Endless Repetition

Since the beach ride, TC has only really been ridden twice. On Monday, he got a leg stretching kind of ride and then Tuesday he got shoes (and I was going to ride before the shoes, but then realized I didn't have money for my farrier, so I had to run around gathering money for her). Tuesday after he got shoes, I threw him in a giant turnout paddock to wander around in while I finished up at the barn. He did nothing.

Then I collected him from turnout and on our way back, he he pranced near the round pen. I threw him in there and that's when he ran around and bucked a few times. Weirdo. I think he liked the soft sand. And I wouldn't let him roll in it because he wanted to roll near the fence and I'd just had a semi-traumatic experience helping a horse who had cast recently.

It's been so humid in the mornings recently, boo

Finally yesterday I got a decent ride in. I worked from home because the saddle fitter was coming for one of my client horses and I was asked to be there to ride the horse for it. So I had plenty of TC time after that. And this morning I didn't have client horses, so I got to ride him for a big longer than I normally do as well.

TC is feeling really good lately, I've been mostly working on my own biomechanics and getting him to be a bit more through from the get go.

Both yesterday's ride and today's were really big steps forward in both of those departments. My sitting trot, despite me not being as vigorous about my gym schedule (more on that in my once a month gym post that everyone probably thinks is boring but I like it) lately, feels great, I'm not getting too wiggly in the middle and I'm staying with him more comfortably. My hands remain difficult to control, I just want them very low. Sometimes I get them in a really good place and other times I KNOW that I'm riding with them too low and I start justifying it to myself before forcing them back up.

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he was getting shoes. Full review later!

Because it's easy for TC to get himself on the vertical with his big friesian neck, I've noticed that he can drop his back and bring it back up and drop it again and bring it back up without me panicking about it. Sure, it feels less good when his back is down and I certainly notice and fix it, but it's not this giant evasion like Rico had when he wasn't through his back.

So now I'm on his case about keeping it up 100% of the time, all the time. And that's tough for him, so we've been taking it easy and doing a lot of repetition with it until it's just automatic for him. The trot work is mostly shoulder-fore and walk-trot transitions, the canter work has just been work on large figures and straight lines into the mirror.

It got to the point this morning where I felt like I could bounce him into trot with just my seat from the walk. And that I could settle him into walk from just my seat as well. Both were super fun, he's able to be so sensitive without being a dingbat at this point, which has been amazing to sit on. He gives a really good feeling over his back and into the bridle, like everything is super accessible. I hope we can keep that feeling moving up the levels!

The horse in the mirror had to work just as hard as you did, TC

I have another lesson this Saturday with my trainer, which is good! I'm riding a very hot client horse right now and I start struggling with him the further away I get from riding with Tracey, so I told myself that this client horse is paying for my Tracey lessons because without them, I can't ride him! So off to Tracey we go, and I'm so excited to see how she thinks things are going. Poorly, I'm sure, but I'm finally feeling like we're closing in on the same things at home that we can get at lessons.