Seeing Progress in Different Ways

I've always wanted a horse to whinny at me when I got to the barn. Rico never whinnied at me. Quite the opposite. I would show up and he'd walk away from me. Me = work. And then I once had a horse who whinnied at everyone who showed up, myself included. But that doesn't really make you feel special either.

TC is getting more and more vocal. He's always whinnied for other horses under saddle, we get at least 2-3 whinnies on the trails and at least 2-3 whinny attempts at any arena that isn't his home arena.

And now he's starting to whinny or at least nicker when he sees me coming out to the barn. It's the best thing ever! He sees me, registers that it is me by perking up and staring for a second, then whinnies/nickers/etc at me and walks over. He's done it sparingly over the past few months, but the last three times I've come out to get him, I've gotten a whinny. So fun!

And then when I put him back, he looks like this

On Friday, Ali and I went on the loop at the ranch and TC felt great! He's so much stronger going downhill now. I can tell because I don't feel like we're constantly at risk of tumbling down the hill to our deaths anymore. Uphill he still struggles with the fact that putting his head straight in the air and climbing straight up with his front legs is NOT an effective way to climb hills. It still feels like I'm going to fall off the back of him, yikes.

Staring at wild turkeys

Saturday and Sunday I was coaching at a horse show, but I did manage to ride on Sunday afternoon before we had family things to do.

I'm glad I've been longeing him each Sunday because it really lets me see how he has changed. His canter is much better now, he's experimenting with stretching down a little bit and he picks it up a lot easier. The trot looks about the same, he just looks stronger and is starting to be steadier in the bridle even without my corrections.

He wore himself out on the longe (cantering to the left is fun! Stopping is for chumps! Scooting is... harder... in the chambon) so our ride wasn't too fun. He was behind my leg and got me nagging him at the trot. Then when I booted him up, he wouldn't slow down. Then he'd suck back again. The canter did feel better, but he kept wanting to break. I made my point about no breaking and let him be. No point in drilling a bad ride at this stage of his training, eventually he will have to be a bit more mature about working when he's tired and it's 90 degrees, but for now he can be a bit of a baby about it.

This is why I can't find pasture in the area that will hold this horse

I tied him up and fed him his grain. He stood square for once and I managed to get a conformation picture.

I've been noticing some differences both in how he's looking and how he's going, as well as some other minor differences. He's changed a lot over the last seven or eight months since I've been riding him. Obviously he is better undersaddle, as is well documented by this blog, but I made some other observations too.

Most pasture around here is wire or barbed wire, do not trust this
dumb animal not to try things like this and slice his throat open

When I first started riding him, he got beat up in his pasture a lot. He constantly had new cuts and kick marks. His whole rear end was covered in them for months.

Now? It's weird to see them. His pasture mates have not changed at all and they still go after him. But on Sunday when I put him back, one of them charged at him and TC did a really impressive spin and leap away from him and escaped unscathed. When I first started riding him, the other horses would come after him and TC would just hop away slowly. They'd catch up easily and bite him or kick him. He's gotten a lot quicker and a lot stronger, meaning that he can get away easier.

He's like a little kid who got bullied a lot in middle school who is now hitting the gym in high school and college.

The no climb is bowing out where he rubs

Another thing that has changed is obviously his topline. I think I notice it the most in his loins, but I don't know how well the pictures show that change. He is no longer so hollow back there. When I first started with him, there was this massive disconnect between his haunches and his back (and his back and neck which still remains, but is better) that I no longer see or feel. He feels totally connected in the hind end, there's not much tension left there. Still working on him staying out to the bridle and on the tension in front of the withers at the base of the neck, but that will be a much longer process I think.

I do want him beefier in his neck and butt too. He still has a tiny bit of a dip in front of the withers that I want to completely eradicate, and his butt is still all pointy. But I think that is partially his breeding and partially where he's at in his training. He isn't doing any collection, and no engagement yet either, both of which help round a butt out.


December 2014:

The first day I met him, hard to tell his hind end was so weak
because it actually doesn't look bad here, but it was raining
and his butt was all tucked up under him, plus his tail masks
some of the pointiness 

February 2015:

Look at that upside down neck and dip in front of the wither, he
is also super weak in his loins and his SI is sticking up a bit

March 2015:

His neck started to change shape weirdly- first the front half
turned over, and the dip still remained so we got this monstrosity

May 2015:

Then the rest of it turned over but we still had a dip in front
of the withers and you can't tell here, but there is a hollowness
under where the saddle goes that isn't present today

July 2015:

Sunday, not the best picture for conformation because he's
standing slightly downhill but less of a dip in front of the withers
and again hard to see but no hollowness behind the withers

Eating so easier to see his neck, still a micro-dip there but it's
much better! I love that he tucks his (now very large) belly
under him when he eats, pony crunches!

One of the biggest things I've noticed is how much more brave he is. He has quite a flight response in him and I knew I needed to get rid of that as soon as I could. I started to bombproof him, mostly by insisting that he go touch everything that he spooked at.

Now that he's more confident and trusts me a bit more, he has gotten very curious. He picks stuff up and drops it without startling, he's playing more, he goes up to every single thing he even snorts at once to see what it is. This is how Rico started out- a bit spooky but always curious to see what the thing was, I'm feeling more and more hopeful that TC will turn out to be as bombproof as Rico.

Who I rode bridleless and bareback around his pasture in flip flops last night. We did piaffe and passage. He was not amused by my antics but didn't try to launch me.

New Trails and Old Routines

For Fourth of July, the family took a trail ride! There's a new trail facility not far from us and we decided to try it out. Rico was so so excited to not be left behind. I work or am not around most weekends so he often watches while Riot and Stretch get taken out and he is left behind. Poor pony.

Maybe if we had actually gotten some rain this year it'd be
less brown... 

I had him loose in the barn aisle while the other horses were being loaded (he goes in last because he's the biggest one). He suddenly realized that he was not being loaded and came charging out of the barn and bullied Riot into the trailer, following close behind him and trying to wedge himself into Riot's slot. I had to run after him and yank him back so we could close the divider and then let him in.

It's a small facility with one 4 mile loop. Rico was up for the whole thing but Stretch wasn't, so we ended up just walking out on one side of the loop for a while, then turning back and walking out on the other side of the loop before turning around and coming back. The trails are new so the footing was kind of loose. Rico tripped a few times but in general felt fine. He had a blast!

Some good views from the first climb

Sunday I woke up in pretty awful pain. My back hasn't been able to heal due to everyone being out of town- which means that my rides per week have more than tripled. In addition, Rico (who I ride maybe once a week on the trails) and TC (who I only ride for 30 minutes 3-4x/week and don't sit the trot) are easy on my back while the others aren't as easy.

I had two horses that I rode in the same day last week that both pulled on me a lot and my back has been getting steadily worse since then. I need it better by August because I'll be riding a lot of horses then as well. I wish people would take me on vacation rather than having me ride their horses while they are gone! Lots of ice, nsaids, and making attempts at reducing my rides to the bare minimum and only working on the canter/posting trot when I do ride.

He is so fun to trail ride

In addition (not done complaining), my inability to do crossfit is only going to make my back worse over time because I'll start to lose the core that stabilizes my back. At the moment, I can't do sit-ups/planks/anything other than walking really, way way too painful-- I am doing my PT exercises but those don't really build strength in the same way that really packs on muscle. I have almost no range of motion from L2 to my SI.

So I'm in a very precarious situation right now, the same one I was in and reason why I chose to leave this career a few years ago, where I have to choose between my health and staying afloat financially. Realities of being a horse trainer right there. I really hope it gets better soon. Or that I get a job soon... more resumes sent out this weekend.

Pity party over! I did still manage to ride TC on Sunday despite the pain.

His mane is out of control

I started with longeing in the chambon, which I'm hoping to keep up once a week. From last week to this week, he was MUCH more comfortable at the canter in the chambon. He just looks bold in the canter in a way that he hasn't ever looked before.

I got on him and my back wasn't having it, so we kept the ride short. He wasn't as forward or as connected as he has been in the last week, but we also haven't ridden at home in a week and, while he's much better relaxed, he is not as forward there. I had to get after him once or twice about being forward and then he maintained it pretty well, we also had to have some discussions via walk-trot transitions about the contact. He snapped back to normal pretty quickly but still struggled with bend to the left. The right felt amazing.

I totally want to hike up here

His canter felt pretty good under saddle. The right was much easier to steer than the other day and the left was probably about the same. In the small arena, he really struggles with the balance to the left at the canter. He leans in and scrambles in the corners sometimes. I think I need to school smaller figures in the big arenas to help him with that.

Since we had longed, I basically just stopped with just a quick walk-trot-canter. While he was eating, I brushed his tail and pulled a bit of his mane before he slammed me into the wall with his face trying to get me to stop. Ouch. He had also kneed me in the face earlier when I was leaning down to put rainmaker on his feet so I kind of just gave up trying to take care of him that day. He didn't mean either of them but I hate it when he reminds me that he isn't Rico!

So patriotic, this guy loves flags

Today I ride him again and hopefully we can get over to the neighbor's to have a nice forward ride. Remember when I hated riding there so much because he was a total dingbat? Progress.

A Great Weekend (Blogger Meetup & Canter Breakthrough)

Look at this weirdo (video below):

Love to smoosh the barrel

He will actually drag me over to the barrel to play with it

It's the best toy ever (I will be buying one for him at some point)

But let's back up for a second. Saturday I taught a lesson and rode a horse, then high tailed it up to Woodside to meet L from Viva Carlos and watch her ride in the hunter/jumper show there!

It was a great day! I thought I might not make it out there in time to watch her last class of the day, but it turned out that I got there in time to meet Ramone, accompany her and her entourage on the course walk, watch the warm up/course, and then get some lunch. Excellent!

First things first, Ramone is absolutely adorable (and HUGE), he soon found out that I felt this way about him and somehow convinced me to itch him all over. L is super nice and totally hilarious, we laughed so much throughout the day. Oh and she's an amazing rider, but everyone knows that.

We walked her course and I kept having to shut myself up about how damn big those fences were. Those are some BIG fences. But she and Ramone make them look so easy.

So easy!

Warm up was an excellent way for me to get used to taking pictures of people jumping over fences. For the dressage shows, I basically just put my camera on continuous shutter and take a million pictures, then wade through them and produce maybe eight great ones. For the jumping show though, I actually had to try to take decent pictures. Blasphemy. But I did get some good ones (but I'm going to send them to L so she can post the rest- you'll have to wait).

It was great to see her ride, and obviously I'll let her tell you about that. Overall it was super fun! It was maybe a little ridiculous that we work about ten minutes away from one another and yet it takes a horse show to get us to actually meet.

Ramone is such a nice horse in addition to being very cute

Alright so Sunday (today but you're probably reading this tomorrow) was the day I wanted to longe TC in the chambon and see if it made a difference in the rideability and throughness in the canter. He's never been longed in the chambon, mostly because I had wanted to get him comfortable cantering in general before adding another element.

I brought him out and he was extra cuddly. All he wanted was to stick his face in my arms and have me hug him. Unfortunately I was on a bit of a time crunch, I needed to get him done so that I could go shopping to prep for a BBQ today so the poor guy only got a few cuddles.

His natural state- way retracted in the neck

With no summer camp on weekends, he was terrible with hoof picking again. He really hates having his front feet picked. Or maybe it just reminds him how great pawing is. But either way he immediately starts pawing whenever I pick up his foot. Telling him to "quit it" in a nasty voice doesn't help, which is weird because it stops most of his other behavior and results in a pouty face (seen in the video below).

Hitting his chest/body doesn't help either because he's basically made of steel. So I've had to resort to trying to hold onto the foot while bopping his nose (since he puts his head down when doing it), which seems to help a lot even if it takes a ridiculous amount of coordination on my part.

Once in the arena, I longed him first without the chambon and took some video, then longed him with and took video. *UGH the longeing video is not uploading well, so you can have screenshots instead and the video above which is adorable.

I like how he goes in the chambon. It's not a classic side-reins type longe because, well, the chambon isn't a pair of side reins and it's not going to make him round. But that's okay because I can (well... that's debatable) make him round. What I need is for him to feel comfortable lengthening and lowering his neck. So yeah, he may be a little strung out but I'd rather fix that than fix him being all balled up.

He's definitely quite comfortable at the walk and trot, and actually wasn't struggling too much at the canter.

Warm up sans-chambon

His canter is humongous 

A bit hollow but not the absolute worst thing ever

Once on him, the canter DID feel better and I actually had a small breakthrough in how I'm riding it. A lot of the time on this horse, I feel like I'm just being hauled along for the ride. It's happening less in the trot, but the canter remains so out of control (although like I mentioned earlier this week, I do NOT feel like we're about to fall over all the time- progress, right?).

So today I realized that due to where his canter is at right now- kind of fast and rushing, I was not using my leg properly. I was kind of bracing in my stirrup and not really pushing him over his back into the connection, merely trying to use his natural energy to do that. Um that's not how that works! So I forced myself to ride him a little more forward (very hard for me to do that!) and actually INTO the contact and what do you know, the canter actually slowed down because HE WAS ROUND.

It was such an "oh, duh" moment, I was actually kind of embarrassed about it. But it definitely made me feel like the canter is about to get MUCH better in the next few weeks now that I'm riding properly.

The other thing we managed to do, despite my persistent sciatica (which actually felt great at the horse show yesterday because we walked around so much and I only rode the one easy horse yesterday morning), was some transitions. Specifically walk trot transitions and specifically to the left.

Stretchy trot sometimes exists

I like how flexed the right hind is. I don't like that it's flexed
because he's tipping so far in though... 

He is the world's slowest walker

I had another "oh duh" moment in the trot to the left, well, a couple-

First- I tend to get bracing on the left rein in an attempt to get him to bend that way. I need to NOT do that. It's basically just getting him to lay on that side even more. So today I decided that if he had not responded to my left rein aid after 2-4 steps, I would let go of it and ask again. My biggest fear is that he would start wagging his head, which is why I don't like that kind of riding, but I figured that head wagging would at least be easier to fix than him leaning on the rein and he doesn't seem all too sensitive about things like this. If he was, I'd worry that he'd maintain the wagging down the line. So yes he started to head wag for a circle (ugh, cringe) BUT then he stopped when he started to really bend to the left and connect to the right rein. Phew.

Second- While tracking left, I tend to keep trotting while everything breaks down around me and the trot gets worse and worse. Perfect practice makes perfect, so trotting crappily will only perfect our ability to trot crappily (which is not yet a dressage movement). I realized quickly that he was actually really excellent to the left at the walk, so I started to do walk-trot transitions, using the walk to increase the alignment and then trotting and trying to hold that. Quite successful, and let us work on throughness and alignment in transitions too.

Slowly but surely

So slow, I clucked the whole time ugh

He can only hold this for 2-3 steps but knows that it's what
I want because of how enthused I get when he does it

Both of those exercises together gave us the best left trot work we've had! And I didn't get that oh shit feeling about bending (where you're just so convinced that if you don't hold the horse in bend that the world is going to implode or something) either, which was what was causing me to be so rigid in the first place. New rule for me: no more rigidity. In other words, don't protect him from being shitty, just let the shitty happen and make a correction. He'll eventually be less so and I'll look back, thinking that it wasn't that bad.

What this, and a lot of reading of my own blog last night because sometimes I miss writing about piaffe and passage transitions rather than walk-trot transitions and I miss writing about revelations that involve less "use your leg at the canter you dingbat" and more "finding the trot in the piaffe means no more breaking," lead me to thinking is that I NEED LESSONS. Not a lot of them, but I can certainly try to get one in every month.

The Tracey clinic in early June was great, so I think I may try to go back to another one of her clinics in July. Then I have a clinic with that other S judge in August, and hopefully by September the baby horse will be MINE and I'll have access to regular lessons with Heidi again. Or I may see if September if I don't have him by then (or July for that matter), I can get him down to Heidi's barn for a lesson since that also involves a new place and going by himself.

DAMN, this only happened for this one moment and was a
complete fluke but DAMN

Again only holding this for a step but damn

Spring Fever

It's spring break (obligatory WOOOO) and it's my last spring break EVER. So far, I'm not really living it up. Thursday was our last day of class and it included my last test EVER. Thursday night we celebrated by going to a tap takeover at a local bar, Friday was my bff's birthday so we went out, and last night, Saturday, I sat at home playing video games and watching TV with the boyfriend. This week though, we're heading out for a couple nights on a camping trip. I just got two new camera toys to play with- an extended battery pack and a intervalometer- both of which (plus photoshop) will let me capture star trails! Coolness.

Today I headed out to the barn in the afternoon. Poor TC was left all alone in his pasture (all of his roommates- 2 horses) were out. Because of this, I got a whinny! And he came up to me a bit quicker than normal, which isn't saying much

He was kind of an idiot to tack up. He kept wiggling around the pole and one of the girls at the barn pointed out that I could cross tie him with another rope, so I did. He was pretty surprised, since he's never been crosstied. He tried to walk around the pole and his nose got a tug from the second rope and he turned to stare at the rope and then tried to chew it. He stood much better tied so I think I'll be doing that from now on.

TC in "cross ties," yeah my chambon is all
weird, I didn't feel like undoing his halter

I opted to longe him which was an EXCELLENT idea, this asshole has some spring fever. He took off galloping around, yanking at me and bucking. There was an innocent bystander who got a bit too close once or twice and TC set her horse off by dragging me halfway across the arena. Sorry person! After installing some manners, I let him canter in each direction until he chilled out. I could tell he really wanted a turnout or something, despite living in a large pasture. Rico never needed turnout living in a paddock. I think I'm going to have my hands full with this one.

(by the way, while I was switching sides, I texted boyfriend to say "on Halloween, I'm dressing up as Neil Young and TC can just act like he is today and we'll perform Cortez the Killer," which is a song performed by Neil Young and Crazy Horse) 

After the crazy longeing, we had some really nice moments on the longe with the chambon. He's totally relaxed and happy walking in it with his neck long, and is definitely making more progress at the trot too. I have yet to canter in it, as I don't think that his canter is balanced enough on its own to warrant any sort of contraption.

Undersaddle, he started out better than he has in a long time. Instantly on the bit and steady, with a longer neck than he has been giving me at the ends of our rides, let alone the beginnings. We did some geometry work at first, practicing circles, figure-8s, and riding across the diagonal. Then we started in on the leg yields.

I decided to do them along the rail again, and will be doing them that way for a while, I think. I will eventually go back to centerline to the rail and rail to centerline, but he needs more flexibility. They were MUCH better today than they were on Wednesday. He's really understanding the crossover and I feel like I have more control over the angle.

He was so excited to go out, he needs a trail
ride soon

Back into trot, he was feeling really forward so I decided that I was really truly going to install a damn good halt. He proved to me on Friday that his halt goes away when he's being crazy so I want to make them super super good at home.

I started with trot to walk transitions off the seat, which he was surprisingly good at. I've been using a wither relief pad because he's slightly underweight right now so lost the beefiness over his back to support my saddle. The problem with that pad is that it is SUPER thick and doesn't give me a lot of feel. But he managed to feel my thigh through it and gave me some great transitions.

The halts are still rough but I could tell as I aided that he understood the aid and just needed time to get his hind legs under him before stopping. That I'm fine with. Ignoring my aid isn't okay but extra time to do it right is.

Finally, we ended with him offering me a stretch circle for the first time ever! It wasn't a good one, persay, but it was much stretchier than he has been in the past. I taught him my aid for it and he responded well. Yay! He's basically a first level horse now right? We have a leg yield at the walk and along the rail only, a stretchy circle which is neither stretchy enough nor circle enough, and he loves to lengthen against my wishes, oh and he barely steers and wants to chuck me into the ceilings at the canter. Ahahaha we're sticking with Intro for quite a while.

His neck has filled out quite a bit! He really needs to stop
standing like he's about to fall on his face though. 

Isabella (his half sister) was excellent again today, her owner was there and we discussed the techniques that I am using. I figured I'd break it down since it seems to be working well.

Isabella is a very hot, forward, sensitive mare with an attitude. She isn't nervous or jittery though. She's your typical can't-put-my-leg-on, sitting-on-a-cannon type of ride. Rigid in the bridle or behind the bit with very little in between. Aids have to be slow, steady, and a bit long winded or she gets upset. She's very responsive to, well all aids but especially lateral aids, meaning she moves sideways very well off both legs.

I've finally figured out what works (ugh took a while, she had an argument for everything I did): offsetting her lateral balance.

I always want to be able to put my leg on a horse. Horses are not allowed to take away aids from the rider, since it gives the horse more control and the rider less. So I put her on a circle and push her laterally outward while continuing to turn her. When she slows and softens, I support her on the outside aids and give her more balance. When she flips her head or gets rigid, I let go of the outside aids and she loses balance. If she runs off, she gets turned faster and pushed more sideways.

Essentially, she earns her balance by being good. She's caught on to this very quickly. She likes feeling balanced, so she has been quite soft in the connection, relatively steady, and actually allows me to put my leg on.

Thought it'd be interesting to write that down! I don't think it'd work on too many horses, since a lot of the hot, sensitive types tend to be jittery or nervous. She is neither. I think a more nervous animal might freak if you really threw them off balance. This one is pretty special. And damn I want to jump her!

Such a cutie! And not as furry now... 

Too Confident

First, thanks everyone for the exercises last time! I'm thinking of compiling them into one big post, adding my own, and posting that... eventually.

Rico is glad he doesn't have to do any more damn exercises

Okay so my new (temporary and "part time" but I'm already closing in on 20 hours and we're not nearly finished) job is killing me. Physically, mostly, the work itself is really cool. My boss has a standing desk, so when I go into work, I stand too. Despite being young (at least for another few months until my 29th birthday, booo), I've learned that I can't possibly stand up for so long. My boss, being quite a bit older than me, is a standing up pro. By the end of our five hour meeting yesterday, I was DYING. I hobbled out to my car and insisted on laying down for the rest of the evening.

This morning, I woke up incredibly sore (also sore from crossfit both from Monday and Wednesday this week, both workouts were brutal) and had to haul around my computer and the computer she gave me to do work on. I'm so tired, how does she do it? Luckily my roommate was on campus today and able to drive me home rather than me have to lug the damn computers to the train station and home.

Except that coming home meant riding in this
very sketchy elevator with exposed wires and no
certificate of safety... whaaat the actual fuck?

Yesterday between crossfit and the epic stand-off, I rode the best baby horse!

He's getting so much more confident in himself. But I mean really. He wears boots and he has a crank noseband and he knows what a chambon means and he only occasionally yanks his feet out of my hands when I'm picking them! What a dressage pro.

With the new found confidence, comes a new desperation to be a total brat.

I had to put my saddle near him because my normal rack was taken. So he proceeded to dump my saddle pads off of the saddle and started in on the saddle itself until I told him to stop. Then he started yanking blankets down and spooking at them when they fell. Then he pawed, got his foot onto the fence, and thought hard about climbing it before I backed him off of it. The whole time, I was saying "stop it", "quit it", "knock it off" and the lady nearby was like "wow he's really obnoxious."

But he's so cute!

We did our normal longeing routine. After his normal warm up walking, trotting, and cantering, I put on the chambon. Immediately TC took the chambon to the next level. He stuck his nose literally in the dirt and trotted so that he was dragging his nose along the ground. I kept having to send him forward to get him to bring his head up, then he'd hit the chambon and go way way down to the ground again. Eventually he figured it out...

I got on him and he was really stoked. I could feel a little bounce in his step as we walked along. Then he decided that it was time to trot and he charged off with me.

He's always been super lazy. Since he was a baby being broke, he's always needed spurs and a whip. But now that he's gaining confidence and fitness, he's getting more and more forward. It's a really nice forward, but he isn't strong enough to hold himself up, so he basically just charges around with his face in my face and won't respond to any aids. I don't think he means anything bad by it- he's just feeling good.

I'm not a massive fan of being dragged around by an idiot baby horse, but I do like how forward he is now. He's always been lazy- since the day they broke him, he's needed spurs and a whip to be ridden- so I'm really pleased that he's quite forward now. But I want to, you know, have SOME sort of control over him. So we once again revisited the half halt. He wasn't so thrilled about it but after a LOT of transitions, we got some excellent work.

There are donkeys in that paddock to the right
he loves them. 

Once as he settled down a bit, we had some really nice trot work. The geometry isn't perfect yet, but he is definitely going into corners much better. Other than getting him to settle down and do his job rather than darting around the arena like a maniac, my big goal between now and the show in terms of how he is going is to get his geometry a bit better. He falls in and out on circles sometimes and doesn't always stay to my outside rein. That will all come with time.

The canter work was excellent. He's really figured out how to keep cantering through corners and to the right, he stays quite balanced. To the left, he's struggling with the corners, especially the one where he turns to go downhill (the arena is on a bit of a slope).

Overall, I'm really pleased with him, even if his new confidence has turned him into a brat.

Ali and I talked about getting to new places both for her horse, who can be dramatic, and little TC, who just hasn't been many places. She's going to talk to my former boarding barn to see if we can pay a quick use fee and school (which would be great! There are many arenas, including a trail course which I'd love to torture him with). I also talked with my mom and okay'd using my parents' facility one day, which is just across the valley. Hopefully that lines up two new places for us to go before the show. I'd also like to get TC trailering alone and in my rig, but Ali is going to the first show with me, so I'm not too concerned about getting that done just yet.

Stop, I want to take pictures of your face!

Can also just add here at the end that although the baby horse is really fun and exciting, there are so many days that I just really miss having my favorite Grand Prix horse in work. Rico is thoroughly enjoying his retirement and my mom is looking forward to having him as her trail horse one day. I'm glad he's getting the life he deserves, but I miss him sometimes!

Loved his piaffe

Our last show