Fall Back Friday: Good Boys

Some of my favorite pictures to come out of showing my horses have been the ones that happen at the end of the tests. I'm busy today so here's a look at some of the pictures I've gathered over the years.

Rico at PSG

Rico at Intermediare I

Rico at Intermediare II

Rico at Intermediare II

Rico at GP

TC's first show

TC's first show after rehab

TC's first show after rehab

First rated show, I love his face here

First rated show

When I accidentally didn't hand my phone
off and it fell out D: 

Greenville last fall

Greenville last fall

This spring at a schooling show

Hope everyone has a good weekend! 

Just Sit There

This week has been a bit relaxing for TC and I, which is much needed. Coming up to the show, I was getting really stressed about the heat and about making sure that all the movements were well schooled and everything else involved in show prep.

So being able to relax this week and just play a bit has been fun. We've done lots of walking in the field (the tracks aren't dragged, so just walking) and of course, some work too.

Old pictures today because I wasn't on it

Tuesday and Wednesday I mostly spent on the connection and my position. The connection was a little questionable in the show - he does this thing sometimes where when you put your leg on, he sticks his head on his chest, so he feels super behind the leg but you can't really put your leg ON him. So we fixed that.

Another big thing that came out of the show was using the mirrors to fix my position. I've gotten lax on my left side again and am once again loose in the left oblique. So I spent a lot of time thinking about that, especially tracking left. It's not feeling like such a shit show to the left!

This place is so pretty when it's green

Today though, my focus was on the lateral work. At my last lesson with Tanya, she set me up for such a good shoulder-in that it felt like I just had to sit there. Let me tell you something about myself, I love to just sit there.

That shoulder-in felt addicting. I want that to be how every shoulder-in feels. It felt like I could just think "hmm maybe a shoulder-in" and he immediately transformed under me. It felt like I could ride anything from within it- like a medium trot or a walk transition. It felt like MAGIC. And I loved it.

Since then I've been mostly focusing on our leg yields because of the show. And those are not as majestic even when they are good. They just don't improve the gaits in the same way the shoulder-in does.

This morning after finding some magical shoulder-in, I decided to put in some solid time in the walk in haunches-in. TC can do haunches-in, but it's still in it's pre-acceptable state of being very slow and a little short in the neck. He's closer to the acceptable range to the right, but very far from it to the left. The main issue is that the response to that aid is slow and deliberate. This is kind of how he operates with new stuff, he slows it way down and uses his little pony brain real hard. I want him to get more comfortable in it, where when he feels the aid, he doesn't have to think so hard. And that's just repetition.

I love this face so much

After we did a bunch of haunches-in at the walk, I did a little work on leg yield in canter from the rail to centerline, basically a precursor to half pass. TC is quite resistant to being pushed from right to left generally, and it was doubly so at the canter, his weakest gait. We did very shallow leg yields off the outside leg on the left lead and he got lots of praise for it. I really aimed to maintain the jump in the canter so that we could get a good sideways push. He got a little short in the neck but was generally pretty great about it.

I'm really excited to keep playing with all this. I feel like we've been focusing so much on the First level stuff that we've gotten a bit behind in the Second level stuff. I really want to get him more laterally supple and to get the lateral work solid by the end of the year. It's so helpful for strength building aside from being like... required for the level we want to do.

For now though, it's less about strength building and more about continuing to shape the response to the aids I want him to respond too. And getting that magical feeling in all the lateral work like we had at our last lesson!

Horse Show Takeaways

This last horse show didn't go as planned, obviously. But I'm on the other side and honestly not feeling that bad about it. A bad show isn't the worst thing that can happen to a person. And I don't think TC's behavior was so far out of the ordinary that I need to make any major changes to what we're doing.

We don't show again until at least mid-August and I'll have plenty of time to ride with my trainer and take TC to a few more places so that he becomes a bit more reliable when he travels.

A moment where he actually looked quiet and over his back,
but you can tell with that short neck, bad things will happen

For now, I wanted to reflect a bit on a few things that we learned this weekend:

Next year, I'm going to camp
This weekend was also an amazing camp that Kate's trainer friend runs. I was invited to go and every moment that I was at the show, I regretted not going! So it's already on my calendar for next year.


Standing around is preferable to being stressed out
Aka, always arrive way earlier than I think. TC is getting better at standing around at horse shows, so I should plan on just having him do that more vs trying to arrive with just enough time. That way if I get stuck sitting in my rig waiting for a crazy person to load their horse in the driveway, I won't be in such a hurry.


The horse is too fit
I've been working hard to get TC fitter and fitter. He is now fit enough! So I'm going to hold him steady at 12-15 minutes of trot and 8-10 minutes of canter for a while. He can still strength build within that time, but holy shit does he not need to be more fit cardiovascularly. The horse can go forever.


I am not fit enough
This will be remedied soon, keeping fingers crossed that my wrist doesn't cause any issues!

I still like him

No more showing in heat
All last year I showed in July and August, but it was on the coast where the weather was perfect. This year, I showed in the Sacramento valley and that was NOT OKAY. TC obviously handles the heat okay, but I did not. Next year, we'll come out a bit earlier, get any scores we need by the end of May, then have a fun summer and resume showing in fall.


I need friends at shows
This show especially, I realized that I kind of hate showing alone. Like I don't enjoy showing enough (at least not at this level) to want to be there all by myself. Whether this means exclusively going to shows that I know friends/my trainer will be at or paying someone to help me out at shows where I don't have friends going, I'll figure that out later. I just think it'd have been better in that first test on Saturday to have someone helping me tack up or holding my stuff or sponging off my horse. It definitely made a difference for my second test on Saturday and my test on Sunday to have people there.


No more rocket fuel
At expo I had gotten some LMF Gold to try TC on and it made a nice difference in getting him more energetic, so I bought some. He got a pretty small amount of it each day leading up to the horse show and was generally a good boy at home.

Then we got there and he was really explosive. Soooo we'll be trying a different kind of food. I sent the LMF Gold home with my mom for Rico. He loves that stuff!



Tuesday morning's ride was really excellent (I gave both of us Monday off, he would have been fine being ridden, but I just needed to sleep in a bit). He was forward and into the bridle, nicely balanced, and his gaits felt really good.

So with that I think the plan is to just learn from this horse show and move forward with what we've been doing! Because even if the show didn't really make it seem this way, he is getting better and better.

Withdrawn

I was really hopeful for Sunday going into it. My ride time was earlier in the day, we just had one test (the 1-3), my parents had decided to come visit Sacramento that day so had agreed to come to the horse show and then we'd carpool into the city for lunch, he had gotten ridden pretty hard the day before, and it was scheduled to be much cooler (well, 88 degrees is still hot, but it's not 107 hot). 

All I needed was to get through this test, to get a 60% on it. TC generally scores in the mid to high 60s (I say generally and we've shown First level like... twice) so something would have to go terribly wrong to score lower than that. 

I got there with PLENTY of time to spare and gave myself 40 minutes to warm up. From the moment my butt hit the saddle, I knew that it might be a shit show. 

And it WAS a shit show, I hate being right

He generally was really well behaved in warm up, but he gets this feeling... I can't describe it. He can look totally nice and quiet and normal from the outside, but it's like I'm sitting on a rocket barely holding it together. I looked in the mirror and he looked *amazing* and I thought that maybe we can pull this off.

But underneath it all, I could feel an absolute psychotic mess of a horse. 

It wasn't like he was upset or pissed off or tired or cranky or in pain. He was having the absolute time of his life. He was shaking his neck at every horse who passed him, thought a horse doing lead changes near him was doing the COOLEST THING and tried to join in. He had a giant manic smile on his face. YAY HORSE SHOW BEST EVER LET'S PLAY YOU LOOK LIKE YOU'RE DOING SOMETHING FUN ME TOO. 

So when he held his shit together, he felt amazing. A bit locked in his back due to being on the brink of an explosion (a behavior I used to call "baby totilas" since he feels super giant but kind of mechanical), but amazing. 

Leg yield pattern rode pretty well at least

Forty minutes of mostly cantering later and I still had this feeling. My mom said "wow, he sure is fit now" and I was thinking yes, a bit too fit. But we had to go in, so off we went. I told myself, he hasn't done anything necessarily WRONG today, he just feels amped, maybe this is a good thing. 

It was not. 

I knew things were going to be bad when he bolted into the arena where the show ring was like I HAVE ARRIVED. He then thought that a golf cart was the Most Interesting Thing and wanted to shutter to a halt to stare at it. I got him back forward and we had a lot of leaping and shaking his neck. I thought about scratching right there... but also thought that maybe I could hold it together. 

I could not. 

Look how fucking short he can get nose to tail, that is not fun
to ride when he does it out of the blue like he did here

Up centerline we got a 7, then we turned for our lengthening and he leapt into the air and went to bolt, for a 3. Then we got a 7 and a 6.5 on our leg yield zig zag. Then another 3 on our stretch circle as I went to carefully put him lower and he went to buck. Then a 6.5, a 7, and a 6.5 on the circle pattern. At this point I knew I wanted to withdraw. I didn't know what the scores were, but we did not show ANY stretch at all unless you count the stretching of his underline as he went to buck. That's a double coefficient.

But I wasn't sure what to do. I guess I could just stop and say bye to the judge, but honestly I was really curious how the canter work was going to ride. So I kept going. He picked up the cross canter (WTF) into the right lead, went way crooked trying to take off with me in the lengthening, did a really nice quality loop, then proceeded to do his shit version of tempi changes across the diagonal, just like flinging his legs around like an idiot, picking up the wrong lead several times, and then finally landing on the new lead okay. 

Again the loop rode nicely, though he swapped leads on the lengthening. After that I was super fucking done so I waved at the judge and walked out. Judge told me to come up and said that he could have made me keep going. Um. If you had I might have just let him trot right out of the arena. An E vs a W is the same thing in dressage basically. Plus I'm not planning on selling him any time soon, so fuck his record (mostly, I didn't want to put a sub-60 score on him if I didn't have to). 

Right before some leaping, look at that mischievous face like
"I'm going to do something hilarious, hold my beer" 

Overall comments were "nice horse but a brat today, good luck," which I think summed up the whole weekend to be honest! He is a really nice horse. He's sweet and kind and silly. Sometimes too silly... Nothing he throws at me is hard to sit, he keeps his head up in his bucks and generally goes in a straight line. He thinks this is fun. 

So overall, a really bad show! But it was fun to hang out in Sacramento with my parents. We went to lunch (thanks Peony for the recommendation because despite being here for three months now, I've been to maybe two restaurants, it's what happens when you buy a trailer and refuse to stop showing lol) and then went to the tack store near my house. 

Then they took off and I sat at home and let the cortisol drain out of me. Yay horse shows... I'm glad the next one isn't for another month and a half, I need a break! And a trail ride I think.  

Story Over Comfort

Despite the high being 107 on Saturday, TC and I zipped off to a horse show. Because... I have no idea. I needed scores and I had already paid for the show and it's right around the corner. Ride times were at 12:27 and 1:17, and the heat of the day really isn't until 4pm, so it was only 100 when we were riding, and there was a breeze, so that was nice.

Saturday morning I drove to the show in my car and checked in, then went to the grocery store to fill my cooler up with ice. Loaded up a bunch of gatorade and water, plus some snacks for me, then took it down to the trailer and hitched up. It was already getting warm.

TC got hosed off and then I moved him under the fan for braids. He got hosed off again before getting in the trailer for the show.

Pictures from Sunday because I didn't get any on Saturday

Things were okay up until the point where we're half way to the show and there's a big slowdown on the freeway. Not wanting to sit around at the show forever, I had left with JUST enough time to get there. That was stupid. So we were running about ten minutes behind when I pulled into the show grounds and saw that someone had parked their trailer in the driveway.

In order to get my trailer off the road, I had to put my nose basically on their nose. The lady who had parked waved to me like "hey one minute" and I... I guess I need to work on my "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING" face because mine was not at all effective. She ran off to load her trailer up with hay. While my horse is standing in the 100 degree heat in my trailer and my test is going to start in 30 minutes.

I called to her as she came back with another load of stuff "I RIDE IN THIRTY MINUTES" and she just waved again and ran off to get her horse. Loaded the horse up and then stared at me. Bitch I am not backing my trailer up into traffic so you can leave. So I put my truck in drive and inched forward. She finally figured out that she was going to back up and did so extremely slowly because she was in no rush, you know.

I then had to park way too close to a car because it was the only spot open and I just thought "fuck it, if you're going to park your car in the trailer parking area then you're probably okay with my horse swinging his ass around right near your car" and unloaded to tack up at warp speed. Okay universe, I get it, I will arrive with enough time for everything to go wrong next time.

There were basically no good trot pictures

Into the warm up we went with exactly eight minutes before my ride time. I picked up the trot and learned quickly that TC was not at all affected by the heat, which would normally have been great news. Immediately I regretted not riding him the day before because my entire warm up was me trying to tire him out without tiring myself out. I was not successful.

We went in for 1-1 and it was a disaster. The whole time he was trying to take off and/or buck. I was basically just trying to keep a lid on him. We managed an 8 on our right ice cream cone, and then the rest of the movements were 7s for the trot work, 6s for the canter work (because his head was legit between his knees the whole time) and a glorious 3 for the trot lengthening where, in the corner before, he squealed and bucked. The comment on that was "v. naughty, explosive, well ridden :)"

Overall we got a 64. 4%, which was generous, though I knew this judge was going in, so that's why I didn't withdraw halfway through. Overall comments was "a nice moving BIG horse. A little tension but overall a horse with potential." I just... okay. He's only 16.2.

Seriously his trot was so tense, ugh

I didn't check my score until after my second ride because I just didn't care what it was or what the comments were. I hopped on with much more time in warm up and he spent much less time trying to play with the other horses in the arena.

Speaking of nice, freaking major shout out to one of Nicole's friends who probably saw me there about to cry after my second warm up and stepped in as my horse show mom for the second test. I was so stressed being there alone with my horse being insane and me feeling kind of blah because of the heat. She walked me over, checked my girth, handed me my gatorade, and even videoed my test because the person I was going to pay to video it left halfway through my test apparently... I dunno, this whole weekend was just ridiculous.

When he's good, he's good!

The second test was MUCH better, though still not as good as we could have been because again, many of the movements were done with TC's head between his front legs, shaking his neck around, but it was a little more on par with what we're doing at home.

We again had one 8, this time on our right canter circle, which should make Tanya happy since that was the direction I got my circle lesson on. Everything else was 6.5s and 7s and a few 7.5s (finally on our stretch circle where I wasn't fearing for my life as much as in the first test). Collectives were all 7s and the final score was a 69.2% with the comment "a steady test with correct outline, work on gaining his balance on lengthenings, nicely presented."

I think she was just impressed that I managed to keep his head out of his ass for a good majority of the test, hence the outline comment. I want to embroider "I DO NOT RIDE IN DRAW REINS, SOMETIMES HE JUST DOES THIS" on my shirt in big bold letters.

Tomorrow's post will detail this behavior... This was a trot
lengthening FYI, he is real enthused

The title of this post is Story Over Comfort. I was listening to a podcast on Friday where the hosts were talking about this idea that when things start to feel uncomfortable or go wrong, just think "story over comfort" and push through. So we did. And I guess this post is more interesting than one that just read "everything is amazing my horse is perfect we got a 75 and won everything" but like, I'd like for that to be one of my posts in the future!

Stay tuned for tomorrow's recap of Sunday when things got worse. Well, at least no one parked in the driveway!

Restuffing a Previously Overstuffed Horse

TC has been back to work for a few days now and I wanted to talk about something that I'm really focusing on with him. But first, we have to go back in time.

One of the main things that I was focused on with TC as a young horse was relaxation. He was a very tense, zippy little thing for a very long time, and it was pretty detrimental not only to our relationship but also to his training. If his back isn't soft, forget trying to get his hind legs under him or getting him into the bridle.

For the last few years then, I've allowed him to be a little quiet when he wanted to be. Counted my blessings when he was behind the leg or chill about stuff. Rewarded him for getting his neck down and taking a breath and using his horse brain rather than his lizard brain.

Lizard brain

This has helped out a lot. TC's bolting is almost non-existent anymore (I say almost because he did it the other day and I almost came off, oops), I'm comfortable on him, he's relaxed and focused. He does what is asked for and tries really hard.

But that quiet, sliiiiightly behind the leg feeling, is still present, and he needs to be sharper now that we're glancing over at Second level. It's not that he's not responsive, he does everything he's asked to do, but he does it in a bit lower tone than I want him to for the (hopefully) upcoming higher levels.

So he's got to be a bit more in front of my leg, a bit more stuffed. The idea of stuffing is a Mary thing, but I heard it first from Tracey (who did study under Mary so maybe that's related). TC has a tendency to lose tone due to his breed. He can deflate a bit and still do the movements but not really carry as much presence. It means a little bit more hoisting through certain movements is necessary. We lose the cadence in the lateral work, the "fancy shoulder" in the trot, and the throughness in the canter.

So that's where we're at right now: Trying to re-stuff a previously overstuffed horse that I fixed by pulling stuffing out of so that he wouldn't explode.

I still love this even if it isn't a hippo

The main thing we're doing for this is transitions. I remember having to do transitions very carefully when he was younger because they'd light him up and send him off into space if I let them. Now, we're using them to get a bit more of that feeling.

Pretty much when he's not up and in front of me, he gets put into a medium gait, then brought back and put back to medium if he doesn't return in front of me. He's struggling a little bit with it, but I think he honestly likes being all powerful and lifted in front once as we actually get to that place. Once as he's there, he doesn't suck back.

As for my nerves? Now that TC has had so much training and reinforcement history of being taken down from being buzzy and explosive, I'm not worried about riding him on that line so much.

Remember this post about finding positive tension? And the accompanying graph that I posted above? I think the steep drop off on the right side of the graph is much less steep. You can certainly put him in negative tension, but nothing really comes of it, he just gets mechanical in his step. I'm sure I could push him way down into the danger area, but it'd take me a long while, possibly multiple days, and accompanying weather (rain/hail) and possibly some time off leading up to it.

For now I'm just in between those two lines, getting him to carry more energy in his body so that he can puff up a bit more, carry more weight behind, and generally be rideable for the higher level stuff.

With the work, things are going super well. The movements feel easier, the throughness is easier, everything is just better!

Too stuffed/tense! The beginning of last year with me grabbing
stuffing out of him. Now I gotta put some back in!

Lucky for me, TC is generally better stuffed outside his home barn, which previously meant that he was insane in new places, and now means that when he gets zippy off the property, I think "phew" and can merely regulate him rather than put more into him.

Hopefully he'll adjust to the new regime quickly. It's already taking less effort to get him more up and in front of me, but he's still very happy to chill out and stretch down.

And hopefully all this hard work will combat the now 107 degree heat we're facing tomorrow. He got electrolytes this morning and last night, and will continue to get them through the weekend, I'm picking up some of my own electrolytes today to start loading up. And I think I've got a good plan in place to keep both of us cool at the show!

Another Long Weekend

This last weekend was super fun, especially because it was one of my long weekends. I think I'm going to miss this schedule (we only get the option in the summer), having an additional day off every other week definitely beats having an additional hour off every day. Maybe one day I will have a job where I have this schedule permanently!

The last time Rico and I showed at Murieta,
this was the same arena that we watched
for a while, but it's now covered with stands!

Saturday

On Saturday, I took TC on a walk and gave him a bath before heading out to Rancho Murieta, a show facility about 40 minutes away.

I showed Rico at Murieta a few times in the 00s and have taken kids there for shows/JR Champs, but haven't really been there in a while (last time was 2016 to coach). It has definitely gotten much ritzier, they're turning it into THE place to be. So naturally TC and I haven't shown there! We aren't doing the multi-day shows yet and it's a very busy place, I think it's best to work up to it.

I arrived and knew that Kate and Jen were inside watching the CDI, but I saw a dog in the parking lot. It was Alexis with her adorable whippet, so I talked to her for a while before calling Kate and Jen over to hang out. Nothing like going to watch an international dressage show and instead petting a dog in the parking lot while talking to strangers, sorry Jen! Alexis is a riot though and the CDI was small and the scores were kind of low, so we probably didn't miss much.

Right as Alexis left, Nicole showed up! And thus began a fun blogger dressage day.

We watched the warm up for a bit before heading over to watch the open PSG. A friend was riding in that, so we watched her and a few other riders too. There were some really nice horses, and one of the competitors was on a hafflinger! She had the cutest changes, really expressive.

We kind of wandered aimlessly for a second before watching warm up again and then deciding to get lunch. After lunch, we all had to split.

I went home and did a bunch of chores for the show- sewed the button back onto my show coat, got a new backing for my gold lapel pin so I didn't accidentally lose a third of my dressage education at the next show. I also played with my patio garden that is growing quite well right now!

Rico in the field, it's a lot less green now-a-days

Sunday

Sunday morning I rode TC and taught a lesson before heading down to the bay area for Father's day. I was really eager to get on Rico, so opted to do that first. Rico was happy to see me, mostly because I made him do tricks, which means cookies.

I hopped on him and headed up to the field where my parents had put paths in. Rico was super excited to be out there and carted me around at the trot and canter all over the hills. It was so fun!

My brother and SIL came down for dinner, which took a little while in the oven. I had brought a couple of board games, so we played The Resistance, which was hilarious because my mom kept giving away that she was a spy by asking what she should do in instances where as a member of the resistance, you'd not have a choice. So we (the resistance) won both times.

It was fun catching up with family. I'm still (frustratingly) struggling with being down there without Cooper, despite it being over three months since he's been gone. But I still appreciate being there and I know it will get easier with each visit.

View halfway up the hill of the ranch and the neighbor's property

Monday

Monday morning I played with Ruby, my parents' dog, before heading up to SJ to go to the movies with Kate! The perks of having friends with unusual schedules, she didn't have much to do so we decided to hang out. We saw Incredibles 2, which was absolutely amazing. Then got some lunch before we had to head out to teach separate lessons.

I had heard from some previous clients that they wanted to be added to my bay area list and I told them that I would, but that I was also driving through the area on Monday afternoon if they wanted to ride. So they wrangled me two lessons in the afternoon.

It was SO fun to see them. Both of them love the biomechanics stuff and improved a ton during their lessons. I got to sit on one of their horses, my student's previous PSG horse, and that was super fun. I did some maintenance in the connection, but then schooled some changes through the four tempis, though little miss decided to throw in a three. I had just been telling Kate that I wanted to sit on something with good changes since I have mostly been doing them on horses that aren't great at them. So thanks little mare!

From there I drove home, which I already bitched about the other day. Just like, lesson learned, do not get off the highway in SF lol.

Now to just figure out a way to bring TC down for a weekend
and hit these trails again!

Overall it was a great weekend but I was glad to be home. I love the bay, and am toying with the idea of a career change that would bring me back to the area eventually, but I love my current situation as well. I'm lucky that neither place is all that far from each other so I can visit whenever I want.

Show Prep for the Heat

This weekend is our second rated show of the season! With being gone last weekend and TC being a bit too lumpy to do much until Tuesday morning, show prep mostly happened in the evenings this week.

TC had an overgrown bridle path that needs trimming, his mane was way too thick last time I braided it so it needs to be pulled, he also grows feathers like he's part friesian or something. I also need to finish packing the trailer, put gas in the truck, switch out my hitch so I can give Andy his back, panic a little bit about having to remember three tests, and wash everything that I haven't washed yet.

We'll be in this arena this time (ring 2, which was not going on
last time we were there)

Plus, it is going to be 105 degrees on Saturday (only 90 on Sunday so I think we're okay for our 11:30 time at 1-3, just one test), so I need to figure out what to do heat-wise. PLEASE give me your holy-shit-I-might-have-to-ride-in-that-heat tips.

Here's what I've got going for me so far:

I got a small battery powered fan that clips onto the manger out of TC's reach. It's not very powerful, but I figure any increase in airflow inside the trailer is good. It's not a very far drive (30 minutes maybe) and I will leave his window down with just the bars so hopefully he gets some airflow that way too. I'm thinking about getting a larger battery operated fan to put on the outside of the trailer so he has some airflow out there too while he is tied between classes.

I also am going to get a couple more buckets for my trailer. He's going to have two buckets of cold water in front of him at all times, one with electrolytes and one without. I also will have a third bucket with an alcohol and water mixture (how do I make this??) so that it dries quicker than with just water.

I'm bringing a ton of ice, as well as a cooler with a bunch of ice packs too, plus cold water for me to drink. I haven't decided what to do about my show coat situation. I need to wear my back brace, and I guess I could wear my white one and put it over my show shirt... I think I might just wear my coat unless I legit think I'm going to die of heat stroke. Unfortunately I don't have anyone coming with me (who is dedicated to just me, I do know people there) to hand it to me... I dunno, will need to think about it.

Most importantly, we're going to be doing a ten minute warm up. He just needs to trot and canter and then go in. The training is there, no need to push all the buttons and exhaust him.

Um when is it cold again?

My first ride is at 12:30, which is a really shitty time. Luckily the heat here seems to be the worst around 4-5pm (the show is over by 2pm), so I'm really hoping that it's only like... 90 degrees when we ride. That's still INSANITY.

Here's my ideal plan:

8:00 - drive my car to the show to check in (less time for TC to be at the facility)
8:30 - check in
8:45 - drive home
9:15 - hitch up trailer
9:45 - hose off with cold water
10:00 - tie up under fan and braid
10:30 - hose off again with cold water
10:45 - put back in stall (which has fan) with some grain and pull trailer out of parking spot
11:00 - load into trailer, drive to facility
11:30 - park at facility and unload
11:40 - make alcohol mixture, then sponge off all over
11:50 - put on tack
12:00 - sponge off with alcohol mixture before getting on
12:10 - get on, walk to warm up ring
12:20 - walk over to the show ring, sponge off chest and between legs with alcohol mixture
12:27 - into the show ring

Afterward hopefully I can hop off and sponge him immediately, get him back to the trailer to pull his tack and sponge again. Then he'll have to hang out at the trailer, hopefully I can find shade, but if not, we'll go stand rudely in the barns or under some trees before having to get on again. I don't plan on warming up for my second test for longer than 5 minutes.

I've never shown, or even really ridden him, in this kind of heat. Please let me know what else I should be doing to help TC stay cool. I'm really worried about it and I will for sure be scratching if he doesn't seem right.

I kind of wish that I hadn't have signed up at this point, which is not an unusual feeling for me to have right before a horse show, but this time the tests aren't stressing me out, it's the heat!!

An Update on Lumps McGee

Thanks for all of the ideas with the fly spray! I think for right this moment, I'm going to avoid any fly spray until he's totally better and we're done with this show, then I'll be very careful about trying one at a time and only like, on one part of him that won't bother him if he has a reaction. 

This post is just a boring update about his hives. 

So I noticed the hives last Wednesday night and immediately bathed TC to get rid of the excess fly spray. Luckily for him, I only missed one spot under his right hind leg where some fly spray had gotten and I had apparently not washed him, so he got the crusty skin stuff there again. That didn't appear until Saturday morning so I washed him all over again.

All he wanted was hugs, thanks Peony for the
visor! Incredibly necessary for this area lol

Sunday morning in his rainbow polo wraps (another
excellent $10 purchase from Camelot)

Starting Thursday, I put him on Benadryl and he remained on that through Sunday, when I was able to get my hands on some hidroxyzine, which he started on Monday. 

I rode him bareback on Thursday morning and he seemed totally great, spooking at shit and trying to eat all the trees (which is a new and stupid thing he likes to do, he KNOWS it annoys me but he does it anyway). 

Friday evening I decided to try an actual ride. His bumps had all gone down except a big patch of edema on his belly. My BO saw me taking him out and said that it'd probably be good for him to move around to get that edema to go away. 

TC was a little tense about the saddle and then took off with me when I got on. He walked on tip toes for a little bit and I couldn't tell why. Was it because he was in pain? Maybe. Was it because I was thinking he might be in pain? Maybe. Was it because he was excited? Maybe. It's hard to tell. He settled into our walk and had a really nice time marching around the field.

Close up, they're pretty awesome

He saw me putting stuff in the trailer and this is
how he watched me

When we got to the arena he was hesitant. I hadn't put on spurs just in case, and I figured I'd only work for as long as he was comfortable. 

He didn't seem comfortable at all. I keep telling people that his trot is manufactured, that it took me a long time to get him loose and over his back and to change the scope of it. I sometimes stop believing that because his trot is always so nice when I ride it. This time, it was TERRIBLE. It felt like the trot he had as a young horse- stiff in the back, on the forehand, leaning into his knees. Bleh. So we stopped and I got off. He immediately just wanted to get hugs and then try to take off my visor. So we just walked back to the barn and I brushed him and put him away. 

Saturday morning I took him on a hand walk and then discovered the skin issue under his right hind leg, so I gave him a bath. 

Sunday he was finally looking somewhat normal, so I put him to work a bit, nothing too difficult because the edema was obviously still bothering him. And Monday he looked okay as well, but I was coming back from the bay and it took me way longer than I expected (because I went to teach on the peninsula, then Waze thought it was a good idea to take me through SF in rush hour and a better idea for me to get OFF THE HIGHWAY into DTSF to take a short cut. Um not listening to Waze ever again). 

My mom wanted to make sure I took
the meds she was giving me for TC

This morning I rode him, there was still the tiniest bit of edema, but he was willing to work if a little behind my leg. Until the end, that is, when I decided to stretch him out at the trot. He was being great until he bolted with me. My reins were long so he was able to get going pretty good. I almost came off the left side of him and he really slammed me backward with my long reins! I jammed my finger and have a bit of neck pain, but I did stay on.

He then had to do a bunch of simple changes and leg yield zig zags. And he was great at both! It was hard to remain mad at him after that...

Not Going Back Because We Never Left

Every time I post something about working on the basics with TC, I get a comment or two about how nice it is to see that even we/I/whatever need to go back to basics sometimes. But I'd like to disagree with this premise. There is no going "back" to basics, since you can't go back to a place you never left. We've been working on them the whole time. There has never been a moment in my dressage career where I said "okay, basics done, phew! Never gotta do those again."

Rico and I perfected walking long ago, so therefore we just
scamper everywhere (thanks, Nicole)

I think this idea of back to basics has kind of a negative connotation, or at least that's how I interpret it. I always feel kinda like the wind leaves my sails when someone says that comment since it feels like they might have expected that I'd be a better rider and not need to work on such things. I know, logically, that even Steffen Peters works on getting his horse better into the bridle or works on getting his canter circles to be a bit rounder or more balanced. But the phrasing sounds a little bit like a retreat, like something was done wrong the first time around and now we have to drag ourselves downward, backward, to the dregs of dressage to fix something.

But it's not so. The "basics" can always get better and as you climb the levels, they should get better. Not working on them at every single level means that you're going backwards. The throughness should get better with each level, the roundness, the straightness, the collection. Even your ability to ride a twenty meter circle or leg yield should get better. The moment you stop working on them regularly is when things start falling apart.

Always working on the basics, we need it!

I think it may lead to people kind of avoiding the basics after a while (or looking forward to the moment that they can avoid it) because having an entire ride on a twenty meter circle working on bend seems like something you do when you're at a lower level. Or becoming frustrated having yet another lesson on improving the connection. As if it's some kind of failure to be still working on these things and that dressage doesn't really start until you get through this boring part.

But this IS dressage. All of that work is what dressage is. Through all the levels. The movements should be the result of good basics, and as the basics improve through the horse's entire dressage career, the movements will come on relatively easily. If the only time dressage is fun is when you're doing half pass or tempi changes or piaffe or passage, this is absolutely the wrong sport for you. Most of dressage is improving the throughness, improving the connection, making the horse sharper off the aids, getting the horse to push better from behind or carry more weight behind. That's the whole thing. The movements should be the icing.

I mean if I could just piaffe and passage all day I totally would

I know TC isn't anywhere near being an upper level horse, but I'd say that probably 90% of the time I spend in the saddle is working on something that could be considered "the basics" with the other 10% of the time dedicated to actually schooling movements for the sake of schooling them for shows or to teach him new movements or to just randomly go "weeee" in a lengthened trot because it's fun.

We spend a lot of time working on circles and figure 8s and riding in straight lines off the rail and across the diagonal. We do a lot of transitions that we redo if he isn't pressing into the bridle enough or sharp enough off my leg. We do a lot of just... cantering... in straight lines and on circles, improving the connection and getting him even more in front of my leg. I didn't skip any steps or make any mistakes (okay I made a TON of mistakes, but we all do) to have to work on these things, this is just what dressage is.

Even when riding Rico at the upper levels, it wasn't just all piaffe and passage all the time. More than half of my rides were spent working on the connection, getting him in front of my leg, getting him more supple. It wasn't because we had skipped all those things in the past (I mean we skipped some things), it's because they can always get better and they should get better. The connection shouldn't feel the same on a Third level dressage horse as on an Intermediare I dressage horse, it should be better. The straightness should be better. The suppleness should be better. There is no stopping with the basics.

Like, this pirouette got a 7 but it could be rounder, just saying

So can we change the negative association with "back to basics" and turn it into something more positive? And can we stop pretending like upper level riders are so far up on a pedestal that they don't have to work on improving the connection or improving suppleness? And can we stop acting like it's a retreat or a mistake if you "have" to work on basics? Because if it is, then I'll be making mistakes for the rest of my dressage career (which I mean, I will, but not because we're still working on making our walk-trot transitions better).

Definitely Allergic to Fly Spray

Remember last fall when I fly sprayed my horse and he got hives? Yeah, that sucked. From then on, I didn't fly spray him.

Luckily my previous barn really didn't have *that* many flies (maybe it's all the garlic being grown down there?) and it was going into winter anyway.

This spring though, moving to the new barn, I realized that there were some nasty flies up here! I was out riding one morning and kept feeling these little pinpricks on my back, which I realized were flies biting me! Those dicks.

They really started to bother TC, with him getting irritated at them while we were riding and constantly wanting to rub his face on his wraps, which would twist around and get gross. He's never been one that cared about flies all that much, but I think they were biting him.

Soooo it became time to do something about the flies. At expo I bought him a mask and had talked to a barn mate about potential allergies. She said she had surprising luck with the cheap Bronco fly spray, and that even though it smelled like chemicals, it didn't seem to bother her very sensitive horse.

Watching the feed cart

I used that on Monday at my lesson, but it didn't seem to help very much with the flies, they were still landing on him. Tuesday I saw that one of my barnmates had FlySect outside her stall. Since he hadn't had an allergic reaction to the Bronco, it was in the back of my mind that maybe in the fall it was like, a change of hay or something that caused the bumps. So I put that on him.

NOPE.

Definitely the fly spray. I came out to ride him on Wednesday to find him pawing incessantly at the ground and feeling itchy. The hives hadn't appeared yet so I rode him and we had kind of a shit ride. That's not unusual after a lesson so I just left it and started looking up toys for him (because pawing = boredom?). Then Wednesday night I came out to check on him and sure enough, bumps everywhere. They're hot and sensitive and he was standing really weird.

I washed him with anti-microbial shampoo, which I'm not sure was the right call but it was quite literally the only shampoo I had that wasn't whitening shampoo. My BO was there but didn't have any hydroxyzine or anything, so I just left him.

Thursday morning I rode him bareback around the ranch and he seemed like he was in good spirits, but he was still both itchy and painful. It seems like the more sensitive skin near his belly/flank is really painful, and the rest of him is just itchy. He kept turning around to itch at himself and one time just bit his shoulder and held his skin in his mouth. I curried him all over and put him away.

At this point I just feel terrible for him. The hives are really hot and clearly uncomfortable. He has some under where his saddle would go, though those ones don't seem as bad, so I have to wait to ride him.

I'm also just totally pissed off at myself for fly spraying him again. No more fly spray for him!

Trying to bite my foot

In the immediate future, I washed TC on Wednesday when I noticed it and last night gave him some benadryl to see if it will go down. As of this morning, a lot of the bumps on his body are gone but there's a ton of edema on his belly on the left side mostly. He doesn't seem as uncomfortable after getting benadryl last night. He'll get it again tonight and through the weekend hopefully.

As long as he's not irritated, I'm going to try riding him lightly tomorrow morning. I mean, we have a show in a week, but he's going so well that I feel like if my first ride is when we trot down centerline, we'll still be fine, if not a bit explosive.

In the long term future, what the hell! The barn keeps flies out pretty well so most of the irritation is when riding, or I'd get him a fly sheet or something. I don't know how to keep the flies off of him while riding without fly spraying him... if I do try more fly spray, I'm going to just spray a tiny bit on one part of him and wait to see what happens. It could be just one ingredient that isn't in all fly sprays.

Any advice is appreciated, have any of you dealt with a fly spray allergy??

Throw Back Thursday: Longeing No Longer Required

Every now and then I really miss writing about Rico on this blog. I feel weird that so many of the posts here have been about the young horse when Rico is my heart horse. I've owned him for 13 years now and while I adore TC, Rico will always be my number one.

Here are some more things/stories/words about him:

Rico and I have gone out on the trails a bunch together. He is
the only horse I've trusted to let me carry my nice camera on
him (despite him occasionally making me regret that) so that
I could get shots like this. 

When Rico retired (the first time), I sold everything that was
his, including his saddle, so when I started riding him again,
we rode bareback for the first month so that I trusted that he
would stay sound. Even then, I slowly bought other stuff. I
found a saddle for cheap but waited to buy stirrup leathers for
another month.

Rico was the first horse I rode bridleless at more than a walk.
This is when he just retired from dressage and I was doing silly
stuff with him, like taking him on the trails and jumping him
without a bridle on!

I bought this ridiculous browband for his double bridle. It said
that it was "opal" which sounded beautiful (opal is my favorite
stone) but it ended up being quite a bit more pink. He still rocked
it for several years! TC will get his own soon enough.

One of my first ever shows on Rico was at Rancho Murieta. My
trainer didn't go so I rode with her trainer, who would eventually
get me my Gold like 8.5 years later. The only thing I remember
about this show is longeing Rico in the rain before my tests!
The idea of longeing him now before riding is hilarious.