Through Transitions

Ugh housing is being a massive pain. The place I wanted to be at fell through so now I'm starting over again. Now I'm starting to panic a little bit because I start in a week from today. But all of the horse drama is done, aside from his vet check to determine if he really is going to be my horse, and so is the car drama.

The car drama definitely became more dramatic before it was resolved. I went to a dealership on Saturday fully intending to get a car from them. But then when I found out there was another car at a another place that I wanted to try before committing (love having a phone that connects to the internet!), the sales manager made a very rude comment about how you simply can't negotiate with women.

I told him he was being sexist, got up from my seat, and walked out of the dealership without saying another word. I found another car at a dealership where no one made any sexist comments toward me and am picking it up today. My current car is sold already and being picked up this week. Phew, done. Hopefully this means that my sciatica is also done. Or at least more manageable. I'll be going in for an MRI when my health insurance kicks in.

Now just housing to find (which is all consuming) and my thesis to finish (which I haven't touched)!

Baby cows! They're running back to their moms

It was about a million degrees this weekend so I rode Saturday morning but not Sunday (and am not sure if I have time today). I'm calling the vet today to see if I can push his vet check out to later in the week just to make my life easier. My vet is probably all filled up though so tomorrow it is.

Saturday (before car drama) I was kind of a mess of a person, not in a crying-upset-crazy way, but in a brain-is-mush-can't-function-properly way. I rode TC very distractedly. I was answering housing emails half the time and talking to people the other half. I must have looked insane. Stopping the baby to write an email while he played with the barrels, half paying attention to texts/emails while talking to people at the barn.

TC handled it well though, he picked right back up every time he had to turn into a couch. That's more than I can say for a certain bay horse who was convinced that any time I stopped to do anything, he was done.

And across the way is a baby horse! Who Rico
loved

The trot was great! He is so much better in the connection and the engagement now. I was able to get that quiet trot and convinced myself not to nag him too much. He's kind of understanding how to have a bit more power in the smaller trot. And the connection is getting slowly more electric, mimicking what we got in our clinic with Barbi.

The one thing I want to get really solid is our walk to trot transitions. The trot to walks are pretty good. He bends his hocks pretty well and stays on the aids. Sometimes they're too abrupt, and for some reason, I struggle with sitting down into them- like if I really sit down on him, he's going to go hollow. I think that has something to do with the strength of his back right now. I'm also convinced that the saddle fit is not perfect (it's not terrible) and will be getting someone out after I buy him.

The walk to trot transitions are really hit or miss. Sometimes he is straight and on the aids, pops into a nice trot and stays with me. Other times he turns into a mammoth struggling to get out of a tar pit. He flings his head up, climbs into the trot, and throws his shoulder around. It definitely helps when he's more forward from walk to trot, so I've been working on that. It also helps if it's the transition after a bad one, which tells me that he does understand what I want, he just gets stuck in the walk.

They are so cute

The canter was good. He's definitely able to canter for longer these days, and there are some really nice moments where he's straight, easy to maneuver, and on the bit. Not that those moments all happen at once though. But he's actually staying pretty balanced for a horse who used to careen around.

Overall I rode much better than I thought I would given how distracted I was. My brain is just fried from the last week and shows no signs of getting better. I'm getting TC some ulcerguard for his move, I think it's time to break out the omeprazole for me too.

I'm forcing myself to take a day off this week- one whole day where I don't work on anything. I just enjoy a day with my pony (who will hopefully be one step closer to being mine by then) and relaxing. Also riding a client's horse and/or teaching, which are downright fun compared to what I've been doing.

He insisted on stopping to drink all of this water

Improvement in the Leg Yield

I've been slowly chipping away at my house-barn-car-thesis-horse to do lists.

On the house front, I have a couple of good choices and one is looking really good even if it puts me a bit further than I had wanted to be. At least I know I'll like it. And it's close to the barn I really want to be at (but am on the wait list for)

On the barn front, I think I found a place and even if the circumstances are a little odd, I think it will work out really well until my ideal barn opens up. If I don't get in there, TC and I can both live under the freeway near work and save lots of money!

On the car front, I'm for sure replacing my car on Saturday. No questions asked. Even if there isn't a car that I want, I'll just buy a scooter. Super done with this shit. So done with sciatica every time I drive more than 20 minutes (when my current commute is an hour...).

I love you car, why do you do this to me?

My thesis is not doing well. I just sat down to work on it and found myself on this blog. My hope is that all of the above will be taken care of by this weekend and then next week I'll work my ass off. I'm going to ask my adviser for an additional week I think. It's looking like there will be a week between when I start work and when TC can come up, that would be a great week to finish the thesis (or to NAP, as Austen recommended).

On the horse front, well, that is what this post is about! But the vet check is scheduled for Tuesday (though I may push it to Thursday to avoid having it done when his feet are so bad- he gets trimmed on Wednesday), I'm also going to pull his vet records before then to make sure he's UTD on all vaccines. I'm going to bring the saddle fitter out before he moves I think, which is ideally before I start work, but the first of September is a more likely possibility. So he'll have a week off at home.


Between now and then, I've given myself some time off from being a good, thinking rider. It's too stressful to be thinking about his training and what I should be doing and what my timing is like. So I said fuck it on Thursday and decided just to put my mind on auto-ride and just fucking ride my horse.

It went well. I primarily worked on responsiveness to the aids. I want him to be a little more responsive to all of my aids, I find myself accidentally using bigger aids than necessary. If I want him to listen to lighter aids, I should, you know, use lighter aids!

Nom nom nom, soon I won't have to drag him in
for extra hay!

We started in walk. I want to be able to just pick up his shoulder and move it around with my thigh, so we worked on that a lot. He was actually pretty good at times, and other times he'd bust through my leg and hit my rein/whip on that side. We did a lot of work on quarterline and then did some leg yielding at the walk, which is getting pretty good. I can lightly shift my weight and put a little calf on him and he starts to leg yield. I'm definitely losing him out the left shoulder a bit, but that's to be expected. Off the left leg though, he's quite straight.

The trot was good, he's quite supple in both directions and I'm starting to have a lot of control over the geometry... except when I lose him over the left shoulder. We worked a bit on that, keeping him stepping off of that side in some spiraling in to the right and of course, leg yields.

He wasn't sure what to do with the leg yield at the trot at first. He kind of wanted to run off when I'd use the whip for more sideways, but then he figured it out. Again off the left leg it was great, off the right a little crooked. He is getting quite sideways though! For a horse who had zero natural talent for crossing his legs over, he's doing pretty well.

He's cute but doesn't go sideways very easily

The canter was great, although we got chased by a dog. A small dog, mind you. Like something that would fit in a purse. TC scooted then hopped sideways and kicked at the dog. There are dogs all over the place at his barn so he doesn't get scared of them. I was pretty pleased that he responded that way- he could have been quicker and more powerful but he did the minimum to stay safe and came right back to me.

We worked on the whole straightness thing again at the canter, it went well. The left is so much easier though! But we made some good progress to the right. He's getting stronger on both sides, which I think is leading to our mistakes in picking up the correct lead. It doesn't bother me, we're not showing until the spring, and I'm sure we'll have very different mistakes by then.

After some more leg yields at the walk, we were done. Nice easy ride for us both.

This dog lives a rough life

Can't wait to call this pony mine! And buy him a halter (if anyone has any recommendations for rope halters, let me know! He still walks through normal ones- lots of ground work for him soon). He gets his first fly mask too, I'm taking Rico's old one because I'm expecting TC to destroy it.

So Much to Do (Plus Progress Pictures)

I start my new job in two weeks from yesterday (Monday). There are so many things to do. SO MANY. Let me give you a nice tour through some of my to do lists. And to entertain you, progress pictures of TC.

That face is so cute

Find Housing
- ideally I want to find someplace temporary so that I can really make sure I like the area before committing to an entire year lease. I don't care about living with other people, I've done both and genuinely don't mind roommates, so I've been looking into that. I've also looked into apartments but basically all of them require a year long lease unless I'm willing to pay an arm and a leg each month, and my arms and legs are limited.

- then I need to see the place, I'm trying to live a bit more than an hour north of where I'm at now in the beginning. It gives me a solid 30 minute commute with no traffic, which kind of sucks, but I'd rather start out further away and move closer than start out close and want to move further away. The places I'm looking are suburban, and the office is in a city. The city is expensive. The parts of the city that are not expensive are places where I will surely be murdered. Also city = traffic in and out, which means that the hours I can get to the barn easily are limited.

January I think, dates are approximate

- I'm hoping to find a place close to the barns. There's this one town that is right in between two towns known for having lots of barns, so I'm primarily looking there. It would mean about 10-15 minutes driving with no freeway to about 10 barns (and like two of which meet my criteria for boarding and are full, but we'll get to that). There's also another barn that is close to some barns but far from others, but is a bit cheaper and closer to work.

- next is that I can't be too far away from my current clients. I'm still going to be teaching on the peninsula (~60 minutes away from office over the bay, yuck, fast track is being obtained). My goal for housing is to not be further from my clients than the office is, because that will make going home kind of shitty.

- and eventually I'll go through the stress of finding a new grocery store, new gas station, new doctor, new dentist, new everything. Until I get all this other shit done though, I'm just assuming that new town has all those things.



Acquiring the Horse
- TC's vet check is scheduled for next Tuesday (a week from today). I'm doing all the normal stuff- flexions, longeing, etc plus x-rays of at least his hocks and front feet. He has a weird bump on his leg that he's always had, so I want to get that looked at too either by ultrasound or x-ray.

- I'm picky about who is doing it. I want my vet. MY vet. He's the best vet in the area. I'm having to haul an hour and a half each way to get this shit done. Worth it. I love my vet.

- Then I need to buy the horse, I need to discuss price with his owners but we sort of landed on a number earlier in the year which I am hoping is sticking. I already talked to them about making payments and that works. I will put a deposit on him when I move him, then pay them the rest after I get a paycheck or two.

February

- BOARDING oh my god this is worse than housing. At first I was like ooo so much boarding over here, and that's true, but you know what else is true? Lots of horses over here! All of my top picks are completely full with incredibly long wait lists. This sucks. Mostly because boarding and housing are interconnected and if I find excellent housing but no boarding nearby, I have decisions to make. UPDATE (after I wrote but before posting), a barn in the area is available! 10 minutes from potential new house that I'm seeing Wednesday! Complaining really does work! Barn has some questionable reviews... but I'm on the wait lists at my top 3 choices so I will probably not stay there for too long.

- I also have to find a new vet, new farrier, new chiro, new trainer (but dude this is not a problem, the more I read, the more I realize that this is where the top dressage trainers in the bay all train. HOWEVER I will need a trailer to get to most of them since all of their barns are way expensive and have no turnout, but that is a problem for future Megan who has more money and less debt).

- so many things need to be bought. Riding Warehouse is going to get a hefty order from me, as well as my new local tack store, which is a really freaking awesome place. On the to buy list is replacing my makeshift pile of wood that my trunk is sitting on with an actual trunk stand, and buying TC a flymask. He's never worn a flymask. Or a blanket for that matter. I also need to go through what I have already left over from Rico. Some things need to stay with Rico and some need to come with TC.

- obviously if he fails the vet check, none of this will be necessary! Until I find another horse to buy. Guys I'm so scared he'll fail.

March

Car Drama
- remember my mysterious back weakness the last six months? And the fact that I could not heal from my back injury that I got at Crossfit in June for months? Yep, it's my fucking car. The seats are crippling my back. I love my car. So much. But it needs to go. Guess who doesn't have a back injury and who does need a car? My brother. So I'm now shopping for a new car and he's buying my current car off of me when I find one. Which needs to happen in the next two weeks. Along with all of this other shit.

- I need to take my car into the shop, plus get it cleaned inside and out before my brother takes it. I also need to pay for my insurance, which I'm kind of putting off until I get a new car and a new address.

- Oh and my license expired this year so that's a thing I have to do too.

April

Current Work
- as I said above, I'm keeping clients on the peninsula and even teaching pony club this fall. Because I'm crazy. But I have a few kids who are so awesome and are only around for another year. So my business IS being downsized, I emailed the important clients yesterday and will phase out the others, but it's going to be tough.

- in addition, my part time job is being crazy. My boss wants to get as much work out of me as possible in these two weeks. Problem: I have a lot of other shit to do. Solution: don't sleep, or eat, or do anything but work. Also quit writing blog posts. Nah. I'm telling her that this is it. I'm going in today and it's my last day 100%. I can't do anything else for her. I feel bad, but I've added detailed comments to all my R scripts so she and whoever is next in line after me can actually understand what they do. So hopefully that makes up for it.

- oh and this doesn't fall exactly under this category but I HAVE NO WORK CLOTHES. I have maybe three items of clothing that are appropriate to wear to work. This works out when I work from home all the time and only go into the office once a week at most. This does not work when I go into the office every fucking day. Monday I bought shoes and rejected most clothes that I put on. Thursday is my shopping day. Luckily it's the west coast and everyone wears jeans. Unluckily all of my jeans are actually jeggings because fuck wearing real pants. And most of my shirts have been to the barn one too many times to be appropriate for a work environment.

May

THESIS
- I have a hard deadline for this shit at the end of October. This means I have to defend at the beginning of October. Which means that my committee needs it in mid-September. Which means that my adviser needs it in early September. Which means that my deadline to finish it is August 31st.

- do you know what's hard to finish in two weeks when you have everything above to finish in the same two weeks? AN ENTIRE FUCKING THESIS.

June (stretching down extra because of the water)

If I don't go completely crazy in the next two weeks, I'm buying myself something nice. Like maybe a pony.

July

A Smart Baby, a Sound Horse, and a Shitty Situation

This is what sucks: the job application process. I've applied to three tonight and hopefully one more (although I got side tracked looking at another Master's program, SCHOOL FOREVER!!) before we have friends come over for a game night.

Turns out that the job I thought I had for this semester is a big maybe but the following situation is a big need a job as soon as possible and maybe isn't good enough.

This is what sucks when the above thing is also sucking: talking to the people repairing your car and realizing that you are about to pay exactly the amount the car is currently worth just to get it driveable. Uh no thanks.

RIP little Jetta TDI. Disclaimer: not my car, my car was much
dirtier than this one

So I'm "carless" (luckily I live close to my parents who have cars they don't drive!) and "jobless" (technically I have a job- teaching and I'm working part time at school- but those jobs don't pay enough for me to get a new car and they don't add to my resume). Which is pretty shitty.

You know what isn't shitty? HORSES! I had an excellent horse day which almost took my mind off of my current state of carless joblessness.


First: TC.

TC was amazing today! I'm learning more about him each day I ride him. I'm no longer longeing him before riding and he's been very good about that. He never spooks and only looks when things are happening (such as little mini horses galloping around outside the ring).

The consistency today makes the last ride on him seem horrible! And I thought that was good! He was very steady in the bridle at the walk and trot. Sometimes a bit hollow at the trot (he seems best when we first start and after we canter, but not in the middle, I'm revamping our routine), but not bad at all. He's also responding to my roundness aids better- he used to curl a bit and that is basically gone.

He's looking more like this but not only for one step like when
this picture was taken!

Today I wanted to teach him some skills that would help me in the future so that he was used to the exercises. First- transitions. Poor horse was very confused at doing a bunch of them. He'd be trotting and we'd walk, but then we'd have to trot again?! WTF! He never said no, but I did end up grabbing a whip to get him to realize that this was a bit more urgent.

The transitions were kind of bad the whole time. He did get them sometimes, but sometimes he would forget and then the whip would come on and he would either suck back or take off a bit. Not a problem. I just want him knowing that transitions are a thing.

The next thing I taught him was turns on the forehand. He clearly knew what they were, since he caught on very quickly. Off the left leg, he was perfect! Off the right... he wasn't actually doing a turn on the forehand, more a fall-sideways. Eventually he got it, but I think I'm going to do in-hand work on that side until he's stronger.

Someone else got a lot of in hand work too!

The biggest downside today was that I pushed myself physically a bit too much and ended up feeling sore on my right shoulder. He takes a lot of opening the right rein (because he falls left) and we ended up not ending on a great note because of the soreness on my part. Ugh.

Overall, I was really impressed with him! As usual. I spoke with the trainer there who broke him and she said he was a SUPER easy break. Like he never batted an eye about anyone getting on him. So glad that he has such a good mind. Now to find a job so I can keep him...



Second horse of the day was Rico! Thanks to everyone who watched the video I posted a few posts ago. It helped me a lot with deciding what to do with him.

I'm happy to report that today, Rico was MUCH sounder than he was in the video! I warmed him up at the walk (while researching job opportunities and reading about my industry on my phone) doing lots of stretching and bending. Then I cantered him first, again working on stretching, bending, and letting him go a bit long and low.

The trot was still shorter and choppier than it was when he was competing this last year, but I need to stop expecting it to be floaty and powerful when the most moving around the horse does is walking from one bit of grass to another.

Why do I keep expecting this trot?

The whole ride, I focused on getting him looser both laterally and longitudinally with transitions and big circles. As we went on, his trot became more free in the shoulder and he moved out better. He only got short on the right front when he was allowed to fall onto it, so I kept him up in the shoulder and kept his right hind under him in a bit of a shoulder-fore.

I was so glad to have him sound(ish- still on prevocox). For the first time since November, he was actually FUN to ride rather than being depressing. We didn't do anything fancy, but I just love how simple and easy he is to ride, how light to the aids he is, and how I can almost read his mind when I'm riding him. Big change from the baby today.