Slowing Down + Adding Lateral Work

TC has been pretty good this week! I'm still kind of experimenting with things to get us on the same page. After watching the last video I took (trying to take them every week), I noticed that when I thought he was forward enough, he was borderline running past his balance. 

He's always looked different than he feels to ride, which has been a struggle for me in the past (and now!). He looks more forward, more active, more responsive than he feels, and I've had instructors tell me to slow down when he feels like he's barely moving. 

I know a lot of this comes down to responsiveness, and in the past I've basically just added tension to get that responsiveness, and I'd rather not do that this time around.

TC likes to stop to say hi to Rico

Another big part of why I want to run him off his feet is the balking. The big thing I'm looking to feel is a commitment to moving forward without having the feeling that in the back of his mind he's waiting to stop. One way I was able to combat this when riding him before was to run him off balance so that it was harder for him to stop, then he felt like he was forward! Because he couldn't not be forward. But that was not conducive to collection and that's where things started to get really hard for us. 

And I think this is really making the balking worse because he is probably uncomfortable being that off balance, so he wants to slow down to catch his balance, and then I say no I need you to be forward. It's also not fully accepting the aids if the horse literally has no choice but to do the thing. Like if you slap a horse in draw reins, is he actually accepting the aids? Or is there no other choice? I need to give him the chance to balk in order to fix the balking. 

His neck looks great!

So in my recent rides, I've been challenging myself to ride slower. At the walk, I've been playing with some lateral work, asking him to take slow, deliberate steps. My goal is to make the steps more active, but for now I'm not working on that so much. We do straighten and march forward, but in the actual lateral work, I'm not hurrying him. 

Then in the trot, we trot slowly, but we trot slowly and we do harder work, like some lateral work or smaller circles. Then we straighten and we go more forward and he gets a LOT of praise. And then we slow down again (my choice) and he has to work harder, not super hard, just a little harder. 

In my last ride (yesterday), it did seem to help a bit? He definitely got to a more rideable place a little faster than usual, although I did ride earlier in the day. We were able to do a few fun exercises. The first was to do haunches-in at the trot to the right, I'm really working to get him comfortable bringing his right hind away from his body and to engage his left hind and he gave me some really good steps! Nothing too fancy or carrying, just mechanically good steps. And then to the left, we worked on some shoulder-in to renvers (again just like, the smallest amount of angle) and that was great. 

Rico did come over, TC was more
excited than he was though lol

As things got better in the ride, we did a little lateral work down the long side in a slower trot, then on the short sides, I'd counter bend him (not too much, just enough where his body was straighter than the line he was on) and ask him to lengthen his stride a little bit. 

We DID have two balks though. One was tracking left during a walk to trot transition, this was a really popular balking moment for him in the past, so it was not unexpected. I've been really fair (I think) about asking him to trot. I first ask with my leg + voice, then wait, if he doesn't trot, I ask again with my leg + voice and wait. Then if I have to ask a third time, that's when I escalate with my tiny spurs until he goes. 

When I do escalate, I make sure that he's MOVING but then I half halt back to the trot that I had wanted in the first place (vs continuing to chase him) - essentially he has to work much harder to get to the trot I was asking for than he would have had to if he'd just picked up trot. That time to the left, I got to the second ask and I felt him suck back. So that's the start of the balk, not just him ignoring me or taking his sweet time trotting. But once I escalated, he got moving pretty quickly after it, so not a bad balk like before! 

The lighting was weird, but TC is so
cute with him

The second one was during trot in another classic area. To the right in this one corner of the arena, we turn to go "uphill" and by uphill, I mean that my arena is a 1% grade, it's not actually truly uphill. This is a place where he likes to stall out and start hover trotting, so as we came around the corner, I asked him to please move a bit more forward. Instead, he threw himself through his right shoulder and darted inward, and when I put my leg on, he sucked back and went more sideways. This is pretty classic setup for a balk for him - I ask for forward, he contorts his body and then becomes ANGRY with me for expecting him to go forward from such a crooked place. But if I block him from becoming crooked, he balks really hard (head straight up, refusing to take a step forward) and becomes ANGRY with me for blocking him because obviously he's really just trying to go forward and needs to shift his weight to do so. 

For that one, again I escalated and then he was totally fine. I do think the spurs are a much better choice than the whip. I wish I'd switched a while ago. The whip sometimes would cause him to buck and that's something he can do... while balking. So I think I'm going to keep the spurs and just carry the whip for lighter aids like asking him to remember that he has hind legs. 

This is what I feel like at work AND
with TC right now lol

I was a little disappointed with the balking (although it really wasn't bad), and of course I considered overthinking it. But I did make a conscious decision to ride him slower and put him at risk of balking. I do think that's the right call. My hope is to give him confidence that I'm not going to run him past his balance, and to get me recalibrated to develop the feeling of forward from a more appropriate stride length. And unfortunately there will be times where his muscle memory takes over. 

And maybe there IS pain there, I will be scheduling him for injections again in February and we'll do the last things on our laundry list. But so far I feel comfortable pushing him a little bit up until that appointment (which is only like, three and a half weeks of riding since I'll be gone for a lot of January - and at least one of those weeks it will be pouring rain so it's pretty minimal work) to find out whether we can get through this. 

But by the end of the ride, he felt great. He was happily pretty forward (for him), we ended on a fabulous note of him doing some lateral work with me being able to actually half halt him to rebalance him, and he was super pleased at the end of the ride with his ears forward and happily marching out on the tracks to go home. 

Filling in Holes

I'm excitedly preparing for the first show of the year in a few weeks and this year's goals are looking a bit different than previous years. I've always stuck with the "one level a year" protocol. In 2017, we did Training, in 2018, we did First, in 2019, we did Second, and in 2020, we did Third. Theoretically we should be aiming to do Fourth level this year, but after a tough year with the pandemic, I've decided that I just want to stay at Third level and have a good time. 

I mean, there are definitely good reasons to stay at Third. TC has some holes in the level that I would normally have addressed over the fall and winter, but we got derailed with the fires, the smoke, and then turning my training program on its head and changing trainers. 

The holes are all things that are going to impact our ability to move up to Fourth, so I figured rather than sitting around waiting for Fourth, we'd work on those holes and continue at Third level for regionals. Kill two birds with one stone basically, put in the work to prepare for Fourth while still getting to show at a level below and enjoy the work being relatively easy. 

I figured I'd chat about where these holes are! This will help me be able to look back on them as we approach regionals and a lot of these holes are going to be necessary to fill in so that we can move up to Fourth level. 

More pictures of the trail because that's the most
important thing at this point lol 

Throughness & Balance in the Changes

TC's changes have come on clean and fairly straight, but the throughness and balance have always been an issue in addition to him not always being completely on my aids. We are going to work HARD this year getting those single changes picture perfect. That means that he jumps through the back and stays more uphill (or at least level!) in the changes. 

For Fourth level, obviously the changes need to be so confirmed that we can do tempi changes out of them. We need to end up doing three tempis at Fourth and while I can get him to do fours, they aren't easy peasy, they depend a lot on the quickness of my aids and me picking up the pieces after every change. 

Collection

Collection is a tough thing for TC and it really bit us in the ass last year. I don't like it when comments talk about the basics. I like it when comments say things like "needs more bend in the half passes" or "could show more difference in the medium canters" or something movement related. When comments talk about basics, that's no fun. So this year my goal is to eliminate those comments about his level of collection. 

For Fourth level, we are obviously going to need collection, lots more of it too. He needs to show collected walk and canter pirouettes, he also needs to show more collection in trot as well. That canter to halt transition on centerline is also going to be tough for us, even canter to walk on a straight line is hard at this point! Definitely working on this, probably the most. 

Such a good boy

Bigger Show Facilities

One of the things I've avoided thus far is going to big shows with TC. We go to rated shows, sure, but they're local rated shows, smaller ones. Shows with two rings going at the most, usually just one. Shows we can haul into and haul out of in one day. Shows without much atmosphere. But this year, I want to tackle that, and tackle it at a level where we have enough stuff going on to entertain us but not so much that I can't hoist him through the test. I'm hoping that by the end of this year, he'll be happy to show wherever! 

At Fourth, we could still show locally, obviously, but I'd really like to go to some of these bigger shows a few times a year and feel confident that he could show there even at the harder levels. I don't think he'll be my CDI horse, I don't know if I want the pressure myself! But if he would be, I want to start tackling these bigger shows with more atmosphere at this relatively simple level first. 

In Front of the Leg at Shows

It was interesting to see how behind the leg TC was at our shows in 2020. I think that it was the way I was riding him, because he was rather sticky at home as well and now he's hot to my leg aids. But I still want to get a bit more of a "conductor" feeling in the show ring at Third level rather than having to chase him around the ring picking up the pieces. I'll be curious if he's back to normal at our first show of this year or if it takes him a few shows to feel like he can stay in front of me. 

There's NO way that we are going to get through any of the Fourth level tests without him staying in front of my leg. I can't imagine riding a canter pirouette if I'm having to hoist him along like I was doing last year. So that will have to get better before his Fourth level debut! 

It's so pretty when it's green!

Reliability in the Walk Pirouettes

So, our first walk pirouettes at our first show last year were 8s and 9s, mostly 9s actually! But then in our second show, TC stuck for the first time ever and we got 4s and 5s on them. That was SUCH a bummer because we still scored so well and we could have nudged those scores up. I don't know exactly what happened there but we haven't schooled them much this winter so I still need to figure it out.  I'll be working on getting these solidly in the 8-9 range again and reliably there. 

The walk pirouettes need to carry us for Fourth level for a while. I just don't see this horse getting a reliable canter pirouette on him for a while, so showing the judge that I DO in fact know how to ride a pirouette and gathering some scores that make up for the lower pirouette scores at first will be helpful to have. 

Lengthen the Neck

Similar to the behind the leg problem, TC was also getting short in the neck in our 2020 shows. He was being ridden short in the neck at home though, so I think that now that I'm getting his neck longer, he'll stay that way in the show ring. But it's definitely on my to do list to get "short in the neck" off the comments section of our tests. 

Oh man, for Fourth level, it's going to be tough to not get that neck back at me as we add the more collected movements like pirouettes or the more technical movements like the zig zag or tempi changes. If I can't keep his neck long through a Third level test, it's never going to happen at Fourth level and I could see him getting himself so retracted in the neck that we simply can't perform some of the movements (esp tempis and canter pirouettes). 

And more trails too!

So while it feels like we're stagnating at Third level doing the same thing two years in a row, I really firmly believe that we need this additional year to lay the groundwork so that we can do Fourth level, and really the FEI levels, successfully. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast, after all!

After these last few lessons and how TC has been going, I'm feeling more and more confident that this is just what we need and that there will be nothing stopping us from dominating at Fourth level and beyond. 

Piaffe Training & Fixing the Canter

On Friday, I went down to see TC. I wasn't going to, because I was going to go into work and stay there all day for a meeting. But my boss and I chatted on Thursday night and I told him that the best part of my day had been something I ate for breakfast, so he took the meeting I was supposed to go to on Friday and let me work from home. So I slept in, the boyfriend made me a latte while I worked, I put a bunch of plants in pots for our front porch, and then went down to play with TC before teaching.

I just rode TC around bareback and chatted with my trainer friend at the barn about flying changes and how difficult dressage is in general. It's nice to have such a great community of trainers to chat with on a regular basis, even if it's just to have a good bitch session.

Saturday, I prepared for the worst. Like I said yesterday, I honestly thought about not going, but I did want Tanya to help me with his piaffe, so I told myself I could just tell her that I'd deal with the canter issues on my own and that we could focus on piaffe and the trot work. But it ended up being really good, so no regrets.

More beautiful pictures from the ride on Sunday

I parked the trailer and TC unloaded totally relaxed. He's only been to this barn once before and he was a happy camper to be out and doing stuff even as we got rained on a bit while tacking up. I grabbed all my stuff for in hand work and went over to the ring. Tanya had me do a bit of warm up walking and trotting and then we walked over to the outdoor (the rain stopped, phew) with a fence so we could begin his piaffe training officially.

I've played with it a bit but Tanya is adamant that this horse have a piaffe on him by the end of the year, so we are getting serious.

Tanya's way of doing it is very simple and really worked with TC's claustrophobia. I stood in front of him, held a longe line attached to his left bit ring and a whip to use if he blew through me as we walked slowly forward. We had a side rein attached to his right bit ring to keep him straight on that side. Then Tanya came through with the piaffe whip on the hind legs. Our goal was to get two really clear, rhythmic piaffe steps and then stop and praise. We did maybe 15-20 minutes total, most of it walking or resting, and TC was a freaking star! No rearing, like I'd thought we might get to, no blasting through me. I only had to use my whip twice to remind him to give me space.

SO's spare bike that I get to ride! We're looking for one for me
but I refuse to spend too much on it because, and I quote "if I
had $3k, it'd be in my saddle fund" so we're looking for a used one

So I was stoked on that in itself! I honestly thought about being like "thanks! bye!" and heading home. But after seeing how easy the piaffe came to him, knowing that the passage was going to be his easiest gait, and feeling how much his trot has developed over the last month... I was determined to figure out what was going on with his canter.

We headed back to the arena and did a little trot work. TC felt way more under himself after the piaffe work and felt quite energetic too, phew. But then we went into canter and did some collected canter to medium canter transitions and well... it was more like behind the leg to bucking transitions.

I've spoken before about TC's weirdness with the GO aids at the canter, like uh, yesterday's post. I don't know if it's years of being told not to go under any circumstance or just his lack of a quality canter coming out. Either way, he's pretty convinced that leg on and/or whip on = buck. And so, buck we did, until he figured out that I wasn't going to let go of the reins or stop asking him to go forward. At one point, we scattered the people watching from the sidelines because he was kicking out right at eye level. At another point, I heard "don't fall off, Megan!" and I thought HE'LL HAVE TO PRY ME OFF WITH A FUCKING CROWBAR.

It took a while, but it definitely went through and I suddenly had a canter to match his trot work. He was round and jumping up under himself, and most importantly, when I put my leg on, he WENT. Tanya and I discussed the importance of me  not ever letting go of the reins on this horse. She wants him to essentially be dragging me around everywhere. Excellent, not like I spent ten years on a horse who wasn't allowed to put any weight in the bridle because he was so damn heavy, nor did I totally hop on a very heavy client's horse the day before TC. This shit is hard, yo.

Loved this field

We took a short break and then looked at the fancy trot. Holy SHIT this horse can trot. He was so amped from being told he had to go in canter that he WENT in trot. I finally got to see it in real time in the mirrors and wow this horse has some fucking presence. He bombed around the arena with me just clinging onto him. Tanya had just a few things to say, she wants me to be able to compress it a little more to shift his mass back, but without losing the energy and the fanciness. I did it once and lost the trot, then did it again and popped my leg a little bit and the horse gave me more trot than I've ever felt before, it was almost a passage, but a quick one. The air time was insane. And I obviously got no video to share! It's so infuriating that soloshot hasn't come out with their indoor tracker thing, but I'm not holding my breath.

Leaving the barn, I thought again about how well TC is doing in every gait except the canter. His trot is literally a higher quality trot than I had on Rico at Grand Prix. His piaffe is very green but it's coming on correctly with a pure rhythm. His passage is going to be too much for me to sit, I just know it. It's just the canter... We need to fix the canter for him to make it into the FEI levels. Everything else is there, if the PSG was just trot work, I'd be putting on my tails tomorrow. But the canter is going to slow us down unfortunately.

So, time to double my efforts on the canter. I don't want to bomb around in that trot too often because it's hard on his legs, so TC is getting maybe 3-5 minutes of that trot each day and that's about all the trot work I want to do with him. I need to use the rest of the time in my rides to develop the canter, but I think we can do it!

Quality of the Gaits

An alternate title for this post is "At Least He's Cute"

Fair warning, this is a VERY long post. There are gifs though.

I'm warning you

I'm studying for the L program with the materials provided right now and figured I'd post a little bit about what I'm reading. I'll eventually make a master post about studying (sorry I can't post them because they're copyrighted) and link any posts I write that were inspired by it.


The quality of the gaits section is FASCINATING to me, so fascinating that I decided to write an entire post about it and evaluate TC's gaits.

I've primarily been told very basic things in my past about gait quality. When you see a good walk, trot, or canter, you just *know* it's high quality. Good quality gaits take your breath away and bad quality gaits look uncomfortable for horse and rider. But the L program materials really break it down into the biomechanics of the way the horse moves. I, of course, became immediately curious about TC's gaits. He wasn't bred for his gaits and I bought him because of his mind and trainability, and got lucky that his gaits weren't bad.

For this post, I grabbed gifs from TC's first year undersaddle, his highest scoring Training Level test, his highest scoring First Level test, and from his Second Level (! only a schooling show !) test last year. All tests scored in the 70s and all had him at 7s on gaits or above. The Second Level test... we honestly weren't ready for it, so it's kind of Second-Level-Lite. I've also posted some random pictures throughout his time with me.

Look at that hind leg separation, we'll get to that later

Walk

The walk is a four beat gait with no moment of suspension. Because it has no suspension, this means that you cannot talk about impulsion in the walk, it doesn't exist.

When evaluating the quality of the walk, all four beats should be evenly spaced (the horse should form a V under their body on the same side), there should be good freedom in the shoulders and articulation of the joints, the neck should oscillate forward and back, and the horse should cover ground with overtrack. The horse should slink along using their entire body to walk.


Early On 

He was so dark! Okay so here we have baby TC (he had just turned 4, about 6mo undersaddle) schooling in the field at home (he now lives in that paddock you see on the left hand side at the end of the gif lol)

I'm seeing good Vs and good overstep, but a faulty oscillation. Rather than his walk going through his entire body and out through his nose, his nose nods downward and inward rather than forward and back. So if you cut off his body, his legs look like he's walking very well, but there's not the slinky quality that the judges are looking for, there's not enough freedom to it.



Training Level

This is right after trotting and includes some of the free walk.

Here we see maybe lesser quality Vs and overstep, but less faulty oscillation (not eliminated though) and more slink. He's walking through his body more rather than just using his legs, but because his body is so involved, and that is a weakness, I think the quality of the step itself went downhill a bit. Super interesting.


First Level

Okay so this gif starts juuust as I get into walk from a trot transition and you can see that the walk improves as time goes on, downward transitions have always been an absolute disaster with this horse for a miriad of reasons. At the beginning, you can't see the Vs as easily and he's not oscillating as much, though better than he was before for sure. He still has good overstep though. As time goes on, you can see him start to use his body more (esp in the free walk where he gets that freedom of shoulder finally).


Second Level

This is right after the rein back and before the free walk.

Now we finally see the horse moving better through his body, he's got his back involved and his nose isn't nodding quite so badly. He's using his shoulder so much more in the medium walk now too, something I didn't see before. And yet, the Vs still could be more present. And that's what we've been working on these days.


Overall Walk

I like TC's walk. I think he has a pure gait but that his issues with using his back and stretching to contact (stand by lol this is a THEME) have made things tricky. I like where he's at using his body and stepping into contact now, it's completely changed him. But we still have a long way to go to get his Vs more clear and find more slink. We are working really hard to add more power to his walk right now, and I think I know why. In that last clip, he is still hesitant to really let the walk go through his entire body, so now we're pushing him to do that.

There's some inside hind leg under body action, but hey Megan,
whatcha doing with that right rein?

Trot

The trot is a two beat gait with a moment of suspension.

When evaluating the quality of the trot, a horse should be active and elastic without losing the moment of suspension. The horse should reach under themselves with their hind legs and not put their hind foot down with the cannon bone near vertical (not reaching under themselves enough aka sewing machine trot, a term I snagged from an old trainer). The tempo should not be hurried or too slow, causing a loss of balance.


Early On 

So, with TC, I like how springy he is (even if my abs don't), he's got a great moment of suspension and good rhythm in the trot naturally.

The thing I'm going to focus on, which as been TC's main issues are this: balance and hind end engagement. TC's MO has been to rely on his knee action for balance and push his hind legs out behind him, which we can see here. I'm pretty impressed that baby TC does get somewhat engaged, but you can see how freakishly far back his front foot comes under me and how much he leaves his hind end out behind him. There may be the appearance of good swing, but it's very clear that he is pulling himself along on the forehand. That appearance is only there because he's *not* using his hind legs, he's just letting them float along behind him. Of course it's easy to swing hind legs when they aren't carrying any weight.

In pausing and repausing the clip, his front foot often doesn't leave the ground until it's behind my seat. And his hind foot lands just behind my seat as well vs under it. The hind foot stays on the ground far too long as well. This is indicative of him being on the forehand. Even though he's got that big front end to make you think otherwise.


Training Level

Okay this test sucked for trot work so you get it from the side.

The biggest change I see right away is that TC is WAY more balanced. His tempo is under control, he's not flinging himself across the ground as he was. He may not look as fancy, but the previous trot was completely disorganized, while this one is nicely put together in comparison.

His hind legs are still not landing under me at all. If anything, the organization has made him not come as much from behind and that's a common thing I think. Maybe if I were Charlotte Dujardin, I could take the above trot and organize it without losing quality, but it's apparent that we've lost some of his freedom and power by asking him to not be completely out of control. Let's see if I get it back at First level.


First Level

This trot section is just after I finished a leg yield and before going into a lengthening.

Oh hey, some more freedom! I'm loving the change between Training and First for the trot. You can see his confidence within the organization of his gait (steady, slower tempo in comparison to the early years) is rising and with that, we get some more power and elasticity. His lower back is way more free here than it was at Training level.

The disappointing thing about this is that the hind legs have not improved all that much. He is reaching under a bit better, sure, but he's still losing his hind legs out behind him.


Second Level

This is in between the shoulder-ins at 2-1.

Even at Second level, we still see TC's tendency to leave his front foot on the ground too long. BUT it's majorly improved. His front foot doesn't get to the back of my seat anymore, it stops about half way through me. Phew! We also see a huge change in how he's using his hind legs. They still aren't nearly as engaged as they need to be, his hind foot is reaching just under my heel, but I have stopped losing them out the back as much. If you look at how much he's pushing backward in his hind legs during this video vs the very first one, that's a huge difference.

Don't let me get too excited, check this out. If you look at this clip below, which is right after the medium trot, you can see that this tendency is still very much apparent.

Overall Trot 

I've always loved TC's freedom and suspension in the trot, but we're facing some MAJOR issues in the collection as he climbs the levels. He is basically on the forehand, even at Second level where he should be showing a collected trot.

It's not all a disaster though. First, we are trending in the right direction. I have managed to wrangle the hind legs a bit in all the training we've done. Second, it seems like lateral work is really helpful for him! The difference between his hind end after the medium trot and his hind end after the shoulder-in is stark. So we will definitely be living in shoulder-in for days and also being sure to ride several steps of it after any mediums we do, especially in schooling. I already have a TON of exercises in mind to get him using his hind end better

Last fall, lateral work does a pony good, I gotta get back on it

Canter

The canter is a three beat gait with a moment of suspension.

The horse should oscillate between hind and forelegs and the neck should be allowed to shift forward and downward when the horse is on the forelegs. The front legs and hind legs should be well separated and the hind legs should strike the ground before the cannon bones are vertical and all legs should leave the ground right after the cannon bones reach vertical (ESPECIALLY FRONT LIMBS, they do not pass vertical ever).

The canter should show scope, reach, and elasticity. Problems can be a lack of suspension so the horse appears flat (Maryism = not on round wheels), a lack of reach with the outer limbs.


Early On 

Left lead

Right lead

Oh hot mess of a baby horse. First, we see absolutely no (correct) oscillation of the neck and no movement through his back. Again, I started with very much a leg mover, just like we saw in walk and in trot. He does not naturally want to get his back or neck involved.

His inside hind leg reaches well, better on the left lead, and it lands with somewhat decent separation from his outside hind leg. His outside front leg stays on the ground way too long and both hind legs also pass vertical before being picked up. That all indicates that he's on the forehand. Just watching him, it doesn't appear to me that he's all that much on the forehand, time to change the way my mind decides if horses are on the forehand!

Training Level

Left Lead

Right Lead

Things again have improved in that TC can now ride a 20 meter circle without being completely out of control, but with this wonderful organization we see that he's lost some of the power and reach he had as a baby. His inside hind leg doesn't reach as much, though it doesn't fall back behind vertical anymore either. His outside front leg does fall behind vertical, indicating that he's still on the forehand at Training level.

The oscillation/use of his body is better here, you can actually see some neck movement. But like the walk, it starts with more nodding than oscillating (and more to the right than left, guess whose hands are worse to the left), which you can see here. It's good he's doing SOMETHING with it vs being frozen, but you can see how long it has taken me to get him to use anything other than his legs (and even those aren't used well in the canter).


First Level

Left Lead

Right Lead

Trending similar to the trot, we've now gained some power back but still not gotten nearly as much quality back . His hind legs aren't all that separated, though you can see that the inside one is not losing itself behind anymore (except a bit at the beginning of the left lead, which was right after the canter lengthening, which tells me that he's using the front end to push back vs sitting with the hind legs at the end of the lengthening).

Finally we're seeing almost normal oscillation of the neck and he's starting to use his back a bit better too. I don't hate his canter for First, but you can see that he's not at all thinking about collection at this point, and this was just a month before we debuted at Second in the schooling show.


Second Level

Left Lead

Right Lead

Here we're seeing way better reach with the hind legs on occasion. You can see he really wants to put that inside hind leg down early and does a fair amount, but that he is starting to use it to balance himself FINALLY. He's also got moments where the outside front leg doesn't get behind vertical! On occasion, he loses the verticality of the outside hind leg, but I think that one will take the longest for him. 

The oscillation in the collected canter will be less, but we do see that he's using his body way more than he did as a training level (and before then) horse. 

Outside front leg definitely not leaving the ground at vertical

Overall Canter

I think TC's canter has improved quite a lot, especially given that it is a harder gait to improve than th trot. Like I've said in recent posts, it's a REALLY difficult canter for me and I think we can see why. He started out so unbelievably disorganized and on the forehand. Like, if this horse didn't have that big neck, I probably would have fallen right off the front. I remember absolutely dreading working on the canter work every day.

But, the Second level canter gives me some hope. He isn't nearly there yet, but there are steps where he stays engaged and picks up his legs at vertical.

You can just tell that the inside hind leg is not going to come
under his body nearly enough

General Thoughts About TC

This was super fun, but SO ENLIGHTENING.

My first thought in getting to the end of this is: We. Are. Fucked.

After waiting a few days, I think that's me being dramatic.

TC manages to look way fancier than he is, and when breaking down the gaits like this, you can really see what his tendencies are while ignoring the flash that is his enormous gaits. I need to be way more on top of how he uses his hind legs. Way more.

Just like I fundamentally changed the way he used his body (from not-at-all to starting-to-get-there), I must now fundamentally change how he uses his hind legs. Sounds like a good project for this summer, fall, winter, and next spring before we actually go out at Second level, and then hopefully we'll be ready to go Third shortly after that.

Lateral work seems to help him, while the bigger medium gaits destroy any good work I got out of him. This means I can use the lateral work to help him get stronger and that I need to train his medium to collected transition like crazy.

Insanely on the forehand, but Megan, his withers are still above
his haunches, I know... don't buy a friesian

General Thoughts About Judging Gaits

In reading about judging, gaits are IMPORTANT. I knew this, but it was in a way more negative light in my mind. It's apparent that riders can just buy horses with nice gaits and score way better than someone who works their ass off on a horse who moves poorly.

But training should improve the horse's gaits, not mess them up. So this is why horses with freer, more expressive gaits score better. As a judge, you can't just arbitrarily decide how fancy the horse started out and then try to hold that constant.

Judges can only judge you on what they see that day. And if they see 7 gaits, they see 7 gaits, regardless of if you took your would-be-scoring-a-5-without-your-amazing-training horse up to a 7 or if you took your would-be-scoring-a-9-without-your-fucked-up-hands and brought it down to a 7.

I ALWAYS forget that horses can be trained. I need to tattoo it
to the inside of my eyelids the next time TC won't stop squeaking

Here are my major takeaways:

1) Buy the nicest gaits you can to give you a boost in starting point. At the very least, say NO to rhythm problems, especially in canter. BUT make sure you get gaits you can ride. Gaits you can ride are gaits you can improve. Gaits that are too big for you to do more than just cling onto the horse are gaits that you will (unintentionally) shut down.

2) Train the HELL out of the gaits. Movements don't matter nearly as much. You can be a little green in the shoulder-in on a horse you've carefully developed 8 gaits on and still score higher than someone who has a stellar shoulder-in on a horse who has had their gaits stunted by the rider.

3) I have way less sympathy for simultaneously complaining about horses not being fancy enough while also not working toward improving the gaits. Good dressage makes a horse more free, more uphill, more correct. Good dressage will result in better gaits scores. Do good dressage (but ughhhh it's so hardddd).

This last winter, that's a big improvement! I wish I had more
recent video 

I need a break from evaluating gaits, but I DO want to grab snip-its of Rico from an FEI test and look at his gaits. I worry it might make me realize how much I destroyed his gaits with my poor riding for so long.... but I do think it'd be interesting to see what faults he still showed at the highest level.

No More Hangovers

A few lessons ago, I wrote about how I've been having lesson hangovers ever since I started riding with my new trainer. I think it takes a little bit of time for me to adjust to a new trainer's way of doing things, so I often flail a bit in the beginning. This is why I'm pretty strict about riding solely with a new trainer for a while before I start feeling comfortable branching out. I want them to be able to put their framework up so that I can operate within it when I ride in clinics.

The days after lessons always feel like I'm making up ground. Like I got pivoted quite a lot in the lesson and now I have to go clean it up.

After this lesson though, I felt like TC and I were on the right track and I was almost able to get the same work out of him as I did in the lesson. I couldn't ride Sunday or Monday due to my saddle needing a repair, but the rest of the week, he was brilliant.

I started off by making him really march in the walk with the idea that I want to start developing the extended walk fairly soon. He came to me having, I assume, just won an award for being the World's Slowest Walker, so it's been a long long road teaching him to actually get going. He's always had a great walk, but the tempo just gets super super slow and he moseys around. Then if you ask him to add more energy, he offers trot. He's so much better now, but is still figuring it out.

The one screenshot I managed to pull from the very short and
very terrible fence video I took on Thursday. 

From there we picked up the trot and he was super game to be in front of my leg. We did a bunch of circles and serpentines, mostly to just give us time adjusting to the more energized trot. I'm a big fan of doing easy work like this to stabilize new work. Like just hanging out there for a while so that he can develop, not always pushing for bigger and more. I don't want him thinking he can never win.

On Wednesday's ride, which went similarly, I did add the shoulder-in, haunches-in, and leg yield at the trot. They weren't as good as with Tanya, but I've learned quickly that none of our work will ever be as good as it is when we're with her. But it was still miles better than a few weeks ago. He even maintained his trot in the haunches-in, where before he'd get real shuffle-y. I really want to have all lateral work confirmed in trot by the end of the year, and haunches-in is the last big push!

The trot continues to plague me with it's enormity. Every time I feel like I've got it, Tanya adds more power and I lose it again. The consequence of this is that he starts leading with his chest a bit, like in the screenshot above. I need to hold his body back and get his nose out but I just can't. I CAN'T. He is so powerful it's just enough for me to stay on him when he's in this trot. And the most frustrating is that seeing it on my crappy fence video, it's not even CLOSE to what he's capable of. Oh well, to the gym I go. And he needs to go to his pony gym too so that I don't lose his hocks so much (which is also why it's hard to sit), and that means half steps.

Previous lesson views, I really need new media

Half steps from trot seem to be harder for him than from walk, which is good to know. I think it's the aforementioned pranciness that he used to get in walk that makes him happy to do it then. But we had our third school in the half steps Tuesday and they felt really good!

We did it in both directions in trot, where I'd wait for him to lift his shoulder in it and then let him out of it. I really need to think passage transition, which is a more up and collected transition than shooting him out of it like a slingshot. I tend to want to do the latter because I get claustrophobic in collected gaits. Starting this idea early is really important for TC because I don't want to make him claustrophobic. He seems to have a lot of talent and willingness to sit, so I don't really have to worry. He has never given me the feeling of wanting to stop in the half steps!

The walk to half steps is coming along super well too, this was his second schooling of it. The first schooling we just went from not doing it, to doing it badly. This time I kept him in it until he sat back a bit more and then let him walk. It feels AMAZING. He is doing a good job staying out to the bridle in it and again, he doesn't feel like he wants to stop at all in it! That's a very new feeling for me. I guess I've only really piaffed lazy horses...?

I'm beyond stoked about the half steps on this horse. I think I'm going to try to keep them to 1-2x per week for this year while he's developing, then next year expect to be regularly schooling the piaffe. The piaffe really improves the canter, so I'm excited to see how it helps us as we stare down Second level. Just in case anyone is wondering, you don't put the passage on before the piaffe, so he will be getting passage training once as he has a piaffe on him. Probably next year, maybe starting it a bit in the fall for funzies.

What I wouldn't give to be a 15 minute drive from this place...

Back to the normal gaits- the canter was... a little out of control this week, but I'm here for that (also because it takes less muscle to ride, just more mental strength to not slow it down when it gets scary). I wanted to really make sure I got a good depth to his inside hind leg before really balancing him back, and I probably didn't balance him back enough. Wednesday I really worked on the half halt and return to the medium canter and it was feeling really good.

I still feel like we lack rideability in the canter in comparison to the trot, but I've always felt that way and the difference is becoming much smaller. I think once as we have a true collected canter, it will be much better. I just can't cheat and kill the inside hind leg to get a more rideable canter, which is kind of what I was doing and what was causing the bucking.

Speaking of, one of the amazing things that happened this week is that we had exactly ONE buck (other than him bucking when I was bareback) when I asked him to go forward in canter and he didn't. I've been working really hard to install the leg = forward button rather than leg = buck and then go forward when in trouble button. And it's totally working!

I like my current barn though, this is TC and I (and Peony and
Spot!) at it a year ago, before I realized we'd be boarding there...

Our next lesson is TOMORROW. That's craziness. I'm really excited though, and not nearly as nervous about driving over to the barn this time since I've been there before.

Restuffing a Previously Overstuffed Horse

TC has been back to work for a few days now and I wanted to talk about something that I'm really focusing on with him. But first, we have to go back in time.

One of the main things that I was focused on with TC as a young horse was relaxation. He was a very tense, zippy little thing for a very long time, and it was pretty detrimental not only to our relationship but also to his training. If his back isn't soft, forget trying to get his hind legs under him or getting him into the bridle.

For the last few years then, I've allowed him to be a little quiet when he wanted to be. Counted my blessings when he was behind the leg or chill about stuff. Rewarded him for getting his neck down and taking a breath and using his horse brain rather than his lizard brain.

Lizard brain

This has helped out a lot. TC's bolting is almost non-existent anymore (I say almost because he did it the other day and I almost came off, oops), I'm comfortable on him, he's relaxed and focused. He does what is asked for and tries really hard.

But that quiet, sliiiiightly behind the leg feeling, is still present, and he needs to be sharper now that we're glancing over at Second level. It's not that he's not responsive, he does everything he's asked to do, but he does it in a bit lower tone than I want him to for the (hopefully) upcoming higher levels.

So he's got to be a bit more in front of my leg, a bit more stuffed. The idea of stuffing is a Mary thing, but I heard it first from Tracey (who did study under Mary so maybe that's related). TC has a tendency to lose tone due to his breed. He can deflate a bit and still do the movements but not really carry as much presence. It means a little bit more hoisting through certain movements is necessary. We lose the cadence in the lateral work, the "fancy shoulder" in the trot, and the throughness in the canter.

So that's where we're at right now: Trying to re-stuff a previously overstuffed horse that I fixed by pulling stuffing out of so that he wouldn't explode.

I still love this even if it isn't a hippo

The main thing we're doing for this is transitions. I remember having to do transitions very carefully when he was younger because they'd light him up and send him off into space if I let them. Now, we're using them to get a bit more of that feeling.

Pretty much when he's not up and in front of me, he gets put into a medium gait, then brought back and put back to medium if he doesn't return in front of me. He's struggling a little bit with it, but I think he honestly likes being all powerful and lifted in front once as we actually get to that place. Once as he's there, he doesn't suck back.

As for my nerves? Now that TC has had so much training and reinforcement history of being taken down from being buzzy and explosive, I'm not worried about riding him on that line so much.

Remember this post about finding positive tension? And the accompanying graph that I posted above? I think the steep drop off on the right side of the graph is much less steep. You can certainly put him in negative tension, but nothing really comes of it, he just gets mechanical in his step. I'm sure I could push him way down into the danger area, but it'd take me a long while, possibly multiple days, and accompanying weather (rain/hail) and possibly some time off leading up to it.

For now I'm just in between those two lines, getting him to carry more energy in his body so that he can puff up a bit more, carry more weight behind, and generally be rideable for the higher level stuff.

With the work, things are going super well. The movements feel easier, the throughness is easier, everything is just better!

Too stuffed/tense! The beginning of last year with me grabbing
stuffing out of him. Now I gotta put some back in!

Lucky for me, TC is generally better stuffed outside his home barn, which previously meant that he was insane in new places, and now means that when he gets zippy off the property, I think "phew" and can merely regulate him rather than put more into him.

Hopefully he'll adjust to the new regime quickly. It's already taking less effort to get him more up and in front of me, but he's still very happy to chill out and stretch down.

And hopefully all this hard work will combat the now 107 degree heat we're facing tomorrow. He got electrolytes this morning and last night, and will continue to get them through the weekend, I'm picking up some of my own electrolytes today to start loading up. And I think I've got a good plan in place to keep both of us cool at the show!

Super Enthused

Today I start my new job. So prepare for a week of me scraping the bottom of my draft folder for blog posts just in case I can't write anything because I'm so tired. It's 5am and I'll be commuting 3+ hours while trying to adjust to my first week of 9-5 life (well, 6:30-2:30 life, east coast hours FTW). Next week will be easier when I'm living a full hour closer to work!

I'm excited and a little nervous. These nerves have apparently caused me to forget that I am riding a FOUR year old horse who I am teaching how to use his massive body in stronger and more coordinated ways. I also forgot that I hadn't ridden in two days, and hadn't ridden at the neighbor arena in over a week. But longeing is for wimps! And actually it didn't even occur to me.

Hey I kept that weird thing on my face overnight,
give me cookies!

Seriously the only thing keeping me from hitting the dirt sometimes is this horse's incredibly sweet nature because Monday I got to experience what I'd like to think is TC from the future- where he is so powerful and so forward that I'm not sure if I'm about to die or if I'm having the time of my life. It was for sure the latter on Monday, and again not due to my intelligence or riding prowess, but rather due to my horse's amazing mind.

The first indication that I had caught the dumb was that he had his version of a big spook at a pile of cement bags. He got all snorty and lowered himself 2-3 feet, then crawled toward the pile. He sniffed it and it was fine. We went through the riverbed and he spooked at nothing for a while.

I tried to get him into the arena and he was distracted so it felt a lot like pushing a square block through a circular hole. Once in the arena he was fine, although amped. He was ready to WORK and he was going to work with or without me. I opted to join him.

Finishing up breakfast

We started in the walk and he felt great in the connection. He was very much on my seat as well. I could turn his shoulders around, almost like a walk pirouette, just off of my seat and thigh. He halted easily when I stopped my seat, and opened up his stride when I relaxed and sat deeper. No reins and just a little leg.

I asked him to trot and he was very professional about it. He reached into contact and immediately jumped into a medium trot. We were going places, it didn't matter where, as long as it was PLACES and we were going FAST to get there. I half halted with my seat, trying to stay relaxed in my arms and hip flexors, since I tend to get a little tight sometimes when half halting. It worked super well, he was right on my seat at trot too.

I got this trot that I can't even describe. It was so powerful, but quite well engaged and relaxed over his topline. Honestly, and I know it's probably nothing like this, it felt like Rico's collected trot. Wonderfully cadenced and steady. The only thing it had that Rico's trot didn't was the feeling that I might be launched at any moment. I've never not trusted this little horse, and I still trust him, but this trot felt a little dangerous! Especially because people were doing construction around us.

Riding home, his mane is getting wild

So all I did was play with this trot. I made it bigger and smaller, switched the bend, changed directions, spiraled in and out. It was amazing. SO much fun. I can't wait to sit it and to have it at shows.

Alright, I'll shut up about the trot. The canter was amazing too. To the right, HE WAS THROUGH. He picked up the canter, came right over his back, and stayed there the whole time. He was so focused and so professional about it. He lost balance when we passed the gate a few times, popping his shoulder and all, but then he'd regain it and get better connected. Again I worked to relax my hip flexors because they just get tight when I'm working to get a horse better on my seat. Always stuff to work on.

To the left he struggled more, it also was probably that he is the sort of horse who doesn't calm down with work, he tends to get more and more sensitive and light as we work, so by the time we got to the left lead, he was so responsive to my aids that he was getting on the verge of being reactive. He just wants to be so good all the time that about 30 minutes in, when you put your leg on he's like YES MA'AM I AM GOING FORWARD LOOK AT ME I AM BEING SO GOOD. So that could have explained the left lead issues because we were booking it and he was overreacting to the slightest half halt aid.

He is so good

Back in the trot, he was back to being his amazing self, we did walk to trot and trot to walk transitions off of seat and a little leg alone, he stayed through and kept that perfect connection the whole time. Every now and then he'd get a little on the muscle, but all I had to do was increase bend by taking my inside elbow back a quarter inch and pushing him over to the outside rein with my inside leg, then directing his outside shoulder forward with my outside thigh. He'd instantly lower his neck and soften over his topline.


I fucking LOVE riding this horse. I just hope he doesn't use this new power to test out any acrobatics. I'm cool with the amazing collected trot and some throughness in the canter. I think this is a little bit of a questionable time to move him when he's feeling this powerful and I'm not used to riding it, I hope he adjusts okay and that I don't fall off during his adjustment. This fall/winter is fine, I just don't want to break something during my first month at work!

This week is kind of a toss up, I'm not sure whether I'll have time to ride very much. Ali is going to ride TC on Thursday and I will try to ride him either today or tomorrow. Then I'll ride him Saturday before I move myself later that day and he'll get moved on Sunday to the new barn! I figured I'd give him Sunday off and then try to ride him on Monday and Tuesday after a longe. He also starts his ulcerguard on Thursday so it will kick in before Sunday. I'm not risking his stress levels while mine are skyrocketing.