A Ten Trot and a Nothing Canter

I had a lesson last Thursday AND Saturday! It's really quite helpful to take two lessons in a row. My trainer only comes down to my area once a month and she stays for three days and then is gone for another month. At first I only took one lesson because I like having time in between lessons to practice, but then last time I tried two lessons and was sold. We can make so much progress in just a few days and that holds for much longer.

The other thing it does, is allow me to have a bad lesson and then have Tanya come back the next lesson (two days later) with a plan. Today's post is about the bad lesson. well, more about what I learned about myself as a rider from the bad lesson, tomorrow's will be about the solution.

Food time after our lesson

TC has been an interesting horse to develop. As much as our scores have been good and he's been relatively happy to do dressage as his sport, his instincts and conformation are not great for the sport/ In other words, he's not at all purpose bred for the sport of dressage. His main redeeming quality is that he's mentally exactly what I want in a dressage horse. He loves to work, doesn't get bored doing the same thing over and over again, wants to please, and man, when he sees a dressage court, he lights the fuck up. He also loves crowds and judges booths. Mentally, this horse is meant to do amazing things. And honestly, his trot is pretty great too.

Buuuuuut I've got almost no canter to work with over here. And that came out hardcore on Thursday.

The main issue is one I've had before: when I put my leg on, TC unloads his hind legs rather than having them jump further under himself. Sometimes it leads to him unloading them enough where he starts bucking. So Thursday, I picked up TC's canter and was like OH NO because he was really behind the leg. When we start in that place, things don't go well, and they didn't.

SO is turning me into a cyclist, and I'll let him if we can keep
going to places like this

I think Tanya didn't realize how bad it was, because she had me start to collect his canter, which IS what needs to happen, sure, but not when he's so behind my leg that every time I put my leg on, he throws his head back at me and starts bucking.

I immediately was frustrated. This is a major pet peeve of mine, breaking at the canter, or more, feeling like the horse is about to break all the time. My technique for this is to basically go medium canter to collected canter, then shoot the horse into medium when they threaten to break. My favorite saying when I'm teaching is "does X live in Y?" or, does a medium canter live in your collected canter? Does a stretch circle live in your working trot? Does a collected trot live in your medium trot? And so on.

Tracey was very against this technique. All TC had to do to go from carrying to pushing is stall out while carrying. I get it... I do... but I can't emphasize enough how much I hate the feeling he gives me when he stalls out. Her solution was to get over it, and in my Thursday lesson, Tanya a little bit went in that direction too and I got my hackles a bit up.

The whole trail is paved, lets the SO road bike
and me not be scared of cars

She did have something good to say about my tendencies when we get to this place. I let go of his face, get too "up" (I'm a very up rider generally), and try to kick him out of it ASAP. She encouraged me to keep the contact even if that means he breaks for real, and to keep him softer over his topline in general in the collection.

The idea was that he can't come against me as aggressively (and can't buck) if he's over his back, so no matter what, keep him over his back, and in order to do that, I need to keep the contact. Okay, point made, I'm on board with that.

But it was still a shit ride. We tried to do some haunches-in at the canter, lots of bucking. We tried to do lead changes. More bucking and a lot of anticipation. Nothing is physically wrong with him, this is definitely a training issue (he's done this for years, we've treated him for ulcers, he's seen the vet a lot, he's seen chiro-vet a lot, his nutrition is dialed in, etc), he really honestly doesn't understand that he has to jump under himself when my leg comes on.

THIS PLACE IS SO PRETTY OMG

I walked away pretty disillusioned. It was one of the first times I started seriously wondering if TC wouldn't do the FEI levels for me, if Third is where we end because beyond that, we HAVE to have a collected canter for pirouettes. I got a bit panicky thinking that I'd take ANOTHER horse to the Grand Prix who I had to hoist through half the movements. No thanks. If that starts happening, TC is for sale.

So I considered canceling my Saturday lesson and just riding him on my own, using my medium exercise to help him stay more forward in the canter. BUT Tanya's last words to me were telling me again to get a piaffe on him and that this will help the canter quite a lot. I asked whether she could show me her technique for it and she said yes, let's do that on Saturday. So I figured I'd go Saturday, get her take on putting the piaffe on at the very least.

Luckily, Saturday was pretty amazing, and we fixed the canter issue to boot! But more on that tomorrow.

Ironing It All Out

We interrupt this Mary Wanless week of posts to talk about TC because he's a GODDAMN GENIUS of a horse and we had a great lesson last night. Also, my last Mary post is about the canter mechanic and I need to compile a TON of videos, so that's my Sunday project this weekend. Keep an eye on my instagram to get a sneak peek, I'm sure I'll be sharing there first.

Thursday afternoon, I headed back over to ride with Tanya! Her homework last time was basically to address the issue with TC's accelerator and also to work on his suppleness. We came out guns-a-blazing and she had to tell me to freaking half halt before I bombed around in medium trot the entire ride. Excellent.

I was a little concerned about my SI recovery, so I warned her that I felt wobbly and that I might need some help with that. But the entire ride, it didn't bother me at all, I was occasionally unsteady, but that's what bearing down is for. So I'm super pleased, I will hopefully have another PT appointment next week so we'll keep working on it all.

Being so cute after the lesson

We started out talking about some of the stuff that Mary had said. The biggest thing Tanya took away was tucking her boards into her horse's shoulders. If you're unfamiliar with Mary's boards, here's how she describes them: a sophisticated way of working with asymmetries. Instead of dividing the body into halves, we divide it into thirds, taking lines which follow the line of braces but which continue right down to the bottom of the torso. It is as if a board joined the rider's front to her back along each of these lines. Keeping her spine vertical is very much easier when those boards are firm.

Okay so you take your boards, and you ask yourself, if I can extend those forward, would they be tucked in behind the horse's shoulder blade, or are you losing a board outward? I definitely lose my right board outward away from TC's right shoulder.

And thus began an entire lesson on straightness!

Happy pony

TC has always wanted to duck out his right shoulder, which is where I leave a door open anyway, so he's honestly well within his right to do that. When that happens, his haunches fling themselves left and his nose gets pulled left too (erm, to clarify, I pull his nose left). Tanya pointed out that when I go to straighten him, he often just flings his entire body left, so it discourages me from riding him straight because then I can't keep him on the rail. She put us in renvers to the left and had me make sure that he kept his haunches on the rail while I pushed his withers into the left rein.

We also played a bit with riding shoulder-in in each direction. To the left, I needed to essentially ride more renvers to get him to stay stepping into the left rein and to actually bring his withers to the left (vs his favorite, a neck-in). To the right, she wanted him to flex more right. He's very happy to bend his neck and body right, but he stays a bit stuck in his poll and doesn't really come through. That's caused by him, again, not stepping into the left rein. I sense a theme.

Hi, do not want to connect to left rein, no thanx

In canter, Tanya was happy to see him actually really forward. She had me get on his case about the connection, getting him more INTO the bridle to the right. She wanted him to stand more upright, which she had me address by getting a better feeling from my right leg to my left rein and insisting that he not only bend right, but he shift his weight left. When he did this, he felt so much BIGGER and way more upright, almost narrower. Like everything squished together and got taller. Tanya said it looked like he dropped some weight (he isn't fat, but he is big boned, literally, you can feel his ribs, his knee joint is the size of my head).

To the left, we rode a diamond, which one of the other long term Mary participants had Tanya do on her horse at the workshop. It was really fascinating, and very hard for both of us. I essentially rode him in renvers again, pushing his withers to my left hand and not backing off the contact. Tanya was on my case about that, she said that her guess would be that he's a bit too light. Understatement of the century, Tanya.

Once again, his canter TRANSFORMED. I've never felt him like this. It was amazing, I had him completely underneath me and he gave me so much access.

At the end of our canter work, Tanya wanted to see the changes! With this new, more upright TC, he was ON IT and showed her the two best changes (one in each direction) that he's legit ever done in his life. She seemed excited about them. I told her he was super easy to put them on but that he was still green, of course. She said there was a lot to like - they're clean, they're uphill, they're on my aid, and he doesn't dick around in them. She wants me to hone in on being able to keep him straighter so I can just shift his weight and change (right now it's a lot more of a change-the-bend, so they jump a bit sideways, not too much, but I certainly am not on the exact same line), as that is going to be key for tempi changes. But that for where he's at in his training, she's very happy! YAY!

I need to take more pictures of this animal so I don't constantly
reuse them for this blog. 

At the end of the lesson, we talked a little about TC as a whole. TC scored very well at Training and First but we chatted about how he's just really flow-y and I'm not in his way and the high scores came from what a nice picture we gave. He was a VERY good First level horse and I know how to ride a good First level test. But a good First level horse doesn't make a good Second level+ horse. And that's what we're after now. I did point blank ask Tanya if she thought he could do the upper levels, she said yes, that she wouldn't give up now. I had an inkling he could do the upper levels, but it's nice to hear from my trainer that I shouldn't sell him as a lower level horse and get something more talented.

But TC needs to give me more access now and he's a little bit unsure of that, especially in canter, it's a lot of effort on his part. In addition, when he gets to the place he needs to be, he feels like he's about to launch me. I've spoken about this before, so it's just more of that, I need to ride him in a way that's on the edge of my comfort zone. That's excellent! But it's hard.

Overall, it was an absolutely fabulous lesson. I love how he's feeling these days with Tanya's training plan. And it was great to see how much access my new wobbly SI joint gave me. I need to work harder in my riding than I have in the past, but I can actually do everything Tanya is asking now! Hopefully tomorrow we continue to build on these concepts, I'm so glad I signed up for two lessons this month.

Blowing Up the Balloon

Last Thursday evening I had a lesson! It was not with Tracey, it was with Tanya, the trainer I worked with when I was living up north in 2018.

One of the reasons I haven't been able to ride with Tanya is that 1) she only comes down here once a month and 2) she is coming from far away, so her travel fee plus ring fees make her lessons a bit expensive. I need more than one lesson a month and I wasn't so great financially at the beginning of last year, so I got pulled off the regular list and ended up riding with Tracey.

Now I'm struggling because I am so busy on the weekends that I can barely ride with Tracey once a month AND TC is practically asleep at Tracey's barn (and Tracey doesn't travel to teach) so it's really affected the way I've been riding him (underpowered). So I figure if I'm only going to get a lesson a month anyway, I'll go back to ride with Tanya and see what the difference is.

Some shoulder-in, a little stutter but then super easy

Even ignoring how good he was in the lesson, I was VERY proud of TC that evening. He self loaded right after getting fed his dinner, was taken to a barn he hasn't been at in five years, and it was cold and getting dark. He was FOOT PERFECT the entire time. No spooking (other than wanting to stop and curiously glance down the barn aisle that you could see from the covered arena), no bolting, no leaping, no bucking. Nothing. He just buckled down and did his work.

Kate came with one of her students to watch and I got a ton of video! Love my friends.

Lol at him looking down the barn aisle and hesitating for a stride

We started out and I told her that I was struggling to keep him up into the bridle and to keep him up through his withers. She had some really interesting things to say about that, most of which was that I needed more responsiveness to my aids to get him to get up there and stay up there. He needs to get narrower and that in itself will engage his thoracic sling, as will getting his hind legs more engaged. There's not a specific aid to get him to lift through the withers, it's a consequence of other important things. Excellent!

In response to that, after we got him really forward and engaged and he felt amazing, I told her that I'm still battling some muscle memory from when he was a wild idiot. When he gets going that forward and is that hot off my aids, I can feel him surge and come up through his back... exactly how he feels before he bucks. So I've taught myself to quickly shut it down. So every time I put him there, I shut it down.

And this is why having Tanya is so great, because she won't let me shut him down, the moment she sees me do it, she yells at me to kick and go. I'm a good student (well...) and I started ignoring what I was feeling and just DOING what she told me to.

The result was better work than I've ever felt this horse give me. Holy shit. There might be an FEI horse living in that little hippopotamus.

Just trotting around like a fancy horse

The biggest takeaway is that he just needs to be more inflated. Everything is there, it's just dull. Add spark and trust my half halt to keep him from getting his hind leg out behind him (one of my biggest fears is running him off his feet).

It's like he's a deflated balloon. I've spent a really long time patching up the holes and getting the balloon really structurally sound (basics), but now I'm looking at it wondering why it's kind of soggy. It has nothing to do with any more patches that are needed and everything to do with how much air is in it. I just need to blow the balloon up!

Inflated and ready to scare me a bit, yay!

Finally, we chatted about training plans. I really want weekly lessons. I need them to be able to do what I want to do with this horse because he is just about too much horse for me to feel comfortable getting him this pumped up on my own. I hesitate and I need help to overcome that lingering fear of what he feels like when he's going the way he should.

Tanya mentioned that she herself takes Skype lessons and is willing to teach them too. Kate and I chatted and we're going to start figuring out how we can arrange this. This could be a game changer for both of us, be able to ride with one of the best trainers in Northern California in the comfort of our own barns and during the week.

Tanya said she has a Pixio for this and my heart sunk a little bit. Soloshot offers a live version, but you have to pay for it and as we saw from my gifs recently, Soloshot doesn't always keep me in frame. I don't want to pay for a lesson where my trainer can't see me (the money is one thing, it'd frustrate me as a trainer so I don't want to do that to Tanya). I also don't want to buy a Pixio not knowing if I am going to even be able to get the streaming to work.

Haunches-in looking pretty good for a horse who really told
me that this was an impossible movement for him

SO I talked to Kate and we agreed to get a video camera (which you can eventually hook up to the future Pixio) and just be each others' Pixios while we figure out the streaming part of it. Then if it works, I'll look into getting a Pixio. It'll end up paying for itself in less than a year given how expensive it is to haul up to Tanya and pay travel/ring fees when she's in town (though I will probably do that). So I'm not fussed about spending the money on it. I put together a yearly budget for lessons and it saves me more than you'd expect.

Taking remote lessons would be so amazing, I could switch barns whenever I felt like it without impacting my training situation. I can take lessons during the week without having it take any longer than a normal ride (so then my weekends are free to make money to pay for these lessons). Lessons would be more affordable without paying the travel fee, haul-in fee, or gas for my truck, plus just the time of hauling back and forth and the rigid nature of clinic days/times. And I could ride with anyone I felt like riding with (although I'm a stay-on-the-bus kind of person). The major downside is that my trainer wouldn't be able to get on TC (not a problem, I almost never put trainers on my horses) or make any physical changes to me (not a problem, I have a local biomechanics expert I can ride with) except the once a month that I ride with her in person.


I'm stoked! Doing research on camera now and then Kate and I are going to meet soon to try out this setup. Fingers crossed it works for us. I can't wait to be on a regular training program again. Third level, here we come (with a stop at Second level first!).

Going Places

Today was the day. TC's first time at a new facility where he had to do more than just follow another horse up a hill.

The facility is really cute- three arenas (small covered, jumping, dressage), one main barn and some turnouts, and a little trail that walks around the property. I don't know how big exactly it is, but it's a pretty small, inviting place.

He was really excited to look around

He unloaded pretty well from the trailer, at first refusing to get out because he was busy looking behind him. I had tacked him up at home (where he had to wear boots for the first time in a week or so and was pretty convinced that he couldn't walk in them anymore) so all we did was put on helmets/bridles and we were off.

He was actually surprisingly calm and relaxed, just very interested in everything, so I opted not to longe him. The round pen looked kind of hard, and to be honest, longeing doesn't really calm him down significantly.

After whinnying a few times and standing very very tall, we were told that we should go to the jumping arena (probably because TC was looking like he was going to explode haha) where we'd be by ourselves. Now, TC has never seen a real jump. He's seen logs and poles but never big jump standards with fillers.

And... he didn't give a single shit about them. He expressed no interest in sniffing them and never spooked at them. Meanwhile, Ali's horse was giving them the evil eye every time they passed one. He's 11 and while I wouldn't call him been-there-done-that, he's definitely a LOT more experienced than the baby horse.

We walked around a bit while Ali worked her horse and then started trotting ourselves. I was pretty pleased that TC wasn't any more distracted than I expected in a new arena. He looked at things but never spooked or took off or whatever. We weaved in and out of the fences, riding circles and serpentines, and he slowly started to relax a bit more.

So cute!

His behavior did get worse every time this one horse went by. I don't know what it was about this horse- he was just a big gray gelding, turning white from older age, and was quietly doing laps around the property getting warmed up for a lesson. Every time he was nearby, TC got very distracted, whinnying and wanting to be RIGHT next to him.

It didn't pose a large problem until Ali took her horse over to the dressage court (where the gray ended up riding) and TC was by himself. I don't know TC all that well, so I wasn't sure what to do when he started getting upset. Some horses need to just stand and watch (Rico) to make sure things are okay, other horses get more upset the more they watch so need to be worked to get their mind off of the problem (apparently TC, but I learned this the hard way which is obviously the more fun way).

I let TC stand and watch but he became more and more agitated. So I walked him in circles, asking for leg yield and tighter turns, switching direction and he LEAPT into the air, twisted a big buck and..... yeah I didn't fall off, I just pulled his face to the left and he got scared that HE might fall and he came right back to me. But that's when I decided that trotting would be the answer. He was an idiot at first, but eventually settled and gave me some GORGEOUS trot work. He felt much more engaged than he normally was, and we even got a few compliments from the nice people that we were disrupting.

One of the ladies said "a kid is going to LOVE brushing that tail"

I wasn't about to go disrupt the lesson in the dressage court alone, so Ali came back to get me and we both walked out there. The letters were these big boxes (where, presumably, you could put flowers, but there weren't any) that TC thought might have food in them, so he wasn't afraid at all. He also thought the judges booth was pretty interesting and possibly contained food. Once as he gave both the boxes and the booth a good look, he never looked at them again.

We did some walking and a bit of trot in the dressage court, including a lot of 20 meter circles and riding across the diagonal. He was surprisingly good, considering what an idiot he had been in the jumping arena. BUT I think this was because the gray horse he was obsessed with AND his trailer mate were in the arena with him.

We finished with a turn up centerline and a halt. The turn was excellent, but the halt took a bit since he really didn't want to stop.

After our short ride in the court, we headed over to the covered arena to show TC himself in the mirror. He spooked at first, but then walked right up to himself and sniffed a few times. After that he'd definitely look over at himself when we passed the mirrors, but no spooking.

We headed back to the barn after walking in the arena. I didn't want to make him do any more work there after he was so good in the dressage court.

Mirror pony!

SO after careful evaluation, here are some of my take away points:

The positive:
- Don't really need to longe him for him to be safe
- He's really not that spooky about new things, including scary jumps, the mirror, judges booth, etc
- He didn't jump out of the court
- Our geometry wasn't that bad
- He DID end up going on the bit eventually and gave me some excellent trot work
- No bucking other than that one big buck and only a little head shaking

The negative:
- He needs to get off the property more! (Duh)
- He has an incredible amount of stamina, working more does calm him down a bit, but a walk break brings all the energy back
- He does have some herd bound problems, including toward horses that he doesn't even know
- Lots of whinnying oh my god
- The brakes weren't as tuned as they are at home
- We never got to school by ourselves in a new arena, don't know how he will handle having to go work away from the group
- This was a small facility and the show facility is large so I don't know if that will make a difference

At this time, I'm still thinking about the show. On one hand, it will be fun and I don't care how we do since it's just a schooling show (plus I get to wear my medal while we get a 50% at intro, hilarious!). I might be able to have Ali bring her horse close to the court so that he can still see him. On the other hand, it's cheaper to get him more experience off the property by going to different barns and paying a use fee rather than a show fee (it's maybe 1/3 the cost to go places vs show). Then once as he is quieter (maybe in May), introduce him to the show experience.

I don't think it'd be a bad experience to go to the show. I'd have a nice long warm up, and warn the judge that I might "go off course" with extra circles or walk transitions to get him listening. I can always ride HC and not even take a score. BUT if I think that we won't get through the test because he'll be kind of a spaz, why pay so much to essentially go school at a place with a dressage court? Things to think about. Feel free to give me your thoughts about whether it's worth it.

Using all my medals for the first time would
be really fun!

In other horsey news, TC's half sister who I have been riding about a month FINALLY hit a big breakthrough in our last ride. She's been very agitated about going on the bit- flipping her head, threatening to rear, becoming completely rigid in the bridle, wanting to go faster at all costs- and I've been ridiculously patient, longeing her in side reins and ignoring her antics undersaddle. Ah but the last ride she finally figured out that the connection is better for both of us when she comes round. So she did! And I could put my leg on her! And we even cantered for the first time.

And holy shit guys, this horse needs to jump. I hate jumping (not hate, but I certainly don't go out of my way to ever do it) and all I wanted was a 4' fence in front of me as I was sitting this canter.

Tracey Lesson

So Monday was a great day, getting into graduate school and getting my pell grant. But yesterday trumps Monday like CRAZY and it's all thanks to my amazing horse and my infinitely more amazing trainer.

I got there quite early so I was able to walk around the property. Woodmyst has a TON of arenas and even a little trail course! So Rico and I played over the obstacles which included some logs, a bridge and an L shaped figure that you're supposed to back up through. After I realized that I probably should have asked permission before playing in the trail course, we left the area and just wandered around until my lesson started. 

The first thing out of Tracey's mouth when she saw us warming up was "hey he looks less like a driving horse," which was a great compliment! We started with some trot work, doing an exercise which Tracey learned from Conrad Schumacher. The exercise was quite basic- using shoulder-in and haunches-in to establish a better connection, then asking for a stretch circle- but surprisingly effective. By the end of the trot work, he was much better in the bridle and I was able to get the best trot of my life! My horse is so ridiculously talented, I wish I was as good as he is (I mean I have been training him myself for the last four years so I can take some of the credit but STILL). 

After the trot work, we moved into the canter. I told Tracey that I hadn't quite understood the canter work in my last lesson so we did quite a bit. She had us canter on a large circle in haunches-in, while maintaining the activity and connection. To the left, he felt great but I tended to do way too much with my body, pulling my right rein too far out, leaning back with my shoulders in the down beat, and slipping my right leg way back. She also pointed out that I used my outside leg for both the angle and the activity, so Rico couldn't tell when I used it whether I wanted more energy or more haunches-in. I need to start practicing using my inside leg for activity and my outside leg for angle only. After we found a nice canter with good activity and connection, Tracey had me ask Rico to stretch a bit to change the shape of his neck. That was hard! But despite sucking back a few times and my position being wonky every now and then, the left was amazing and we did a beautiful walk transition with very little in my hand.

To the right, we struggled a bit more. The first thing I said was "he feels crooked this way" and she said something along the lines of "sure he feels crooked, you're way off to the left side." After my rider correction, he became a lot easier! The connection on the left side while going right is tricky though, this comes from him using his right hind a lot more than his left as well as his unwillingness to connect to the left rein. This made complete sense- his right pirouette is weak because he doesn't stay on my left rein, so to balance in the pirouette, he sticks his left hind way out to the side. So we did the same exercise this direction, haunches-in on a large circle, then ride straight and stretch a bit. He struggled quite a bit and I felt like he was grabbing the bit and taking off so I said something about it. Tracey said "do a walk transition," and internally I was pretty convinced that we were going to SPLAT into the ground. I set him up without taking back with the reins, asked for the walk.... and got a beautifully balanced transition.

Tracey and I talked about my inability to trust Rico when he takes a bit of contact and she told me that because I've been riding him so muted (in hopes of keeping him from taking the contact and yanking on me), his canter is not at its best right now. I agreed completely, I know that Rico has a lot more potential than I do, I always tell people that he's infinitely better than I am and that I wish I did him justice. Tracey said that we would be slowly improving the canter so that I could learn to trust him. She mentioned PSG during that conversation which made me really happy!! 

So overall I was immensely pleased! I was happy that in just a week I could make such progress with Rico, and I was happy that I have new exercises to use for the connection. In addition to the happiness I was feeling while riding, I made the decision to ride with Tracey regularly as long as I could afford it and it made sense. It occurred to me that I was not going to have THIS nice of a horse for a long long time and why should I not attempt to do this horse justice while I have the means and the opportunity to ride with such an amazing trainer? Money is probably the only thing that will keep me from riding with her, but currently I'm working like crazy so that should be okay.

Pictures from this weekend!

love this dog

I love this tree in my back yard

my camera is ridiculous

Tracey Clinic

So today I packed up the trailer, chased my horse around his paddock to catch him, and took him over to Rancho Gavilan for a clinic with Tracey Lert. I went to see Tracey teach a couple of weeks ago and was very impressed with her. She was kind but firm and her eye was incredible.

I was certainly not let down in my own lesson. Rico and I struggled this week to get ready and I came into the clinic lacking confidence. Tracey let us warm up a bit on our own, then we talked and I was able to explain what I was feeling and what Rico and I were working on.

Hmmm perhaps connection

Connection and straightness is what I told her. Basically that Rico tends to hang on me so I end up having to shake him off of the contact which then gets him fussy in the bridle. He also has a straightness problem that is a bit too complex for me to figure out when I don't have a mirror to ride straight toward. She asked about his past after this, and I told her about his driving. "He looks like a driving horse," she said, giving me a good representation for how immensely accurate she is in her teaching.

At least he's a pretty driving horse!

We get started and she wanted to see me do some work on my own again with an increased awareness of how he was in the bridle. She talked about the differences between heaviness in that his balance is wrong and heaviness in the connection. She stressed that it was one thing if he was heavy and malleable, this is a real heaviness problem that needed to be addressed as I have been addressing it. If he was heavy and not malleable though, this is a balance problem and needs to be fixed accordingly. No surprises, my horse has a balance problem, not a connection problem. How utterly easy to fix! Except it wasn't.

Trying to figure out connection/balance

We return to the walk after some work with his "prongy" right lead canter. She says he doesn't stay on his left hind long enough so the canter is "stabby" or "prongy," meaning that he throws himself into the ground. This is obviously a good way to keep him sound long term... She gave me a couple of good seat aids to fix it and soon it was the best right lead canter I've felt on him!

The prongiest horse

The good way

Not as prongy!

Right, the walk. She put us on a twenty meter circle and there we stayed for the remaining half hour or so of our lesson.  At the walk we focused on straightness, so that there was no lateral deviation of his limbs. She stressed the importance of keeping his left hind leg active and riding his neck forward but not long. This is the part of the lesson that is still slightly confusing to me, as I was getting it right but not fully understanding it. This is why I need more lessons! Anyway, I was to walk him very slowly but actively and keep his neck out so that his trapezius muscle was engaged and he flattened out the top of his neck where it likes to bulge. Then we did walk-trot transitions from this walk.

The cutest

At first, Rico refused to do them!! The increased alignment and different neck set was so tricky for him that he couldn't trot without throwing his head up and shoulders to the right like a young horse. Almost immediately after the correction, Rico did a beautiful transition. We continued this work into the canter with Tracey picking at every little transition we did. By the end of the ride Rico and I had a clear understanding of what real connection is. He's never felt it, and I've never felt it from him. It was amazing! I felt like I could go ride an extended trot, a pirouette, a half pass, or whatever and that everything would stay the same.

He was so light all day

The best horse

We didn't do anything fancy. There were no movements, nothing resembling PSG level work. We literally stayed on the same damn 20 meter circle the whole time. But you know, this was one of the best lessons I've had. It was nice to have an instructor bold enough to bring me down to the basics, as many of my past instructors have skipped those parts, either assuming that I know them or wanting to play with my horse.

The most flattering clothes I could have worn

I was so happy by the end, it was well worth the money and I'm planning on working as much as I can in order to take more lessons from her. Rico deserves it and so do I. We both need to figure out how to work together rather than having a barrier in between us with the connection. I felt the horse I wanted in the bridle today, the one with the steady soft malleable connection to the snaffle rein with the curb rein waving in the wind. I want that horse every day. I want to take THAT horse to PSG.

so much better

SO DAMN CUTE

Such a tired pony

I was lucky enough to have my mother come watch the lesson, and she attempted to use my camera! She got a few great shots of us and those will be posted tomorrow as I'm having issues putting them on my computer and I need to go to bed so I can get up and write my paper due tomorrow!


Unfortunately after this wonderful morning I had a stressful work meeting tonight. As much as I was stressed and frustrated afterward, it just makes me so incredibly happy that I will be leaving my current job as soon as I get through graduate school. Possibly before then with the rate these stressful situations are attacking me! I'm just frustrated with the politics and biases involved in my work. But as much as I wish things were different, this is the nature of my work, which is why I am STOKED to be almost done with my undergraduate and well on my way to graduate school.

Here are some pictures I took earlier this week!

The moon at night! I need a tripod...

The silliest horse

The best cat

Grazing in the front yard

Someone wants to go next door to jump!

(still working on getting more pictures up from the clinic, they were only in raw rather than raw + fine so I need to download a program to read them... ugh) - problem fixed!!