TC’s Lump

So, I have consistently forgotten to post about it, but TC has had this odd lump on the outside of his sheath for a few months. It started off looking like a small bug bite. Then it didn’t go away and looked like a large bug bite. So I thought “poor TC, a bug bit him.” It wasn’t hot or bothersome, so I decided to wait and have my vet look at it at TC’s spring shots. 

That happened on Monday and we decided to snag it off while it was still small enough to do so without general anesthesia. It was honestly perfect timing given that he needs two weeks off to let it heal. I needed to take 6 days off of riding for Kentucky and my saddle isn’t working right now anyway. 

These two are so funny together

I gave the vet the go ahead and we sedated TC to an inch of his life, blocked his sheath, snipped it off, and sewed him back up. I say we, as the general we, meaning my vet and the vet tech with my mom excitedly watching and asking questions. I stood far away trying not to gag at all the blood pouring out of him. So. Gross. I am not a Gross Things Person. My mom made fun of me. She was very excited to have been invited and she asked lots of questions. She wanted to go to vet school when she was younger and got a degree in biology, so all things vet-related are fascinating to her. I did not get those genes, hence there being no pictures of this procedure in this post. 

TC gets two weeks off from working and the vet said to keep him stalled or in a small paddock so he wouldn’t run around. Um… wouldn’t… run around? In a small space? TC runs the most when he’s in a small space because he is a giant complainer about not being in his pasture. He snakes his neck and boings around the paddock, harassing Rico over the fence. When he has pasture, 99% of the time he quietly walks in and out all day long. Then very occasionally he'll quietly trot or canter out. 

When I described these two options to my vet, she agreed that keeping him off the pasture would do more harm than good, so he still has his pasture. He WILL be locked in if he runs around too much and he WILL be getting a part time job to pay his own vet bills if she has to come back out to stitch him back up if he busts his stitches. 

Love this boy

The only major downside of this timing is that we have a mounted archery clinic next weekend. I was REALLY looking forward to doing it with TC but it’s not as important as seeing my biomechanics trainer in person at the end of May and seeing Celeste in early June. So it was either now and only miss one clinic and eight days of riding, or do it at the end of June and miss more riding. And we’d risk it getting bigger. 

I did opt to spend more money (TC, that job, let’s go) and send the mass to the laboratory. In true disgusting biology lovers fashion, all three strong-stomached individuals stood over the mass after it’d come off, poking around in it to see what it was made of. I was busy trying not to vomit, but the gist of what they found is that it looked like a fatty lump. Gag. No thanks. 

Obviously gray horses get skin cancer more easily than others. TC has, so far, not had a single mass on him other than this one (and it didn't look like what my friends with gray horses have described, I have chosen not to google these things). As much as I would love to be the one gray horse owner who never has to deal with it, I’m preparing for it to come back positive for cancer. Luckily, my vet thinks that 1) there’s definitely a chance it isn’t melanoma and 2) even if it is, it won’t have spread or anything. So fingers crossed, but I’m not too worried. I’m just glad we got it off. 

The one picture you'll get, don't look
closely, I tried not to take too many

If we have to do this on occasion, that’s fine. It was relatively easy and painless for TC (well, he’s also on antibiotics and bute for a few days) and for my bank account (less than $1,000 and that includes the call fee, the removal, the laboratory analysis, and spring shots). Honestly, my biggest concern was how disgusting it was, if it comes back I'll definitely call her the moment it shows up to have her snag it off when it's very small. Now let’s just hope he stays quiet enough to not pop his stitches. At least he’s older and more chill now, I could not imagine 4 year old TC handling stitches well, I’m glad his suspensory didn’t need surgery! 

Kentucky Bound!

Today I fly out to Kentucky! I'm so excited, it's my first time ever going to this event. I've wanted to go for so long but could never swing it. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to blog, while there, but I'll definitely try to write about it on the plane on the way back. 

If you're also going and want to hang out, message me on IG or your preferred way of contacting me, I think my email is on this blog somewhere. I'll be there with friends (bloggers and former bloggers mostly) from late tonight until midday Monday! Fair warning, I will likely complain about the weather. 

Woohoo!

Fixing my Hip

Let's try this again. I wrote this whole post out last week, accidentally posted it early, thought I hadn't, tried to update it, and ended up deleting it somehow. The idea of rewriting it (especially because I'd kind of forgotten everything I'd written) was a no go, so I figured I'd write it again later. This injury isn't going anywhere. 

One of the things I enjoy about my job is that it has good health insurance. I have not had good health insurance since I was on my parents' plan, but even the copays back then were tricky, so it's honestly been a while. Now though, it's great! And I'm finally able to get consistent care. 

I've done a physical, seen the doctor for my esophageal spasms that sometimes feel like a heart issue (they are not but it's nice to hear from a doctor that my chest pain isn't anything to worry about), and am going to finally get my contacts paid for after years of paying out of pocket, but the weekly/biweekly visits working on my body have been my favorite part. I started working with the chiropractor every other week for a while, which has been great. My upper back and neck are always really bad and I've always found that regular chiro helps with that. Sure enough, I didn't realize how much pain I was in until I started going regularly! 

I just started physical therapy as well! It took a while to get on his schedule and it was something I kept putting off until my hip actually freaked out. Then I went in (and have an appointment for my wrist coming up too). 

This

He did a full examination where he looked at my balance, having me stand on one leg and do certain movements. He came to the conclusion that my piriformis is incredibly tight and that is causing my pelvis to be tilted and THAT is causing some interesting problems. Long time blog readers who have very good memories for weird biomechanical things may recognize some of these symptoms...

1.) my right leg wants to be more bent than my right

2.) my left oblique is weak

3.) I might find it hard to drop my right seat bone

4.) my right side is stronger than my left

5.) I can't turn off my right hamstring

Hmmmm I told him that all of those things sounded like my long time riding problems. 

Me, about my SI injury

He thinks that this is a very old injury, where something happened where my pelvis was twisted hard. Then my body basically tightened up around that twist and it stayed. Namely, my right piriformis tightened around my right hip and locked it into place. Then a decade later, I was squatting and my piriformis yelled I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE and freaked out. 

Back in early 2011, I was riding a horse who my boss had assured me had been out all week (I was gone). He had not. He had this nasty root-buck-twist move and he did it to me early in our ride. Rooted me out of my secure position, leapt into the air, then twisted. I was out for a couple of weeks but all I did for it was take anti inflammatories and gave myself a stomach ulcer. Then that caused me to drop weight and therefore feel super weak, so I got flung head first into a fence. Being a horse trainer crash dummy is rough. I went back to school after that. 

That is very likely when this injury occurred and my body has been compensating for it for years. 

My SI and my hip to me, I'm sure lol

I'm bummed that I didn't take it seriously back then (and honestly, I couldn't, I had to keep working and had almost no money since it was winter) but I'm glad I can take it seriously right now. I am doing my physical therapy exercises each day, which mostly include me pummeling my right piriformis and right hamstring with a lacrosse ball. 

Hopefully it starts to get better! I can already feel it complaining. My back has been hurting, which I think was due to the balance on the saddle being off but could absolutely be part of what my tight piriformis was protecting me from. 

I go back today for a check in, I'm hoping to get some exercises for my wrist too! We'll see how far we get. 

Saddle In Progress

Well, it finally happened, on Saturday, I drove over the hill to get my new saddle! I definitely had my hopes up because it looked beautiful, but it isn't perfect just yet. It goes back in this week for some adjustments. But I figured I'd talk about what I do like about it. Swing it a bit positive! Kate got my negative Nancy bullshit yesterday on the phone so when I got home, I decided to force myself to be positive. 

Hello saddle!

The blocks are amazing!

The good news is that the saddle is gorgeous. It's my first fully custom saddle, so I got to design it. I chose to do a similar design to one of Kate's students' saddles since I am not a creative person. It was tweaked a little bit though, and I love it! It looks so sharp and not too gaudy. 

The channel for TC's spine is HUGE by the way. I've never seen anything like it actually. I wish I'd taken a picture of it. Somehow the saddle doesn't feel super wide though, so that's good for me. 

The other thing I really love about is the blocks. I dunno how these blocks even make sense. First, they're huge, which is exactly what I wanted given that TC still has some good sized leaps in there and his extended trot is impossible to sit. But I didn't realize that it was possible to make giant blocks without them feeling like they slam you into position. Amazing. I feel like I have a ton of freedom in my leg and yet when I need the block, there it is. MAGIC. I assume, at least. 

Before: this is ideally where I'd like the saddle to
sit, also note TC's posture before our ride

After: the saddle clearly shifted forward throughout
our ride, but look at how much better he looks in his
posture! Love this way of riding

You can see how far it slid forward
based on my sticky pad's movement

Unfortunately, in true TC form, he's impossible to fit. So the saddle slides forward as they all do. So it's hopefully going to go back in to try a different placement for the billets. This is why I chose this saddle fitter, he is very knowledgeable and dedicated. 

So I wish I would have been able to post this saying "the saddle is perfect and amazing and I'm so happy!" I cannot. But I do love a lot about it and I'm trying really hard not to think about what to do if we end up not being able to get it to work for us. There's a lot of stuff to try between now and then. 

Free Jumping the Pony

The pony has been feeling great lately! Between the bitless bridle and clicker training, he really feels good. Over the winter with his anxiety spiking and him dumping me a bit, I was kind of getting done with trying to do anything with him. My priority for him right now is to use him as a stand-in for my future second horse and to have something going so that if a friend comes to ride with me, we can go into the hills together. But he's doing much better now! 

He's a really good trail pony

We kind of got into this odd little routine in our work where he'd be super lazy for a bit and then he'd wake up and immediately get anxious. Like his body needed some time to loosen up but then his brain couldn't handle being loose/forward/whatever? I don't know what was going on. When that would happen, after about fifteen minutes, I'd spend about five minutes having him do something basic (like turns on the forehand or something easy) and then we'd be done with the ride. 

Over the last few weeks though, he's been having this really pleasant time in between the laziness and the anxiety where he'd feel really damn good. But he'd still worry, so we'd end with some basic stuff and be done. Last week though, we had a really good ride where instead of worrying, he just got very ON. There was a confidence about the energy and looseness that hadn't been there before. I had to kind of talk myself into doing more given that every time he's felt like this, I've either fallen off or come close to it (not like he's far from the ground lol but he's quick!). But I was feeling really good about my ability to breathe and visualize him staying with me and he did. 

We saw a snake recently!

Last week, I decided to longe him and see if he wanted to do a little bit of jumping. I turned him loose in the ring while I put up the world's tiniest cross rail. Normally I don't work with him at liberty because he thinks that eating leaves is way more interesting than anything I want to do with him. But this time he was super into hanging out with me! 

He immediately walked over the jump and got clicks for that, then turned around and did it again for more clicks. I wanted him to warm up for real though, so I sent him around the arena a few times before actually pointing him at the jump.

He warmed up fairly quickly and got clicks for moving forward and releasing his under neck. Once he was warmed up, I sent him over the jump and he happily hunted it down for a click. We did that several times each way and he was so game that I decided to put the jump up to the second tiniest cross rail that has ever existed. 

I love these trails, it rained this weekend
so they are not usable for a bit

He did jump that one a few times, but I noticed that his jumping arc was starting to change. He'd fling himself over it and then land heavily, tossing his head. I can't adequately explain how tiny this jump is. We have those white cavalletti blocks and I made a crossrail out of them with them on their side (not standing up). The poles are actually pretty crappy (going to replace those) so they were sagging a bit. It was SO small. He was giving it more effort than required and I think it was because the actual apex of his jump was well after the jump. He was cutting down right after it too. 

One too many hard landings and he was super over it. He galloped by it kicking out at the jump, then started to spin hard away from it. 

Now, I don't care about jumping this horse. It'd be convenient to be able to jump tiny cross rails like I did last summer on him so that I could practice what I'm learning in my jumping lessons in between. But I also feel more confident jumping now so I don't think I necessarily need that. I've tried my best to emphasize to the pony that he is no longer expected to do anything. He is on an R+ ONLY training plan. Good things get rewarded and bad things get ignored. 

So instead of pushing the issue, I put the jump down to poles and had him end on a good note trotting over the poles. It definitely got me thinking about the jumping issue though. 

And a deer!

I'd like to try to clicker train him to jump a bit softer. He seems super into the jumps until he lands hard and then he's not as excited about it. I'm curious as to whether I could teach him to jump in a better way that has him rocking back and jumping rather than just flinging himself over his shoulder to do it. If I could teach him to land softer, would he enjoy jumping more?

So the plan is to have him jump at liberty once a week and to shape him with clicker training. I'm going to start with canter poles and slowly build him up into the world's tiniest grid with the world's tiniest cross rails. 

We'll stick with the R+ only training so if he decides that he'd rather not jump, oh well, we will stop. But I figure it'd be a fun project for me given that I'll probably want to free jump my next horse a bit and shape the way he jumps. Kate did that a ton with Flounder and I think that's a huge part of why I love riding him so much. 

Always game for trails

As much fun as I'm having with the pony, it's definitely showing me that I really want another horse with TC's personality. The pony is a bit on the quirky side personality-wise. He's kind of hot and cold. Super into what I'm doing and then not that interested. Standing super toned staring at me aggressively with his happy pony eyes and then totally ignoring me. 

I don't know how much of that is nature vs nurture, but I appreciate TC's constant happy-go-lucky attitude and how personable he is. The pony has pretty good conformation, like I think in his youth and mine, I could have done something pretty spectacular with him. Whereas TC's conformation makes him more challenging to ride. But he's always super game, which I really appreciate. 

I still love the pony, I just think that I'll be after a Flounder/TC type for my next horse! 

Adding In Harder Work

I've been having fun with TC this spring focusing on rebuilding his strength within the movements. It's really interesting to see what movements help him in his tensegrity/connection and what movements seem to destroy it. 

Slowly but surely getting back to work

For example, the shoulder-in and leg yield seem to make the connection so much better, he gets way more uphill and they get easier and easier to ride as time goes on. But the half pass and haunches-in do the opposite, I find myself having to cram him into them and the quality of the work gets worse the more that we do them. 

In canter, circles seem to really help the quality of work, but in trot, circles aren't as helpful to us. Counter canter works some days but is harder on other days. Transitions are the same way. It's all been about piecing together what helps him and then throwing in the harder stuff in between when he's feeling really good to see if we can build up over time. 

My rule is that if it takes more than an ask, have him do it and then return to something that builds him back up before going back so that we always start a hard movement from the best possible place. That's way easier said than done, since I so want to drill it until it gets better. But the only way for it to get better in the long term is for him to do the movements right, not just do them. 

Not looking bad!

Either way, it's been really fun having stuff to do that isn't just trotting and cantering around and around. We did that for a long time because he'd get worse quickly when we'd do the harder stuff. Now that we have more strength, we can actually do the harder stuff without it affecting him so badly. And because of that, I'm finally FINALLY noticing a change in his muscle. 

I've been waiting for him to put muscle on for almost two years now. First, he looked like crap on the ground and undersaddle. Then we saw Celeste for the first time and he started to look great undersaddle but still didn't look good standing around in his pasture. I'm not saying he looks good now... but he's at least looking less like a pregnant mare. Somehow, the pony bounced back in the tensegrity department super quickly and TC hasn't. But I also think the pony had less issues in his TS than TC did. Plus I think the pony is naturally higher tone than TC is so that helps too. 

The canter this day was kind of a disaster, oh well

It feels really good to be on this path and to still have it be working. I tried so many things that seemed to work, only for him to look worse when we went back to work. It seemed like he'd only ever be a good lower level horse (which is honestly fine, he can be what he wants to be), but now I'm seeing glimpses of being able to come back to the level we were at, but this time with better tensegrity and more correct muscle. 

We still have a lot to work on in that department though, his back still isn't where I want it to be, specifically his trapezius. I can see him engaging it when we work and it's frequently in hypertrophy afterwards, so I know it's working. It'll just take time for it to build up in a way where it's visible while he's standing around at his lowest tone. 

Still, I'm getting close to wanting to take conformation pictures of him (I do wish I'd been able to stomach taking them these last two years even just for myself, but they were so depressing I stopped) and I keep feeling his ribs to make sure that his crestier neck and more rounded booty is not just some extra poundage. His ribs are still right there so they've got to be muscle. 

I can still pull on the left rein with driving reins, ugh

We do not have any shows on the calendar this year even with him doing well. I don't want to go back in the show ring below Third level just because I don't care too much about showing and I don't find those tests particularly fun. I'd like to return when he's confidently schooling all of Third level at home and off the property. And when all of the movements can be ridden properly and easily. 

Even then, I'd like to test ride a fair amount before going in the ring because I know that I am going to default to riding him like I used to and can see that backfiring on us quite a bit. So even when he's fully ready to show, I probably won't be there yet. It'll take some time. 

My tentative guess is that we will aim to return to the show ring at Third level in about a year from now, April 2023. Making our break from the show ring nearly three years. That's my lucky number I suppose. Rico's final test before his DDFT injury was in September 2009. We then went through a lot of rehab, surgery, more rehab, and then returned to the show ring at Fourth level in October 2012. Just over three years. Then he ended 2013 at Prix St George and 2014 at Grand Prix. We probably won't be following in Rico's footsteps exactly... But I am hoping to be able to return after three years and have a positive experience with more harmony in our tests. Not cringing at the video is my only goal. 

Dover Tent Sale

I had the day off on Friday because my company likes to give us wellness days I think to make sure that we actually take days off (we get unlimited PTO but a lot of people don’t take that time, I am not that people lol but I appreciate the extra days here and there). For our other days, I have some things in mind, but this day off was unexpected. For me, that means ponies. 

Luckily this coincided with the local Dover Saddlery store's tent sale. I went with a long list, but figured that I'm also headed to Kentucky, have a pretty significant store credit at Smartpak, and can always find a 15% off coupon for RW, so I decided to limit myself to things at Dover that had a pretty significant discount. 

And that I did! They were having a 50% off sale on a ton of Dover brand items and then also a buy one get one for a lot of other items. For me, the items on the buy one get one didn't make sense for me to get two of OR weren't on my list, but I did find a bunch of stuff that was 50% off. 

It was hot so both horses got to go
up into the hills over the weekend

Knowing how my schedule is with two horses and a full time job where lunchtime is really the only time I can block off, I wanted to stock up on summer clothes. I have some very old Kastel Denmark sun shirts that really need to be tossed at this point and that's about it for summer tops that aren't tank tops or t-shirts. For breeches/tights, I have two pairs of tights that I like to wear and two pairs that I don't like to wear. On a related note, why don't all companies make giant wide waistbands?? I say this as someone who was emotionally scarred with low rise jeans as a youth so maybe I'm extra picky about how enormously high and wide I want my waistbands on tights. 

Dover had their own brand of sun shirts on 50% off sale and I tried them on and actually really liked them. The material felt better quality than Smartpak's piper sun shirt (I have one of those and it's falling apart, yikes) and thicker/less clingy than Kastel. By the way, I will say that I am not a picky person when it comes to riding clothes, just generally but especially now that I'm at the ranch where no one is going to see me. For 50% off, I decided to buy three of them in some really cute colors and see how they held up. 

Pony looking down on the valley

I also found some tights with nice waistbands! I found one pair of really cheap full seat tights and they ended up being my favorites of the ones I tried. I think with the 50% off deal, they ended up being like $25. I would have bought like five of them, but they were legit the only pair there. Such a bummer, they're super comfortable and insanely light weight. 

Instead, I found some others. My only qualm was that they were black, but they felt so airy and light that I ended up with two pairs with the hope that they wouldn't feel too hot in the summer. With the other pair I got and the two I have at home that I like to wear, that's three non-black tights, so I can try to wear the black ones on the weekends when I can ride earlier or on days where it's not *as* hot or when I know I'll be mostly trail riding. 

I'm glad we're getting some rain this week so that
the hills hopefully stay green for a bit longer!

Finally on my list was a girth for Sunny! I bought my niece her own saddle, which she refuses to ride in of course because she's two, but I didn't have a girth that fit it. I ended up with a 40" pony girth for half off as well. 

All in all, a really good trip to Dover for their sale! I walked away with three new pairs of tights, three new sun shirts, a new girth, and a free bucket and saving more than I spent. I'll definitely go next year and will know whether I want to stock up on more sun shirts or tights at the very least. 

After Dover, I headed down to the ranch, stopping for some popsicles to toss in the barn freezer along the way. TC and I enjoyed a really nice ride in the arena (despite him forgetting to take me with him during a leap, it was actually hilarious because I yelled "hey" at him as I felt myself falling and he flung himself under me to prevent the fall as if to say "whoops, sorry about that") and I rode Sunny down the road and back after he and I agreed it was too hot to do an arena ride by then. 

I think we're all set for summer at the ranch! Just need to stock up on more popsicles since the horses and I already went through a few of them over the weekend. 

Eleven Years Old

How is my horse eleven years old?!?! He's grown up so much. I still see him as being so young (someone recently described him as "not an old soul, he's brand new" which I thought was hilarious and accurate) but he's really coming into his own, not only in his work but in his self confidence. He's so good these days and I'm really enjoying quiet time with him spent out on the trails or even just during our grooming routine. 

Of COURSE we did birthday photos, so here they are in all their glory: 

Hahahahaha

He's like "it's that one day a year that she puts stuff
on me and takes pictures, what a weird human"

One of my favorites

His neck is turning right side up again,
yay!

Such a good egg

Grooming Clinic!

On Saturday, I attended my first ever grooming clinic! Kate has a bunch of fun clinicians coming in this year and I'm hoping to attend many of them. This one was easy to sign up for, it was reasonably priced and I didn't have to bring a horse (barns in the area are just starting to open up after our bout of EHV-1 in the area, Kate's barn didn't get hit but they also locked down for visitors, which I had a lot of respect for). 

The clinician was amazing, she was a wealth of knowledge and you could see this even by just how she laid her hands on the horses. She has so much experience with horses, grooming for one of the world's top event riders. 

I figure I could use a grooming clinic
given that I have a gray horse lol

We started off with a discussion about being compassionate and empathetic towards our horses, knowing our horses well enough where we could see even a small change in their demeanor, and knowing the people who are responsible for taking care of the barn (as these people usually see our horses way more than we do). It was such a good reminder that our horses didn't ask for this life, don't owe us anything, and can't just tell us in plain English if something is going wrong with them. 

From there, we went further into detail about noticing little things about our horses. As an aside, the clinician had people ranging from kids in the lesson program to me, an upper level dressage trainer who is also a graduate A pony clubber, she did a really fabulous job catering to everyone, but I'll probably end up skipping over some of the more basic things she spoke about just in an effort to get this post out given my ability to post to my blog right now. 

I took basically no pictures while I was
at the clinic so you'll have to settle for
Loki the Kestrel on occasion

Anyway, she taught us what she looks for when she brings a horse into the cross ties and it brought back so many memories of the fact that I think I could probably still sculpt Rico's legs out of clay with my eyes closed. Rico taught me to always know your horses' legs ridiculously well. What they do in the cold, in the heat, before and after work, and so on. 

I don't know TC's legs nearly as well, which isn't saying much because I have also obsessed over them. TC's legs get puffy in the summer if he's stabled, they are always tight in the winter or now that he lives in pasture, all year long. In the heat, the veins on his legs do pop a bit, so they can trick you into thinking he's got a split or something. He frequently scrapes up his legs/bulbs of the heel, hocks galloping out of his stall like a weirdo. The one thing I don't normally do that she recommends is to feel the feet for warmth when you bring the horse out. I guess I just haven't had that many abscesses (it's very dry out here). 

He does do this frequently though

From there, we got into the actual grooming part, talking about what supplies she likes. I loved the idea of the posture prep curry, it's actually designed to use in a specific way that warms muscles up. She showed us how to use it and I immediately wanted to buy one for TC, he loves being curried and his back gets tight, so this will be perfect. Also, my current curry comb is a bit old and gross, so it'll be nice to have a new one. 

She also likes the hands on grooming gloves for the hard to reach places and for baths. I have these and don't tend to use them, but I never considered them for baths and am curious to try for TC's next bath. She also mentions that she uses them to softly curry the legs for any fungus-y stuff that may get on there. 

She had some brush recommendations too, nothing really specific but I have a general idea of what I want to replace TC's awful brush with. His brush is fine... but it's been fine since I bought him so I think I'd like to find him some nice brushes. This one can replace the not fine ones in my trailer. 

Took a picture to remember it!

We talked a bit about how to shorten manes. I don't pull any manes anymore, so I tend to shorten them with scissors. TC's mane has destroyed two solo combs (he literally dulls new ones out within half the mane the first time we go through it), so I don't use those anymore, just scissors pointed upward toward the crest. I am BAD at it though. For manes that don't need pulling, she used a simple grooming razor blade! So that got added to my shopping list (for the record, this was not an expensive clinic and we did get a little goodie bag, I am the one making it expensive for myself). 

I'm excited about this for Sunny too, because she also showed us how to shorten longer manes with it. His tends to get a little long and stringy at the ends, so again I've been butchering it with scissors. It looks terrible. He'll be very glad when I shorten it again properly! 

A woman working for wildlife reserve
came out to put some bird boxes up at
the ranch and brought Loki with her!

We ate lunch and chatted a bit before heading into bandaging and boots. I exceeded standards on bandaging at my HA and can still wrap a mean shipping wrap with flannel (which I jokingly told the clinician was my childhood trauma) and cotton/cheesecloth. But getting to see the event boots in person was fun! I'm definitely going to think hard about which boots I want to get Future Horse #2 for cross country schooling. 

I don't use boots/wraps on TC anymore because I'm no longer paranoid about his suspensory leg given that he's harder on it in pasture than I'll ever be on perfect footing. I also have 0 time available for anything that isn't absolutely necessary most days. But it was cool to see them. 

It was also fun to watch the kids learn about bandaging. I remember so well teaching bandaging clinics, helping kids through their ratings, and prepping myself for my HA in 2009. It was great. 

Bird lady also had baby hummingbirds!

I ended up leaving before the braiding section. I was quite tired and had a jumping lesson the next day to prep for! I also had TC to get out. 

Obviously, I groomed TC to within an inch of his life when I got him out that afternoon. I curried him in the way that she recommended and he seemed to really enjoy it. I noticed a bit that he was tight on the right side of his lumbar area, so that was good to note. I don't know if I would have noticed that if I hadn't been thinking hard about the way I was currying him. 

We just hit the trails for a fun, quiet ride. I focused on the initial topic of discussion, spending the time on the trail thinking about what horses meant to me and feeling really lucky that I have such a great one right now. TC has matured so much over the years. While Rico and I felt like we were an old married couple with how much we struggled to understand each other, TC and I feel like best friends. 

I know that this change has nothing to do with the horse, but with me and how much I've grown as a horse person. I'm grateful for Rico and everything he taught me, and I'm glad I can give him a fabulous retirement. But I'm also incredibly grateful for the bond TC and I have, which is different and in some ways, way more like home than the one I had/have with Rico. It's almost sad to think that, but I think that's just what happens when you get older and wiser and more open minded? I don't know, maybe I'll write more about this later. 

Beyond just enjoying my trail ride on TC, I also thought about how lucky I feel to be part of Kate's barn. Being at the ranch means I'm not really part of a barn anymore. Not that I felt super close with my barn mates at my last barn, but it can get a little lonely being at a private facility. I'm so grateful to be able to do things like my weekly jumping lessons and clinics like this so I get the best of both worlds: the peacefulness of being on my own at the ranch, riding my sweet perfect horse bareback on the private trails, and the friendship and companionship that comes with being part of a fabulous barn. 

Bitless Experimentation

So, I've been taking my jumping lessons with Kate every week for a while now and they're going really well! I really ought to do a jumping lesson recap once a week because I'm learning so much and Flounder is the cutest, but if you haven't noticed, I'm incredibly busy. You probably have noticed given that 1) I haven't posted as much as I usually do, 2) I don't think I've even looked at comments in weeks, and 3) if you've messaged me, I've probably ignored you, felt guilty about it, promised myself I'll message you back, and then repeated that cycle indefinitely. I'll get around to the jumping lessons, I promise!

He's the best trail pony

Anyway, some of Kate's horses are going in bitless bridles now and I've been super curious about trying to go bitless at some point, especially with the pony. 

I don't really need the pony to go in a bit, he's not really going to be a dressage pony and I think you can do working equitation in a bitless bridle. He's always been a bit funny in the contact too. 

I'm also big into experimenting right now and until TC stops flinging himself joyfully at butterflies, I feel more comfortable riding him in a bit. We'll get there... Eventually. He has mostly stopped flinging himself at bird shadows at least. 

He looks cute in it I think!

I assume the pony has had some kind of bitless bridle before, but I chose to have the tiniest bit of leverage by using TC's flower hackamore. I figured I could always emergency dismount if things got out of hand (I mean, he's small and typically doesn't get that far away from the ground) but I also wanted to avoid that if possible given how many times I've had to text my SO saying "I fell off the pony again" this year. 

I was right, he actually took to it really well! 

And it's clear that some of his anxiety is definitely about the bit/connection/something for him!

Love these trails

See, it's been a bit funny getting to know him. At first I kind of met him on his own level and then when I started changing things, he was like "ehhh no, I built up all these barriers for a reason" so we had some tough times. He's definitely been better the last month or two after I introduced clicker training, but he's still been kind of anxious. 

Like, he stopped exploding so much and was more with me, but he seemed nervous about it. And he'd always hit this wall about 20 minutes into work where he was super done, he'd get a bit rigid and nervous about anything I was doing. So I kept our rides to 20 minutes and even added some longeing in afterwards. I dunno, I don't really care how much work he does. I'm still just using him as horse #2 to make sure that I can commit to having two horses. 

Anyways, when I put the bitless bridle on him, he still got a little anxious, but it was way easier to calm him back down (I still need to write about Dr Susan Fay's book but it's been really helpful with him!). He hit the 20 minute mark and I could feel the rigidity, but I sat with him for a moment and did some pillar work and then he was able to keep working for another 5 minutes (I didn't push it), which was huge! 

He's in a mylar comfort snaffle, not like he was in
a nasty bit or anything

I'm going to see how he likes it for a little while. My next step is to either book a 1:1 with Celeste (but like, no offense to the pony, I'd rather use that money for TC) or to give him some prevocox for a week and see if there's any response. He turns 17 this year so there could be some pain management that needs to happen for him, which is totally fine. But he's also a super hardy breed soooo we'll see. 

Or maybe it's just that the connection makes him anxious! That's what I'm going to run with and we'll just see. 

2022 Q1 Goals Review and Q2 Goals

Time to look back on the goals I set up for the first quarter of 2022! I was pretty successful with these but I also think I chose really easy goals. That was on purpose given that I didn't know how much rain we were going to get, but I'll take the win given that last year I basically scrapped all of my annual goals. 

I feel so lucky to have my boys together at the ranch

2022 Q1 Goals

TC

- stay sane and sound

Yep! 

- get through the rains well

There unfortunately wasn't much to get through

- continue rebuilding strength

He is definitely stronger than he was!

- buy a saddle

Yes!! More details coming soon!

- be consistently cantering

Yep!

Look at that reach to the contact, wow, I might make
an entire post about this one ride!

Sunny

- stay sound (he is always sane)

Yep! He was actually not particularly sane this quarter but it seems I have my pony back

- get through the rains well

Yep!

- continue working on strength 

Yep! He's looking so good these days

- continue working on forward

Yep! It's way better now

- do a schooling show or a clinic?

Nope, EHV ruined our plans

- start jumping him again?

Not yet

Love this new trail through the trees

Jumping

- get back into a regular jumping lesson schedule

Yes! It's been so fun to be jumping regularly again!

- work on my breathing

Definitely have been putting a lot of effort into this!

- work on my foot light

This got better and then worse, oh well

Worse lol oh well

My Riding

- continue building core strength

Definitely much stronger in my core than before

- strengthen my abductors 

Ehhhhh haven't done as much work on this

- work on my weird twist

Worked on it in my biomechanics lesson a couple weeks ago!

The SO and I went on a bike ride before he got
mono, who gets mono in their thirties?!?!?! Oh, 
I mean aside from me in 2019 lol

Msc

- get my back looked at by a doctor again

Not really, I've seen a chiropractor and acupuncturist though!

- get my wrist looked at by a doctor again

Not yet, hopefully this quarter

- stay consistent with copilot or another gym solution

Up until my hip injury, I was super consistent, hopefully I can get back to it next week with a modified program since my hip is refusing to do anything but light work right now. Time for bench to catch up to my other lifts lol

- start my new job

Yep! It's been great, I honestly love it so much!

- settle into a routine with the new job

I have, it's a funny schedule but I really love it

The food at work is amazing btw

2022 Q2 Goals

TC

- stay sane and sound

- be consistently schooling all of First level again

- continue working on the collection in trot and canter

- trail ride a lot

- maybe go to working equitation camp

- break in the new saddle!!

Sunny

- stay sane and sound

- successfully swap over to the bitless bridle

- maybe start jumping or even just pole work again

- maybe go to working equitation camp

- get my niece to ride him by herself

- maybe get my mom back on him??

The cutest fish!

Jumping

- feel confident over 2'3-2'6 courses with fill 

- be consistently landing on the correct lead over fences

- be successful at the horse show! I'll define what success means later

- continue working on my foot light/jumping position in general

- continue working on balance without rigidity

My Riding

- fix my right hip

- fix my left hand (lol or just make progress with it)

- continue working on my breathing

- continue to build my core strength

Msc

- continue with copilot (or another gym solution)

- fix my right hip 

- get an injury looked at, back or wrist (my job has a fabulous PT I might work with)

- have fun in Kentucky!!

- ... don't spend too much money in Kentucky

- feel more settled at work 

Hopefully this quarter will be good! Hard to top Q1 with my new job and TC doing so well, but Q2 has Kentucky, a couple of clinics, a jumping show, and WE camp.