topline. With the topline tight, he'd be easy to teach to fling his legs. So with that in mind, I've been riding it at more like 80% of his capabilities and helping him figure out how to really take the bridle and push over his back a bit better as he covers more ground.

Thursday I decided to do the lengthenings sitting and that helped a LOT in keeping him over his back and into the bridle. We got some really amazing moments where those loose shoulders came up and out more like a medium. It was super cool! But his tendency is still to suck back and drop his back, so we have a lot of work to do until it gets really solid. Just gotta keep plugging away!

He's so cute sometimes

The leg yields are also coming along really nicely, though not as nicely as the shoulder-in, which is a bit annoying since we're still a while away from Second. At least when we get there, we'll have super solid lateral work. I think the reason why the leg yields are trickier are that they don't have the bend that the shoulder-in does to help him really come up and over his back. In the shoulder-in, it feels like his trot gets better and better with every step in the shoulder-in, which it should, like that's the point of these movements. But the leg yield doesn't. It's like I need to prepare to do it and then clean up the trot afterward rather than allowing it to improve his gaits. So he just needs more time in that.

Just like the lengthenings, the main issue (and forever the main issue with this horse) is getting him to stretch more into contact and remain loose in the back. Connection and impulsion. When TC can really press into the bridle in the leg yield, and really push from his hind legs to step over, I'm sure that we'll get to that same point in the leg yield that we are at in the shoulder-in. I think that the lack of bend in the leg yield is tricky for him since it's so easy for him to get stacked up in the straightness, it's similar to the struggle in the lengthening. But we can school the lengthening on the circle for a while, but the leg yield inherently is straight so doing leg yields on the circle won't help much. So we'll just take our time!

Destroying stuff as usual

The canter lengthening is funny. It's probably his best movement of the ones we're talking about today, but it's also the one most likely to lead to him leaping through the air, swapping leads, then running away with me. So I'm going SUPER slow with this movement with him. I have a feeling that we'll have "conservative" written on a lot of our tests until his emotional maturity catches up to his dressage training.

But just like the trot extension, I think his canter extension is going to be scary as fuck really powerful. He's less likely to get short in the neck and braced in the actual lengthening at the canter (vs the trot), but the downward transitions are tricky. As they always are when the horses are learning this movement. He very much thinks that trotting is a good answer, or stabbing his hind legs into the ground rather than flexing his hocks and his lumbar.

So obnoxious, he always does this and I think he
is going to yank his shoe off, ugh

I'm still working mostly on all the Mary stuff and on TC's connection. Just in the last three weeks since the clinic, everything feels so much better. My instability tracking left is getting much better and TC is really stepping up in that direction now that I'm giving him what he needs. There's still a lot to do, but I'm trying really hard and things are starting to feel more normal. I definitely want eyes on the ground soon and am on a waiting list for a clinic coming up, but mirrors and letting TC tell me when I've got it (or really don't) will have to do for another week or two!