Mounted Archery!

As you know, I was supposed to take TC to this clinic and he would have LOVED it. But he hadn't been cleared to ride until after the clinic and he doesn't yet have his stitches out actually. I'll post an update on him next week!

Luckily this is one of the many reasons why I'm glad I have the pony going right now: he got to step up to be my ride for this clinic. 

I expected the pony to be... a little less into it than TC. I wasn't sure if that would mean that I was more likely to fall off or less likely. Luckily though, I had my neck strap that I'd bought in Kentucky and I was really excited to work on convincing myself it was there in times of trouble. Fortunately/unfortunately, I didn't need to use it! 

Ready to rock and roll

Saturday Morning

We began on Saturday morning without the horses. I opted to not bring Sunny over before the clinic given that it was just across town and we had an hour for lunch. This was definitely the right option because I have never shot a bow and arrow before and it would have been hard to focus on the task at hand if I was worrying that Sunny was watching me and deciding that I was completely off my rocker. 

There was a lot of safety talk in the beginning, which made me happy. I'm glad to say that no one shot at anyone and no one got hurt! We talked about how to use the bow and how to load an arrow. That was a surprising amount of information. Once we were comfortable loading an arrow standing still, we then practiced loading an arrow while walking. The loading part has to be super fast and you need to do it without having to think about it, because you've got to focus on your horse and on the target. It was tough to load it properly without moving, but the more we did it, the easier it got. 

We finally started shooting and I was immediately bad at it. I'm not particularly coordinated off of a horse and it's kind of weird! They call it intuitive archery for a reason and apparently I do not have much natural intuition for archery. Soon though, we all got pretty good at it and I managed to start hitting the targets pretty consistently standing still. 

Then, we had our world rocked as we started to walk and shoot. Just like loading the arrows while walking, this added some difficulty and I missed some targets. I think it was about then that I realized that mounted archery was going to be really hard, even if I could shoot a bow and arrow. 

Quivers on day 2!

Saturday Afternoon 

Our lunch break gave me the perfect amount of time to drive to the ranch and grab Sunny. 

I decided to take it VERY slow. The pony is a very good pony, but occasionally in the past he's decided he's HAD IT with my antics (I do weird shit with my horses, I don't blame him for questioning me lol) and things get bad quickly. My primary goal was to not set us back in how well he's doing these days. 

We started out by warming up and I opted to do so on the ground. I led Sunny around the arena, let him look at everything (the targets, barrels, the cones/poles for the lane), and clicked for curiosity. Then, we stood while our instructor walked by with arrows and he got clicks and treats for watching her. After that, I got some arrows and he got a lot of clicks and treats for putting up with me making noise with them all over his body. 

It was about this time that I realized that we weren't going to have any problems. Sunny thought this was the BEST GAME EVER. All he had to do was find arrows and he'd get clicks and treats. For the rest of the weekend, he checked in with anyone who had arrows and got a lot of attention and treats for that, which he thought was amazing. I think he cuddled with everyone at the clinic. 

Super stoked!

I got on and we repeated the process and aside from the pony HATING all the horses at the clinic (as per usual for him), Sunny had an amazing time. 

Soon, it was time to actually fire the arrows at the targets. By this point, I was pretty confident in the pony. Clicker training for the WIN always. And sure enough, the sound that the arrow made as it fired and the sound that it made when it hit the target didn't phase him one bit. He just put his eyes on our instructor with the arrows at the end and he marched right towards her while I fumbled with my bow. 

It is WAY harder to shoot on a horse, wow! But I did end up hitting one of the targets before we were done. 

Upon getting home, by the way, TC was BESIDE HIMSELF that Sunny had gone in his trailer to go do something fun (since his trailer always means fun to him). He shook his head a bunch and cantered around enough where I had to go get him from his pasture and put him in the cross ties, where he proceeded to throw a fit, pawing and threatening to rear. I did get on him and ride him down the road to make him feel better, but then back in his pasture he galloped away from me. So he got an early dinner and I scrambled off the property because he always behaves worse when I'm around. TC! Really?!

Happy pony with his arrows, unhappy
gray horse not realizing what he's missing

Sunday Morning

We began Sunday in the same way we did Saturday, sans horse. We reviewed what we learned the day before and then spoke about equipment. On the first day, we didn't use quivers, we just held arrows as we rode and were handed more when we were finished shooting. This time, we got to talk about the different types of quivers. I decided that I liked a hip/thigh quiver and got to try one on. 

I wrote down the bow that I liked and the quiver. They aren't the cheapest you can get, but I did some quick math and the bow, the quiver, some arrows, and a glove for my hand that I kept slicing up ended up coming out to about as much as I'd spend on a dressage show. So I figured that I'd treat myself and get the equipment I wanted so that I could have another fun hobby to do with TC (and a potential new sport to compete in if I decide to continue not doing dressage shows). 

When we had our bows and our arrows in a quiver, we learned how to take the arrows out of the quiver quickly and load them to shoot. That was WAY harder than our instructor made it look. Once we were old hands at that, we learned to do back shots and front shots on barrels. There is a specific way to weight your body so that you can still shoot accurately without flinging yourself off your horse. 

Ready for day 2!

Sunday Afternoon

The weather wasn't great on Sunday, it was cold and windy, so Sunny was a bit more on edge. I decided to not push it with him and to just find a really good note to end on. He ended up settling pretty well despite being a bit more grumpy about the fact that there were still other horses around him. 

We started with the same exercise we did the day before, walking down in a line, all shooting at the targets, but this time we all had our quivers on. It took a little bit of time to get the horses used to the quivers, and you had to be careful because the quiver could tilt if it wasn't tight enough and bop the horse on the butt. Pulling arrows out of quivers is trickier than just holding them in your hand, so we got to practice that. I actually got pretty decent and was able to shoot two arrows per line rather than just one. 

Next, we shifted the targets and did some front shots. This was super fun and Sunny agreed because it meant that we got to go ALONE down the line. Front shots mean you shoot kind of diagonally over the horse's shoulder to the front, so we had to be careful not to have horses too close because you could accidentally shoot someone in front of you. 

I finally got a really good go and decided to be done there. There was going to be an option to trot or even canter while shooting and that sounded really fun! But I'd already decided I was going to buy archery equipment and get myself some targets, so there was time to do that at home when the weather was better and when both of my horses know that they're now archery horses. No reason to push it on the second ever day of doing archery from Sunny's back. 

Back at the ranch, my brother, SIL, and niece were there to pick up their car from their weekend adventure. My niece positively screamed when I drove in and she came running up to the truck yelling at me about her "Sunny Horse," which she calls him. She'd been cleaning my tack for me (omg so nice of her! She dragged my brother to the barn and showed him where all the stuff was and asked to clean TC's bridle for me). She helped me unload her Sunny Horse and put him away, give him cookies, cleaned the trailer, and unloaded the tack room. So as you can tell, the indoctrination is going well. 

Such a good pony!

While I'm super bummed that TC couldn't do the clinic with me, I'm so glad I went! It was so much fun to learn a new skill and introduce Sunny to something fun. He was such a good boy and it gave me so much joy to see him having a good time with something brand new to him. The clicker training has really made him come out of his shell and be a lot more confident in himself, which has meant that we have more fun together because I know I can throw more stuff at him without him getting emotional. I have some theories on that emotional side of him that I have seen, but I'll post about that later, I find him really interesting to work with! 

I really can't wait to introduce this stuff to TC, I think he'll have a blast! There's a local club opening up just across town too, so we'll definitely join and go play on their range sometime. I'm already plotting where to put some targets at the ranch though... 

Grooming Clinic!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

He does do this frequently though

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

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

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

Took a picture to remember it!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bird lady also had baby hummingbirds!

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

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

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

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

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

Land Safe Clinic!

Earlier this year I saw that Land Safe was coming to Northern California again and I immediately signed up. I told myself when I started seeing the clinics happening that I'd sign up if I a) started jumping again or b) bought a young horse. Well, I did the former!

Not a great posture to be riding in! 

I waited all year for it and actually forgot about it until I saw it in my calendar for last weekend. Unfortunately, my aunt's service was on Saturday afternoon, so staying overnight was a no go and I was concerned I might not be able to go to Saturday. I briefly considered emailing the organizers or selling my spot, but it was important to me and it turned out that I was in the morning group anyway. So the only downside was that I had to drive up and back both days. Not a problem! I'm less than two hours away, so that was fine. 

I ended up having friends in my time slot already! One was a friend I'd met on IG a while back, we started talking a lot about the work that TC and I were doing with the clinician and now she's doing that same work with the same person! It was fun to officially meet her. I knew a couple of other people who had ridden with Kate a few years ago, they had moved away since. And the last person was my trainer friend who I rode with last February! 

Prepping for when things start to look like this!
Actually this is TC dragging me to a puddle... but
I thought it looked  a little like an oh shit moment lol

The clinic was super unique and so much fun. I would definitely recommend doing it, even if you don't jump or ride young horses. I frequently get the "making arrangements for falling off" feeling when TC really gets himself up into the air or when a horse tries to spin me off of them (Flounder did that to me a couple weeks ago actually!), so I know that I can make plans. But what plans should I make? Now I know! 

The clinic was run so well. I'd first heard about them through Olivia's blog and what she says in her posts was similar to my experience as well. Like Olivia says, this post is not instructional, definitely go to a clinic instead of trying to learn from what I'm writing. 

Lots of squishy things to land on!

The instructors started us off with stretching and then some basic tumbling. I don't know about anyone else out there, but if there was a beginning gymnastics class for adults, I would absolutely take it. I think things like this are SUPER fun. I had a blast even though it made my brain go WTF. 

They do such a good job prepping you for things. When I got there and saw the simulator I was like "I am not going to want to fall off of that," but with how they did things, by the time we got to the simulator, I was happily flinging myself off of it. 

We started with learning the brace position. It's essentially everything we are taught not to do while riding. Tuck the chin, get the arms up and create a cage around your head (they had a specific way to do it so that you didn't make things worse, so don't try to learn from what I'm doing here), and keep your back round with your legs tucked in. 

From that position, we did a lot of tumbling: forward rolls, shoulder rolls, sideways rolls. The body does NOT want to keep this position. I don't know why we didn't evolve to respond to falling like this, or maybe something was up with my brain. Because at first my brain was like "oh god I'm falling! Look up and around, pull arms close to chest!!!" and that was unhelpful. 

Where should you be looking, Megan

Brace position getting ready to fall

The funniest part of the tumbling was that one of the instructors grabbed a pool noodle and was bopping people with it to show when they'd untuck their chin or when they'd lose their cage or their legs. It was shockingly effective and he said that it was kinder than the ground was going to be. I only got bopped a few times but it was SUPER helpful in pointing out that I tend to untuck after I've rolled once. 

On the first day, we spent most of the time on the mats. Like I said above, when we got on the simulator, it didn't feel like too much because of all the preparation! The first thing we did was just practice pushing off of the horse in the same way you'd do in a rotational fall. They had us sit in the saddle on the simulator and then they slowly tipped it until we lost balance and had to grab the back of the saddle to hold on. That was the "oh shit" moment and it was when we knew we needed to bail. 

Bailing wasn't too bad because we'd been doing this on the mats! We worked on both directions, first onto a very squishy mat and then working down to something more at ground level. 

Learning to roll off the horse

The second day, we still did some tumbling, but then spent more time than we had the day before on the simulator. I wasn't too sore the second day, surprisingly! The tumbling was much easier the second day and we graduated to some new ways of hitting the mats. 

Once on the simulator, we worked on what to do with a rear. The first step is to stand up in our stirrups, something that I definitely do when a horse starts to buck (mostly because most of my injuries have been when I've tried to sit bucks, it's easier to sit them/better for my back if I'm in jump position) but haven't done during a rear. It was immediately apparent that standing up was necessary to be able to step off the rear, which is what was taught. 

We were to grab onto the neck/mane to stand up but then push ourselves back. I don't sit a lot of rears anymore (Rico was my rearer), and I totally trust TC on the very rare occasion that he stands up, but you never know! 

Stepping off of a rear

Being flung off of the horse lol

Next, we practiced rolling off of the horse. That is the most common fall, basically falling off over the shoulder. It was interesting because this was how I fell the last time I fell (and, honestly, most times), I fell to the right, rolled right off and landed on my back, hitting the back of my head. Sure enough, despite doing pretty well when falling to the left on the simulator, my body reverted to its normal response to falling off the right and I fell in a heap. Luckily this is the only time I've been able to practice falling! So I practiced and got better to it. 

We worked our way up to falling directly on the bouncy green mat off the left side of the simulator. This was interesting because we were now falling from a large-ish distance, enough for your body to be like "I'm falling!" and refuse to do the things you'd JUST learned. Or at least, that's what I felt. Because the first time, I was okay, but the second time, I did what I'd done that got me a pool noodle in the face (let go of my chin tuck) and I thwapped the side of my head on the bouncy mat. 

That SUCKED and made me feel old. I immediately had a headache and had some whiplash symptoms for a few days. Nothing serious, just annoying. I was a little afraid of that happening again and was reluctant to do it again, but the instructor helped me so much. He had me do some quick exercises on the simulator to get me holding my cage and keeping my chin tucked, then had me fall again and kept telling me to stay tucked. It didn't hurt AT ALL despite already being sore (lots of heat on it this week helped immensely!). Yay! Get back on the horse! Also a good reminder of why we wear helmets.

The last thing we did was practice emergency dismounts. I hadn't done one since I was a kid but it came right back to me and was so fun!

Emergency dismount while the
simulator was moving!

At the end, we got to watch some videos in slow motion of near misses where the rider does the right thing to both salvage the balance of the horse and get ready for the fall if necessary (they didn't want to show us scary accidents). We also had a really good discussion about safety gear. 

Right now I'm going to buy a new cross country vest and a new, nicer helmet. I need the vest for cross country this year, but I'm going to use the helmet every day. I've been riding in cheap-ish Troxel helmets for a while now, which are fine. They are certified and TC/Sunny/Flounder are all very safe horses. But a friend at the clinic pointed out that all it takes is one freak accident for you to be in the hospital regretting not spending a little more money on your helmet. The moment I imagined that (and especially imagining my SO, who is really scared of me falling, reacting to the fact that I ride in pretty much the cheapest helmet you can ride in), I decided to upgrade my helmet. 

We also chatted about air vests and I will definitely be getting one in the future. It's unnecessary now given what I'm jumping out on xc (Intro/BN on a very safe horse with an excellent instructor), but I want to buy it before it is necessary. 

Definitely want to sear this into
my brain forever

Overall, my gosh, I think this clinic should be something on everyone's radar! Even without having horses who I fall off of even semi-regularly, it made me feel so confident when I rode this week and about my slow reintroduction to the sport of eventing. 

It was also really amazing to talk to one of the women at the clinic, she'd been to the last one two years ago and had fallen since, with the falls on video. She swears up and down that the clinic saved her from harm, and you can TOTALLY see it in the video. That was enough to decide that I'm going to this clinic once a year or every other year for the rest of my riding career. 

Sorting Out Sunny

I was excited to have the clinician stay through to Monday because I was eager to get Sunny looked at too. With his silicosis and obvious neck issues, I was hoping that she could give me some information about him.

Not sure what we were talking about
but he's so cute!

Just like with TC, she worked on him for a while on the ground with the bodywork. Sure enough, Sunny has some pretty significant nerve pain in his neck! This is something I’ve been suspecting due to his weird behavior. He is so protective of himself and he has random explosions, especially after jumps, that feel like he’s been stung by a bee or something. He has this panic button that gets hit in those explosions and he feels terrified in the moment. 

She did a bunch of work to help him out but she thinks he has some neck arthritis going on that will probably always affect him. That’s most likely due to the silicosis. She didn’t think that he was impossible though, she thinks that we can fix the explosions for sure, he’s just going to need some help. 

I only have potato quality screenshots from his
ride because the person with the nicest phone had
to run! But any video is appreciated

I got on and what a difference between Sunny and TC. I could tell that Sunny felt better, but TC was way less protective than Sunny was. I had to take a lot longer to help Sunny find the softness and the posture that TC just gave me the moment I implied that it would be a nice thing for him to do. 

But when he did start to let go, he felt SO good. Sunny has always had kind of a clunky way of moving. He’s not a big mover and doesn’t have a lot of suspension, so you’d think he was smooth to sit, but he’s kind of not. 

He felt so much looser than he normally does

Now though, he felt smooth to sit! I encouraged him to lengthen his step, something he’s not really been able to do, and he was hesitant but did end up lengthening his stride a bit! Good pony! 

He was not nearly as excited as TC was, but that’s okay. I sent the video to my mom and she said “he looks more comfortable” and he really did seem that way. He seemed a little happier and a little more relaxed, which was great to see and feel in him. Not everyone is going to be a drama queen like TC I suppose. 

Such a good pony

I’m super excited to keep doing the same work with him and to see how he feels. I figure if we stick to it through the winter, maybe he’ll feel good enough to jump in the spring without exploding. If I can swing it, I’ll ride remotely with her on him too to just keep an eye on his progress. 

Punted Down the Path

Day two was at Kate’s barn. I ended up staying at the ranch Sunday night to Monday so that I could get an early start. This time I loaded up both horses. I’ll talk about Sunny later though. 

Most interesting creature first

TC was very excited to go to a place with the pony! The pony hates him though... Sunny is skeptical of most horses (except Riot, somehow Riot has been deemed acceptable by Sunny), but Sunny especially hates TC. I think because TC is chock full of problematic optimism and therefore doesn't care that Sunny doesn't like him. If there's one thing that Sunny hates, it's friends who don't care that he hates them. 

Because the trailer is a bit small, Sunny had to go in first so that TC could have the large rear spot. So, I put Sunny in first, loaded TC up, and then Sunny squealed at him. Worried that TC somehow was able to poke Sunny's butt, I looked into the trailer and saw that the most TC could do was… look… at Sunny. Sunny thought that this was unacceptable. And knowing both of them, TC was probably staring at Sunny the entire ride to the facility while Sunny squealed and stomped his feet at him. 

This horse has always been so out behind, there
are things I want to change about his hind end still
but this is much improved! Not a cart horse anymore

When we arrived (luckily for Sunny it was only a 15 minute haul), I took TC out and put him in the round pen, then grabbed Sunny. I swapped them out and Sunny hung out in the round pen while I took TC over to the clinic. He got worked on and the clinician was super excited to see that he was feeling really good on Monday after the work on Sunday. He felt so good that it wasn’t very long before she asked for Sunny and had me get on TC. 

I handed Sunny off (I will discuss him later) and then took TC to the trailer to tack up. I came back and we started our ride! 

All the connection issues he's ever had went away
except a slight inclination to curl

We managed to get the fabulous walk that we had the day before back right away. He felt so loose and the work felt easy. We worked on the same exercises as before, but things progressed even faster than the day before. Things that I had to slowly work toward the day before were accessible from my seat. 

He felt so good that we were told to trot! And I’ve never had the horse pop into trot so excitedly on the first try. He’s been really hesitant to trot sometimes, but not this time. He needed way less aid to get him going and no aids were necessary to keep him going. That was mildly terrifying, he was just so ON and so immediately responsive. I didn't realize how much he has been just low key behind me until he wasn't. 

She had me do the same work that we did in walk in trot. TC was on it. It didn’t take too much aid to ask him to maintain his new posture, it was like he was thinking “FINALLY I can MOVE now!” 

His core is actually engaged, what a miracle

We played with asking him to push forward down the long sides and his trot got SO NICE. He popped way up in front, something that I’ve long thought I was feeling on him but now realize that I’ve never felt on him. At one point, he got so excited as we passed another horse that he transitioned into a slight passage like trot with his front end up even higher. 

I had my clicker with me and so I clicked a fair amount for the various things he was giving me. TC was so smug about it, which cracked us all up. After the first click it was like he said “about time” and took his cookie with the most hilarious facial expression. From then on he was on fire. 

After some big medium trots in each direction, he started to get tired, so I opted to be done for the day. We talked about the plan going forward and I’m so excited because she offered me remote lessons! She seemed to really love TC and thinks we have big things ahead if we stick to this work. I told her I would need some hand holding, especially in the smaller arena at home and without a crowd of people for him to show off in front of. 

Glancing into the future, I'll go into more detail
later but I'm not riding him this far up on purpose

I put TC in the round pen to relax while we worked with Sunny, but once he was loose, he decided to see what his new body was capable of. He played and played and played. I haven’t seen him play like this since he was a baby! I mean, he and Rico will trot and canter around together in pasture sometimes, so he does play I suppose. But this was a different kind of play, like he was experimenting with his body and getting excited to feel what it was capable of. 

He bucked a lot, galloped around, stopped, reared a few times, pawed a lot, and he even played with a weird Spanish… trot? type thing? I don’t know how to describe it but if I could get him to do it inside a passage, it’d be an eight at least. 

We ended up having to pull him out of the round pen because he got kind of sweaty and gross. Luckily he was happy to hang out with Kate’s assistant in the corner while I rode Sunny and then we were on our way home! 

I can't get over how excited he was about all this,
he was so focused but also so joyful

I’m SO excited about this clinic. It was definitely life changing for us. I’m excited to have my horse back and to have found at trainer to help us through this critical time of rebuilding him. I'm so unbelievably grateful and hopeful right now. 

Finding the Path

TC and I finally got to see the clinician from this post last weekend!! I’ve been so stoked to see her and to have her see TC. It’s been great to do what we can without her help up until this point, but it feels a little bit like neither of us really knew what we were doing and we were just winging it. Like, he's improved so much, but I knew that this clinic would make or break this work for us. 

No regrets, best clinic I've ever been to

Unfortunately as we were coming home from the Working Equitation clinic, my trailer started to smell like burning, never a good sign. It has an appointment in early December to get that looked at, I think it's the bearings on the right rear tire. Luckily, being at the ranch makes borrowing my mom’s rig super easy, so on Sunday afternoon, I pulled that out from behind the barn and put all of TC’s stuff in it while he watched me. 

TC has hauled in that trailer once or twice, it’s big and a lot nicer than my trailer. I didn’t realize how much TC was attached to my trailer though, because when I went to get him, I got his halter on and then he made a bid to leave and I let him go just to see what he would do. He galloped full speed from his stall to the middle of his pasture. Then he turned around and looked at me with confusion. I guess that’s par for the course for this horse, or maybe it's a regression to his younger self. When in doubt, go very fast away from the thing that confuses you. 

I went out to get him and he loaded just fine, but I warned the clinician when we unloaded and walked into the arena that he might be a little emotional that day. 

He wasn’t though! I don’t know if he got all of his emotions out about the trailer with the gallop or whether he was just being a silly creature. Or maybe he saw his best chaotic gray friend (Kate’s horse) and thought that this place was going to be very inclusive of chaotic gray horses. Or maybe he just loved the long horns next to the arena because they reminded him of home. Who knows. He was super chill there though. 

I don't know if you're aware, but that
is not my trailer - TC

She knew a little bit about us because we’d chatted at the last clinic. I told her that I’d been encouraged to ride him in a way that I’m now thinking has been damaging to him. I’ve been encouraged to drive him into a heavier contact than the one he prefers, I’ve been encouraged to narrow his shoulders to make him more steerable, and I’ve been encouraged to hustle him over tempo to get him more responsive to my leg. 

I told her that vets, chiros, and many other horse professionals have pronounced him totally sound and just chocked his lack of muscle up to a lack of a muscle building supplement or just needing to get him fitter or his breeding. Friesians don’t have good top lines, I’ve been assured, just keep riding him, give him this supplement, but remember that he'll never look like a warmblood so don't worry about it. But I can’t shake the *crazy* idea that horses are supposed to get easier to ride and better muscled as you move up the levels. That my Third level dressage horse, despite his breed, shouldn't have a sunken back and an upside down neck. 

She worked on him for a while and TC kept interrupting after almost every release to go roll and think about things. I think all of the bodywork I’ve done with him this year, from chiro to the PT lady to my amazing acupuncturist… I don’t think TC would have let her in as much as he did without them slowly chipping away at his ridiculous exterior shell. But he was not a clown, despite having Kate and her assistant there (both of whom he loves to show off for), he just trusted that she was going to help him because of all the fabulous bodywork he's had this year. 

Kate got the most magnificent photo of him

After she worked on him, she asked about his behavior under saddle. I didn’t know what she meant so I told her his history, he had about a year or two of bolting, then two years of leaping and bucking, there was a week when he was younger when he just stood up on his hind legs. But now, he’s pretty damn good. And he always takes me with him, I trust him completely even when he's being a loon. 

She asked me if he’d do anything naughty that day and I said no, he gives his rider ample warning and both Kate and I would be able to see what was happening from a ways away. She then asked to ride him. 

The farm was BEAUTIFUL and had
these amazing cows

No one rides this horse. I mean, I do and he gives my niece pony rides sometimes. I put some friends on him when he was younger. And Kate has ridden him. But I've balked at putting people on him lately due to his current issues and I've always balked at putting professionals on him (other than Kate). 

But with her, I just said “yep!” with no hesitation, and she hopped right on him. 

She walked him for a while and asked me some questions about his training. Then she trotted him and I think his girth was too loose, or he was worried about her (she's pregnant and he's totally that horse who will value your unborn child over your demands, he is very careful with my niece), but he was very tentative in trot. 

While she was riding, I saw the way he held his neck and it was just awful to start. He takes his third vertebrae straight back to the rider’s chest and the bottom of his neck is completely rigid. But she slowly worked through things with him, helping him find a better posture, dissecting what he was doing with his right hind, which was very stuck. By the end he was lifting beautifully through the base of his neck and seeking contact. He looked stunning. She then hopped off and put me on. 

It was mostly walking on Sunday so these are from
Monday

Immediately I felt like I had my horse back, but a much better version. Like if you had combined Rico and TC and given them a shot of vodka or a couple dozen muscle relaxers. He felt so loose and his aid system was completely normal. She had me do some of the exercises I’d been trying to do on my own, but they were much easier after she’d shown him how she wanted him to do them. The walk we got out of doing this work was so magical. There was video taken but I haven't gotten it yet. I'm so excited to see what it looked like. 

Then we talked about his right hind. He has a significant gelding scar on that side, something that PT lady found and that she said caused sciatica on that right hind. He has always been super itchy back there but no matter where I scratch or how long, he never seems satisfied. Itching is just a low level of pain, so I think he feels a little tingly sensation and thinks he is itchy. 

She said she thought the same, that he might have a little sciatica in that leg at times, but that we could fix it by teaching him to abduct his right hind while tracking left.  

If you're wondering, this winter is definitely the
winter I give up trying to wear my nice boots, I
don't want to stretch them out over my multiple
pairs of socks or thicker breeches

She gave me some exercises for this (because of how damaging the exercises can be without doing them under instruction first, I'm not going to write about them, but she does distance sessions so feel free to get her info from me) and we got his right hind leg under him and, surprise surprise, under ME. Then he lost it. I’m so used to riding him with a trailing hind leg on the right side that it took me a second to figure it out. I felt it first in my left seat bone, it felt like his hip was up. I told her that and she encouraged me to also focus on the right side. As I brought his outside hind leg out, I couldn’t feel anything, I kept asking and then he filled the right side of his back in a way that I realized he’d never done before and when I felt that, she said YES! And we went forward out of it. 

We worked up to doing it at the walk and I started to feel the vacancy on the right side rather than having to infer it from what was happening on my left side. It’s easier for me to feel things on the left than the right due to my own SI injury (something I’ll be fixing this spring when I’m on the SO’s amazing health insurance woohoo). Feeling anything on the right was so exciting for me, because maybe it’s my SI injury (I’m sure that contributes to it), or maybe it’s just the fact that my horse has never been able to put his right hind where it needs to be. 

He looks nice though, despite my attire 

We stopped after that and I was glad to. We were going to see her the next day anyway and I didn’t want to push him after going through so much in the body work. 

She told me that there was nothing wrong with TC physically and that I'd done a fabulous job with his training, he just needed help finding a different posture. I believed her. Hearing it from vets and other body workers was fine, but it was hard because no one told me WHY he looked like this, they just told me to keep on keeping on. She had clear reasoning for why his body looked the way it did. And she showed me the path to fixing it. So I could finally believe that there was nothing physically wrong with him. There were answers and there was a plan. Finally! 

Working Equitation Clinic

Over the weekend, I took Sunny to a local working equitation clinic! I was on the fence about bringing TC but then decided against it. First, there were only two time slots and each were three hours long. I really didn't want to give up my entire day. Second, I've been very careful to not ride TC very long in his bareback saddle because of the pressure distribution issues. His back is still not particularly well muscled (getting better though) AND my back is starting to complain about riding bareback too much. 

Pony not sure what is happening

Pony, sixteen year old pony, pawing at the trailer

Pony not sure how to rein back in a straight line

Pony with a pole

Plus, no offense to TC, but he's kind of obnoxious at obstacle clinics if the point of the clinic isn't to destroy obstacles. Sorry TC. He was definitely jealous of Sunny going somewhere in HIS trailer though. He'll get to go somewhere this weekend so that's good! It won't be as fun but he doesn't know that. He thinks everything is fun. 

Another big win for bringing Sunny is to see how he'd do at working equitation! He's never done it but he just feels like a good WE horse, compact and maneuverable. My mom used to do trail classes when she was a kid and so I really hoped she'd be interested in the working equitation, even just to join TC and I at the next one! 

Pony putting the pole down

Pony considering moving while I hoist a jug

Pony ringing the bell

Pony listening to the instructor

We arrived at the clinic just in time. The three hour time is honestly perfect, but it is a lot of riding. It's a lot of standing around learning and watching other people do the obstacles, but it's a lot. I didn't want to warm him up very much and tire him out, he's not three hours of riding fit. 

Because of that, he came into the arena pretty perky, which was so cute. He doesn't get to go a lot of places. He lives a good life, don't get me wrong, but this stage of his life means chilling at the ranch a lot vs when my mom bought him, he was at an eventing barn doing lots of fun stuff. He’ll get to do fun stuff with my niece soon and hopefully this year my mom is going to trail ride him a lot!

While being perky means TC would have been considering knocking down obstacles and leaping around to make people laugh, Sunny was very serious with his energy. He knew we were going to be Doing a Thing and he wanted to be ready for it. 

Pony through the slalom

Pony at the bull

Pony at the gate

Pony around the barrels

Pony in the pen

The instructor had us start by halting near some of the obstacles (the gate and the jug) and reining back. I guess some horses try to step away from the obstacles. Sunny didn't think to do that so she quickly assigned us another rein back exercise through two cones. That was HARD for him because, and this was news to me since we never do it, he doesn't rein back in a straight line! 

Once everyone was ready, we started on the obstacles! I was familiar with all of them having done them on TC at two separate clinics, but it was great to hear more about them and how not to get eliminated. 

We went through each obstacle on its own and Sunny handled it all so well! Our primary homework was just to get him a bit more supple and confident on the smaller circles, that was it! I was so impressed with him. He was amazing at the gate, he was totally fine with the bull, and he actually has a walk pirouette, who would have thought? I certainly didn't put that on. 

Pony meets the bull

Pony getting fancier

Extra fancy pony

Pony does walk pirouettes?! How fancy is this pony??

At the end, we did a whole course and it was like, the most fun I've had on a horse (except maybe riding Flounder on cross country) in a long time. I didn't care about the mistakes I made, I didn't care that the pony wasn't exactly correctly connected the whole time, I didn't care that my biomechanics were a mess. I just had fun. That's something that I really can't get from dressage right now, so I'm glad I have Sunny to entertain me. 

The best part was that my mom was able to come watch the last third, which included our course! She was so happy to hang out and chatted with a bunch of the ladies at the clinic. She also got the video, so that was great! These screenshots are from the video, which you can watch by clicking here. It’s a bit boring, it’s literally just an introductory working equitation course. 

Pony with the cup

Pony jumping and communicating what he plans
to do after the fence o.o

Pony deciding to launch rider

Pony getting a bit too close to losing me

Laughing at pony’s dump attempts

There’s another clinic in December that I’m trying to get into! It’s a bit further away but it’s with the same instructor and I really enjoy her style. I also emailed her to see if I could get on her mailing list for shows. I really want to take the horses to one. TC is definitely going to get eliminated for being chaotic and knocking shit down, but it’d be fun! And with Intro only being walk trot and any tack being allowed, I think we could do it even if he’s not quite back to full work. 

Sunny though, I think he could be kind of competitive! He takes it so seriously. I mean, it’s a sport neither of us have ever done before, he’s not the fanciest pony in the world, and I’m probably going to get us eliminated for a stupid reason… but still! I’m hoping that having the trainer there will at least get us to complete the competition without elimination but either way it’ll be fun and that’s all that matters. 

Pony not sure why we are saluting when I am
wearing socks like this