Becoming My Rock

TC has been a tricky horse for me in the past. For about a year and a half, I was on and off kind of scared of him. Many things played a part in bringing him out of that last spring to where we had an amazing season last year and got through the winter without one instance of me being scared. I think we're on the other side of it all.

I love this picture so much

Even though it's been over a year since TC really scared me, it doesn't mean that he hasn't been totally obnoxious. TC is a sensitive horse. He's not what I'd call hot, though he can be. He's just very in-tune with his rider. This makes him super fun to ride, but has made him difficult for me if I'm not in a place mentally where having an animal totally ON is helpful.

Sometimes it's nice to have a horse like Rico whose number one priority is not working that hard (also cookies). Me being distracted or in a mood just meant that he would continue to do the bare minimum. He was predictable, sometimes to a fault. Being distracted on TC often lead to him being distracted and then running away with me or incessantly spooking or just being tense. I really had to be in the right state of mind to ride him.

Rico was also just super sweet and quiet all the time. If I went to the barn in a bad mood and just wanted to brush and hug a pony before riding, he was great at this. TC was really a busy horse when he was younger. He would paw incessantly and would frequently forget that I was around and accidentally knock into me or step on me. I again had to always be in the right state of mind to handle him.

Cuddly pony on his 7th birthday

I had a realization one Sunday about a month ago. I was having kind of a crap morning. I hadn't been able to sleep much the night before and was kind of a mess that morning. I really felt like I didn't want to ride, but my drive to keep working on TC's fitness and work on all the stuff from First level made me walk down to the barn.

TC whinnied at me as he always does and looked so excited to see me, even though he sees me every day. Brushing him, TC stood quietly and was interested but relaxed as I brushed him. I leaned on him, quite literally, for a while and just pet him and he stood totally still. I brushed his face and he put his head in my arms wanting a hug.

I got on to ride and we walked around the property on a loose rein. TC didn't spook (he's far less spooky at this facility, I'm just realizing) at all and just quietly looked around at everything while I barely paid any attention to him.

So intrusive

Knowing that I might need to get off and put him away if things got at all tough, I picked up the trot, and he was just so good the whole ride. I thought... of course he's good, he's always good. And that's when I realized how much had changed even since last year, when he was also just really good. I'm trusting that this horse isn't going to backtrack in his mentality. Every good ride last year, and there were a lot of them, felt fleeting and I was so grateful for every one of them. But in the back of my mind was the thought that one bad move on my part or one scary situation would send us way backwards.

At this point I feel like I don't have to be as careful. I can ride when I'm not in a great mood, I can ride when people are schooling cross country right next to us, I can walk on a loose rein even when it's windy or busy or a pair of rabbits are running around right near us. He's still just as good as he was last year, but I'm trusting in the consistency of the good days.

It took a long time! But I'm really appreciating this horse in a way that I haven't been able to lately. I think we still have another few hard winters to get through, but I can see how this horse is transforming into Rico Jr every day.

Why TC Will Not Be Jumped

For someone who rides at an event barn and who NEVER jumps, I'm sure people wonder. But I have a few good reasons for why I haven't pursued jumping with TC even though he was technically cleared for it. I figured that I'd go over four reasons why TC will not be jumped, just for fun.

1) I don't like jumping that much
I really don't. I have loved it in the past and could see enjoying it again in the future when I have the means to take 2x/week jumping lessons for a year to get my sea legs back, but I don't really like just casually jumping on my own. The pure act of jumping over small jumps isn't fun for me. I make it a point to not spend a lot of money to do something I don't want to do.

Way more fun, especially when wearing tails

2) If I am going to jump, I want to jump something trained
TC is not trained to jump. If I wanted to jump him, I would have to train him to jump. I do not enjoy training horses to jump. Improving them, sure, but being the person doing the first 10-20 jump schools? No thanks. Not anymore.

I like jumping Kate's horses, but because they're trained! You point them at the jump and they understand that going over it in some kind of organized manner is the goal here. Sure, Ginger will peace out if you don't ride her to the jump properly, but it's not the baby/green shit that a horse who has jumped like, twice in his life, would do. I don't like riding that. I know that eventually TC would be trained to jump, but why go through all that bullshit when I can call Kate up and jump something actually fun?

Throw back to the Ginger pony!

3) Not putting on any extra wear
I fucking LOVE this horse. Every day I come out to the barn excited to ride him. I hate having to give him days off (but I do). I think about his future all the time. If there's even a slight chance that jumping TC will either a) bother his suspensory (remember how he ripped the thing out of its origin site, taking some bone with it? I DO) or b) add even the tiniest bit of wear and tear to his joints, I don't want to do it. Why add more wear to my horse doing something I don't even want to do just to say that we did it? That's silly.

Next time I jump, I want to jump this dragon

4) TC loves his current job
People seem to think that dressage horses should jump because dressage is boring or something. TC loves his job. He enthusiastically does everything I ask of him. Every now and then someone will say something about TC wanting to do something more fun like jump and I'm like but... he loves dressage.

Plus, he already has a lot of variety in life- every day he walks out in the fields, we go on trail rides, we do clicker/trick training, we do cavalletti and pole work, and yeah, we do dressage. But I can count on one hand the number of horses that I've met that *hate* dressage. I think there are a lot more horses out there that just hate how badly their riders ride the dressage. At least over fences, those horses get a moment where the rider releases in the air.

Loves trail rides!

Want to find another one of these up here!

So the only way TC will be jumped is if someone else buys him and jumps him. But let me tell you, this horse is very expensive... there's no way I'm selling him anytime soon! In the mean time, he does have a great life with a ton of variety and he loves his job. And that's all that really matters in the end!

How Many More Years of Dreaming?

I wrote a few months ago about a few reasons why I thought TC would/would not be an FEI horse.

It's been on my mind all year as TC is showing me in all aspects of his life that he's here to play in the sand box. He is settling in pretty well in new places now, he is generally focused in the show ring (lol our last show maybe not), he is stepping it up in our work, and my new trainer (who has successfully trained countless FEI horses and riders) really likes him. Though again I haven't yet asked her what she thinks long term...

A miracle anyone would like this
thing who rears at trailers lol

All of that makes me think about the future. I really want two solid years at Grand Prix with TC before I sell him just so I can do all the stuff (GPS, Freestyle, etc) and not be too green while doing it. While my previous post was vague about the future, in this one, I want to lay out a few schedules I've been thinking about.

Generally one level a year is pretty normal. That means this:

2018 (7 yo): First

2019 (8 yo): Second

2020 (9 yo): Third

2021 (10 yo): Fourth

2022 (11 yo): Prix St George

2023 (12 yo): Intermediare I

2024 (13 yo): Intermediare II

2025 (14 yo): Grand Prix Yr1
2026 (15 yo): Grand Prix Yr2

A fourteen year old Grand Prix horse isn't too bad, for a horse who spent one year being way ganglier than he should have been (4yo), one year being injured (5yo), and six months trying to injure me (early 6yo). I mean, Rico debuted at Grand Prix at 18 years old.

Eighteen years old, almost nineteen!

Honestly, I don't think that I'd want to spend a whole year at some of these levels if we didn't have to. Already I'm thinking that if the changes come on well (so far they are not so...), I'd like to try to finish up with Third level next year and start Fourth in 2020 rather than Third. Or maybe do half and half, like Third in the spring and Fourth in the fall. Additionally, as long as some movements aren't shit shows (the zig zag, the piaffe and passage), doing Intermediare II and Grand Prix isn't all that different. So the debut at Grand Prix could potentially come right after the debut at I2. There's not a ton of reasons to stay at I2 unless we're good enough to be like, nationally ranked or something. 

That shortens the timeline by 2 years, so that's cool! He'd be hitting GP probably toward the end of his 12 year old year. 

The other idea I had was to try to do three seasons per level, versus four. So that would mean a GP debut around 12 years old. 

Winter 2018: First Level

Spring 2018: First Level

Summer 2018: First Level

Fall 2018: Second Level <-- we're looking at maybe a Second level debut this fall, not sure yet

Winter 2019: Second Level

Spring 2019: Second Level

Summer 2019: Third Level

Fall 2019: Third Level

Winter 2020: Third Level 

Spring 2020: Fourth Level

Summer 2020: Fourth Level

Fall 2020: Fourth Level

Winter 2021: Prix St George

Spring 2021: Prix St George

Summer 2021: Prix St George

Fall 2021: Intermediare I

Winter 2022: Intermediare I 

Spring 2022: Intermediare I

Summer 2022: Intermediare II

Fall 2022: Intermediare II

Winter 2023: Intermediare II

Spring 2023: Grand Prix - First Year

Summer 2023: Grand Prix - First Year

Fall 2023: Grand Prix - First Year

Winter 2024: Grand Prix - Second Year

Spring 2024: Grand Prix - Second Year

Summer 2024: Grand Prix - Second Year

Sometimes I can really get myself down the rabbit hole here thinking about TC's future. When do I get serious about putting on changes, when do I really insist on practicing half steps regularly, when do I REALLY make him sit in the canter for the pirouettes? And it's usually around then that I'll have a hard realization that I'm making Grand Prix plans for a horse who doesn't have medium gaits and still strikes out at birds. And then we go back to our regular work. 

And this is why I'm glad I have my trainer to help me! At this point, I'm not going to try to stick to a schedule or anything. But it's fun to think about! 

Seattle Adventures

Sunday morning I hopped on a plane with my favorite former coworker and we zipped up to Seattle for a conference. Well, we got up there as early as we could on Sunday to spend the day wandering around, then went to bed, THEN went to the conference.

View from Kerry Park

Best presentation ever

I unfortunately have been sleeping and eating terribly lately. I've been waking up in like, a blind panic at 3-5am and not being able to go back to sleep. Then food-wise, I've been struggling to eat enough (made worse by CrossFit now demanding more and better fuel), so I was really excited for the change of atmosphere. BUT it also meant that on Saturday night, when I finally was able to get through the night with only two disruptions (but able to go back to sleep, which I hadn't been able to in a while), I woke up way too late to ride before leaving on Sunday morning.

So that's fine, I just got ready, went down to the barn to give TC grain and a kiss on the nose, and then headed out. He's been kind of less enthused about working lately (unless he comes out way spooky), so rather than try to work through it, I'm just going to let him have a few days off and see if he comes out fresher when I get back from camping next weekend. If I come back and he's kind of blah still (he wasn't, he was so excited!), I'll call the chiro/vet/someone out.

Loved it!

At the airport, I found my former coworker/current friend who was also coming to the conference! I hadn't seen her in a while and was really glad that she was coming for a few reasons. I obviously like hanging out with her, but she's also a big foodie and takes no prisoners so I knew I'd have food thrust upon me and/or thrown at me if I didn't eat. Nice! It's not a conscious choice to not eat, it's just my stomach feeling like shit if I do eat and feeling better if I fast.

Our flight went by quickly and soon we were at the Seattle airport. I apparently decided for us that we'd take public transportation to the hotel, since it honestly wasn't going to save us all that much time to uber, and I love figuring out how to use public transportation in new places. In the last few years, I've ridden it in Portland, Pittsburgh, Boston, and DC and not been lost yet. Definitely been lost in the bay area's public transportation system though...

We checked in and then immediately walked down to Pike Place Market for lunch. I was super hungry and the change of atmosphere was making me want to legitimately eat food, so we kind of rushed through it trying to find a restaurant. We did find one and I ate the most I had in one sitting in a few weeks, while my friend gave me the that's all you're eating look. From there, we walked over to see the fish being thrown, but we only saw a couple of fish go by. It was super cool anyway though!

Then we wandered down to the gum wall, which, after feeling a bit grossed out, we decided was super cool. It smelled amazing down there.

One very small part of the gum wall

We were already kind of near the water, so we walked out to the ferris wheel that you so often see in pictures, so I took a few. The weather was perfect, low 80s and sunny, and it was just so nice to be by a gigantic bit of water. Not that I visited the beach much when I was living in the bay, mostly because I worked by it and was not willing to drive over there to see it, but I do appreciate the beauty of a giant sound.

We went back through Pike Place on our way back to the hotel and I found something I didn't know I wanted: an Ocarina. I'm a huge fan of the Zelda series, having played Ocarina of Time semi-regularly since it came out. I have a 3DS that I actually thought about bringing but I always think I have more time than I really do at conferences. The guy was playing various songs from the game and I was standing there thinking that I desperately needed one of these things when he said it was $64 in honor of the N64. I just couldn't justify it. Though now looking back I kind of wish I had splurged because it was SO COOL and I mean, I just got a free trip to Seattle and free food all week.

I want one so much, probably going to just order one

I also saw a CBD lotion free sample that promised relaxation, which is nice, so I took a bit of that and one of the ladies offered me this cream to make my bruise (from slamming a barbell into my shoulder during a power clean, oops) go away. I was like um I know that CBD doesn't work that way, but hey, I'll try it for free. I mean, it totally didn't work, but I did feel really relaxed by the time we got back to the hotel and almost took a nap while we got ready to go back down for dinner.

We stopped in the hotel bar for a second before heading out for food (AGAIN, I was still so full from fish and chips earlier) and had a drink. That plus the CBD made me feel amazing lol. Not intoxicated or anything, just so relaxed that I told my friend that if I fell asleep just to leave me where I was.

We went to a SUPER NICE sushi restaurant that we didn't realize would be kind of expensive. Luckily with my questionable volume of food consumption, we were able to share an appetizer and roll and that was good for both of us. She looked at me like I was some kind of dementor, getting my sustenance from her soul rather than from food. Really, just not super hungry, and also was promised dessert.

Tempura Brie!!!

The sun was setting when we got done, so we went back out to the ferris wheel to look at the sound in the evening. It was beautiful! And from there walked back up (so many flights of stairs guys, I'm so used to living in the flatlands right now) to an ice cream place we had passed. I got their signature float- their homemade orange soda and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I took a sip of the soda first and was kind of confused because it honestly didn't taste very good, but then once as the ice cream had mostly melted, it tasted amazing. I mean, I feel like lots of things would taste amazing if you melt a big scoop of vanilla ice cream in it though. Like I think I'd like beer a lot more.

From there, we walked back to the hotel and I was finally able to sleep pretty well, just one minor wake up at 5am for no reason, where I went back to sleep (!!!) and woke up at my normal time.

Delicious

I took this picture on my big camera as well and am so excited
to edit it! After editing all the others I have... 

Monday morning we had the conference all day, and then we ubered up to Kerry Park. I had done a photoshop tutorial on youtube that used this picture, so I decided that I wanted to take one! Unfortunately, Mt. Rainier was not too visible, but we'll see what I can do with photoshop to make it a bit more clear. It was still so beautiful. We stayed there until well past sunset.

It was about a 45 minute walk to our hotel room, and it was a warm night, so we decided to just walk. I was skeptical, but it ended up being SO FUN. We got to see a lot of Seattle and walked right under the Space Needle. It was amazing to see it so close up! And there's an awesome playground underneath, which we totally played on. In my conference dress (but with converse on because I'm not an idiot), I climbed up through a spiderweb of ropes and slid down some slides. That was awesome. Then we kept wandering back to our hotel.

We finally made it around 11:30pm and then went straight to bed. I wish we could have stayed out later but it was also again so nice to sleep a full night (well, only 6 hours, but no waking up).

Right under the Space Needle at night

Tuesday we were set to leave, so it was just conference and then taking the train to the airport. It was far too short of a time to spend there, but now I know that I want to go back, and soon! I know the weather was deceptive and I only did the most touristy of touristy things to do, but I really did get a good vibe from the city and it will be fun to visit again with more time to do more things.

I have actual fancy camera pictures from Seattle but I'm still editing those, watch for those on a Wordless Wednesday when I can't come up with any content. Tomorrow, back to the ponies!

Blog Hop: Cost to Show

A lot people have done this hop so I wasn't going to do it. But the prices are so different that I figured I'd chime in since I feel like I get away with pretty cheap shows up here and earned all my medals on a crazy low budget. I manage to keep my show budget (spread out over the year) at about $150-$160/month or less, and that lets me get about 6-8 shows in for the year. I'd love to have the money to show more often and more elaborately, but it's just not realistic right now.

Still though, this area and the way that I show lends itself to cheap shows, so I do get to compete a fair amount on a limited budget. The year I got my Gold I literally spent under $500 for all my shows that year (4 shows). Now that I'm not a poor grad student, I can *splurge* a little bit.

This is our closest show facility

Here are the expenses:
FYI I am located in the greater Sacramento area in California, where there are a metric fuckton of shows within 1-2 hours from here. 

Memberships
TC has his lifetime memberships (last year was expensive), so mine are the only ones I pay for on a yearly basis.
CDS (GMO): $70
USDF: $70 (I need this for All Breeds)
USEF: $80


Schooling Shows
4-5x per year a local-ish barn does schooling shows, they're just one day and they're super fun!
Expenses
Class Fees: 2 x $35 = $70
Office Fees: $25
Haul-in Fee: $0
Stabling: $0
Shavings: $0
Hotel: $0
Coaching: $0
Gas: 86 miles x ~$4/gal / 12 mpg = $28.67
Video: $0
Total: $123.67


Haul-in One Day Rated Show
This is the majority of my shows with TC thus far, our local show facility is very close, last year we were about 60 miles round trip from the nearest show facility AND the rig wasn't parked at my barn. 
Class Fees: 2 x $50 = $100
Office Fees: $26.50
CDS Travel Grant: $3
CDFA Drug Fee: $5
Haul-in Fee: $25
Stabling: $0
Shavings: $0
Hotel: $0
Coaching: $0
Gas: 35 miles x ~$4/gal / 12 mpg = $11.67
Video: 2 x $35 = $70
Total: $241.17

Schooling show facility also has rated shows at it too, though
their judges and/or dates didn't agree with me this year

Haul-in Two Day Rated Show
If a show is close by, I will opt to go two days and just haul back and forth
Class Fees: 4 x $50 = $200
Office Fees: $26.50
CDS Travel Grant: $3
CDFA Drug Fee: $5
Haul-in Fee: $50
Stabling: $0
Shavings: $0
Hotel: $0
Coaching: $0
Gas: 35 miles x ~$4/gal / 12 mpg = $11.67
Video: 4 x $35 = $140
Total: $436.17


Overnight Two Day Rated Show
I rarely do this, though have to this year
Class Fees: 4 x $55= $220
Office Fees: $26.50 x 2 = $53 (the one I'm doing is two separate shows)
CDS Travel Grant: $3 x 2 = $6
CDFA Drug Fee: $5 x 2 = $10
Haul-in Fee: $0
Stabling: $100 (for one night, coming in Saturday morning)
Shavings: $10 x 5 = 50
Hotel: $140
Coaching: $0
Gas: 185 miles x ~$4/gal / 12 mpg = $61.67
Video: 4 x $35 = $140
Total: $890.67

All of the locations and costs vary quite a lot, so I picked random shows that I did this year to calculate each show.

Now our "far away" facility, it used to be about
an hour's drive or so

Here are some explanations:

Class Fees: Class fees vary by show, rated shows are usually $50 per class to $60 per class, and this is for Fourth level and below usually. Once as we hit the FEI levels, we're looking toward $70 for some facilities.

Office Fees: These again vary a little bit by show, but are generally around $25.

CDS Travel Grant: This is mandatory for our GMO.

CDFA Drug Fee: Pretty standard.

Haul-in Fee: Some shows have you pay a grounds fee if you're not staying overnight. The show facility closest to me does this, while some further away don't. The close show facility is so close that it's still worth going there despite the haul in fee.

Stabling: Varies significantly. If I'm stabling, which again is rare for us (though we are having to do it this year), I tend to want to go on Friday, though it would depend on ride times since I'm not down for sitting around too much. Some shows will let you have a cheaper stall if you're just using it for the one night vs the whole weekend so I would definitely take the show up on that.

Hotel: I try not to. I have slept in my tack stall, in my car, and in my trailer in the past. This year it looks like I might have to, I need to contact the show facility to see how that might work. Unfortunately a lot of the show facilities are in really nice areas so the hotels are kind of expensive.

Coaching: I'm throwing around the idea of seeing how my trainer is to use as a coach, but I don't think she goes to a ton of shows that I go to (I avoid the gigantic shows with TC, we're working up to that because he can be so reactive).

Gas: The furthest I travel to show is about 100 miles each way. And that's like, a once or twice a year thing. Next year I am for sure doing all three of the close shows since gas really adds up!

Video: Here is my one splurge. I love having video of my tests. I think it's super helpful. I really really regret not getting video of every single one of Rico's steps in and out of the show ring (I did get all of his FEI tests) and I'm not making that mistake with TC. I love watching them even years later and really do cherish every one of them. Eventually I hope to have a nice video camera and a human who follows me around, taping every moment I spend with TC, but for now, this will do.

My favorite show facility is now too far, 150 miles each way

I think I do showing pretty cheaply. My show expenses for this year are looking like they will end up being under $2000, which is about $160/month if you distribute it over the year. That's a little less than what I pay for car insurance for both of my vehicles, so that's pretty good given how many shows we're doing- seven, one of which is overnight, so double the tests. Had TC not been a total dingbat at that last show, we could just go to one day of that overnight show. But that's horses for you!

The Return to CrossFit

I wanted to wait a month before posting about this so I didn't jinx it, so I did. Back in mid-May, I had a realization that riding was yet again going to be an uphill battle if I didn't cross train properly for it. I just didn't buy an easy enough horse to sit! So I redoubled my TRX efforts and things did get better.

Come mid-June, I'm fitter but not *fit* and I'm looking up things I wanted to do in Big Sur and Lassen for the camping trips this summer. I found myself thinking "well, that hike looks amazing but it is probably too hard for me" or "I can probably pick between these two hikes because whichever one I pick is going to make me sore for two days so I can't do the other" and that's when I had another realization. I'm so sick of not being fit enough to do everything I want to do. I miss being strong, I miss when hikes were more of a fun activity and less of a workout.

TRX is great, don't get me wrong. It's way better than nothing and has helped me a lot in getting my strength back so I can sit TC's trot much better. But it's nothing compared to CrossFit. There's just no way to make it as hard as putting a whole bunch of weight over your head.

Need to be able to climb mountains as well as ride, okay?!

The main reason why I quit CrossFit is because of my wrist injury. I was just constantly either in pain or having to heavily modify everything. I was also struggling financially and it seemed like paying to be in pain or not being able to do the workouts as stated was just silly. So I quit and started going to the cheaper gym near my house that was half as expensive and had a more flexible schedule than my original one.

Now, the expense isn't as hard on me as not being fit is, so that issue was eliminated, and it's just my wrist issue. I decided to go to the internet, as one does when they are looking for medical answers. It turned out that I had cancer the CrossFit website had just put out an article about issues in the front rack where they went over all of the mobility you could do to fix it.

There's for sure something wrong with my wrist, but if I could take some of the pressure off of it by doing mobility elsewhere (+ wrist exercises + diclofenac sodium), that would be ideal. I don't need to do front squats, or any prolonged front rack like that (I can modify with back squats), but it'd be nice to do cleans without having to worry. I read a lot and found a bunch of exercises that I started for the month of June. They focused on wrist mobility, but also on getting my lats and triceps more flexible. Those are key in getting my elbows further up for the front rack, which is going to take weight off my wrists.

I then looked up boxes in the area. There were four that were about ten to fifteen minutes away from my house. I found one that would be ideal, but was a little bit expensive, so I went with my second choice, which had a 3x per week option that was less expensive. I figured that at least in the beginning, three times a week was plenty, and I still have a trailer payment. If this one doesn't work, I'll switch to the pricier one.

I went in to chat with them about my wrist. They seemed eager to help me out, so I started with a half off groupon that allowed me to go for an entire month without signing up for an auto payment. This was huge in my book, as I didn't want to start, have my nerve pain come back with a vengeance, then have to quit and have to deal with a payment. There was a very clear end point where if it wasn't working, I could just stop.

I started at the end of June. My first class was AMAZING. The coach was super nice and had an old wrist injury of her own. I had some pain, which is just what it's going to be, but I made it through the workout easier than I had expected (granted, I expected to throw up and/or pass out) and wasn't too sore the next day.

I kept going back.

Don't get me wrong, my wrist still hates some of it. But definitely not as much as before, and I'm really diligent about my mobility every single day at work (I have a lacrosse ball + human-Surpass at my desk). I get to class early for wrist mobility, I roll out my lats and triceps at home. And I am working with a loaded bar on a rack to experiment with getting my front rack to a place where it doesn't put as much pressure on my wrist.

Basically me after my first week asking "when is
this going to stop being so hard??"

Now it's been about a month and I'm feeling so much better. My anxiety is down (and is directly related to missing workouts now), I feel so much stronger, and I'm much less worried about the long hikes anymore. It will be a while before I can do them without feeling like death, but at least they're easier than some of the workouts we've had to do so far.

It's also been a nice change to have more to do socially. Moving up here to live alone and go to a very independent job every day (like literally I have NO meetings on my calendar, it's all just me sitting at my desk, sometimes no one says a word to me... honestly given who my coworkers are, that's fine, but I miss my old job), away from many of my friends (though closer to many others!) has been a little tough. CrossFit boxes tend to be really friendly and have a sense of camaraderie to them and this one is no different. No one has been at all judgmental at my lack of strength and insistence that I lift real light whenever there's a front rack involved.

Honestly the only issue I've had is trying to eat enough food and drink enough water at work to not feel like crap in the class! Still working on that...

I'm really excited and hopeful, but I know I'm not out of the woods yet with my wrist. I still need to work hard on mobility for my wrist, take things slow, and make sure I'm not setting myself up for failure here. But I'm so happy to be back.

Adventures Await

This week I'm gearing up for some time away from TC. I basically go to this conference, come home, stay home for two nights, and then I leave again for vacation. So it's kind of a mad rush to get everything ready to leave.

Really wish it was this kind of an adventure

Tuesday morning, TC wasn't having it, which is fine. For the most part I ride two or three days in a row before a day off and Tuesday was day number four. So TC was like really. Again, he's not like that often, so I turned our ride into a tack walk with Peony and Spot, which was super fun! Peony has been working crazy hours so I haven't seen her much. It was fun to catch up and just ride our horses together!

Wednesday morning, we had to actually do real work. He felt super good. A bit quiet, but happy to get in front of my leg when asked. We mostly just hung out in those gaits for a while, riding serpentines and circles and all that.

We played a little bit with the half steps. At this point anything resembling them gets scratches. Some days he's better at it than others, and Wednesday wasn't bad at all!

Switch our expressions in this picture and that's how we both
feel about half steps

Thursday he was again feeling a bit blah like he was on Tuesday. I think that being itchy and sweaty all the time is really getting to him. I wish I could hose him off in the middle of the day on those hot days because by the time I get to him the next morning, he's all crusty and gross. Thursday morning was especially bad in the itchy department, it was HOT on Wednesday.

He's still a good egg so even though I could tell he wasn't in it, he still mostly tried. My backline was super sore from my new gym routine and that taught me a valuable lesson- I can't ride this horse well without my backline on! It's like the backline keeps his energy from oozing everywhere, so even though I felt like he was generating a lot of energy, it didn't have a lot of direction. That got both of us a little frustrated. But we still got some great work. I think he'll appreciate having a bit of a light week when I'm gone. I don't want him to lose his enthusiasm.

I think TC needs this view again too

This morning he just got a walk because I've been sleeping like crap and was really tired + had to go to work early. He'll get ridden Saturday and Sunday and then I'm off on trip number one! The first one is short so TC will just get one day off. I think he'll appreciate it. I have some queued posts so I can take a short time off of the blog too.

Joint Care

As TC is being asked to do harder work, I've been thinking about his joints a lot. The last couple years I had Rico going, he was on an expensive joint supplement (HylaSport) and got joint injections (coffins & hocks) 1-2x per year.

It was easy to choose what Rico was on because at the time, I needed to do everything I could to keep him sound. He currently is on a cheaper joint supplement (SmartFlex Senior) and gets a quarter tab of prevocox every day. He just needs to be sound enough to wander around in pasture and sass Riot. Plus the occasional trail ride, of course. My mom took him out when Sunny had a loose shoe and apparently Rico refused to go back near the trailer at the end.

I don't want to just throw everything at TC, because that'd be way excessive for a young horse who really isn't doing as much work as a lot of horses at his age. But I also don't want to look back on this time when I'm injecting him at like 9 years old and think "why didn't I just give him more X back then?"

His life isn't very hard right now in the
grand scheme of things

When TC was 4, I started him on MSM just because it's cheap. He was also barefoot. When he came back from rehab at 5, I put front shoes on him, and when he started to do more work at 6, I put hind shoes on him and started him on glucosamine.

He's now 7 and those things have stuck: shoes all around and both MSM and glucosamine. I just use the cheap Animed supplements.

I'm starting to think about the next level. Where do I go from here?

Also thinking about the next dressage levels too

On the one hand, I think that doing Adequan or Pentosan might be good. I hate giving shots though, which is a silly reason to not put him on it, so I'll get over it.

On the other hand, maybe I wait a year to do the (IM) injections and add the next level of feed through supplement.

Currently TC is on five supplements. His supplements work out to $38 per month, which really isn't that much given that he's on a muscle builder, California Trace (biotin + minerals), and the two joint supplements. Plus electrolytes in the summer. Perks of buying in bulk.

Pentosan works out to roughly $25/month. The joint supplements that I could add really are kind of expensive. So I'm a little bit leaning toward the Pentosan and keeping him on his current supplements for a bit. Maybe next year or the year after he'll earn a really expensive joint supplement.


The other thing I'm going to see if I can do is hock x-rays this year. My new local-ish vet did a deal last year where they will take hock x-rays for $50. I have the x-rays from his PPE when he was four years old, seems like a good thing to do every other year to see how his joints have changed. I figured that if I sell him, his new owners would appreciate seeing how his hocks changed over the years.


What direction would you recommend we go in? I feel like there's no wrong answer here, but I'm curious to hear any recommendations for a 7yo schooling-second-level horse may need to be on.

Hold Steady

TC has been all aboard the forward train since our lesson and I'm here for it. The gaits that we get in lessons feel more accessible at home, especially after back-to-back lessons and also teaching more on my part (just like blogging, helps me explain things I'm learning). I love teaching! I've been doing small clinics in the bay twice a month and also teaching occasionally up here too.

Now that we've overcome that obstacle, I want to hang out here for a second. It can get easy to push and push and push, especially with a game horse, a great trainer, and an educated butt. However, I also want to take the time to get him really confident and strong in these gaits, so that these become his baseline gaits.

I didn't know he was even capable of lateral work like this!

I think it's important to hang out in new gaits for a while without making changes. If TC is constantly being asked for moremoremoremore then he may feel like he can't win. Being told "more" and then "okay that's good, that's now what is expected of you and if you're there I won't ask for more" is really important.

I feel like with TC, I've gone through development periods, where I'm actively pushing him every day for a month or two (like since March or so) and then plateau periods, where I'm just refining what he already knows (like all last winter). I dunno, maybe it helps me out more than him. But it seems like he benefits from it too. I mean, Tanya said at our last lesson that TC seemed "like if you get him forward, he just naturally fills up the contact really well" and I wanted to be like ACTUALLY that may be due to all the clicker training that I did this winter. But I was far away and couldn't breathe because I was sitting the trot.

So with the next two weekends being full of non-horse related things (conference and a camping trip! I'm so excited!), I'm going to start focusing on just maintenance for about three weeks before we ramp up to our next show in August. It will be nice to just find the good gaits and ride figures and some easy lateral work rather than pushing.

Like leg yields! Tanya had me straighten his neck about half
way through and then the leg yield got real good :) 

Speaking of showing, I think I've made a decision to just do two more horse shows this year. One, a two-day show in August that I'll either haul into both days or not (show #1) and the other, one day at the same facility this fall. The first show will finish up our All Breeds scores and the second show will be an opportunity to show 2-1 if I think we're ready. Then we're done until April when hopefully we'll come right out at Second level. I don't know whether I'll do any schooling shows, since there are two. On the one hand it's money + time and we don't really have to do them, on the other hand, if we win First level high point, we get a cooler (have to do two more shows).

I dunno, we'll see how things go!

There are a few other fun fall things going on outside of showing too. Once as we're done with the August shows, I'm going to continue doing my 2x/mo lessons while also adding some more trail riding and then hopefully attending our Working Equitation clinic! Also more clicker training and some bareback riding too, before winter hits.

Glancing Upwards

We left off yesterday with a good warm up and then some walk pirouettes, today I'll go over the second half of the lesson, which was a bunch of Second level stuff! Again it's riddled with gifs, blame Peony for letting me borrow her Pixio, I'm obsessed! 

Also obsessed with this trot, we're on our way to having a fancy
shoulder!

Back in trot, we did a few circles of sitting trot, working on getting my fatigued triceps and lats to turn on and get my elbows by my sides (we had minimal success there, I was so sore!). Then, we started in shoulder-in, and pretty immediately, Tanya was really pushing us in it. For a while it's been like "do a shoulder-in" and we've made minor adjustments, but it was like she came out this lesson and decided that rather than a First level horse schooling some Second level, TC was a Second level horse schooling some Third. There was a moment where I thought she was going to have us do a change he was set up so well!

To the left, the shoulder-in didn't have enough angle, so Tanya wanted me to use my inside leg to really get him to drop his inside hip and bring the left hind under and feel the connection to my right rein. I was not coordinated enough to get this at first, but then figured it out and the shoulder-in flowed a lot better after that!

Shoulder-in left, which was feeling really good! Though I am
glad that we're still a good eight months away from Second...

To the right, the shoulder-in had too much angle and bend (yay I guess? I've been working on getting him to lift his ribcage that way, maybe too much now) so I was to keep my outside leg back to hold the angle, and then straighten him on the outside rein. It all rode super nicely after that and he was keeping his trot in it very well. I have always kind of been taught that it's okay to slow a horse down in the lateral work and Tanya is NOT about that, she almost wants the lateral work bigger than the regular trot (or so it seems).

Shoulder-in right, which is a bit weaker generally

While changing directions each way, Tanya had us do a half pass. I have been occasionally working on half passes with him, but we mostly have been doing haunches-in at the walk and trot. Since he was so committed to forward by this point, the half pass flowed super nicely. It's not ready for the GP by any means, but it is quite good! To the left I felt like I had to lug him over a bit, so we'll work on that, and to the right he got crowded on my right aids (which is normal for him) so I had to keep him off my right leg a bit more in it. Time for a bunch of half pass to leg yield zig zags.

Half pass to the left (from afar lol)

Half pass to the right

At the end of all of this trotting, she had me do a couple of medium trots, sitting of course, why would I post them? We got through it but it showed me that I very much need to make these things more of a priority. She wanted me to get all the energy I needed in the corner, and then just allow it out across the diagonal. I felt like it was that way for... a quarter of the diagonal? Before I had to put my leg back on and push him more. I don't want to feel like I'm shoving him along in the mediums.

TC: weeee
Megan's abs: NOOOOOOO

We took a walk break after that and she told me a bit about an article she read on sitting trot. I guess they compared the mechanics of three types of riders - beginners, intermediate (read: you and me), and professionals. Apparently the professionals stabilized their spine near their upper back. I dunno, I need to read this article, but it reminded me that I need to work on my backline a bit more. It's getting floppy again.

From there, Tanya had me canter. I asked whether she wanted to see a walk to canter and she said sure, so I messed it up by not waking him up enough at the walk. Then we got it though, and Tanya said it was quite good!

I want more throughness eventually but we legit just started to
put these in our regular work

We started with some 10m canter circles, which I have only really done when he's been bad. To the left, they were the actual worst because he wasn't coming off my right side enough. To the right they were surprisingly good! Sounds like we have a lot of 10m canter circles to the left in our future...

Double circle to the left because he started out a bit hollow in
his first one

The right one was quite good to begin with! Still obviously
needs more throughness but I'm super pleased with the rideability

Tanya had us do an exercise in canter where you basically turn from A to R and then slowly turn it into a leg yield at the canter. Historically I've felt like canter leg yield (from the inside leg) is kind of silly just because it happens in the moment of suspension and so it's just kind of teaching them to jump sideways the wrong way... but for a horse like TC who has been pretty resistant to being pushed sideways generally at the canter, it did feel like it helped a lot.

To the right, my damn left hand ruins everything

To the left, much easier

After a few of those, we were to go across the diagonal and ride a half 20m counter canter circle. I made a mistake in these. TC has counter canter and totally gets it, doesn't try to change or break or anything. But I haven't done them in a court before, so I was so focused on the geometry that I kind of dropped my leg off of him at the very end of the half circle, so after all the hard stuff.

My mistake was telling him it was okay in a nice voice and therefore praising him for breaking. It's not like I should have gotten after him for my mistake, but praising that move meant that from then on, he'd get through the hard part of the counter canter and then trot and be like "yes?? good at dressage???" Soooo I had to redo that a few times to get him to not think that trotting in the counter canter was part of the movement. Then he caught on and was great!

Let's just pretend that he didn't totally break after this

This way (the second direction) went a tiny bit better just because
I was more committed to the movement

After all of that, we were done! I was super proud of him. He's stepping up to the Second level work really well and is taking the pressure of it better than I thought he would. I think it helps that last year we were touching on a lot of these movements already, so he's familiar with having to hold his counter canter and do shoulder-in/half pass. But it's still really cool to go over it all in a lesson!

I love how he's going and while we've got a TON of work to do, I'm so happy with how far he's come already this year. I'm really curious to know, given where he's at now, if Tanya thinks he could do the FEI levels. But I'm a little nervous to ask. We'll just keep plugging away! I certainly think he's going to continue to be a bombing lower level horse.

Step Through

Saturday I woke up early and stuck TC in the trailer to take him back over to my trainer's barn for another lesson. This time though, Peony lent me her Pixio!! I seriously have the most amazing friends.

The drive over there was a titch rough with it being Drive Like an Asshole Day and all, but once as we got there, TC hopped right out of the trailer and was totally fine. Not impressed. One day he'll be like that even at brand new places!

Get it pony! Do more planks, Megan!

I tacked him up except for the bridle and then took him and the Pixio down to the barn. I left TC in the cross ties and then went and put everything up. Peony and Andy had stopped in (bringing me in n out!) the night before and helped me set it up in my apartment (and then Peony demonstrated some really amazing dressage moves on foot) so that I could figure out how to do it. It wasn't hard to set up, the only thing that was tricky was actually working the camera because I kept looking for a button that wasn't there. Yes I remember going over this the night before.

Back in the barn, I grabbed TC and took him out to the ring, turned on the camera, looked at it skeptically for a while, and then got on to walk him (totally forgetting about my equisense, seems like one equine-related technology is enough for me). He was just the tiniest bit balled up, but when I started trotting, he settled right in.

The first thing Tanya said about him was that he seemed really quiet! While I warmed up, she helped me with my posting mechanic. I tend to tuck my butt a little bit on the top of the rise, which is not necessary, so I stopped doing that and it made his trot feel much better! She also wanted me landing a little bit further back in the saddle. I've always been the sort to arch my back so it's interesting that I'm going in the opposite direction. Sticking with the biomechanics part of the lesson, she also wanted me to get my elbows down and my hands up a little bit. I don't normally ride like a monkey but I was really sore soooo yeah.

So he's coughing a little bit here so obviously the answer to that
is to do WILD AND CRAZY THINGS WITH YOUR  HANDS
but you can see my posting mechanic change a bit 

Immediately in the canter we had the issue I've been having - TC gets behind my leg and then bucks. Finally! I was so glad to have this happen in front of her! We talked about the whole spectrum of the canter. I've been feeling him get behind my leg, swinging to let's say the right of the pendulum, and then I've been only swinging him back to neutral, which isn't far enough, we have to go all the way to the left. I need to basically gallop him forward until he's super committed to being at neutral or above. She said to fix this now before it becomes a problem. And I was like dude it's a problem now!

Boing boing boing , you can see he does it when he's asked to
get his hind legs under him and he's like nah how about this other
shit instead? Btw he does it both ways and is not in pain, his rider
could be better though, or much worse. 

That's more where he needs to be for warm up! 

But once as TC is in front of the leg, he stays there pretty well, so that's great! We did some lengthenings down the long sides and then shortenings on the short side to really test this out and he only broke once I think. I still need to be committed to bringing him shorter, but I think I'm kind of afraid to do it because I might lose the reach from his inside hind leg. Gah I wish I had mirrors! I've been historically bad at really feeling the hind legs and yet I continue to buy horses who like to leave their hind legs behind them... Excellent life choices!

Go pony! Still working on getting him pushing from behind vs
just pulling along with the front end, so I have to keep him a
bit more compressed in these for now, one day he'll have a big
scary extension though!

We took a walk break after that, but at the end of it, she wanted to check on our walk pirouettes. I've been working on them on and off for a while and have always thought that TC's mechanic was excellent but that he wanted to just get a bit slow. The one to the left was excellent, but the one to the right slowed down. Not getting sticky or stepping out or anything other than just making it look like we were doing it in slow motion. 

Tanya had me go do a "working walk pirouette" which I have always called an "endless walk pirouette" where you're just in the middle of the arena going around and around and around. She had me put him forward 1-2 steps out of it when he'd slow down, then immediately get back in it. Hey that sounds familiar... I can't find the post about it, but I for sure took a lesson on Rico where I did this exact exercise in a canter pirouette.

I love him! The left one is easy, just need a bit more throughness
and a bit more bend for the show ring I think

To the right, what we ended with, obviously it needs a lot of
work but it was so much better than before!

The lesson continues, but that will be for tomorrow's post given how long it's taking me to make all these gifs! It's amazing to have the video though. I really need to start scheming and figure out how I can get me one of these cameras...