Settling In

Due to the EHV-1 outbreak in the area, we are all kind of locked down for a while, meaning that I won't be taking lessons or hauling out anywhere. I just got an email on Monday night that the show I was signed up for this weekend was canceled due to the outbreak. 

It's honestly a relief and means I don't have to forfeit the entry that I was going to have to if I had decided to go to the show. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to though, especially given that my horse is still learning to relax at his new home barn and I hadn't even gotten around to test riding when I actually could (if we stay long term, I will be finding a place to haul into that has a court for sure!). 

More positive tension at the ranch = more thoracic
sling engagement, I think we're onto something here!

With the show off the table, my main goal continues to be getting TC more comfortable at the ranch. He is getting better every single day and we actually had a FABULOUS ride yesterday!

He moved Thursday and I rode him later that day, then rode Friday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Today, I'm going to give him a day off. He does best with two dedicated dressage days, one cavalletti day, one trail ride day, and one stretchy day, plus two days off. Basically, the less you ride the horse, the better he goes (I always tell people I should ignore him for 3-4 years and then take him out at the GP). But not when he's nervous. All days are now stretchy dressage days except his days off until he settles in and then we'll start back on his schedule. 

Looking pretty good in those working gaits!

He was okay on Thursday with his nerves. I hand walked him to the arena, walked him around it using the clicker to click for any kind of relaxation (head down, blowing nose, ears on me vs the neighbor cows, etc), then we got on and I just walked, trotted, and cantered around on the same circle at the far end of the arena. He was concerned about the horses not being nearby the ring, my dad dragging my niece around in her wagon, the dog running around, and the gate opening and closing. But really no antics, just lots of tension. At the end of the ride, I managed to ride him back into the barn and he seemed more okay with the activity when he was out of the arena. 

Friday was much better, I actually rode him to the arena and he was much quicker to stretch forward and downward at all three gaits. I even dropped one hand off the rein and pretended to be a western rider at the canter! He is decidedly not a western pleasure horse though. He was still wavering back and forth between stretching and blowing (which I kept clicking for) and then getting tense and scooting a bit with his neck tight. At the end, we rode down the road a little bit and he saw horses in the pastures by the boarding facility next door and I think that calmed him down. By the time we came back to the barn, he was pretty happy. 

That gave me the confidence to not ride him Saturday, give him a day to hang out in his paddock with the other horses and not be asked to do anything. He loves his job and he loves me, but I knew that he was struggling to be a good boy those two rides and wanted him to be able to go a day without having to try so hard. Just hang out, get used to the routine, play with Riot, watch the cows, and so on. 

Good boy

Sunday was a big day for him as my brother, SIL, my niece, and my SO all came down to the ranch to hang out during the day and my parents were prepping to have two friends over for a BBQ later in the day (now that everyone is vaccinated, they're starting to socialize outdoors again, yay). 

For TC, that meant dealing with: my brother and SO going out on a bike ride (so opening the gate, riding out on bikes, and closing the gate); my niece being pushed in the swing in the front yard and then being dragged around in her wagon; someone throwing a ball for the dog, her running to get it and bring it back, and then barking to get the ball thrown again; my dad cooking in the side yard and walking in and out of the house; my parents' friends arriving in their car (gate opening and closing again); and everyone chatting and waving at each other from afar. 

It was a lot for him! He definitely wasn't as good on Sunday as he was on Friday, but that was expected after a day off and lots of activity. Again, I clicked for relaxation and gave him the benefit of the doubt when he wanted to stop and stare at everything going on. He scooted and bucked a few times and his transitions were... more exciting than I'd appreciate. But we honestly got a lot of good work done and we walked down the road and back both before and after the ride. 

At the end, he walked right through the crowd of people and stood while four people (my mom, her friend, my brother, and my niece) came up to pet him and the dog ran over to lick his face and get groomed by him. He honestly loved it! He then walked through all the noise and people and wagons/picnic tables/swings/etc in the front yard to get back to the barn, not spooking once. 

He's an emotional horse and because he's big, his nerves can make him seem like a LOT when they come out, but at the end of the day, I really trust him. He never means to do anything bad, he just gets overwhelmed with feelings about things, he gets trigger stacked easily. I think Sunday really tested our relationship and on the other side, well... 

High alert due to the gate

Monday he was an absolute dream. Stood perfectly still/relaxed in the cross ties even without the clicker (I've been clicking for not standing at the front of the cross ties pawing). He walked confidently down the road further than we've gone before. He has made friends with one of the pasture horses (from afar, EHV-1 and all) so that horse trotted up and down the fence while he quietly walked by on a loose rein. He dealt with cows and barking dogs no problem. 

Walked quietly back to the arena where we had a FABULOUS ride, totally connected and stretching to contact the whole time. No spooking, no startling, no scooting, no bucking, very limited tension mostly due to the neighbor cows wandering up the hill behind us. That tension only led to him stopping to stare at them and whinnying a few times. 

Then we went back to the barn where he hung out in the cross ties alone for a bit and then got hosed down while being ground tied to graze behind the barn (I'm going to make him a makeshift turnout there so he can graze every day). Then he quietly watched as I rebuilt his fence to give him more room in his paddock (that involved a lot of wire being moved around), and then when I gave him more space, he just walked around nibbling bits of grass and kept coming up to me with his ears pressed all the way forward as if to say thank you for the extra room. 

Tuesday was much the same and we even went down the access road and he tried to cross the busy road heading toward the winery! In the arena we had our best ride yet. 

He's pretty cool

We still have a ways to go, because I want to get him comfortable there to the point where I can start schooling the Third level stuff again. At this point, I think the added pressure of having to be in his collected paces and doing movements and all that is going to be too much. Until I can ride a walk to canter transition without wondering if it's going to land me in space, I think we'll stick to the stretching protocol. But honestly, we aren't far out! 

I'm so proud of him for handling this. It's been such a freaking journey with this horse for the last six years. I think the biggest thing I've learned with him/from him is that sometimes things just take time and that we only hurt ourselves/each other when we rush things. It reminds me a lot of Warwick Schiller's podcast with Nahshon Cook that my friends recommended to me. In the episode, Nahshon spoke about a lot of really powerful things with our relationship with horses and it was really impressive, so definitely give it a listen. But one of the things that sat with me was a somewhat passing comment he mentioned about how he tries to "trust life" and in that moment I realized that I am TERRIBLE AT THIS.

I should probably dedicate a whole post to talking about that because it really has been a lifechanging thing for me, a typical type-A nutter butter, to tell myself "trust life" whenever I start to worry about stuff. Like trust life, Megan, things are going to be okay. And sometimes things that feel very not okay lead to things that feel more than okay so it's all okay. This move and the way things went in yesterday's ride make me almost grateful it happened the way it did. Hopefully this experience will make me better at trusting life. 

Sudden Changes

This last week everything absolutely exploded at my boarding barn and I brought TC home to the ranch early on Thursday morning. I'm sure I'll expand later but for right now, my coping mechanism is to put the last six months at that barn behind me and focus on recovering from some things I didn't even know were affecting me until I took a breath after setting up his paddock at the ranch. I took the weekend off from social media and interacting with anyone except my family/SO and I'm now feeling like this is an absolute blessing in disguise. 

I have some amazing news too, so let's flip this post to some really positive things!

A different view!

On Thursday, I finally got my first vaccine!! It was a long time coming because I've been eligible (I work in education in my non-horse life) for a while and finally got an appointment. I had no side effects except a bruised arm, my second shot is on April 15th! 

My dad and sister-in-law are now fully vaccinated and my brother, mom, and myself are half way there. It's just the SO who needs his vaccine, but he's last on the list as he works in tech and has no preexisting conditions. Hopefully he'll get his in mid April and we are all looking forward to the end of May/early June for things to start looking more normal. Most of my friends are at least half vaccinated too! 

Speaking of the SO, we got notified that he got his green card! He says he does not recommend immigrating to the United States under Trump's presidency OR a global pandemic, let alone both at the same time (well, he came a year before the pandemic but the pandemic slowed the processing of the card way down). That was such a massive relief for both of us! It's been an absolute shit show getting everything together for it. 

This is probably a bit early to post about, but we are closing on our new house at the end of next week. Obviously things could still get derailed, but a lot of the things that we thought would derail it have been resolved. The house backs onto a bike trail that leads all around the bay and the house is centrally located so I can basically keep my horse in three separate areas without increasing my commute time, allowing me a lot of flexibility while I figure out where to go from here. We took our bikes (he got a new bike and fit me to his old one, which is now mine) up to the new house this weekend and had SO much fun out on the trail. We're super excited to move into it in May and start making it our own. 

Hanging out in his new paddock

And then there's the absolute light of my life, TC. Wow do I adore this horse. While things were going down, I briefly considered selling him and taking a break from horses. He's worth a lot right now and I know so many people would love to have him. It'd let me get away from some of the toxicity that having horses inevitably brings into one's life. But he's my rock and my best friend and the SO would not hear of it and reminded me that while some of the personalities in the horse world can be challenging, at the end of the day, what is important is the horse, and I have a great one. 

The ranch is not TC's favorite place, but I think I underestimated him, both how much my mental state was affecting him at our old barn (I would often get in the car and immediately start crying with relief that I was going home) and how much he's matured and become more confident in himself. I've ridden him three times there and have done a TON of clicker training for relaxation both undersaddle and in the barn, so he's feeling much better now. 

In addition, he and Riot are absolute best friends. I described them as two nerds realizing they were into the same nerdy stuff to my SO. On the first day, they were playing bitey face over the fence and TC would charge Riot and Riot would snatch at him. It was the cutest thing given that TC hasn't been able to play with another horse in about a year and a half. If TC stays there, I might see if they can be turned out together to play, although TC has back shoes (but he's never kicked anyone ever sooo we'll see). 

So far, TC has just the stall, porch, and paddock, but today we are expanding his area to be out into the pasture a bit more. He still doesn't love it that the horses all get to go out while he has to be in his paddock. The reason for that is that my parents use cable fencing and TC is a little difficult to house. He is respectful of hot wire though, so we can electrify the cable and potentially give him a big pasture as well. That will happen later when I make a decision on whether to keep him there somewhat permanently. 

Scrounging for grass blades!

Whether the move is permanent or just a stopover while I learn to breathe again and figure out where we go, who knows. On the one hand, my SO LOVES that TC is at the ranch now because he, my dad, and my brother (who is there frequently with my niece for babysitting and pony rides) get along super well and he loves the idea that he can come to the barn with me and ride his bike with my brother or hike up the hill with my dad or get put to work by my mom (dunno if he likes that, but my mom certainly does). The other great thing about TC being there permanently is that my parents have not been able to ride as much since Stretch died because they can't haul both of their horses out due to Rico being left all alone. 

But obviously, four horses is a lot and while my schedule currently allows for me to do a lot of the barn chores to "work off" board (I'm also filling the barn with hay and grain and riding my mom's pony for her so she will get back to riding him), my goal is to move into a new line of work in the fall where I won't have nearly the flexibility I have now (but will pay better, not need me to scramble to teach, and be a little more predictable I hope). 

I'm also a dressage rider and while I was able to earn my USDF Gold medal on Rico at that barn while I was in grad school, TC and I really benefit from a larger arena with mirrors, and a covered arena in the winter. He's a little tight and nervous there (though again with clicker training it's getting way better), so unless he gets back to normal there, it's probably best if we move to another boarding barn. But I'm happy to hunker down at the ranch for a bit, get my mom's pony going for her, get moved into our new house, and reset my brain a little bit. 

Retraining at the ranch, there's a lot to do

So, while Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of last week were some of the worst days I've had in quite a while, things are now so much improved that I'm almost grateful that it went down the way that it did. If I hadn't had to move out 12 hours after I made the decision, I would have not brought him to the ranch and probably would have barn hopped for a while trying to find the right place. Who knows, really. 

This blog has always brought me comfort, more so than social media has, so I'm considering extending my social media break and just writing about how things are going here. So thanks for reading along and being part of the big deep breaths I'm finally able to take now!

Back to the 20m Circle

I did that thing again where I ride with two trainers in the same week and confuse myself. It's really annoying! 

After my lesson with Katy on Saturday, I gave TC Sunday off and then rode Monday and Tuesday with her protocol in place. It definitely didn't go as well as Saturday had gone and I started to get that feeling of dread back. What do I do. I called Kate, that's what I do when I wonder what to do, so that's what I did!

She put into words what I've been feeling with TC for about the last year and a half: he looks one way and feels another. He can look amazing and feel like garbage and he can feel stellar and then look just terrible. Things are getting WAY better than they were all last year, don't get me wrong, but the stark difference between what he feels like and what he looks like is really hard on me. 

I will definitely talk this through with Katy and have considered sending him up there for a few weeks so that we can work through this together, but first things first, a lesson with Tracey. 

I like a lot about this canter

I decided to bring this up with her. I've got some shows coming up and yeah we need to work on the half passes and the changes and like maybe I should do some mediums because we haven't done those since August... but this is more important. 

I told her that TC feels so different than he looks and it's a serious source of stress for me. Do I go for the feel and ignore how he looks, even though there are some real problems there with how he's developing? Or do I go for the way he looks and ignore the feel, even though I really like feeling like I'm able to ride my horse?

She mentioned that her last GP horse was like that and that it was the worst right around Third and Fourth level. She said he found it rather easy to drop his poll and come behind the vertical but he felt fabulous there and that she had to trust others' eyes to help her recalibrate her feel so she could tell when he was getting curled. She said that she'd help me do the same in our lesson. 

I like a lot about this too though

We started out trotting around and I put him in the posture Katy wanted him in and she asked me how he felt. And that's when I got my second wave of frustration, the acknowledgement that I've COMPLETELY fucked up my feel to the point where I have no idea what is actually going on because I'm racking my brain for what the videos look like when he feels this way or that. 

I tried to clear my mind and told her that I liked the weight in the reins but that the trot felt flat and long. She said it was a good working trot but it was 0% collected and that she wanted me to ride some transitions to fix that. 

We came into the walk and TC splatted into it. We did it several more times and Tracey started harping on my left arm, which was not remaining elastic so TC wasn't connecting to the left rein and instead was sliding through my right rein. 

I expressed frustration at not being able to feel that and that TC is fairly polite about backing away from the left rein and sliding through the right. Tracey thought it was fairly obvious but given that her clients have dubbed her ability to notice the tiniest things as "Tracey Eyes" meaning that she sees things most trainers don't, I disagree that it's fairly obvious. When he used to throw himself over his right shoulder to the point where he has jumped out of dressage courts on that side a fair amount... that's obvious. But Tracey's Tracey Eyes are so in tune that his slight disconnect on the left side seems obvious to her. 

Not as pleased with the trot but he's so tough

From there into the canter, we got one of the better collected canters I've gotten from TC. We discovered several things: I tend to push him too forward in the transition, my right leg stays too far back in both directions, I don't bend him enough, my left hand has no ability to follow his neck in the oscillation, my half halts are too hesitant, and my reins get too long. I tried to fix all those things at once and felt like I ended up riding much worse, but TC did get better! 

The canter we got was definitely very different than what we normally have, much more uphill and legitimately collected in comparison to his previous collected canters. It was so unbelievably hard to hold it though and I have yet to replicate it. 

We finished on some more trot work with the focus being on the above list of issues in the trot. By the end, the trot did feel way better, but there was so much to change that I really didn't get it into my brain effectively. I tried to commit the feeling to memory though: he felt very INTO the contact and my aids felt like they could stick to him/go through him.

Canter felt great though, his mane kept flying in a
way that made the dip in front of his withers look
way more pronounced I think! Gotta trim that shit

I gave him the day off the next day because I didn't know really what to do. I know that Katy would want him lower and more forward, while Tracey would think that was the first step toward driving him onto the forehand. 

But at the end of the day, he did feel much better after my lesson with both of them, so I just need to figure out how to pick a pathway or try to combine them. This year will be an interesting one for sure. 

Adding a Connecting Leg Aid

For a year now, I've been wanting to take TC up to my trainer friend's barn and have a lesson! First we were delayed by a global pandemic (you know the one). Then we were delayed by fires. Then we were delayed by smoke from the fires. Then we were delayed by a vaccine appointment (not mine unfortunately, though I am eligible and will be getting it soon!). 

Finally on Saturday of last weekend, we made it!  

The drive is about 2 hours and 15 minutes, which is honestly unheard of to get to a trainer around here. The area is absolutely crawling with Gold medalists (there are four GP riders at my barn alone and like four additional ones come in for clinics throughout the year) so traveling more than an hour for a lesson is like "what, you don't like literally anyone at your barn or between your barn and their barn?" 

But this trainer is my favorite trainer of all time! She made me an FEI rider eleven years ago and is the only reason I got my Gold medal on Rico. It was a very "she thought she could so she did" situation, except more like "she thought she could because Katy believed in her so she did." There's no way I made it to GP on Rico without first learning everything I learned on Leo. 

Still so much to learn on this horse who is getting
way too light

The drive was actually pretty good! I drive most of it on the way to my clinic barns twice a month, so it wasn't until we were on the new highway (about 15-20 minutes away from the barn) when I got a little stressed. Then the road all the way down to the barn (like two miles on a one lane but two way road with a rig about the width of the road) extra stressed me out. We did make it okay and I decided to let future Megan worry about turning the rig around and just put it in the middle of the parking lot. 

TC was happy to get out of the trailer and then really happy when he saw that we were going to be full of adrenaline today. I hid in the tack room and took some deep breaths and chatted with my friends to try to take it down a notch. TC stood on his tip toes staring at me like I'M ON YOUR LEVEL OKAY LET'S DO THIS. 

He did relax though, especially because we were early and so went to go stand and watch the lesson ahead of us. He was foot perfect the whole day except for some screaming, but he just likes to scream so I never worry about that. 

Who do you think you are with this split and the
right front leg out in front of you, TC?

When my lesson started, Katy asked what she could help us with and I launched into a large discussion about how weird my horse is. 

I told her that starting from the basics, the connection is very tricky and therefore the collection is hard to get. Like truly lowering the hindquarters in the stance phase and quickening the front legs off the ground when they pass vertical. Then layered on top of that is the slipperiness of our aid system (separate post coming soon to dissect that). 

And on top of that, I'm shit at half pass. We obviously did not make it that far. 

Half pass IS easier with better basics though

We started out talking about the connection and Katy wanted me to ride him in a variety of neck heights/lengths as I warmed up so that she could observe. We trotted around making an attempt and then Katy asked if he had a stretch trot. Tracey would have been horrified but I dropped my reins to the buckle and TC put his nose on the ground like the western horse he'd like to be. It was 0% connected but the point was that yes, I could put his neck literally anywhere I wanted to, why?

I then had an entire lesson in what felt like very low stretching gaits but in fact looked like this: 

What the hell, he felt so low and BTV the whole
time and he just looks fucking fantastic

Katy's theory, which she implements on two of her horses who she says are similar to TC, is that you find a more forward, down, and out positioning in the bridle and then you add leg and connect the hind legs to the bridle. TC is not connected from the hind leg to the bridle all the time, this is what makes him feel slippery to me, the aids don't stick to him, they don't go through him, not all the time. 

She said that TC was behind my leg, and as I went to object as much of the time I do not have my leg on him in fear that I'll send too much energy through his body to manage and he'll shorten his neck, she said it wasn't a traditional leg aid he was behind. He was not behind my go aids or my lateral work aids or anything like that, he's responsive to those, he's just not reliably responsive to a "connecting leg" aid. 

The result was fantastic. TC's first response to this connecting leg aid (basically just upper calf with lots of thigh applied) was often to retract the neck back at me, Katy had me just gently encourage him to keep the same posture and then try again. We did this until he got it and then praised and then kept trying. I kept him in working gaits on big figures and changed directions frequently. We played a bit with quickening the tempo and alternating between working and lengthened strides. 

A bit of lengthened trot

We did a bunch in trot and then stopped to chat a bit about the theory. Then I picked up canter. Immediately Katy asked how our counter canter was and I told her we'd actually been doing a TON of it to help improve the flying changes. So we switched directions and then she asked me to put him in a stretchy working canter in the counter canter. Weird, but sure. 

The idea was the same as in trot, keep him forward, down, and out, and then install a connecting leg aid. When we got it right, he felt "normal" to me, like we had a normal aid system! He no longer felt slippery and it felt so pleasantly predictable. I just loved it. The left lead was our harder lead and getting him connected like that led to a LOT of breaking, like at least once every circle. That's SUPER unusual for him in the counter canter but I think it spoke a lot to how much harder he had to work to be this connected. 

The hard way! But the way pivo liked more lol

After that, we did a little true canter on the left lead (the harder lead) so that I could try to get the feeling of sitting into him and at the end, I told her that he felt like a normal horse. She said "oh poor TC!" but I was being serious! He's a very strange ride right now and I really appreciated being able to have my aids go through him like that. It's been a long time coming to get access to him and every year I feel like I peel off another layer and realize how little access I still have. 

We chatted and she said she wanted me to ride with her trainer sometime because she thinks it'd be really good for us. She then told me how much she liked TC and his "type" which was a surprise. A lot of people like TC for reasons, he's funny, he tries hard, he and I have a lot of harmony together. But not one has ever liked his type. He's a like riding a hunk of jello shaped like a horse that's been coated in olive oil for some reason. But she really likes this type of horse, she thinks that with some of this work, we'll be in a much better place and he'll be better connected, easier to collect, and far less slippery. 

She recommended I do this exactly ride three times a week and then twice a week (I only ride four dressage rides a week so we'll do three and one), warm him up like this and then do some movements. On it! 

Loving his shape in these!

We ended the lesson there, with stretchy trot, stretchy counter canter, the entire time restructuring the aid system that TC and I have been fiddling with for years. We walked back to the trailer and TC stood quietly tied while we hung out in the barn and I met all her horses. 

She invited me to a show this weekend, which is a bit soon, but we are definitely going to go to one with her in April. I'm even more motivated now to get my remote setup working. She's busy but she seemed to really like diving into the deep technical stuff that we did. I'm hoping I can bribe her to help me once or twice a month remotely because man that drive is tough. I was exhausted by the time I got home and so was TC! Next time I think we'll go for a long weekend so we don't have to do the whole thing in one day. 

I'm so excited to see how it goes for the next three weeks as we gear up for the first two shows of the year!

Filling in Holes

I'm excitedly preparing for the first show of the year in a few weeks and this year's goals are looking a bit different than previous years. I've always stuck with the "one level a year" protocol. In 2017, we did Training, in 2018, we did First, in 2019, we did Second, and in 2020, we did Third. Theoretically we should be aiming to do Fourth level this year, but after a tough year with the pandemic, I've decided that I just want to stay at Third level and have a good time. 

I mean, there are definitely good reasons to stay at Third. TC has some holes in the level that I would normally have addressed over the fall and winter, but we got derailed with the fires, the smoke, and then turning my training program on its head and changing trainers. 

The holes are all things that are going to impact our ability to move up to Fourth, so I figured rather than sitting around waiting for Fourth, we'd work on those holes and continue at Third level for regionals. Kill two birds with one stone basically, put in the work to prepare for Fourth while still getting to show at a level below and enjoy the work being relatively easy. 

I figured I'd chat about where these holes are! This will help me be able to look back on them as we approach regionals and a lot of these holes are going to be necessary to fill in so that we can move up to Fourth level. 

More pictures of the trail because that's the most
important thing at this point lol 

Throughness & Balance in the Changes

TC's changes have come on clean and fairly straight, but the throughness and balance have always been an issue in addition to him not always being completely on my aids. We are going to work HARD this year getting those single changes picture perfect. That means that he jumps through the back and stays more uphill (or at least level!) in the changes. 

For Fourth level, obviously the changes need to be so confirmed that we can do tempi changes out of them. We need to end up doing three tempis at Fourth and while I can get him to do fours, they aren't easy peasy, they depend a lot on the quickness of my aids and me picking up the pieces after every change. 

Collection

Collection is a tough thing for TC and it really bit us in the ass last year. I don't like it when comments talk about the basics. I like it when comments say things like "needs more bend in the half passes" or "could show more difference in the medium canters" or something movement related. When comments talk about basics, that's no fun. So this year my goal is to eliminate those comments about his level of collection. 

For Fourth level, we are obviously going to need collection, lots more of it too. He needs to show collected walk and canter pirouettes, he also needs to show more collection in trot as well. That canter to halt transition on centerline is also going to be tough for us, even canter to walk on a straight line is hard at this point! Definitely working on this, probably the most. 

Such a good boy

Bigger Show Facilities

One of the things I've avoided thus far is going to big shows with TC. We go to rated shows, sure, but they're local rated shows, smaller ones. Shows with two rings going at the most, usually just one. Shows we can haul into and haul out of in one day. Shows without much atmosphere. But this year, I want to tackle that, and tackle it at a level where we have enough stuff going on to entertain us but not so much that I can't hoist him through the test. I'm hoping that by the end of this year, he'll be happy to show wherever! 

At Fourth, we could still show locally, obviously, but I'd really like to go to some of these bigger shows a few times a year and feel confident that he could show there even at the harder levels. I don't think he'll be my CDI horse, I don't know if I want the pressure myself! But if he would be, I want to start tackling these bigger shows with more atmosphere at this relatively simple level first. 

In Front of the Leg at Shows

It was interesting to see how behind the leg TC was at our shows in 2020. I think that it was the way I was riding him, because he was rather sticky at home as well and now he's hot to my leg aids. But I still want to get a bit more of a "conductor" feeling in the show ring at Third level rather than having to chase him around the ring picking up the pieces. I'll be curious if he's back to normal at our first show of this year or if it takes him a few shows to feel like he can stay in front of me. 

There's NO way that we are going to get through any of the Fourth level tests without him staying in front of my leg. I can't imagine riding a canter pirouette if I'm having to hoist him along like I was doing last year. So that will have to get better before his Fourth level debut! 

It's so pretty when it's green!

Reliability in the Walk Pirouettes

So, our first walk pirouettes at our first show last year were 8s and 9s, mostly 9s actually! But then in our second show, TC stuck for the first time ever and we got 4s and 5s on them. That was SUCH a bummer because we still scored so well and we could have nudged those scores up. I don't know exactly what happened there but we haven't schooled them much this winter so I still need to figure it out.  I'll be working on getting these solidly in the 8-9 range again and reliably there. 

The walk pirouettes need to carry us for Fourth level for a while. I just don't see this horse getting a reliable canter pirouette on him for a while, so showing the judge that I DO in fact know how to ride a pirouette and gathering some scores that make up for the lower pirouette scores at first will be helpful to have. 

Lengthen the Neck

Similar to the behind the leg problem, TC was also getting short in the neck in our 2020 shows. He was being ridden short in the neck at home though, so I think that now that I'm getting his neck longer, he'll stay that way in the show ring. But it's definitely on my to do list to get "short in the neck" off the comments section of our tests. 

Oh man, for Fourth level, it's going to be tough to not get that neck back at me as we add the more collected movements like pirouettes or the more technical movements like the zig zag or tempi changes. If I can't keep his neck long through a Third level test, it's never going to happen at Fourth level and I could see him getting himself so retracted in the neck that we simply can't perform some of the movements (esp tempis and canter pirouettes). 

And more trails too!

So while it feels like we're stagnating at Third level doing the same thing two years in a row, I really firmly believe that we need this additional year to lay the groundwork so that we can do Fourth level, and really the FEI levels, successfully. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast, after all!

After these last few lessons and how TC has been going, I'm feeling more and more confident that this is just what we need and that there will be nothing stopping us from dominating at Fourth level and beyond. 

Poking Ponies

The monthly acupuncture that I'm trading lessons for is FANTASTIC. We had another acupuncture clinic yesterday and I was just so happy. We started in December and did TC, Rico, and Sundance. Then we did January and I just had TC done because I'm trying to get a solid group of people interested. Then this time around, I got to do TC, Rico, and Sundance again. It was good timing as it was my mom's birthday last week! Poor mom is going to be getting acupuncture for Sundance for her birthday, Christmas, mother's day, maybe labor day? All the presents. 

It's great though, because my mom isn't a fan of chiropractic (she had a bad experience with a horse once) so having a dedicated acupuncturist is really great, it means my mom's horses actually get body work! 

Such a happy pone

First TC though. She brought extra long needles for him this time and wow that made a huge change. As we know, TC is a clown and his first priority is to make people laugh and then to eat snacks and then to play with other horses and then to pay any kind of attention to himself. The last two times he's had acupuncture, he's been very externally focused. He wants to help during the evaluation phase, wants his butt crack itched whenever she'd come by his butt with the massager, and is always pawing or trying to lip one of us. 

This time, the longer needles basically forced him to think about what was happening to him and he seemed really disturbed at first. Like oh no I'm experiencing feelings. He stood stock still with his ears back and his eyes a little concerned, but then slowly, over the course of the rest of the time, he began to realize that feeling things is not always a bad thing, and actually this feels good. First, his nose started to twitch, then his eyes started to soften, his ears flopped to the side, and finally, FINALLY, we got a yawn out of him. The only time he ever yawns is after his bridle comes off. Go TC!

Generally, she said that he feels great! His back is much improved, his sacrum is much improved, his shoulders are EVEN!! All the shoulder lifts have been helping apparently! Now to even them out, because I've been doing more on the right side than the left, so I should probably do them both evenly now. 

The other thing she found was that now that his back feels better, he's holding his butt tuck for longer! I didn't know that was a thing. She tucked his butt and then he held it for the rest of the session. So we're going to add that to our belly lifts and shoulder lifts that we do a few times a week. I'm so glad to see that it's working!

Another thing that she found was much improved was his stifle! If you recall, he was VERY reactive the first time, he wouldn't let her put a needle in it at all. The second time we did it, in January, he was a little reactive but okay with the needle, but then very reactive to the electrode. This time, he was much better about it! Clearly he's feeling better in that weak stifle and he's feeling very strong with all that trail riding. 

ACTUALLY RELAXING

Next, we headed over to the ranch and did Sundance and Rico! I was kind of embarrassed to say that neither of them had had much work since their December appointments. I was wondering whether it was going to be worth it or not, but wow it definitely was!

Sundance felt much better in his back since last time! My mom had been struggling to find him a saddle that was short enough for him, he's got a very short back. Unfortunately the one she was riding in during the fall (she doesn't ride a ton, don't worry) was a little too long for him and so his lumbar area was a bit sore. This time, his back felt great! My mom has found a smaller, lighter western saddle that she loves riding in so we brought that out and looked at it and it doesn't go past his 18th rib, awesome! 

He was also more level behind and felt good in his neck, which is weak due to his silicosis. He's been feeling better in the bridle when I ride him too. I don't really ask him to go on the bit but I certainly don't prevent it and lately, he's been offering me a somewhat decent connection. 

He's getting so light, boo

Rico also felt way better than last time too! I was so happy. I've noticed him changing a bit in the way he carries himself in pasture, he's way more coordinated and equally as likely to pick up trot or canter, vs previously he seemed less coordinated and wanted to stay in trot mostly. I don't know, I don't see him a ton so I don't have many data points, but he does seem better. 

Immediately she said that his back looked better, much less swayed and we kicked ourselves for not taking a "before" picture. He wasn't as bad in the belly lifts too, last time he had almost no mobility back there. 

This time, his right SI seemed a bit restricted, so she focused her energy on that. He also had his normal neck arthritis on the right side of his neck, which she worked on but I think that'll always plague him a bit. I mean, it's arthritis. By the end, he seemed very relaxed and was standing happily, plus his back was up even more than it had been when she first started! 

I'm glad he's finally enjoying his body work

I got the report from my mom that afternoon that both Rico and Sundance were galloping around and rearing at each other, celebrating how good they felt I guess! 

I'm so glad that I have the ability to give Rico things like this in retirement. He may not be in any kind of work right now (I've been busy and mostly riding Sundance with my niece when I have extra time), but I still want him comfortable in his retirement. He turned 25 this year and is pretty damn sound, my goal is to keep him this happy and health into his 30s if I can! And I think the acupuncture is helping him out quite a bit. 

I'm also glad I can help my mom out with Sundance. He's been a really good pony for my niece, who is 13 months, to start learning to ride on (he may low key hate me and consider bucking me off every time I ride him alone, but when she's double with me, he lets us trot and canter, yes, canter, around on him!).

Eventually I'll get her out to do Riot as well, but Riot isn't being ridden much right now and doesn't have the history of silicosis like Sunny and he's not my perfect Rico, so he's been punted to the back of the line. Poor Riot! Soon, Riot, don't worry. 

WW: Playing in Turnout

A couple of weeks ago, it was too windy to ride, so I put the pivo in TC's turnout and videoed him/us and some of these blurry screenshots are so cute! I figured I'd share them today. 

Definitely not getting on that

He gets real low to the ground sometimes

I just love him

His topline is actually looking much better

What the actual fuck is this move?

This followed

Can I click for this behavior?

I think he's so cute when he lays down omg

Again, can I click for this?

I think he likes me

Should have clicked lol

Proof that he can tuck his butt quite well!

Highly recommend getting adorable pivo video of your horse in turnout and taking a bunch of screenshots!