I Need a Seatbelt

I had what I think is probably the best ride of my life the other day on TC and it makes me so excited for the future. 

We started with our normal abduction exercises. He is still kind of struggling with his spinal integrity while tracking left, especially in the walk and early in the trot work. Getting him to put a leg at each corner and letting him warm up like that has been super helpful to keeping him in that state of spinal integrity for the rest of the ride. 

In our warm up, we stay in a little bit of a stretching, relaxed frame. I want to really make sure that he’s moving properly, reaching for contact, and is lifting through his core and pectorals. 

Really, TC?

There's so much sitting here, I'm so impressed

From there, I started our rein back exercise, where we take this correct posture and ask him to shift his weight back, then we hold that weight shift as much as possible into the walk from the rein back, then eventually the trot from the rein back, and the canter. 

It’d been a while since I’d done it because he had regressed a little with his balking a week or two ago. I thought that maybe asking for that much collection had sent us backwards. He needs to learn how to do everything from the correct posture and this is proving to be challenging for me as I am so used to feeling him in his incorrect posture. 

But he came out raring to go and ready to sit right down and do his work with that exercise. We had no balking incidents at all! 

If my body language makes you think I'm afraid of
him, that's true

Dude

I've never felt gaits like this out of him. His walk is like a wild cat's prowl, his trot is incredibly elevated in front, and his canter... wow. I had no idea these gaits were in there. He's always been a fairly correct mover and certainly a big mover, but he hasn't had too much of a wow factor. He primarily scores 7 on gaits and I saw that dip in 2020 where he was scoring more like 6.5. These gaits are more like what I'd expect to score in the 8 to 9 range. If I don't shut them down. 

That was a massive challenge that I mostly failed at in this ride. He feels incredible like this but it is completely unnerving. I had to keep talking to myself and to him the entire ride to get myself to let go and let him move. I feel bad that he's feeling so amazing and I'm up there like "that's great you're feeling good! Now take it down several hundred notches so I can ride it" so I need to get my shit together. 

There is so much more to do before these gaits become his norm. I obviously need to grow a pair and ride the horse forward and push my hands at him more often than not. He needs to gain strength and confidence in his body. All of that is going to take time. 

So much lift through his shoulder, damn

Who even is this horse?

What I loved the most about this ride was the amount of pure joy that both TC and I were feeling. He was so ecstatic to do his work and eagerly said YES I WILL whenever I asked him to do something else. I always carry a whip and I'll use it as an extension of my leg if I need to ask him to move his haunches over behind his shoulders, but once he was in this state of mind, I could have dropped it. I've ditched the spurs, on a horse who was broke to ride and then the next day ridden in spurs because he was so dead to the aids. I've never felt him like this. 

To be able to get gaits like those out of a horse without putting a ton of pressure on him, without chasing him into my hand or doing a ton of transitions to get him sharp off my aids, without spurs or a flash noseband. To basically just show him how he could use his body in a way that feels good to him and then... get out of his way and let him. I dunno, it was pretty freaking magical.

I'm so excited

He's a totally different horse

It really makes me think though... how many horses are actually spectacular movers but we don't know it because their shoulders are so messed up? If we could take the time to build up their thoracic slings for real (and I'll talk about that more later too since I think we get told that certain movements/pieces of equipment/training techniques work in a certain way when they don't), would we need to buy such freakishly talented horses for dressage? Or could we take a five thousand dollar friesian cross out of a pasture and just release his shoulders and build the proper muscle and get ourselves a crazy good mover?

Definitely makes me think about my next horse... I had a nice long list in mind for what I wanted because while I want this next horse to be a nice all around horse, I really want something I can still do the upper levels of dressage on just in case (in case the horse is injured and can only do dressage or if either of us don't want to jump). But now I'm kind of thinking that with the right training and bodywork, pretty much any horse with three okay gaits can be a spectacular mover. Or at least, good enough for the mid to upper levels of dressage. 

I try not to dwell though. At the end of the day, I'm so unbelievably excited about MY horse who is doing such great work right now. I can't wait for these to be his gaits all the time!

Trusting the Process

I'm ecstatic to say that going back to TC's walk/trot abduction work fixed his balking problem and I've got my horse back better than ever! I'm so excited to be able to just trust the process and to have people in my corner who are on a similar journey to give me confidence when we back track. 

I had an amazing ride on TC on Friday, then he got Saturday off because my niece's birthday party was going on. Then Sunday, we had probably the best ride of our entire career together. 

As an aside, I'd like to brag and say that I'm really good at indoctrinating children into riding horses despite not really being a kid person. There were four kids there including my niece and all got to ride Sunny. None of them wanted to get off the pony, one of them actually leaned away from my brother as he went to grab him off the pony and then he was grabbing at the saddle trying to get back on. You love to see it. 

LOOK AT THIS HORSE

Back to TC, who is not suitable for children's birthday parties only because of his complete and utter enthusiasm for life which, when combined with his size, is akin to a bull in a china shop. He got to watch from afar and got a few cookies. 

But the rides, wow. I am so impressed by the work that we are doing right now. He is absolutely stepping up to the plate and is the most uphill and collected I've ever felt him be. He's insanely powerful, this horse, I can't believe it. 

Is it mildly unnerving? Absolutely. But I've kind of tricked my brain by telling myself to imagine that I'm riding Rico at the Grand Prix. If a Grand Prix horse felt the way TC felt, especially Rico, I'd be excited, not scared! That helped a ton on Sunday and I was actually able to sit down and ride the horse rather than kind of sit up there while my brain is like SHUT IT DOWN, YOUR BLOCKS AREN'T BIG ENOUGH FOR THIS SHIT. 

It's still really hard to convince my brain to ride the horse though, so I'm mostly working on that while putting TC through the exercises we've been assigned. 

The moment your horse sees a bird and abandons
his task to pounce on it

The canter has been improving like crazy recently. I've noticed that as his canter gets better, he canters around in his pasture more. Whether he's feeling better with all the abduction work so he's cantering around in his pasture more so he's feeling more confident cantering undersaddle... or whether he's doing better undersaddle cantering so he's celebrating by cantering more in his pasture... who knows. But either way, the horse is cantering a ton right now. 

For a long time, we could get a half lap around the arena (a bit wider than a short court) to the right and 4-5 strides of canter to the left. Now we are up to a full lap around the arena to the right pretty consistently and on Sunday, he cantered all the way around to the left! 

I want to steadily increase the number of laps of canter we do until he's confident cantering in the new posture for however long he needs to. We are not going to show any time soon, but I still have that 3-3 canter pattern burned into my mind. He needs to do a lot of cantering this year. 

I love the split behind and how uphill he is

The trot is just fabulous. I've started to add in some lateral work occasionally and also some lengthenings. 

The lateral work is shockingly easy now that he's feeling really good. I haven't touched the half passes but everything else feels great. I can shift him into a leg yield or shoulder-in by just shifting my weight. The haunches-in is still a bit tricky but I struggle with that on every horse I ride, so that is likely my issue. 

The lengthenings are terrifying and we haven't even done them for real yet. The ring is too small to do any sort of actual extension so we've just played with some forward and back. He's a powerhouse. How in the world am I going to sit this shit eventually? 

If you're like "Megan, you look like you're in the
fetal position" you'd be correct, his gaits have gotten
really scary lately lol

I'm so over the moon with this work. He is the happiest and most comfortable he's ever been in his work. I took off his flash and the noseband is literally as loose as it will go (I am going to probably get an extender for it or just replace the crank strap to make it even looser just for kicks, I want it positively hanging off of him). He's full of joy and therefore still leaps into the air sometimes, but all kicking at my leg, balking, and general irritation at my aids is completely gone. He tries super hard at everything I ask for, there is not a hint of "no" in this horse anymore. 

Mostly, I'm just excited that I'm able to do it myself. I want to take lessons, and I have access to some amazing instructors through the work, but the pathway is so clear to me right now that I just don't feel the need. 

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK

I do want to get another lesson with our main bodyworker clinician because she's going to take some time off to have a baby soon. After that, we'll try to ride with two other clinicians who work closely with her. One is an amazing clicker training trainer who I want to have help me with TC's emotional regulation, basically when he gets himself super amped, there's too much celebration and explosiveness for my preference. The other is a biomechanics expert! She's not a Mary person, but she's very very good.

I think those two trainers, who work alongside the bodyworker clinician, are going to be the key to really getting the most out of my horse. At this point, I feel like if I can get my shit together biomechanically and if I can reel in TC's expressions of joy without diminishing the feeling that goes along with it, this horse is going to be unstoppable. 

In the Hills

The trails are BEAUTIFUL this time of year and so I'm trying to take both horses on the trail at least once a week, if not twice a week, while the weather is still good. As I navigate this job change, it's just so nice to be able to hop on a horse bareback and ride up into private trails where I don't have to worry about anything. 

I love this view

Pony!

So far I've taken TC by himself, TC with Riot (and my good friend who is getting back into riding!), Sunny alone, and Sunny with Riot (and my dad). I would say that Sunny is best alone and TC is best with a friend.  

Sunny was totally fine when he was in front but he struggles to keep up with Riot's big walk so kept trying to trot to catch up and seemed to get a little worried when Riot got too far ahead. So we put him in front and he was a happy camper and Riot was a bit confused as to why he was having to go so slowly behind the pony.  

On his own though, he's so happy out there. He's totally relaxed, walks quietly along the trails, and seems pleasantly interested in looking at things. I'm definitely going to be taking him out on his own every week. 

TC, on the other hand, loved going out with Riot. He thought it was nice of me to bring a fun toy friend out with him and spent the entire time trying to bite him. When will he grow up? Never. And yes, he did finally bite Riot right at the end and TC seemed to be cackling while Riot didn't even flinch, clearly he knew it was coming. 

TC isn't bad on his own, but he definitely wants to stop and smell the roses more, which can be really annoying. He wants to stare at birds and trees and the neighbors' boarding facility and me and everything around us. It's fine but it's also like... please keep going. 

Hanging out with my friend! We used
to work together twelve years ago at
the event barn I worked at, love that
we are still riding together!

Such a good boy out there alone

With work starting soon and the rain staying away, I'm excited to add trail riding in as a regular thing on both horses' calendars. I'm going to theoretically have twice a week where I ride in the morning and then drive up to work, meaning that I need to get both done quickly. I could either only ride one and give the other the day off... or I can ride one in the ring and take the other on the trail. An arena ride with a saddle takes longer than jumping on bareback and going on a trail ride. So that's my tentative plan depending on what my timing is for getting into work each day. 

I'm always so unbelievably grateful to have trails right out the back of the barn. It's made such a huge difference in so many ways. Being able to just go out there and relax has been great for my mental health. Being able to get TC on the hills every week is so important for his stifle. 

Going Backwards, Woops

Whoops, a few rides ago, TC started his balking again. I, unfortunately was having kind of a rough day of it, so I tried to push him through it like I used to and things got very slightly worse. Luckily the moment they got worse, I stopped and got off. 

I put him away and rode the pony in the ring, having a much better ride than I had on TC! This is a definite perk of having two horses going at the same time. 

I love this view

The next day though, they switched. I rode the pony first, who was great on the trail but then shit hit the fan. 

Ever since our trail ride adventure he's been incredibly emotional and spooky. We are working through that and I'll be having Kate do some ground work with him to help him through his emotions. But it turned out that work was being done in the pasture as we walked down to the barn and he was concerned. 

My dad was mowing the lower pasture and my mom was moving the pony's fence line out. Unfortunately she didn't realize that Riot was in the upper pasture and she left the gate open. As I was riding the pony by her, she was like "oh shit, I need to go drive down to the gate to close it!" as Riot was like "hmmmm what is that over there" and starts moseying that way. 

Looking down on the valley!

As she walked in front of the pony, he flipped out, so I had her stop. She sat in the ATV waiting for me, but then I told her, not loud enough, "actually, I'm going to get off of him so you can go close the gate, hold on" and started getting off. She didn't think much of it, and why should she, the pony has been bombproof up until a week and a half ago, but she slammed the door of the ATV. 

Right... as I was getting off. 

And he bolted. 

Now, if I'd been fully on, I probably would have been fine, but I was half on him and I was not fine. I got flung into the ground. 

I gave him a cookie afterwards, it
was not his fault 

At first, I didn't think that Land Safe had helped all that much. I didn't feel like I had too much control over how I felt and I blamed it on the pony being so low to the ground, me being halfway off. It all just happened so fast. 

But then I realized... I was heading head first to the ground as I fell but, while I crumped my visor of my helmet, my head actually didn't hit the ground. My left arm hit first, then my left knee, and then I rolled sideways to the left. I think I would have probably continued rolling if I didn't smash into a T post mid-back first. 

I definitely thought I broke my arm since it was under me and it hurt a ton, but luckily I escaped with just some soreness and bruises. 

So thanks, Land Safe! I do think that they helped me quite a bit with that fall. 

I love it up there

So unfortunately, two minor setbacks this week. One that TC is apparently balking again, he did in our ride yesterday too (although was fine when we worked at liberty the day I fell). One that the pony is clearly struggling a bit right now and needs some help. 

Luckily, for the first time in a long time with issues, I feel really well prepared. TC and I went back to walk work and are fixing an abduction problem with his left hind, which I think is causing his balking, the spinal integrity doesn't feel as good as it did a bit ago and I think he's learned that he can communicate that to me now. If he's still not feeling great, I'll probably set up another lesson with our bodywork clinician to see what she sees. I also haven't taken video yet so maybe that will help, I'll do that today. 

He's still a happy camper

The pony and I went to a clinic the day after my fall and we swapped from it being a dressage clinic to doing some ground work. I got some really good feedback, but knowing that Kate is an expert in ground work, the most helpful feedback I got was the general "you should fix this with ground work" so I told Kate we'd be working together! Until then, I think the pony and I are going to just focus on having fun together, so we are going to start trail riding (alone) every other day and that's it. 

I'm kind of excited to get better at ground work! It's definitely a missing puzzle piece for me in the skills department. And I feel more confident on TC since I fell, so it's all a win win in my opinion. 

OBSESSED

One of the nice things about having TC at the ranch is that I have access to a camera that spies on the horses all day long. I also get messages from my parents at random when they notice anything about him. It definitely makes me feel really good about having him there! 

But honestly there's only been one boarding facility where I didn't trust the barn manager to message me if something was wrong, but luckily I had friends there who were keeping an eye on my horse. Still, I always felt bad asking the barn manager how my horse was so it's nice to just have cameras now. 

This post is not about me being obsessed with my horse though. This post is about TC being obsessed with his pasture. 

He is so gross

Throughout the year, the horses at the ranch get on a bit of a cycle. TC came into the ranch in the spring when the grass was lush. During that time, he didn't have access to a pasture, but he did get put out for a couple of hours each day. In the summer, the grass dies and the pastures pretty much become dirt. At that point, he was given his current setup. 

TC has a 12x12 stall with a 12x12 porch, then from there, a 50 foot by 24 foot base rock paddock (it's an obscene amount of packed base rock that does not get muddy). From there, he goes out to what I think is probably a 75 foot by 50 foot sacrifice pasture that doesn't get much grass. And then from there, he can go out onto his half acre lush (in the late winter and early spring) pasture. He can be locked onto just the paddock, or the paddock and sacrifice, or he can have the whole thing. 

Anyway, all summer and fall, TC was out in his pasture but without any grass. He loves his pasture regardless of grass status, and spends a lot of his days and nights wandering back and forth between his porch (where his water is) and the end of the pasture, where he watches the neighbor's boarding facility. 

The smallest teal box is his stall/porch/paddock,
the next box is his sacrifice pasture, the next box
is his pasture, you can see the others' pastures too

This winter was his first winter at the ranch, so he got locked onto the paddock when the rain started. It's still a decent size paddock! Especially for California! After having his enormous pasture for so long, he was insulted that he couldn't be out there. 

THEN... the grass came in. A few weeks after rain, we start seeing sprigs and eventually, depending on the rain cycle, the pastures get super deep and lush. When that happens, the horses get certain amounts of time on their pasture to graze but then get brought in to keep them from foundering or getting too chonky. They get reduced hay during that time. 

Obviously it all depends on rain when the horses get access to grass and when they are inside. So it's always a bit of an art trying to balance everything. My parents have been here for twelve years now, so they're pretty good at it. No horse has ever gotten too chonky, no one has foundered, and no one has starved to death (many horses have thought they were on the verge of starving to death because they were not allowed to eat 10x their bodyweight in grass every day). The only one who has needed a muzzle has been the pony, because rather than consuming calories, he gets spritzed with water twice a day to keep him bright. 

Excuse me why am I not allowed out

Anyways, a few weeks ago, we had that huge storm so the horses were locked off the pasture and sacrifice for a while. Then they got the sacrifice when it was muddy but not shoe-sucking-muddy. TC took this as an invitation to be absolutely disgusting. I've never really understood the whole gray horse issue because TC doesn't lay in his poop and he's never laid in a stall (makes it easy, I have never really paid for shavings) because he hates stalls. But now I get it, having a gray horse is gross sometimes. 

There were tiny sprigs in the sacrifice after that storm, so he would spend his days nibbling them, but they weren't enough to change his food or excite him too much. 

Then.... the pastures finally dried out and TC got access to a really nice pasture with GRASS (just over sprig level but who is keeping track) and he became... OBSESSED with it. 

SIR WHAT IN THE WORLD

First, since moving to the ranch, his daily whinnies have been few and far between. I like to take that as evidence that he's not as desperate to see me, as when I took him down to Twin for camp, he shrieked madly at me to come entertain him. I dunno, 

Now though, he doesn't even pick his head up from the pasture when I come get him. He is all grass all the time. Only when I'm RIGHT next to him will he finally look up and then I have to be quick with the halter. 

In the past, he's walked quietly in with me, now he stops all the time to grab more sprigs. 

In the past, when I've put him back, he's quietly gotten a drink and moseyed out to see what the boarding facility horses are doing, or he'd stand and take a nap in his nap spot. Now, he quickly slurps up some water and then squeals and GALLOPS out of his porch all the way out to the pasture, usually bucking when he gets out there. He's moved several mats with his hind legs as he gears up to take off. 

In the past, he's never been the type to dive for grass on side of the road. Now, he thinks he's absolutely entitled to all grass all the time and I've been treated like a small child on a pony who won't stop diving for grass. 

There are also many mushrooms in the pastures

Another hilarious habit he now has is darting out after eating his grain to see if he can prevent whoever is trying to lock him in off the pasture (right now, they are allowed out during the day and then they come onto the sacrifice at night so they don't overeat). My dad made the mistake of starting by locking Sunny in, then moving down to Riot, then Rico, but by the time he got to TC, TC was standing out in his pasture like "lock me on this side! I don't need water or shelter!" 

I guess my dad decided to walk on the other side of TC and try to shoo him into the sacrifice. Remember the blanketing debacle? Yeah, TC can't be shoo'd. I guess he trotted in circles around my dad thinking it was a fun game they were playing in his pasture. He did oblige when my dad came out with a halter. 

The cow pasture rests over the winter and then the
longhorns come back in the spring!

I'm really entertained by how obsessed he is with his pasture. The other horses get excited about their pastures too, but mostly just when they've been locked off of them. The first time they get to go out after being locked off, there is usually a lot of hilarious bucking and celebrating. Then they settle into the routine. 

TC is enamored every day all day long that he gets to have a PASTURE with GRASS that he gets to EAT and no one can STOP HIM unless they lock him OFF OF IT with a non-electrified CABLE in which case he does NOT TEST IT even though he DESTROYS HOUSING. Seriously, how does the horse respect a single cable wire when he would previously try to destroy any fencing he came in contact with? 

Unfortunately no horses get to eat all this grass
down! They don't get turned out above the gate

I'm glad that TC is getting to experience life at the ranch in the winter. It's worth dealing with on and off not being able to ride in the arena just to watch him obsess over his pasture. I now feel very guilty that I'm considering moving him to a boarding facility next winter so I can ride him. How rude of me. 

Playing at Liberty

On Sunday, TC was being a Very Good Boy (TM), but then he couldn't take it anymore and jumped into the air and pounced on his own shadow. I took that as a sign to get off the pony ride and turn him out in the ring to run. 

I'm getting a bit smarter in my not-quite-old age and sure enough, he absolutely needed a turnout. 

Please excuse how dirty he is, it is a sign that he
is living his best life (right??? lol)

It was pretty cool though. In the (distant) past, his turnouts were just him galloping around like mad, shrieking and generally making himself crazier and crazier until I catch him and bring him inside. Because of that, I haven't done too much turnout at the ranch arena because I don't want him chewing up the footing and getting himself worked up too much. If he wants to run, he has a half acre to do so in, preferably when I'm not watching. 

But this time, I just let him go because 1) the longe line that lives at the arena got wet and it's really unpleasant feeling and smelling, I'm going to order a new one and get a waterproof box to keep it in and 2) I wanted to stand around instead of having to parallel longe him because I was tired and had my tall boots on (which are hard to walk in). 

First step: roll a lot with a deranged look on your
face lol

Sometimes you just need to get into a fight with
your own tail

He rolled twice, once on each side, then stood there staring at me. I kind of gestured toward him and he rocked back on his hindquarters and galloped off bucking. It's so funny to watch him buck because it looks like he's trying to pick a fight with his tail and his tail is winning. 

There was so much more relaxation in his gallop than I've ever seen before. He seemed to effortlessly transition between and within gaits. He had so much body control. 

It was a lot more like the turnout he had after he got worked on by my bodyworker clinician, like he was seeing what his body could do vs just making himself crazy. He was really quite beautiful, despite being completely covered in sand and mud. 

This is how he starts galloping

Then he does this

After he was done, he came in to me and wanted to play. He played with my whip a bunch and then offered me his jambette work. I've been teaching him to do it for shoulder mobility and he's also just super into pawing. He is getting closer to being able to hold his right front leg straight out horizontal. It's straight out but it's a bit low. His left front he lifts really high but his knee is bent. I started to work on target training him to get his cannon bone to touch the handle of my whip, which he figured out on the right front but not on the left. 

He then rolled again and watched me while I filled in some of his divots. And then we went back to the barn (where I washed his tail, his tail needs like 5+ shampoos to get back to anything but brown, the water was so dark when I rinsed it lol). 

Wasn't paying attention to where he was going so
he ended up in the sand pile with my niece's toys

It was super cool to see all the different shapes he made with his body. He seems more comfortable in it every week as we work on all this new stuff. 

I'm probably going to add a liberty day here and there to work on his jambette and let him play on his own. I think he really enjoys it and it's no longer stressful to watch him run around now that he has so much body control!

WW: Just Like the Saddle Club

We didn't get any pictures of all of us this weekend but we still got some great pictures. I highly recommend having a pony sleepover with your amazing friends. 

Amazing sunset on our first night there

Peony conquering the wiggliest Flounder

L on Speedy taking a video of Nicole on Dante

Playing on the trail course!

Once again, if you horse knows how
to smile I will force them to and take
pictures of them

Trail ride!!

Peony braided my pony! Also look how good his
body is looking these days! He's downright slim
(note: pony's ribs are still very well covered)

Dante on the trail course

Pony Camp

With L up in the bay for a month and Nicole's new pony still nearby, we opted to try to have an ACTUAL PONY SLEEPOVER WITH PONIES and it actually worked out. It was hit or miss for a while because of the necessity for it to not be raining. But last weekend, we (L, Nicole, Kate, Peony, and I) rented an Airbnb together near Kate's barn and we hung out for the weekend!

The sunset on the first night was beautiful

On Friday, Nicole left her MIL's place a few hours east of us and headed to L's barn to pick up Dante. Meanwhile, Peony drove down from her house a few hours north of us. And Kate and I drove our normal 40ish minute commute. We all converged at Kate's barn in the mid afternoon. After some excited greetings, we tacked up to ride! Peony rode one of Kate's client's super sweet horses, I rode Flounder, L rode Dante, and Nicole rode Speedy. And Kate was teaching in the ring we were riding in. 

It was super fun to just ride around a bit together! I played with Flounder's dressage moves, Peony got to ride a horse who was not Spot, L got to school Dante over some strange jumps, and we all got to see Speedy go for the first time. After some riding, we swapped horses! L hunterfied the horse Peony was riding, Peony got to experience the wiggliness that is Flounder, I got to play with Speedy, and Nicole got to jump Dante, among many other switches. 

We then went for a wander around the polo field, leading me to get the most amazing video I've ever taken: L trotted and cantered Dante around on the field in the sunset and it was beautiful. It's on her IG if you want to see it! You can probably imagine what it looks like given what the sunset looks like. 

But then Dante decided to become a hill horse and lost a shoe so he just hung out the rest of the weekend. 

That night, Kate's SO brought us Thai food (and picked up Kate's dogs who we got to hang out with until then) and then we sat on the couches at the AirBnb and talked about horses until I think about 1am. It was a super fun day and I always love our conversations when we are all together. 

Kate's barn has a bunch of ducks! 

Saturday morning we got up, got coffee, and headed to the barn. Our plan was to hang out in the morning while Kate taught some lessons and then go on a trail ride! I had to go get my pony from the ranch, so Peony and I headed over there to do that. 

I hitched in record time and then we were on the road! Sunny was good to haul and seemed excited to be somewhere different (he's been on this trail once before). The trail ride was super fun, although the pony did get over threshold and so I had to dismount and help him on the ground. When I got back on, he was much happier. 

Definitely something to keep in mind moving forward with him. I think with all the work we're doing, he's feeling less shut down, but now underneath it all, there's some anxiety, specifically about other horses. I'll be exploring this with Kate a bit this year. I want him to feel relaxed on a group trail ride, he deserves to work through his anxiety and be a happier, healthier pony. 

Trail ride!

L came back with me to the ranch to unload and my brother, SIL, and niece were there to drop some things off! My niece helped me put away the pony. Then my brother and SIL pulled me aside to let me know that they were having another girl (due in July). My niece has no idea what's in store for her: sharing her pony (who she just started referring to as MAH, which is how she lets us know what is hers). 

We headed out to an Indian pizza place and picked up dinner, then went to the barn to help Kate, Nicole, and Peony finish up. We got back to the AirBnb relatively early (for horse people at least lol) and hung out. 

L made the mistake of showing us her journal that night. She has a lot of lists in there and one of the exercises was to list everything she was good at (horse edition). She only had NINE things written down and most of them were duplicates of each other. So we all dished out some good, old fashioned mild to moderate bullying and got her to finish the list with 37 things she was good at. 

I will sit over you and yell at you
to write nice things about yourself
in your own journal, be warned.

Sunday morning, Peony headed home (although promised to come down to ride with Kate and I more often) and the rest of us went to the barn for one last fun day! Kate and L worked with Dante in hand and then Kate rode Speedy and taught Nicole. Kate then taught some lessons. I played with a barn cat and talked to some of Kate's clients, I love not being a trainer anymore (except for some clinics and remote lessons). 

Soon, we all had to get going. Nicole and L hit the road with the ponies and I headed out to get TC out and take the pony down the road and back. 

Such a fun weekend!

It was SUCH a fun weekend. I feel so unbelievably lucky to have such amazing friends and for this weekend to work out so perfectly (schedule and weather wise). We definitely need to do more things like this as a group and we talked about making this (minus ponies since it was just a fun coincidence that L and Nicole's horses were nearby) an annual thing. 

Can't wait for more adventures with my favorite people!

(Tentative) Plans For This Year

So for the first time ever, I put three different show calendars into my calendar!

Will we ever stop road walking???

I went through the California Dressage Society's calendar and put all the local rated shows in first. I want to have them in there for TC, sure, but I have no expectation of showing him this year. However, I am interested in seeing how Sunny does in the dressage ring too! I'm hoping to take him in a schooling show this spring to see how he scores and then maybe show him rated this year. Might be fun!

I also looked up the Working Equitation calendar. While dressage is a maybe for the pony, working equitation is a DEFINITELY. There are a bunch of clinics with our favorite WE trainer coming up that we'll do and then I'm hoping to start going to shows with her. There's also a WE summer camp this summer! I definitely want to go to that with at least Sunny. If the stars align, I might bring TC too because there will be COWS there. The fourth phase is working cattle and we so rarely get to do that in California. 

Then finally, I put the USEA calendar in as well. I don't know if I'll event this year. It depends on a lot of things, including me getting my shit together in a lot of ways and Kate's schedule, as well as the horse I'm riding. Kate and I have things in the works to have me try one of her horses who would be available for half lease. We have high hopes that I'll be able to do that this year since it helps her out and a half lease for me would allow me to continue riding Sunny a bit too (vs a full lease would require me to move TC and stop riding Sunny, boo). 

I'd like to get some of the B hunter jumper shows on my calendar too, Kate goes to a few of them and they seem super fun! But I'll be putting just the ones she is going to on my calendar so I'll wait for her calendar to come out. 

Such a good boy

I have some non show plans this year as well. 

For the first time EVER, I am (pending my new manager's approval) flying out to the Kentucky Three Day event, something I've dreamed of for SO long. I'm heading out there with some of my best friends, which is even better! I'm excited to watch the cross country and go shopping and just generally experience something I've wanted to do for most of life. 

Speaking of shopping, I also have Horse Expo in my calendar. It's not as exciting as I typically go each year, but it'll be fun!

I'm also going to make it a priority to get TC up to my childhood trails and trail ride him there. There are two places I grew up on the peninsula and apparently you can haul into both of them! My dream is to bring my mom with me and put my helmet camera on and have her tell me stories about riding together when I was a kid and before then. I just think that would be the most amazing thing to have. But she's still figuring out how to get back to riding after her hip was bothering her, so while I'd love to have her, I still want to do it even if she can't come (and still have the helmet camera so I can share the trails with her). But fingers crossed! 

And finally, I super want to go to the beach again, ideally with my dad like we did years ago, but again I'll go by myself if I have to. I want to get out there enough to get TC comfortable on the beach if possible! I just super want to get pretty pictures of us on the beach one day and print one out on canvas and put it on my wall okay? It's a weird dream, especially given that the horse is pretty put off by waves, but still. If possible, I'd love to get that started, especially during yet another development year. 

We won't be road walking forever at least

Hopefully all of these things can happen! With Omicron, I'm a bit skeptical that everything will actually work out, especially given that a lot of my plans have me staying overnight away from home, which is challenging during COVID times. But fingers crossed that it'll all work out and we'll have a fun year!