Cross Country Camp: Hacking with TC

I was going to talk about TC in my last two posts but ended up deciding that it was better to talk about him separately! And I've been so bad at blogging lately, I may as well use any fodder I can to write more blog posts. 

My only goal with TC over the weekend was to not fall off of him and have him get loose on the property. Anything else was a bonus! 

Well, I did not fall off and he did not get loose, so that was good! 

Sunset hand walk on Saturday night

I wrote a bit about our first day, that ride was uneventful. TC walked, trotted, and cantered and he felt pretty good! I didn't get much video of him through the weekend, which is fine because I tend to overanalyze it anyway, but he did feel quite up and connected that first day, if a bit tense. 

On the second day, Kate had me use one of her client's dressage saddles to try. It's made by a local saddle maker and has a lot of the boxes that Mary gave me checked off. No point billet and short front gussets. 

We walked out on cross country to meet Kate's group and hung out with them for a while. Then when we went into the arena for the girls to warm up over a small log, I trotted TC. I have NEVER felt him trot like that and... not in a good way. TC was super amped and trotting like a cart horse. 

Such a fun weekend with TC

We couldn't tell whether it was because of the saddle or because TC was being a wild child, so I kept riding him and in some ways, the work felt really good once I got his ears out of my nostrils. Kate took some video and we agreed that while this was NOT the way I want him to go, it seemed like we might be on the right track here. He did not have any issue with getting his withers up and his canter had a huge moment of suspension and a lot of uphill balance. 

Now... was this because of the saddle or because this is a horse who canters around every morning harassing Rico (video coming on my next WW post) and he was now living in a box stall with a ton of hay to entertain him? No idea. So I will definitely be borrowing this saddle sometime soon to ride in at home. 

But let's just say that at this point, anything that isn't him rearing with a saddle is something to consider! 

This water wasn't full but there were two others
that were!

The next day, I opted to use Kate's jumping saddle on TC, which was hilarious. It's by the same company but fit him slightly differently. Looking back, I wish I'd grabbed the half pad that I use on Flounder for this on TC, but I didn't. It fit a little close to his wither for my liking. But that didn't matter because I only hacked him on Sunday. 

He had a lot of fun walking around in the upper field through the water complex. We even did a big figure 8 of trotting in that water which was so good for him. I'm seriously considering getting a Woodside Horse Park membership next year just to take him out there for dressage on the gallop track (hill work in good footing? sign me up) and to do trot sets in the water complex. 

We then walked down the hill to one of the other water complexes and did some more trotting. Then he saw the cross country group and started to get a little upset. 

Such a good boy

Maybe I should have immediately taken him to the arena and worked him until he was a good boy and then put him away, but instead I just let him hang out with them and then put him away. I'm almost always in "trainer mode" and I just didn't want to be for this weekend. 

Bringing TC was not about achieving anything, it was about doing something fun with my horse. Something I struggle with all the time. I am always a trainer first and then a rider. Make steady progress and have fun (or not, who cares) along the way. This time I just wanted to ride him. 

So he went back to his stall after his hack and I gave him his hanging ball while I tacked up Flounder for our schooling on Sunday. 

He didn't spook at all, not at the horses jumping or
at any of the jumps themselves

At the end of the weekend, we packed everyone up and hauled back home. TC was sad to drop Flounder off at home but then when he got home, he was SO happy to be back in his pasture. He walked around it and then trotted back to the barn to get a drink and eat his dinner. 

Adorably enough, Rico was SO excited to see him. The other two didn't care too much to see that TC was back but Rico followed him all over the pasture and seemed to be sad that TC didn't want to play with him. Rico kept hanging his head over where they normally play and looking at him. 

Even though we didn't achieve anything, I'm so glad I brought TC. It was super fun just to hack around and have no plans. Nothing really mattered except playing with my horse. I think I need more of that in my life. 

Cross Country Camp Day 3: Knocking the Rust Off

Day two started out well with Flounder thinking he was the BEST at cross country and being annoyed at me that I wasn't letting him gallop out all his feelings about how amazing he was. 

It was honestly so absurd to have him squeal every time I asked him to go forward and to feel mildly out of control while cantering around in warm up.

We finally started to jump and Flounder was insulted that we weren't schooling all the Prelim and that he had to jump a tiny intro log. He would land and do his version of exploding which is just to toss his head and squeal. I just love him so much. 

Didn't get as many pictures from the second day

Once we moved onto the BN line, he was much more interested in getting serious. Apparently the difference between intro and BN is enough to get him to calm down. 

We worked on this long, unrelated bending line for a bit. I was for some reason wanting to jump up his neck on takeoff and get too much into my stirrup on landing, which was frustrating but probably due to me being kind of tired and sore from the day before. 

That led me into so many realizations about the adults I used to work with when I was the assistant trainer to an event trainer. I laughed to think of how many times I didn't understand when the adults would be tired from the day before or when they'd feel like it was too hot out or when they'd say that a N fence looked big. And there I was being like "oh no I don't want to school the novice corner no thank you" and "my seat bones are sore but I'm also tired so I am not comfortable sitting or being up in half seat, I need to lay down" and "I know it's not *that* hot out but it's *really* hot out" 

But we made it through! For the most part! 

Flounder thought he was king of the
world at first

After our first few lines, we moved onto yet another pimple fence. If you approached it toward the barns, you had a flat bit right before jumping but you landed on the downhill slope. If you approached it the other way, you jumped from the uphill but you had a flat bit to land on before going downhill. 

We schooled it the way that was more horse friendly (landing on the flat bit) and Flounder reiterated that I wasn't good at jumping pimple jumps so he stopped. When we came back to it again, we made it over and it was much better. I really got the feeling of landing in my thigh on that fence and tried to commit that to memory. 

After that, Kate had us do a little course! We were to do the first two beginner novice fences, then come to the pimple fence (also on the BN course), do the first line we did (BN) and then go through the water and up the hill to a line we'd done the day before. We had some options for intro fences if we were having issues so I felt confident heading out. 

We started in the start box which was SO fun and Flounder was solid over the first fence. Then he started playing a bit and surged toward the next fence. I should have half halted earlier on but instead just let him go and thought he'd launch over the long spot. Well, Flounder isn't *that* athletic and so chipped hard and I had to slip my reins to let him figure out how to get over it. Sorry buddy! Thought you were more athletic than that given how you were acting. 

The next fence, the pimple, rode beautifully and so did the original line we had started with.  

The best fish!

We weren't that far into the course and my body was like "you know what, fuck you for this, I thought we were dressage riders" so I kept having to sit back down into full seat as we cantered to the upper field. 

This tiredness definitely made me look at the next fence so we had two stops there. That sucked because it had been a no-brainer the day before, but that's okay because it's all a learning experience and this is exactly the information I need: I need to ride in half seat WAY more if I want to do this sport again. 

We did get over that roll top and then opted for the last fence to be an intro fence to end on a good note. 

He's so cute and he made himself so
dirty the whole weekend lol!

That concluded our cross country weekend! I'm so glad it worked out for me to go. I learned a ton and had a lot of fun with both horses (more on TC tomorrow). 

My main takeaways were: 

- I need to do more work in half seat to get stronger/fitter for the gallop stretches on cross country

- I need to land in my thigh vs my stirrup to help Flounder balance better after the fences (and set him up for any related lines)

- I need to keep my hip back in the air/wait for him to jump

- I need to work on my down banks

- I also need to work on pimple jumps!

Overall it was a fabulous weekend! I can't wait for the next cross country schooling and in the mean time, it's all half seat all the time for me. Sunny is finally feeling better from his eye issue (long story but he is apparently allergic to something that made one of his eyes blow up and so he got himself a hospital stay recently, he hasn't been ridden much since then) so I think I'm going to start riding him again to practice my jumping work. 

I might try to pick up a saddle for him that isn't awful. Just something cheap that I can practice half seat in and do some small jumps at home in between my lessons on Flounder. 

Cross Country Camp Day 2: First School Back!

I didn't sleep super well the first night because my back was hurting. The entire weekend was a study in "you're an adult now, sorry" for me, which I found rather hilarious. Luckily for me, the back injury that was annoyed (my L4/L5/S1 facet syndrome) is always made better with riding, so getting on Flounder made me feel way better. 

Go Flounder go!

We headed out to meet Kate on the course and she asked us all what we wanted to accomplish this weekend. I told her that I wanted to 1) not fall off and 2) play with terrain questions. I'm happy to say that I achieved both of those goals! 

It's so fun to be part of Kate's barn. Because we're friends and chat all the time, I hear a lot about how she teaches and how she structures weekends like this, but I got to experience it first hand this time. We got a really fabulous talk about how horses utilize their bodies to maintain balance while traveling uphill and downhill (and how we can at the very least stay out of their way if not help them with this). Then Kate sent us off to trot and canter over some terrain for warm up. 

It has been a long time since I did anything other than walk horses up and down hills, so it was a really good starting point for me. Flounder thought he was a badass so kept squealing and trying to go faster. When I finally let him canter up a hill I was like oh wow, I did not expect to feel mildly overhorsed by the horse who really needs me to be dead on accurate if he's going to expend the effort to jump a 2'9 vertical but Flounder is a cross country machine so he ate up the terrain like it was nothing. 

Our first jump on cross country together!

Our first jumps were some intro fences, a small log to a gate type fence. It was perfect to get my feet wet again and each time we went through it, I got more and more confident. 

Cross country used to be my best phase, shockingly enough. I mean, the dressage has always been a strength for obvious reasons, but I really was a decent cross country rider in the mid 00s. The stadium was always my downfall in eventing. I think because of this, I started to settle into it as we moved onto some other fences and realized that a lot of my problems in stadium disappear on cross country. 

For example, one of my main issues right now is commitment to the fence when the horse hesitates. Flounder doesn't love jumping rectangles and when he says uhhh I dunno, my body's first response is you know what, neither do I and he stops. 

On cross country though? I finally found that get over it or die trying tendency again. It wasn't perfect and we did have a total of four stops, but two were with terrain questions and the other two were at the very end of the day on Sunday and it was more of a fitness problem for me than anything else. 

Tiny log, check

Oh god terrain - Flounder

I got annoyed and made him go through it

So much sass

From our first line, we went over to a pimple jump, which was our only stop of the day. Like I said, it was the terrain question that got me. We'd talked about how horses give up at the top of hills and that jumping something they can't see the other side of is tough, but sure enough, Flounder petered to a stop the first time. Woops. I came in with more vigor and looked above the fence (didn't realize how much the fence being in my line of sight as we approached would mean that I continued to look at it as we went up to it) and Flounder popped over it easily. 

We schooled the water and I LOVE the water, it's probably my favorite part of cross country, hearing the hooves go from dry to wet to dry, I dunno, I've always loved water jumps. Flounder was the best boy and marched right in and out with no hesitation. We talked about how water slows the horses down and then jumped a jump, cantered through the water, and jumped a quarter round about four strides out of the water. 

Some of the weekend my old cross country skills would come back and other times not so much. The pimple jump was an example of the latter but the water was the former. I felt him slow down in the water and so put my leg on and touched him with the crop as he came out of the water to gain power as we headed out over the quarter round. It was one of our bigger jumps for the day (I sent it to my mom and she's like "that's BN?!" and it's like yeah, Flounder is little!) and was so fun! 

Tiny pimple jump

Our last bit of schooling had two more terrain questions (Kate was like "you want terrain? I'll give you terrain" I guess lol). The first was to canter over a little house, through another water complex, up a steep hill, to a tiny "ditch" and "wall" fence. 

I learned from the pimple jump because I came at that fence with more vigor and we made it over! 

The next question was a down bank on a downhill slope. Now, I used to be decent at down banks but before then, I was terrible at them. Aaand I regressed too far in my education so really struggled with it this time! Kate even was like "what the fuck are you doing? I'll have to think about this" because while at first I was pitching myself forward off the bank, after the correction to keep me back, I was still doing something weird on landing. 

I got better but we never really got it down really well. So for me, that's going to be something I need to work on in the future! 

Omg he is so cute cantering up this hill

And that was a wrap for my first time back on cross country in a long time! It was so much fun! Flounder was such a good confidence builder out there and I loved how much I felt like my old self much of the time. There's still so much work to get back anywhere close to where I was but it's fun to be able to do things like this again. 

Tomorrow I'll talk about our second schooling the next day, including some hilarious Flounder sass. 

Cross Country Camp Day 1: Traveling

This weekend was my first time schooling cross country (for real) in almost ten years! 

When I got the email from Kate about what opportunities were available this summer and fall, I was bummed to see that this weekend of cross country schooling was double booked for me. Luckily, my clients ended up not wanting to show this weekend, so I quickly told Kate that I wanted to go if Flounder was available! 

I was on the fence about wanting to take TC with me or not, but in the end, I figured it'd be good to take him. Even if we didn't do much, he is still rather immature about hauling to facilities and staying there overnight. He's really only done it a few times and that shows in how he handles himself. He isn't dangerous or completely insane, but he does get a bit tense. 

TC says "can we keep him?"

So, on Thursday I did a ton of packing! I set up all of TC's food and then also brought some extra flakes of grass hay and teff just to munch on. I packed all my tack and my longeing/long lining set up. I had to dig through the barn to find enough buckets for water and a slow feeder. Then I went home and packed everything for me to stay, including setting up my tent to make sure that it was functional. 

On Friday, I grabbed all of Flounder's stuff and brought it to the ranch to pack into my trailer before waiting for Kate's signal that they were loading the horses at her barn. I put TC in the trailer and then took him over to Kate's barn to pick up Flounder. 

Flounder loaded great and he and TC became fast friends. Everyone loves Flounder and TC is super friendly too, so they kind of lipped each other and then I tied Flounder so that they couldn't poke each other too much. 

The boys next to each other!

And after that, we were off! I think this might be my furthest solo trailer drive with my rig to date. I have done a lot of 1-2 hour hauls in the past but never a 3 hour haul. I know a lot of you are probably smiling but we are such a mecca for dressage that even the highest level shows/regionals/CDIs are only a 2.5 hour haul max for us. So there was never any reason to go further. 

For eventing though, we are not the place to be. We have the Woodside Horse Park within an hour's haul but everything else is 3+ hours or further. Our destination was three hours south to Twin Rivers Equestrian, a truly amazing eventing venue with everything from intro to I think three or four star. 

Hi are we best friends?

My truck and trailer handled both horses just fine (I've only hauled two like... once, not that Flounder is big). The drive went smoothly and, despite a lot of traffic, we made good time. TC, Flounder, and I were the first to arrive. I unloaded them and brushed them and by the time I had done that, another person from our party had arrived and told me where to put the horses. 

The box stalls were airy and big! I was a little worried about TC being in a 10x10 stall because he's so large, but they were 12x12 and they each had a little window you could open to allow the horses to stick their heads out. 

I took TC out on a walk on his own and was happy to see that he wasn't too attached to Flounder. He hasn't hauled with a lot of other horses before so I was wondering how he'd handle that. He certainly liked Flounder (they stabled next to each other and I think that made TC more attached than the hauling), but he wasn't too screamy on our walk. 

Walking around the property

Once everyone arrived, we all hopped on to go for a hack. Luckily Kate had an extra kid (two kids were sharing one pony) so she took Flounder out while I took TC out. The kids all went out on cross country for a hack but one of the other adults and I decided to go ride in the arena together. 

It was getting dark and I wasn't sure how TC would be at such a massive facility. That plus my dumb bareback saddle that provides me with no support, really made me want to go school him in the arena instead of hacking around. 

TC was great in the arena, a little up and tense but he let me walk, trot, and canter him around with no shenanigans. Honestly, he was a little up and tense the whole weekend but didn't put a foot wrong other than preferring not to stand still and his neck being stuck too short. 

Flounder got a good report card too, although she did say that he was a little bit wild. Wild for Flounder is HILARIOUS so it just made me laugh. 

TC got a ball for the weekend because
I felt bad for him being in a stall

From there we made dinner and showered and all went to bed! More on the rest of the weekend tomorrow. 

Better When I'm Not Around

 Poor TC came up VERY LAME on Thursday morning. Like almost non-weight bearing lame. Luckily it was abscess lame, it's never fun to see your horse in pain, but when it's THAT painful, sometimes it's a bit of a relief. 

It's not muddy or anything, so the odds of it being an abscess were low, but the good news was that my farrier had just been out on Tuesday afternoon and it was perfect timing for it to be a hot nail. She came out on Thursday afternoon to pull out the nail closest to where he was sensitive. Because he was sensitive up near the bulbs of the heel, she thought it might be an abscess so she left the shoe on and told me to soak it and wrap it. I did and then left him overnight with a wrap on. 

The saddest pony

By this morning he was feeling really good and walking almost totally normally on it. I ran to the store for more Epsom salts and am actually sitting in the barn right now as he soaks it. He'll get a wrap on it tonight through Sunday morning and then I'll do another soak. Honestly with how good he's feeling, it seems like a hot nail! Phew! 

The reason why I decided to write this though is because TC is SO funny about the soaking. Yesterday I had to sit next to him telling him off whenever he'd fuck around with the bucket. I lost two buckets of Epsom salts and then gave up. 

But I did notice that the quietest he was about being soaked was when I had to abandon him to go chase down the dog who had gotten out into the pasture and was hunting squirrels. It took me a while to get her and I expected the bucket to be fucked around with when I got back but TC was still standing quietly in it! The second he saw me though, he started pawing and dumped the bucket. 

My wrap from yesterday, it survived!

So today I put him in the bucket and decided to walk away. He wiggled around to put both feet in it and then stood quietly until I went to check on him and then he dumped the bucket. I set it back up and am now sitting in the barn on my computer while I listen to... nothing. He's standing quietly because he can't see me! 

He's just such a clown of a horse, he thinks the dump-the-bucket game is so fun to play with me that whenever he sees me, he starts playing it (without my permission lol). But when I'm gone, the dump-the-bucket game is no fun. It's a rubber bucket so he can't get himself caught in it (plus he's not one to panic being caught up in anything, he'll either stand and wait to be rescued or try to figure out what's got him). 

He's been like this for a while, if I'm around when he gets shoes, he positively tortures my farrier. He's way better about bodywork when I'm not there. He's way better for the vet when I'm not there. Such a ridiculous creature!

Some Preliminary Findings

 Well, I'm in the glorious data cleaning stage. I entered all the tests and comments and now it's time to clean the database and enter some additional information that I want in it, as well as check any issues I found. 

Several things have come up in this process (and there's more to come). I had two tests where the entry information was hand-entered and they didn't put the ride time. Luckily both of those times could be derived by another test I did that day (and knowing what order the tests went in) so I estimated it by putting it 45 minutes away from the other test. I'm mostly interested in AM vs PM rides so it shouldn't be a big deal. 

I'm also definitely missing my Silver Medal test!! Bummer, all I remember about it is that I got 5s on both of my voltes because I made them too large. I am also missing TC's one Second level test, which sucks too, I'm sure that one is somewhere nearby though. I'll look out for them but it's just two tests, so that's okay. 

How many tests were ridden in
a tophat? No idea!

Onto the fun stuff, results! I haven't run any interesting statistics but I did do a bunch of counts, and here is what I know so far: 

I have 110 dressage test sheets, but that's not how many tests I've ridden. Some of those tests had two judges for one ride so I'm guessing my actual test count is around 100. That's pretty cool! I'll calculate the actual number eventually. 

I have ridden at 41 rated dressage shows! I suppose it's 43 because of my missing tests. I did not count shows at the same facility over two days with different shows per day (for qualification purposes) because I thought it was silly to do, so I guess technically I've done more shows. But that's 42 weekends I've given up in my life for this sport. 

So many pets for all the horses

I've ridden for 42 different judges in my life! That's pretty cool. Three of them I've taken lessons from (after they were my judge), two of which were in my L program as instructors, and two pairs of them are parent-child relationships (like I rode with a judge and that judge's parent) at least that I know of.  Nine of them are male and the rest are female.

I will change this when I figure out the double tests but here are the number of test sheets I have per level/test:

Training Level Test 1: 2

Training Level Test 2: 7

Training Level Test 3: 13

Training Level Test 4: 9

First Level Test 1: 13

First Level Test 2: 9

First Level Test 3: 6

First Level Test 4: 6

Second Level Test 1: 2 + 1

Second Level Test 2: 2

Second Level Test 3: 5

Second Level Test 4: 5

Third Level Test 1: 4

Third Level Test 2: 2

Third Level Test 3: 8

Fourth Level Test 1: 3 

Fourth Level Test 2: 2

Prix St George: 4 + 1

Intermediare I: 1

Intermediare II: 2

Grand Prix: 3

Obviously some of these are skewed. The double tests are messing us up for sure. Plus, there are no more test 4s so at Training through Second, I used to do the 3rd and 4th tests more than the first two. And then some tests are just stupid and shouldn't be ridden (the new Third 2, Fourth 3) and so I avoided them. You can also see that I have primarily ridden at the FEI levels when I've been fairly tight budget-wise, so I was very selective about my shows and how much I showed. So I don't think this is useful data, but it's interesting. 

Baby Rico and baby Megan

My average score per movement is a 6.5, that's pretty cool. My average test score is 65.92% so that tracks. 

Per horse, here are their average scores (I excluded Leo because I only did like four shows on him):

Larkin: 66.80%

Rico: 64.64%

TC: 68.85% 

Well if that doesn't show improvement, I don't know what does! 

Here are my top 5 scores: 

75.83% on Larkin at Training 3 (Damn I should have celebrated this more).

74.23% on Larkin at Training 4 (same, seriously!).

73.44% on TC at First 2 (I did celebrate the crap out of this). 

73.98% on Larkin at Training 4 (didn't know how good Larkin really was lol).

72.69% on Rico at Training 4 (Rico and I were really well spread score-wise).

How many tests did I smile walking out of? No
idea, but this was when I got my Silver medal, I knew
I had the score because the test was pretty good

Here are my bottom 5 scores:

54.26% on Leo at Grand Prix (Leo was kind of off coming into this test so it was a disaster, as one's first Grand Prix almost always is!) 

59.12% on Rico at First 2 (I hurt my back at this show and went off course twice in this test).

59.44% on Larkin at First 4 (Larkin was very tired).

59.53% on Rico at Third 3 (Half the letters blew down so Rico wouldn't get near the rail on one side lol).

60.00% on Rico at First 1 (no idea!).

My horse's average gaits scores are a 7, haven't separated them by horse but I'll be curious to know that! 

Average impulsion is 6.6. Average submission is 6.4. Average rider position is 7.3. Average rider effectiveness is 6.9. Now, those rider scores are fairly new. My average rider score when it was just one score was a 6.7. So I've definitely looks like I improved my rider scores even if it doesn't seem like I have! 

How many shows in the double?
Also not sure!

The next thing on my to do list is to hand enter every movement for every test I've done and categorize the movements. I was doing it at the same time as entering the scores and it was killing my soul so I left it for future Megan. Future Megan here, kind of regretting not doing it at the time but that's how it goes!

After that it's just making sure that everything is ready to be loaded into the database/into the dashboard. I have a rough idea of some of the pages I want to have in the dashboard but I usually just get in there and play around. 

I don't actually need to put it into the database to make the dashboard, but I do if I want to run any additional statistics, which I do! I'm not sure what exactly I'll be doing, that's why the dashboard will be nice, I can play around in there and come up with some hypotheses and then test them statistically. I'd love to do things like hold certain variables statistically constant or compare movements with one another across horses. It won't be anything too exciting but that's okay! 

How much does my shadbelly cost per ride? Don't
want to know!

Hopefully the next update will be a dashboard! Or maybe just more of this, who knows. I'm trying not to burn myself out with this project but I am also really eager to get it off the ground. 

Conformation Lessons From a Saddle Fitter

So obviously with all the saddle fit problems, I've been in contact with Jen. We've been going back and forth and I'm seriously considering using the saddle company she's using. I'm not quiiiite there yet but it's looking that way. 

One thing she did was put me in contact with her saddle fitter friend Mary who helped her so much! I also highly recommend Mary because WOW she is so good. I sent her just one picture of TC standing almost square but not really in the cross ties and she told me all these things about his conformation and made some guesses about his saddle fit issues that were spot on.

The photo I sent, he was so bored of my antics lol

First, she said that he has huge shoulders, which is not news, but what WAS news was that he has big withers. I did not know this. I guess they're just hidden by his big shoulders. 

I mean, it makes sense, mostly. He's not a rotund guy, I know he looks like he should be really chonky just naturally with a well sprung ribcage but he's really not all that wide. Rico was like twice as wide as TC is. TC honestly feels pretty narrow for a horse of his stature. 

His withers aren't so prominent that he's hard to ride bareback but I definitely don't love riding him without a bareback pad. Plus his back is relatively well muscled at this point (and honestly always has been pretty decent) so maybe that contributes to the illusion. 

There was a baby cow born recently! So cute!

I told her the saddle shifted forward on him and she asked if it was forward toward his nose or forward into his shoulder and I said absolutely the latter. 

She then gave me recommendations! They're similar to what Connor needed and they have the same issues with how they go in saddles they don't like (don't keep the chest plate up, don't lift the withers as well) so it all makes sense. 

- Short and ideally flexible tree points. 

Like Jen has said several times, Mary thinks that dressage saddles are made for riders and not horses, the shorter and more flexible the tree points, the more shoulder freedom. Most dressage saddles have long inflexible tree points that get in the way of the shoulder. 

- No point billet 

The point billet is attached to the point and therefore drives the front of the saddle down into the horse's shoulder, not good for shoulder freedom! Ideally I could have a saddle with billets that were set fairly far back. 

- High wither clearance 

TC has high withers and therefore needs some good wither clearance! Again, not knowing this about him means that I never really looked specifically for that. That also explains why he loved the butterfly saddle because it had a cutback pommel. I'm sure he feels a little claustrophobic lifting his withers into a shallow pommel. 

- Short gussets 

The gusset (I had to ask) is the length of the padding down the front of the saddle. Dressage saddles tend to have long ones and they sit behind the shoulder and prevent it from being used properly.

- Ideally a velcro block

That may be tough for me to find (because I love an exposed block monoflap) but she said that a fixed block can get in the way of a shoulder too. Especially if it's tightened down with a point billet on a long gusset. 

This guy was so hilarious, I gave him
a lot of cookies and will get him out
today!

So that's what we are looking for! I wrote all that down and am going to start ruling out saddles. I did happen to notice one thing though... I sent Mary pictures of my current saddle and she agreed that it is LITERALLY the opposite of what he needs: 

Look how freakishly long those
gussets are omg

That's a point billet, yep

Sooooo that sucks, I love this saddle but I definitely don't think I will be putting it on him again. I have half a mind to take it to a saddler and see if we can put a new billet in the back and redo the panels but that seems like a LOT of effort, especially given that I can't fix the lack of wither clearance and the tree points. It's time for that saddle to retire. 

Maybe it'll somehow work on my new horse and it's the saddle I got my Gold medal in so I'm keeping it forever. Maybe it can be made into an office chair  or a stool for me?? Hahaha anything to still be able to sit in it. I love that saddle but can very much acknowledge that it was made for the rider, not for the horse. 

Back to Riding (And Then Backing Off Again)

We had a pretty crazy heat wave this last week so while I did manage to ride TC in two new saddles (he said maybe to one and no to another) earlier in the week, I ended up spending the later half of the week and the weekend just hanging out with him and trying not to burn up. 

The best pony

I've gotten a lot of support from people with the saddle search, I have almost too many people to contact right now so no one is getting contacted. That's annoying but it's okay, I'm letting myself take the time it's going to take to figure this out. 

When we were actually riding earlier last week, I did a few rides where I worked on transitions and some lateral work. I figure that I'd like to hit the ground running when I find a saddle so I'd like to get him a little stronger and address any issues that I'll be annoyed to hear from an instructor. 

He feels so good in the contact these days

His shoulder-fore is great, so we've been doing that in walk, trot, and canter, but only doing haunches-in at the walk for now. Mostly because I can't coordinate myself to do haunches-in in posting trot and his canter is wanting to get haunches-in right now anyway. We also touched on the walk pirouettes which remain stellar. 

The transitions are getting better. One of the things that gets extra bad when his saddle doesn't fit is the transitions, so I'm clicker training correct posture in them to help him build the muscle back.

Sitting shockingly well at the canter for being
very out of shape

Then the heatwave hit so on Friday I rode for like ten minutes and then gave both TC and Rico a bath. Rico has been really interested in hanging out with me recently so I figured I'd take him out, but I'm not about to ask him to do anything but eat cookies and cool off in this weather. He was BESIDE himself when I took him over for a bath and then brought him in and trimmed his mane. I don't think he misses being ridden as much as he misses being doted on and groomed, so I'm going to add a few sessions a week to his schedule. 

TC was also happy to get a bath, and he had a mane trim earlier in the week. I usually leave his mane a little long because it's easier to braid, but we aren't showing any time soon so I trimmed it quite short. It's honestly ADORABLE. I think I'll leave it short until we start showing again. 

I think it's so cute short!

I need to get them both out on the trail together again, I think Rico really enjoys that and TC doesn't mind it. Hopefully it'll cool off and we can start doing that once a week again. 

It's so nice to spend time with both horses at the same place. I'm feeling fairly motivated to keep TC at the ranch indefinitely. 

There are some major downsides to being there, but seeing Rico every day and having TC be in a huge pasture is fairly motivating. But we are coming into pigeon fever season and I am petrified that TC will get it. I'm going to take every precaution I can and probably pull blood regularly as we come into the fall. Odds are he's been exposed to it since it's also prevalent at his breeder's barn. But still, I am prepared to basically hospitalize him the moment he shows any sort of uptick in values, I am not taking any risks on this horse! 

But as long as he doesn't have any open wounds and I keep him doused in fly spray, we should be okay. That, the small/not covered arena, and the drive are the three big downsides I have down there. The arena is small but rideable and the drive is annoying but with him in pasture, I can take 2-3 days off a week and not worry about him... but pigeon fever? No thank you! We may end up somewhere else each fall even if we do stay there indefinitely. 

Flashback Friday: Rico's Worst PSG

Again, going through my tests has been amazing. I came by the test from this show  (so early in my blog that I just wrote about it with no pictures) where Rico and I were an absolute mess together. It was our last Prix St George and our lowest score at the level. 

One of my favorite pictures from one of our worst
shows at the FEI levels lol

 

Since the post is a miserable read due to no pictures, here are some choice quotes: 

Poor life choices were made yesterday when I insisted on hauling up to Starr Vaughn for our last show of the season when I was still getting over being sick. All week I've had what I thought was a bit of a cold but has ended up being a lot worse.

He was so tight in the mediums

Setting the stage. Basically I was sick the whole week leading up to a 2 day show in November of 2013. I'd planned on hauling in Friday and then showing Saturday and Sunday. I decided not to haul up until Saturday morning. Rico obviously had light work coming up to the show as I tried to get myself feeling good enough to ride. 

I woke up very sick again on Saturday but was adamant about just getting up there and then deciding what to do. Looking back on it, I should have just scratched and spent the weekend in bed (which is where I am right now and where I will be for the next 48 hours). But I didn't like the idea of not showing again until at least January or February (stupid) and I didn't like the idea of "wasting" all that money (stupid).

So off we went with me trying to nap in the truck but unable to because of the coughing fits. When we got to the barn, I set up Rico's stall and shoved him in there before sitting in line for 30 minutes (!!) to get my number. By the time I had it, I was so exhausted that I had to go lay down for a couple hours. I kept thinking man, if I had any other horse, I'd scratch, but Rico is so damn reliable.

Rico: having the best time
Megan: mildly panicking

Famous last words. Rico lost his SHIT in the warm up! I think he was mad about being shoved in a stall and ignored and he was also feeling really good (this was when I discovered that days off before a show = more energy for Rico). I ended up schooling all the Grand Prix canter work in warm up trying to chill him out while I was progressively getting sicker and sicker. 

He spooked at EVERYTHING on the way in, which I thought was fine because he's a silly horse and thinks that's fun. But then I got in there and he (yes he, I made few decisions in the first 8 minutes of the ride) picked up a trot. I say trot, but that's a loose term. He CHARGED around the arena in a big powerful medium trot squealing and shaking his head. I half halted and got a passage. Uhhhh. I kicked him out of it and got a threat to rear, then bronc bucks, then passage again. SHIT.

We proceeded like this for a while, I was just hoping he'd tire himself out but that wasn't happening. He felt like the kind of horse I'd consider taking into war. I tried a canter and holy shit that was a bad idea. He galloped sideways and when I stopped him, he threatened to rear, spooked at a dog, bronc bucked some more, passaged a bit, then cantered on the spot until I let him go forward into a working gallop again.

The only time the horse has ever dropped his back,
you do not want this horse to drop his back lol

I finally walked over to show. By walked over, I mean that the ring steward told me to get in the show ring, so I passaged my horse (who didn't have a passage) into the arena and picked up the canter, both of our eyes wide for different reasons. 

Into the show ring we went and at that point I was just hoping not to get bucked off. The first half of the test went surprisingly well and our scores reflected it. We got a handful of 7s and 7.5s on our trot work and even an 8 on our right walk pirouette! I was feeling really good by the time I shortened the reins after the extended walk and prepared for canter.

Note the tail in the first few strides of canter lol

And, well, here's the part of the test that went wrong: 

LOL I always tell my clients not to worry
if things go wrong in tests because it always
makes for a good story, this is a great one

Rereading this test and then rereading my blog post is EXACTLY why I have this blog. I laughed so much getting to this test and immediately looked up the post to relive it and it delivered. 

Our final score was a surprising 61% and change and I guess third place out of seven riders. The judge mostly had an issue with him kicking at my leg almost every time I used it and also I guess rearing in pirouettes isn't the best way to do them. I remember telling Tracey about the show and her telling me that she actually talked to the judge about my ride (they are friends, Tracey never coached me at shows, I don't like getting coaching at shows) and the judge remembered me and said that my horse was very naughty and kicked at me the whole time hahahaha

What a ridiculous creature

I now know that you can actually withdraw from tests if your horse is trying to murder you, and I've utilized that on a certain gray horse in a First level test that went similarly to this one. I mean, at least TC was eight at that time and not SEVENTEEN YEARS OLD. 

Still, any time Rico was naughty (it wasn't often), I was always happy about it. It's that cheekiness that got him to the Grand Prix at eighteen years old. And he's still cheeky to this day with our ponying adventures. He was definitely my horse of a lifetime in so many ways. 

Thoughts I Had While Reading Old Dressage Tests

I'm doing this dumb data entry for my dumb project that my dumb brain thought would be amazing. JK, it is amazing but wow data entry is a pain. I'm averaging 10-15 tests a day depending on time and whether I need to record the test into the database (I rode a LOT of the Training and First level tests from 2003 which was helpful) or not. I'm over half way done at this point! 

I've just had some general thoughts while going through my tests and figured I'd write them down. I started back in 2004 and am working my way up to 2020, so these are mostly from 2004 through 2009 (no tests in 2007 or 2008). 

You could say he had potential! 

We totally needed the half point system, the judges were all using +s and -s before they implemented that! I'm excited to compare before and after to see if scores went up or down (again I'm only one rider though so it won't be accurate) 

I forgot how spooky Rico was as a young horse! There was a test where I apparently couldn't get him near the judge's booth. I always thought he was a bit more solid of a citizen than TC was but TC is now the same age Rico was when Rico was at Second and we were still having "playing" comments in the tests. 

I was a very inaccurate rider in the beginning! I'm dead on accurate now unless there's a problem (like a certain former bolter), I wonder when that changed.

So First level used to be all in sitting trot but they would specify that you had to post the lengthenings in the earlier tests and then I believe in Test 3 it was either optional or you posted the first and sat the second and then Test 4 (T-2nd used to have four tests) you sat both. I found that interesting and very good information for harassing current First level teenagers with.

Why did my trainer let me show Rico when I definitely couldn't ride him?

On a related note, I'm bringing Rico a giant bag of cookies when I see him next. 

My left hand issues started early! Hahahaha oh no. The first trainer who addressed that was in 2010 but the comments started in 2004. 

Also it's super obvious that Rico was draw reined given the number of "behind the vertical" and "needs to stretch more" comments I got. 

Also judges DO comment on that shit, some people think that the judges are satisfied with modern dressage that tends to be ridden behind the vertical, I got TONS of comments to let his nose out and get his neck longer. 

I actually did manage to get some 7s and 8s on my rider scores back then. Sooo now any 7 I receive feels kind of like a let down because I KNOW that I'm a better rider now lol I did get my fair share of 5s (see above I could not ride Rico) though. Plus they've now split the rider scores so that could be why, making the judges thinking more about the rider these days. 

Old second level tests were hard as FUCK. Canter stretch circle; simple changes on centerline toward the judge; shoulder-in to renvers transitions; E turn left, X turn right, G halt salute; simple change on the rail to counter canter half circle to medium canter on a diagonal; and so much more. I'm glad they changed it and made it a smoother transition from First to Second. Although I have half a mind to ride some of these tests on TC to see how they ride! 

Every time the judge commented that Rico had potential, I think about how he made it to Grand Prix and it makes me smile (even if often times it was like "horse has potential if rider would ride him correctly" it took me a while but I did get there!). The judge who gave us our Gold Medal (it's Rico's too, let's be real) actually judged us at First level and made a nice comment about his quality. Unlikely she remembered us, but still! 

Bend really matters and apparently I didn't realize that for like, years. Same with the fact that you have to make the strides longer in lengthenings and that you can't just haul the horse into the halt. 

On a related note, it is not apparent that I ever read any of these comments. 

I found a judge who didn't give me any overall comments or comments in the collectives, that's unusual! It was a test at the end of the day and they also didn't give me many movement comments so maybe they were tired of watching mediocre Second level. Or maybe they looked at me and were like "that's a kid that is absolutely NOT going to read my comments" lol!

Rico started kicking in the changes very early! And it wasn't addressed until I started riding with my old trainer in 2013 and it wasn't fixed completely until my current trainer pointed out that my leg was in TC's way in 2020. 

I was SO bad at lateral work you guys. Like my positioning and my riding in it. 

So many judges didn't give comments for 6s! The lowest score you're allowed to leave blank is a 7, up until then you MUST tell the rider what they should do for a higher score. I wonder if this was a rule that was added in later for judges or if judges graduate from programs and are like "I do what I want" 

You can see Rico going downhill in our early years together. My trainer was young and focused more on getting the tricks down so we could move up than working on the quality of the gaits or the basics (I got a lot of "rounder" yelled at me). We start with these big scores at Training and First, then the scores trickle down as we move up. This happens when you don't train for the gait quality. I'd put in a clean test and get a 63% vs on TC if it's clean it's almost always in the 70s. 

Speaking of, I can't wait to get to TC and see how the scores stay the same throughout the years (he's hit 70% at every level except Second because pandemic). PLUS TC is a much lower quality mover naturally and I scored higher on him than I ever did on Rico at the same levels. I wonder if the average collectives will show that, Rico getting higher scores on gaits vs TC getting higher scores on submission? You'd think that but I kind of made Rico's gaits worse and TC definitely bolted through his fair share of tests. 

I haven't hit the upper levels with Rico yet, I'm posting this at Third and Fourth level in 2009 prior to his injury and surgery in 2010 and break from dressage until 2012. I'll be curious what changes in my scores and comments as we start riding with a trainer who valued the basics more. Will submission go up? Rider scores? 

I did get better!

It's honestly been so fun to go through the tests one by one. I'm excited for the analysis as I'm already seeing patterns. The SO actually put a linux instance on my computer so that I could download MySQL, make a database, and actually write queries on my own data! Then I'm going to import it into Tableau (PowerBI doesn't have a completely free version and I also have less experience in Tableau so it'd be good to be able to feel equally as strong at both) and start designing the dashboard! 

I haven't figured out the layout yet, I have a rough ideal of it though. An overall page just about scores vs levels vs horses vs year. Then I'll dive deeper into individual scores. And a page for just judges. I think I'll keep judge's names private but may assign them a name or an ID so you can experiment between judges without me being really rude. And then a text analysis page (just a word cloud I think) with some slicers that let you slice by horse, by year, by test, whatever. I think this thing could get ENORMOUS if I really wanted to.

Highly recommend ruining a vacation to analyze dressage scores. Even if it's a bit tedious!