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.