Atmospheric River

Tuesday night through this morning, we had an insane storm come through. Another comes in next week but after it basically being summer all month, this was a shocker. 

First, it was a LOT of water, I've never seen so much at the barn, TC's paddock was mostly underwater and the entire barn was too. Driving down to see him took a long time because of all the accidents and also because we were driving at like 40mph to avoid accidents. 

Second, it was cold. Normally rainstorms are in the mid 50s or even into the 60s here, it does get cold (for here), but mostly when it's dry. This rainstorm was in the mid 40s where we are and wow I am not prepared to be both cold and wet. I have a lot of water proof gear and I have a lot of warm gear, but not a lot of my warm gear is water proof. 

Missing summer trail rides, jk this was in January

TC did not have a good time during the storm. He's a little skeptical of shelters in general, but he really doesn't like his current one. I didn't think much of it because he's willing to stand next to it for shade in the summer and he really doesn't need a shelter most of the time out here. The weather just isn't that bad. Except this time, I felt SO bad for him. 

Unfortunately the medium weight blanket he was wearing when I went down on Wednesday afternoon soaked through in a few places and when I brought him into the barn and took the blanket off, he started shivering a bit. I immediately put his cooler and rain sheet on him and let him hang out in the barn to relax. He seemed very happy in there and I wished that there was an opening in the barn for him to stay in during bad weather, but I know he'd turn himself inside out if he had to live in a box stall for any more than just a night or two. As much as it sucks to see him out in the cold rain, I'm sure if he could talk, he'd tell me he'd rather be outside than inside even in bad weather. 

When he seemed to be getting eager to go back outside, I put him back out in his cooler + sheet and zipped over to the ranch. All the ponies there are unclipped and smart enough to stay inside when it's pouring, so I snagged two of Rico's old waterproof medium blankets and also grabbed some extra grass hay. 

Such beautiful views

Back over to TC's barn and I saw that he'd been fed... outside. Okay, I know my horse is weird about shelter but he isn't so weird that he'll starve himself to death. I moved his hay inside and took him back into the barn. His cooler was rapidly getting soaked as the sheet didn't cover it completely, so I pulled that off and put one of Rico's mediums on him. I started worrying that it wasn't fully waterproof and so put his sheet on over that. Two layers of waterproof blankets should be good! 

We hung out in the barn as long as I could, but there were so many accidents on the road on the way down that I didn't want to be driving home in the dark. I grabbed two extra flakes of grass hay and his grain and put him back in his paddock. He stood in the stall eating for a while and then started to grab food and walk outside to chew. I put two of his flakes nearish to the door so he could reach in and grab food when he wanted to. 

When I got home, I ordered two more blankets from RW. One is going to be a bit big on him, which I think he'll appreciate. The other is his normal size, which I might return. I also snagged some rain gear for myself and another fleece quarter sheet because mine is... somewhere I can't find and having two doesn't seem like a bad idea. We'll be using the waterproof one that I have as well. 

It was so nice all month and then it
stopped being nice

Thursday was not nearly as bad! His blanket didn't soak through and it was clear he had spent some time in his shelter. So I did ride him and we actually had a break in the rain when I got on him, so we walked around the property a little bit. He was less miserable when I put him back with the two blankets again and he happily walked into the stall to get his grain without hesitation. 

Friday morning I came down and he was dry and hanging out in the sun eating his food outside. I'm glad he made it through the storm. Basically all my blankets are soaked except the medium I borrowed from Rico, so he is wearing that through the weekend as the other blankets dry and then on Sunday night, I'll start double blanketing him and swapping blankets out daily again. And hopefully one of the blankets I ordered fits him so that we have more to work with! 

I really miss normal weather, between the fires, the weird summer weather in December, the windstorm that caused fires in January, and this crazy storm (which caused a TON of mudslides where the fires were by the way), I'm over it. I'm glad to have an administration that doesn't treat climate change like it's a hoax, science is real! 

Uphill

Friday of last week was our first day back working specifically on the flying changes. We haven't schooled them regularly since August and while they've definitely been better, he's doing them consistently clean and on my aids, so great! And what is true now about them that has been true in the past though is that they remain croup high. 

Basically in a flying change, you want the front and hind end to be at least level, if not have the front end above the hind end. But a lot of horses, mine included, changes with his ass in the air, pulling himself into the new lead with his front end. Honestly, most horses get them put on like this so it wasn't a big deal to me that my somewhat on-the-forehand horse changed... on the forehand. Even Rico's changes got downhill sometimes in the beginning. 

But in looking forward toward Fourth level and above, I know that I want the tempi changes to be a highlight (and also, you know, possible), so this year, because we're sitting at Third level for most of it, I want to make sure that his single flying changes are perfect. And that means teaching him to sit down in them and stay uphill. 

Probably the last screenshots for a while

The fact that we can now set up for a change and then I can tell him "no, not like that" and have him give me a relaxed, obedient change after that is really good news. A lot of the time, changes aren't particularly relaxed, so making changes to the way they are done is HARD. I'm battling that with a client's horse right now and it's tough. But TC is so agreeable that I tell him "not like that" and he goes "okay I'll try!" because that's his answer to everything ever. 

I started by doing them on the diagonal and sitting in a way that would suggest a school canter, but pushing him forward into a collected canter. This allowed me to really weight the back edge of my seat bones in the moment that his haunches were the most lowered (and when he should be striking off on the new lead). 

He knows on the diagonal that I might ask him to change, so he propped his butt up against me and we did a ten meter circle until he'd go across the diagonal without a butt prop. Then I asked for the change and got a butt prop so he got a ten meter circle. And then finally I got a truly uphill flying change and it was downright magical. 

No butt props, TC!

There are times where my funny horse, who makes me want to pull my hair out in some ways, just casually sits down and gives me things that feel just as good, if not better, than Rico. And that change was one of those times! I made a big deal out of him to inspire him to continue to do the thing in that way and he DID. 

He still needed some reminders when he'd prop up against me, but after a while, more changes than not were uphill and balanced properly. We didn't do a huge number of them, just a few each way, but I felt very good about keeping this on our to do list once a week for a while until they were balanced all the time. 

From that change, it feels like everything through the 2s would be possible. I'm still getting a little dislodged in them but that's on me, not him. Once I get my shit together and these changes are his regular changes, we'll get to play with the tempi changes! He's done fours before but it was not an easy feat for him, it took a lot of organization and timing on my part. 

What I tell the SO when he has to deal with my
"disgrace" of a car lol 

I want his tempis to be like Rico's, easy to ride with not too much thinking required. It really matters in the upper levels to have some "gimme" movements where you don't have to use your brain. Using your brain for an entire FEI test is impossible. With Rico, the zig zag and the changes were always a time where I could turn my brain off and relax for a second. I want at least the tempis to be a time where I can relax on this horse! 

Bring the Shoulderblade Back

On Thursday I had a lesson with a new trainer! I think I'm going to use this spring to take a few lessons with a bunch of people (within reason) and try to figure out a training situation that works for us. It might take some tweaking but it's not a bad year to use to figure this out given that he is already pretty solidly at the level I want to show him at. 

My main goal has been to find people who have a good eye for the basics and have them help me. One of the people nearby who I figured would be a good one is Jec! She is nearby, only about an hour's haul on roads I'm familiar with, and is someone who you hear talking about posture and stability in a way that I really like and think would be really helpful for TC. 

The last day of sun before the giant
storm rolling through the bay area

I made the mistake of not really examining the property on the street view of google maps so I definitely drove right past her property and got myself stuck on the following street, which was a dead end. Great. It was only one lane so I had to go into some one else's property to turn around using like a 10 point turn. I felt so unbelievably bad but it was that or backing out onto a busy road on a blind turn and I had visions of people driving into my trailer soooo I dunno I did what was safest and I hope they don't mind! I can imagine it happens frequently on that little road. 

I did finally make it into the barn and parked and still had plenty of time to get TC ready and calm myself down a bit. TC thought my adrenaline meant that we were going to have a LOT of fun and he was super amped and ready to go. Luckily I could sit and relax for five minutes and then clicker train relaxation out of TC and we were good to go. 

When TC was quiet, we went over to sign releases and meet Jec! We began the lesson out in this big field she has and it was SO FUN to ride in a giant field again. I rode TC in the field when he was a baby and it was such a blast. TC just loves being in the open and has historically been much safer/quieter to ride in the open vs in the arena. Not sure what his deal is but I appreciate that he's like this. Honestly though, and I'll talk about this a lot, Jec and her property are very calming. TC was a really good boy throughout the lesson. 

She watched him walk around a bit and listened to me talk about what we needed and had us start with some walk poles. The idea was to keep TC's neck long and his stride short (oh wow, that sounds just like Tracey's lesson) so that he put as many footprints in between the poles as possible. At the end of the poles, we'd ride a turn on the forehand or a turn on the haunches (alternating exercises and directions) and walk back through the poles. 

Doing our homework!

After walking through the poles, we trotted around on some paths in the field and she got a good look at his natural way of going. TC thought trotting in the field was great and stretched all the way down. 

Our next exercise was trotting diagonally from the corner of one pole to the corner of the other pole (these corners were both raised probably 6-8 inches off the ground), slicing them, then coming around to the other set of poles and slicing them in the same way. We were to do this in a figure 8 pattern and after the poles, leg yield him away from my new inside leg. 

We started and it was very apparent that when trotting over poles, TC really struggled to keep himself straight without my help, which I refused to give him so that we could give him the opportunity to really learn from the exercise. Once he figured out the exercise though, his trot got so much better! Jec said that she likes this exercise because it really encourages them to shift their shoulder blades back, something that good jumpers do over fences. The difference it made in TC was pretty astounding and I honestly can't fully explain it. I haven't felt him trot like that... ever... though. So I'll be repeating the exercise every week for a while (although we are stuck in the indoor so I don't want to be intrusive, it might take a few weeks to actually do the exercise again). 

It was more of a normal looking
figure 8 lol my art skills aren't great

From there, we went into the arena for our last two exercises. Jec let us walk around on the rail for a bit, letting TC get used to it. But TC didn't really need it, as I said about the vibes

The first exercise was to ride a cloverleaf pattern over a square of poles. Basically go across the poles, then turn left and circle back to come down the poles, then turn left and circle back to come across the poles the other way, then turn left and circle back to come up the poles, and then circle back and get back where you were. 

We did it in both directions just at a trot and TC took out the poles several times. Jec said that what this exercise was going to do for him was give him feedback about his own balance. If he was in balance, he'd be able to trot through without knocking the poles. If he was not, he'd knock the poles. So once again I tried to let him figure it all out on his own. 

Jec started to throw more and more at us. We had to trot through the poles, walk four steps, then trot again. We had to halt just after the poles. We had to canter right after going through the poles and trot right before going back through them. We had to halt in the square. It got harder and harder, and with each new thing, TC would struggle at first and then get the hang of it. 

By the end, he was definitely the most balanced he's been without me being involved and certainly the most balanced I'd felt him with his neck that long. 

Either direction! Imagine them being more
circular though lol 

Our last exercise was to walk him forward over a pole so that the pole was under his midline, left legs on the left side and right legs on the right side. 

One thing to note about TC and Jec is that TC was slowly becoming more and more obsessed with her. I think it's because she wasn't using a microphone, so he could hear her talking and I think he really likes that, he seems to love being talked to. He also gets unreasonably drawn to some people, especially anyone who laughs at him. He was very enamored by Jec and when he climbed up on the poles and got her to laugh, I knew he was about to be a clown. He stood on the pole with one foot and then lifted his other foot up in his shoulder stretch as I was trying to push him sideways down to get off the pole and try again. 

We were not exactly successful at this but she thinks it will REALLY help him, so she wanted me to practice it every day. We've done it a few times and he gets it right at least once a ride, so that's good. He's still very dedicated to being a clown, so that'll be tough to break, but we'll get there! 

Standing over the pole

Jec had to run but let me continue riding if I wanted to, I did a few changes and some half pass just to get some miles at other barns for generalization purposes. Then I headed out and did not have any trouble getting home! 

Overall I thought it was a fabulous lesson. It was very different than what we're used to and I was glad to have the change. 

I think I'll head back over to Jec's barn next month and see if she thinks he's improved. Having cavalletti lessons every month sounds like a really good addition to our program! Inspires me to continue doing cavalletti every week (or twice a week but it's tough because I have to move poles around every time) and it'll keep us on task working on exercises that actually help him vs mindlessly trotting through poles, which is what I have been doing.

Connect & Collect the Horse

I have two lessons this week, which is kind of unheard of for me. Last year I took a record breaking 17 lessons and I regret not taking more of them. That's like, a little more than once a month. This year, my goal is to take 40 lessons, which means I need to hustle given that last week's lessons were the first of the year. And we're now in a monsoon of rain for two weeks so probably won't be trailering anywhere.

My first lesson was Wednesday with Tracey and you’ll find out about my lesson on Thursday with Jec tomorrow! 

The trot is still so hard

I haven’t ridden with Tracey for a while. First, TC had his lungs looked at so we skipped two lessons, then we had one that was all trot in 1.5 minute intervals, then COVID came to my barn so she didn’t come out. Then TC decided he needed more trail rides (we go out tomorrow) and I pulled him from her schedule last time. Last week we were finally good to go! 

We started by showing her how he was in warm up and she seemed happy! That’s good news, the only major comments we got in warm up was that he could slow down his tempo so he didn’t get so much over his front legs, something I was working so hard on before his stifle and then ignored afterwards, and the other comments were about his flexion at the poll in our warm up leg yields, which I also haven’t been working on. Cool! Not a bad starting point. 

I expected Tracey to slaughter me for basically bringing her a “Third” level horse who was off the bit, but she did say that he was looking much better and had put on muscle (she said it in her Tracey way where she also said that I needed to now USE that muscle, but I’ll take the compliment!). But I knew I swung too far and so she emphasized the need for him to stretch to contact. Not just telescope his neck up and out. Yep, agreed, he no longer stretches all that well to contact. 

Stretching to contact here though!

But wow, all that work really has paid off in that when I slotted that last puzzle piece into the connection, he felt AMAZING. Previously his go-to maneuver was to get short in the neck or retracted or whatever, even that hesitation, like "are you sure you want me to flex at the poll a little?" gave me the ability to keep his neck inflated. He felt so good in the contact. 

Then he got too low and I gave away the contact and Tracey was on me about that. I'm hoping that this year we'll be able to do a bit fitting clinic so we can see if there's some way to convince him to stay out to contact juuuust a bit more but for now I just need to keep the contact and keep pushing him out there without letting his neck get short or giving away the reins or letting the stride get longer or the tempo increase while rubbing my belly and patting my head and doing complex math problems at the same time. 

We started working on some lateral work and he needed to be simultaneously straighter and more bent at the same time. Basically he folds at the base of his neck, takes his entire neck out of his inside shoulder, but then when I went to straighten that, he counter flexed and pushed his ribcage into my inside leg and she didn't want him to do that. So he needed to be straighter at the base of his neck, more bent through his ribcage (side note: I know the ribcage does not bend, it shifts outward, but it's easier to explain that way), and flexed to the inside. That was TOUGH for him and for me as well. 

When I did get it though, the lateral work felt way better. We even got to school some half pass (for the first time in months, I haven't really played with many movements) and Tracey noted that he wanted to bulge his inside shoulder to the inside, so we did some half pass to leg yield and worked to get him filling the outside rein a bit better and wrapped around my inside leg. That's just not a natural thing for either of us and I know it's going to take a while to get it right, which is fine! 

OKAY TC

We stopped and I thought we might be good but then the lesson that went after me wasn't going to happen, so we decided to look at the canter to walk transition. My reason for asking about this, even though he isn't going to be doing those in the show ring ever again, was because they are a great lie detector in the collection. 

I've always been a bit of a claustrophobic rider in the collected work, especially in the pirouette canter. Knowing that TC is a year, or hopefully less, away from beginning to school the canter pirouettes, I need to address my issues with the collection before I put them on him. Doing the canter to walk transitions is helping me learn to sit into the collection and relax there a bit. I want to give him confidence to sit down and stay there so I, myself, need to feel confident in the collected canter. 

The transitions went well although my timing wasn't great, my issue is typically that I ask too early because I'm like OMG MAKE IT STOP but knowing that was my issue, I did the opposite and kept him in it for too long. He felt good though and it gave me a REALLY good feeling for where he's at in the collection so I can ask him to get to about 80% of that more regularly. 

Not unhappy with this except that he takes so much
frontline activation that I then lose my backline ugh

Generally it was a pretty fabulous lesson and good way to start back up in doing dressage in a normal way (aka not riding my horse off the bit anymore). Since then, TC has still been struggling to not fold his neck and curl a bit when asked to really connect like we did in this lesson, so I'm taking it slow and making sure that first and foremost we have a correct outline and THEN asking him to connect within that. He had acupuncture yesterday so we'll see how much that helps him again, it made such a difference last time that I'm hoping he'll feel better in the contact soon. 

Revamping the Training Program

I've done a lot of soul searching in the last few months that has resulted in a big change in the way I am approaching TC's training. 

I love him so much and I'm glad I have him in my
life but wow he's been a tricky one

TC has been so easy to train in so many ways. He is so sweet and tries so hard and wants to be so good that you can just suggest to him that you might want him to do a thing and he does the thing if he can. Or a version of the thing that you can then shape with positive reinforcement. 

Every major movement, I've put on myself without help. I put his lateral work on, his changes, his extensions, everything. The best lessons I've had on him have been a) on the basics or b) a reminder to push the horse forward along the path, challenge him with harder exercises. It's not about learning new things, it's a discussion of the concepts we are working on so that I understand them more deeply and help forming a plan for the future. 

I realized that I was capable of putting the movements on him but what I wasn't perfectly capable of was the basics: getting him to be straighter, getting him to be more through, getting him to be more collected. He's just tricky. He's got that restricted right shoulder, he's tough to get to engage his thoracic sling, he's really tough to get to take weight behind. And when I can get those, the movements are easy to put on him because he's very much a "if he can, he will" horse, and I think a lot of horses are like that. The more I train TC and the more I teach my riders with this idea in mind, that the movements will be easy if the basics are there, the more I realize that I want to focus on the basics in my lessons and do the movements more occasionally, just check in on them. 

He's always wanted to duck btv, even as a baby

And get short in the neck

But horses can be trained

What I realized this last summer was that my training situation was more focused on getting TC through the movements than teaching him how to carry himself in the posture that is required for the upper levels. That sure, he was progressing in that his half passes got steeper, his changes were more on my aids, his medium trot got bigger... but his basics were actually getting worse. 

I went from scoring in the 70s at First level in 2018 being told how good quality my basics were to... to sure scoring in the 70s at Third level in 2020... but the comments were different. The only movements we got comments on were the half passes that could have more bend around my leg in them, but the rest of the comments were about the basics. His neck could be longer, he could have more energy, he could take more weight behind. 

And with those comments came a horse who wasn't as fun to ride. A horse who said no more often. A horse who didn't look good in pictures or on video. He was rigid and short in the neck, he was kind of heavy in the contact (this horse is NOT heavy). When I'd try to talk to my trainer about it, I got told some really encouraging things and given instructions that I followed, but things just didn't get better. 

I went back to the videos of us at First level and just loved how much more harmonious we were. And we were working with the SAME TRAINER so it encouraged me to push through this hard stuff even more. But then after chatting with some friends a LOT and reading through every single lesson I wrote about on this blog, I realized that the lessons HAD changed. It wasn't something to push through. 

This is basically how he was going, I kept a lot of
these images off the blog because even at the time I
knew it wasn't great, but this was the same trainer that
made him look like this...

... at first level and while it's not perfect, it is very
clearly a different training style. But when a trainer
changes like that, it's hard to tell, I was assured
that I was on the same pathway but I was not

This winter I stopped riding the way I was riding. I took the pressure off and encouraged TC to basically ride off the bit starting in October. I joked to a client at my barn that I was riding him like a hunter while figuring out my training situation. She's got a good eye and said to trust my feel and that TC looked amazing. 

It felt wrong and fragile and awful. But slowly TC started to feel better and better. He started to get more responsive to my seat and lighter in my hand. Too light, but that's fine. The biggest thing though, is he finally started putting a decent topline on. The base of his neck is filling out like crazy and he doesn't look like crap anymore. I don't cringe when looking at videos, I certainly see a LOT we need to fix but it doesn't look forced anymore. 

What I mostly want to fix at this point is the collected paces, and for that I need some help. This horse is built to be on the forehand, to keep himself from falling on his face not by his topline but by his knee action. He may look uphill because of his upright neck and flingy front end, but he moves in a downhill balance most of the time. See in the picture below how much more weight is down his left front than his right hind? And how far back under his body his left front is? It should be picked up shortly after it passes vertical, ignore his neck or wither, they are not helpful in determining if a horse is collected, but they sure look nice right?

Sending his neck up and out and basically ignoring
him in the contact for nearly 4 months to help him
understand that things are different now

Tracey is pretty fabulous at putting on the collected paces, and she now comes to my barn every other week, so we will be riding with her. We had a fabulous discussion of collection yesterday and I have a lot of homework for getting him better connected after these last four months of basically riding him off the bit. I also have some good exercises for getting myself more comfortable in the collected paces. 

I'm also going to ride with a new trainer today, her name is Jec and it's the Jec you're thinking of. She's local to me and is fabulous with corrective exercises and helping horses recruit the deep stabilizing postural muscles, which after doing a lot of reading, I've realized is the main issue with TC. He cannot stabilize himself with those muscles so he shortens the neck when I ask him to do things that require him to be more stable (basically all we do in dressage). I'm excited to see what she has to say about us! 

More on both lessons later. 

He's always been such a good egg

As an aside, I have been hesitant to write about this because I don't want it to come across that I think the trainer I was riding with is a bad trainer or that I think she's on a bad pathway or anything of that sort. Trainers evolve and I have SO MUCH RESPECT for trainers who do this. I love that she is learning so much and is putting her new training into practice and seeing fabulous results on her horses and many of her client horses. I'd rather see a trainer evolve over time than stay the same. I'd rather see a trainer try out new ways of doing things that produce real results rather than teach an ideal that isn't able to be practically applied. 

The only thing unfortunate about this situation is that her previous methods were what worked for TC and her current methods, which I'm sure work for tons of horses and her scores speak for themselves, just don't. I will not rule her out as a trainer for my next horse or even for TC again once I get him a little more solid in the basics and comfortable stabilizing his spine without needing to get short in the neck. There's a reason why we did so well this year at Third level, and it's definitely thanks to her. I'm really sad to move on but it's what TC and I need to do at the current moment. 

Torturing Myself With the Equicube

December was a weird month, I ended up making as much in my business as I made in July, which is really atypical. Normally people take riding time off for the holidays, don't ride due to rain, or travel a bunch in December. I usually teach a lot up until October and then November it starts to wane a bit and in December and January, I start having mild panic attacks about money. This month though, I think people wanted to take dressage lessons with all their free time, which was GREAT because it allowed me to basically spend down business income to reduce my tax burden this year without panicking. 

One of the things I did was buy myself some teaching equipment. I have always just shouted at people rather than used a radio, so I got myself a Comtek and I LOVE it, although I sometimes forget to bring it and end up shouting anyway. Oh well, I'll figure that out. 

I also picked up this belt thing that Mary Wanless has that forces riders to keep their hands forward and doesn't let them pull back on the reins. I really wanted bands that go around riders but they didn't have any for sale when I looked, oh well. 

And the last one that I bought that I actually have been able to use (not sure when that belt is coming and I will one day get those bands) is an Equicube!

Such a good pony

Basically the Equicube is about 4lbs of solid rubber with two handles. You hold it over each of your reins and it forces you to keep your hands at the same width, not pull on one rein, and not fiddle fuck around with the reins. I didn't have any major reason to buy it, just wanted it to use on occasion with certain clients, not really for myself though. I don't tend to ride with my hands very wide, don't pull on the left rein nearly as much as I used to, and I don't really sponge my hands or anything. But I did want to see what the cube was all about so I could help my students out with it. 

I got on and placed it over my reins and started walking TC around. He was a little skeptical of what I was holding because it might have cookies and he wanted to make sure before we kept going. 

At first, I thought that it was a bit useless, TC walked like normal and I didn't feel any more or less effective/strange/what not. Then my biceps started to fatigue. I had chatted with a couple of people who have them and that's a sign that the rider's core is not supporting the weight of the cube. So I repositioned my shoulder blades, worked to plug into TC's back a bit better, and engaged my core. It felt better, but then my shoulders started to fatigue and the cube bumped TC's withers and his little head came up and back at me like WAT IS DIS THO? 

I finally got my arms to stop fatiguing when I turned my core on a LOT more than I had before and got myself even more into my thigh and out of my foot. 

The view was incredible

I felt better, but my core was getting tired quickly, so I hopped into posting trot. Immediately I dropped my core and I knew this because I accidentally bumped TC's withers again (it's soft rubber so he responded to it by glancing back at me, but it's not like it hurt him) and my arms started hurting again. TC came up off the bit and it was a circle before he stretched willingly to contact again... when I turned my core back on. 

I didn't do a huge amount because my core was so fatigued and TC was starting to feel a little amped. But I did learn a lot in the short time I used it and I was able to make some good changes after I put it down! 

The big thing I learned was that TC never curled while I was using it. I don't typically have all that much contact with the reins when I'm riding him so I didn't think I was pulling on him, but I do think it's due to my bear down clearly being weak right now. When I played with it after I put the cube down, the more my core fatigued, the better he went in the bridle. 

This trail was super fun!

The day after I rode in the cube, we went on a trail ride, more on that later, but the following day, Friday, I rode him over cavallettis and focused a lot on my bear down. It was a HUGE help and led to a friend at the barn yelling at me from across the arena that TC's trot looked amazing. All I was doing was trotting around on a circle in his working trot focusing on my bear down and staying plugged in. 

I've since used the cube on a few clients and it's been fascinating. Everyone gets something a little different with it. One of them realized they needed to be more into their thigh to stablize themselves in the core but then the horse slowed down and they realized they needed more lower leg. Then bam, horse was evenly connected to the bridle and pushing way better from behind. One gets disorganized in their upper body and it was impossible to get the hands wide and the shoulders hunched while carrying the cube without fatiguing the upper body. 

I think I'll be adding it to my client's rotation for sure, but I will definitely be adding it to my own riding on TC as well! Aaaand I need to start working out more. 

Feeling a Bit Too Good

The last few rides on TC have been rather exciting. We went on our trail ride on Saturday, right, so I figured he'd be tired on Sunday. I made a plan to ride him lightly on Sunday and then harder on Monday and have that be our first day back in full work (well, with limited canter still but he's basically good to go lung-wise). 

TC had other ideas about how much work he wanted to do on Sunday and it a little bit horrified one of my clients who had dropped by to chat/watch me ride. 

He was totally normal for a bit and she and I talked about how he was just a bit hesitant in the hind end still. I told her about his stifle and how I was expecting it to take about a week or two and three trail rides for him to feel normal again. I wasn't asking him to do anything more than quiet working gaits and after looking at the video, he looks sound, just not using himself as much as he usually does. That's fine! As long as he's sound and happy to work. 

Unbelievably on the forehand but who cares, he's
actually opening his throatlach now

But he was a bit too happy. When we went back to do a bit of canter, he got super amped and threw in some of his own moves, bolting out of the corners down the long sides and launching some good bucks. I laughed because the previous Sunday when he came out lame, he bucked a bunch and then was sound again. I joked with my client that he just needed to give himself a chiropractic adjustment. 

He did feel WAY BETTER after some naughtiness and I kind of wish he'd just kick up his heels in his paddock and keep himself feeling good like that rather than involving me. But as I've said before, he's a really good boy, he never wants to lose me. All of his acting up feels like "omg I have the best idea, come with me!" with his ears checking in on me and him pouting when I yell at him to stop. We don't always agree on what's fun. 

But what mattered there, outside of assuring my client that I am *only* bold on my own horse, do not expect me to ride out any bullshit on any other horses, was how good he felt afterwards! 

Before boinging around, he's been really wanting
to stretch lately so whatever

That carried on to Monday's ride as well (the good feeling, not the naughtiness). He felt amazing that day despite me going through a rough day due to hearing about the death of one of my coworkers. We weren't that close, but it shook me anyway. The amount of chaos and loss in the world right now is heavy and it's hard to carry that all the time, I'm sure you all understand. 

TC was a bit on edge on Monday and I thought he might be amped up again, but he held it together and I decided to take a break half way through our ride to walk around and change arenas so we could be alone (I needed a lot of alone time on Monday). When we got into the covered arena and he got distracted by birds and made me laugh a bit, I felt better and subsequently, he felt better. It's weird because I've never been a super feelings/emotions-oriented rider but this horse really seems to pick up on things in a way that Rico never seemed to. 

I have to be more careful with him because sometimes he is fine to be my rock and let me hug him and feel better and other times, like Monday, he really picks up on it. It's almost like when I hold it all in, he feels anxious, but if I'm actively upset, he is happy to be there for me. I couldn't cry about what happened Monday and I think he felt it within me. Either that or I've gone off the deep end with this pandemic and the domestic terrorist attack last week and my brain is now officially complete mush. Whatever, I love my horse. 

When we went back to work after laughing at the birds together, he felt great. Super strong and pushing well from behind, soft over his back, and feeling way more solid in the connection, where he had been getting a little too light recently. 

The right is still a bit of a disaster, oh well

Hopefully he continues feeling this good when he's back in full work this week. And I have some exciting news that I'll expand on later when I post about my trainer search. But I have not one but TWO lessons next week! One is with Tracey but the other is with someone nearby who is pretty well known, I think a lot of you will recognize the name. More on that later. 

Another Trail Ride and Brainstorming a Schedule

On Saturday, I headed down to the barn feeling a little burnt out just from the general shit that is going on in this country piled on top of the global pandemic, our move, TC's stifle, and knowing that I was on my last two days of my three week break from my normal job. 

I don't know why, but I had a major desire to not be at the barn the moment I got there (it was crowded and I didn't have my headphones, sometimes you just want to be antisocial), so I called the hotline that you can call to see the status of the trails and told myself that if the hills were open, I'd go there instead. Sure enough, the hills were open so I ran into the barn, grabbed TC's tack, threw it in my trailer, ran down to TC's paddock, grabbed him, threw him in the trailer and we were on our way to the trail facility within fifteen minutes of my arrival. 

Favorite place

It was our second time in four days being out there, so TC was much more relaxed but did get very excited as we walked to the gate. He aggressively poked the first gate and it opened a tiny amount. Big enough for him to fit through but not comfortably so he flung himself through it as I was trying to grab it and actually open it like we normally do. He was just too enthused to bother waiting for me and seemed to laugh maniacally as I brought him back to walk. 

Everyone and their mother was out there because it was a weekend but once we got up the first hill, people were peeling off to go on other trails and we were alone. 

TC felt strong up the first hill, which was all I was planning on doing our first time climbing in 6 months, so we continued on the flatlands to the next hill. After we climbed that hill, I had him turn around and come back down. He struggled a little bit on the downhill, and by struggled I mean that he wanted to just let gravity take him down the hill. That's typical of his first trail ride after a while so I didn't think much of it. 

Happiest pony in the hills!

I got back to the barn and told myself that until the rain started again, I'd take TC on the trails twice a week, one weekend day and one weekday. And in general, I think we need more trail rides, both for his physical fitness and for my mental health! 

I think I get too into the dressage and don't really structure my weeks to help him out. I was asked about TC's schedule on instagram recently and I felt guilty saying that he didn't really have one. So I think I'm going to try to put him on a real schedule this year. Including one full day off, which is necessary for me to do my real job! 

Here's my thinking: 

Monday: dressage

Tuesday: stretchy day in the equibands 

Wednesday: dressage/lesson with Tracey (she comes every other week)

Thursday: trail ride 

Friday: day off

Saturday: dressage

Sunday: cavalletti

Obviously that is subject to change for a lot of reasons! If it's raining, I'll be moving his day off to Thursday because the arena has a weird schedule on Thursdays. If I'm teaching a clinic on the weekend, I'll probably move his day off to either Thursday and Sunday if it's a Sunday clinic or just to Saturday if it's a Saturday clinic. If I have a crazy number of meetings, I'll have to change it up too. 

So really I should just say that I want to do three dedicated hard dressage day, one day where we do cavalletti, one day where we do some work on the basics in the equibands, and one day where we trail ride. 

I love the views from up here

We'll see what we can figure out. My priority for this year is to work on the basics so that we can make a move up to Fourth level by October/November and score well at Championships in September at Third level. I don't think we need as much dedicated dressage work as much as he needs some postural work and strength building with trails, cavallettis, and basics days with the equiband. 

Silver Elite FSA

I was going through my blog looking for links one day when I came across the Long Term Goals sidebar thing I'd added a long time ago. It has my medals and some old stuff that I no longer care about (I don't think I'm a freestyle kind of person, maybe if I had the money to pay someone to do all the work for me). 

Baby TC becoming a Bronze Elite FSA

But then, I saw something I got really excited about! I had completely forgotten that the Friesian Sporthorse Society allows me to change TC's registration/status/etc according to his achievements. When he got scores at Training Level in July 2017, he became a Bronze Elite Friesian Sporthorse. He needed to either get a 65% or more at Training Level Test 2 or a 62% or more at First Level Test 2. He actually did both, but the first score we got at Training Level Test 2 was on July 26th, 2017 and it was a 71.9%. Cool! 

For the Silver Elite Friesian Sporthorse status, he needed a 62% or more at Third Level (any test) or a 60% or more at Fourth Level. I remember at the time it seemed like it would be SO FAR AWAY, and it was! 

But this year, one of the few good things about the year, we DID show at Third level. And we scored way above a 62%, we earned scores from 67% to 70%. So I'm excited to send in the paperwork to upgrade TC's status to a Silver Elite Friesian Sporthorse. 

Next on the list is getting him to be a Gold Elite Friesian Sporthorse of course. That's also going to take a while (maybe another three years? I mean hopefully, but let's say four or five). For this, he needs to score at 60% or higher at Intermediare (I guess I-1 is fine?) or 58% or more at Grand Prix. I have high hopes that he'll do both of those in his lifetime, but we'll focus on the I-1 goal first.  

Adult TC becoming a Silver Elite FSA apparently

I love that the Friesian Sporthorse Association allows you to do this kind of thing with your gelding. TC is obviously not breedable but I hope he gives the sport a good name. My barn owner the other day actually said she didn't like a lot of friesian crosses but that she really liked TC. I also really like TC! 

I'll be putting in the paperwork as soon as I get everything organized at the new house (we moved on Friday and so everything in our lives is a disaster). I'm excited! 

Back on the Trails with Everyone Else

TC and I have been taking it easy this week getting him feeling better with that damn stifle. 

As I wrote a couple posts ago, he took some off steps on Sunday afternoon and then was fine after he jumped around like an idiot on the longe line as I tried to get video of it. 

On Monday and Tuesday, we just did some lightish trot work with his stifle exercises (reining back, walking up and down the mound, walking over poles, etc). He felt good, a bit weak on it, but sound and happy to do his work. 

Loving the green grass coming in!

Come Wednesday, I took him out on the trails! I drove by the trail facility on my way to the barn and saw signs that said the hills were closed to bikes and equestrians, but the nice thing about this facility is that their big bottom loop doesn't close ever. It's a paved trail with gravel on both sides so it attracts a lot of kids learning to ride bikes and people with strollers, but it's what we had. It's on a very slight slope, which isn't exactly what we need but I figured was better than nothing. 

We arrived and TC was WILD. He was the only horse there except some miniature horses who were on a walk (omg so cute) so he screamed bloody murder at them until they went out of sight. Right as he was screaming, we got stopped by a park ranger who just wanted to make sure we knew not to go up into the hills. I confirmed and then she asked how many hands tall he was. I laughed and said he was 16.2h but he gets taller when he is on the trail. 

I tacked him up as he danced around and then he stood quietly as I got on him. As usual for the first trail ride of the season, he was a ball of tension. Now, had the hills been open, he would have pranced out to the first gate, been polite about opening it, pranced up the first hill, then realized that prancing up hills sucks and then he'd relax and we'd have a fabulous ride. 

It's so beautiful out there

But there were no hills to convince him to not be an idiot and there were children running up behind him, which normally wouldn't bother him but definitely set him off a bit. I hopped off and we did some ground work until he felt more relaxed, then I got back on and he was perfect for the rest of the ride!

We decided to go against the direction most people were going just so we weren't snuck up upon because I was listening to an audiobook. This meant we saw a lot of people!

We passed some joggers and a couple of bikes, then a pair of hikers (walkers?) were sitting on a bench and as I walked by they told me that my horse was beautiful. I said thanks, and then one added that she loved my position. At this moment, TC decided to bunch up into a small ball because he saw some cows and he loves cows, so I couldn't stop to chat, but I thanked her and we kept walking along. 

It's a good trail

The next excitement was a tiny child on a motorized scooter. TC has never seen scooters so he stared intently at it, but the kid did get off and let us pass. I thanked the kid and told TC it was okay, from then on he was fine with scooters! Good pony. The kid's little brother (I think) came running as fast as his tiny little kid legs could carry him (so not very fast but very chaotic) while screaming for his brother to slow down. 

We were then passed by no less than five tiny children flying down the road on scooters. Then by two cyclists, three dogs being walked, and two strollers. The only thing TC got funny about was two cows galivanting around in the hills above us. He ignored everything else going on and stuck his ears in my nostrils to get a good look at the cows. 

The funniest/saddest moment (which I can say because no children were harmed in this incident) was when a kid lost control of his bike after telling his mom to let go. He ended up careening down the road  straight at TC while his mom ran to catch him. She reached him and grabbed the handlebars to try to stop the bike but it toppled over and he fell off the bike. By this point they were maybe 15 feet away from us. TC didn't think this was anything out of the ordinary and he marched on as the kid got up and yelled at his mom. 

Good boy

After that, we were passed by a bunch of other people but TC obviously handled it all just fine. We made it back to the trailer and he'd even broken a little bit of a sweat, so that was good. He hesitated to load but then did go into the trailer. I promised him we'd be back soon! 

I rode him the next day and he felt even better than he had felt earlier in the week. We even cantered a bit. Nothing fancy, just a lot of trot poles and work on light contact in working gaits to help get his strength back. I'm hoping that by middle of next week, he'll be back to full work. I'm still debating getting my vet involved just to check on it, but either way, I'm happy he's feeling better! 

I think we'll head out again to do this ride this weekend. Then next week it should dry out enough for us to be able to climb some real hills! All this week and weekend it's sunny and in the high 60s/low 70s so fingers crossed the trails open again. We definitely need the climbing! And honestly after this week, I need the relaxation that only trail riding can bring me.

Rico's Tack Upgrade

We've been actually getting some rain this week, which we desperately need, but it's cramping my style with Rico lately! There's no place to ride at the ranch when it rains other than going down the road and back, so we've done that once or twice but he's taken a bit of a backseat. No worries about prepping for another horse, I had a bunch of client horses to ride in December. And with COVID getting much worse, not going to my parents' place seemed like a good idea anyway. We wear masks and stay away from each other but you can never be too careful. 

But I do have a Rico update, I found a saddle for us to use! 

I've struggled with getting a saddle for Rico because a) I don't want to spend a lot of money and b) his back is swayed so he's hard to fit. 

Rico down at the house begging

My mom's weird treeless bareback saddle thing fit him well but I hated it, but it got me thinking about finding something similar. I searched high and low and found something similar that didn't look as uncomfortable. 

I ordered it and due to Rico's swayback, it sunk in in the middle (that's okay) and that made it smaller, so I sent it back and got the next size up. Even with sinking in, it fits both of us great! 

Because it doesn't have a huge amount of structure, I won't be doing long or hard rides in it, but it's perfect for the 20-30 minutes we do twice a week or so! I'm excited to have something that works for us. 

Ruby may look upset here but she was asking
for it! 

Another adorable update for Rico is that he and Ruby have been hanging out while I've been riding him. Every time I ride him down past the house, Ruby comes out and lays in front of him demanding attention and he's super happy to wiggle his nose all over her. He was best friends with my parents' previous dog, Cooper, and has generally ignored Ruby. But now they are becoming friends. 

Rico also entices my parents to sometimes come out of the house to visit. My mom brought him some cookies that she had ordered and hadn't brought out to the barn. Rico still offers up his trick, which I recently taught TC: to lift up each front leg. He gets really silly about it while begging for treats. 

Ruby asking Rico for attention

Hopefully the rain stops soon and hopefully we settle into the new house quickly so that he and I can start our twice weekly rides again. I've already dropped a horse I was riding each week and one of my other regulars is riding more now so I only have one additional horse to ride each week now. Plenty of time for Rico! 

Six Months Without Hills

TC came up off on Sunday during our ride. I noticed he was feeling a little iffy on Saturday, not off but not as willing to push through his body. And sure enough, Sunday he was lame. 

I didn't freak out though, nor did I call the vet immediately, I didn't even cry (2020 has made me way more likely to cry, I hope I'm not the only one lol). This is the third time this has happened and it always happens the same way. In the past I've been confused about it and called it different things, but given how things always go, I'm 99% certain that he has a weak left stifle that needs to climb hills to not be a problem. 

July 2016: last swim at the rehab center

November 2016: weak left stifle acts up (called the vet, talked about blistering it, he just said to ride him through it and climb some damn hills) 

February 2018: last trail ride before moving to the flat lands
September 2018: weak left stifle acts up (I thought it was muscle soreness but I'm sure it was his stifle looking back on it, he got better as we climbed a bunch of hills in 2019) 

August 2020: last trail ride before the smoke
January 2021: weak left stifle acts up (this post) 

Basically, TC needs to climb hills for his body to work properly, and when I don't have him climb hills, he doesn't feel great. And that's what happened this time. 

His stifle can't be feeling that bad if he'll do this...

Don't worry, TC was fine the next day. Actually he was fine on Sunday after being a complete asshole while I was trying to get some video of him being lame. He bounced around on the longe line, got chased backwards when he tried to bite me (he never puts his teeth near me but thinks it's hilarious to lip at me and I don't think it's hilarious, which he also thinks is hilarious), bounced around more as I tried to trot him away from my phone, and got told off for trying to bolt away from nothing. After all that chaos, he trotted off totally sound. 

Monday I came out to ride him and did some reining back (also good for the stifle) and then trotted him undersaddle in the ring. He kept stopping and acting weird and I started worrying until I realized his girth wasn't tight enough. This horse HATES his girth not being very specifically tight and he very politely stops every time I trot him to allow me to tighten his girth. 

When I tightened his girth finally, he trotted off quite happily and completely sound. I didn't ask him for any collected work and even though he felt fine, I still canceled my lesson on Wednesday this week. No reason to turn a weakness into an injury, my trainer said she thought he didn't do well in light work and I agreed. He's back to full work in two weeks and he'll be climbing hills from now on as well. His lungs have been fine since November, I think we're fine to climb. 

This is my llama

Given that he was sound on Monday, I figure I'll ride him again today and make sure he's sound (he did get some expired bute on Sunday that should have worn off by Monday but I don't want to make that assumption), then we'll try to get him on the trails tomorrow and this weekend (things are made more complicated by the rain and the fact that we are moving this weekend). Once he's climbed a few hills, he'll be 100% fine to go back to work. If we can't get on the real trails due to the rain, his breeder's barn has roads we can climb so I'll text her and head over there for a trail ride on the roads. Somehow, we'll climb some damn hills. 

If he takes one more questionable step, I do think I want to talk to my vet about his stifle. The vet I saw in November 2016 was not MY vet and I kind of want my vet's eyes on it at some point. Just to take a look in there via ultrasound and see if there's anything else I should be doing. He's totally sound and happy on it as long as he's in full work and climbing hills, he gets a pretty decent joint supplement and I always spray it with sore-no-more after we do anything interesting, so I think we're okay. But they do have these things that allow you to ice stifles so that could be a thing we do. Or we could inject it but I've heard that really doesn't help a horse with this kind of weakness that much. 

Sorry about the lack of trail rides, TC! We'll get out there soon! I'm just glad he was sound yesterday, and that this is a problem I have an easy and enjoyable solution for. If we ever leave our current barn, I'm going to need something with some good hills!