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.