Looking Upward

Work has been INSANE this week. INSANE. I am not used to my job, which is a cushy public sector job with no stress, being stressful! I felt bad for anyone I had to interact with this week, including my coworkers who are in it with me. On Wednesday I drank too much coffee and didn't eat enough and was like... yelling and writing stuff on the board like some crazy conspiracy theorist.

Unfortunately with work, I haven't been able to ride much. I'm working from home today because I've literally been in like 5 hours worth of meetings every day all week and I finally was like "fuck this I am guaranteeing that I can ride my horse by not driving over the hill" so today I get to finally ride my horse again.

I wanna sit on it

After his adventure on Monday, where I was completely blown away by his half pass skills, he got a day off on Tuesday where all we did was hand walk around the ranch. Wednesday I did ride him, but only for about 15 minutes because the arena was being dragged and pushed my ride too late. I had a hard stop at 9am to get to work for a meeting at 10am (where I again had time to get coffee and then be crazy for the rest of the day). Same thing happened on Thursday, except that instead of trying to ride, I just turned him out in the square pen and then walked him around the ranch.

I feel horrible that he's stuck in this little stall and basically had three days in a row where he was out of his stall for only an hour or so. Things have changed at the barn, where I won't be able to put him in any other stall, so that's super unfortunate. I'm exploring other options but I'm super bummed to have to do that. I really do like it there but I can't leave TC in such a small spot with my work schedule.

Even so, I'm really excited about next week. I stayed up late last night fixing everything I could for work so today and next week should be way lighter. I'm downright refusing to have 10am meetings all week (except the one I have to go to on Wednesdays) so I am RIDING my horse. Including in a lesson with Tanya! We feel so rusty and so unfit, both of us, but I think it will be good for us.

I thought he had edema on his belly but it was his abs lol

With everything being so crazy, I haven't even thought about showing this year yet. I have options, though the counter canter vs flying change argument weighs on me a bit. If I want to, I could get the changes more solid now (especially because I'm thinking I might get to a barn with mirrors sooner than I thought) and push out our rated Second level debut OR I could front load the year at Second and then work on changes once I snag all the scores I need for All Breeds, which will take me four shows. 

Financially, I'm thinking of doing the changes first, since then I can push out showing. On the other hand, I am eager to be able to call TC my Second level horse, which I feel like I can't do just yet, even though he's now schooling all of Third. But I love doing the changes and getting them semi-solid before Second basically guarantees that we can end the year at Third. How crazy would that be?

Generally looking into the future, I'm really hoping for an entire year at PSG in 2021. Regionals is in Sacramento, which means that I could compete him in the open PSG for that. If he's competitive at that level, I might do a couple of CDIs on him if I can swing it financially (since they are expensive). After that, it's a push for the GP hopefully in 2023, using 2022 to do the small tour and then maybe even doing the large tour in 2024. Then he'd be for sale... but let's not think about that. Maybe he'll be supremely untalented at the FEI levels and will be worth so little that I just get to keep him forever!

His tail is kind of ridiculous, it's also very dirty

Honestly with how he was piaffing in the cross ties (when he was being a jerk), how he keeps offering me moments of passage (also when he's being frisky), how he just instantaneously has a very rideable canter half pass, and ridiculous ability in the pirouettes... I dunno I might have a CDI horse on my hands. But let's just focus on Second level for a bit. Uh and square halts, which still plague us.