Out of the Way

Things continue to go well with little TC. This last week we've had good rides every single time I've sat on him, which is very unusual. I think he's settling into living out in his big paddock (apparently he plays with his neighbors constantly and runs around too) and it's helping with his ability to just go to work. And I love his love of work.

My main focus, as I've said previously, has been to dump movements on him. I spent a long time doing the basic training this last summer, and it was great for him. And in the last couple weeks since I've been riding him again (before that he had a week off because he pancaked my foot), he's really shown me that he's ready for more. He really thrives on learning new things.

He's ready for his rider to stop looking down

That doesn't mean we're abandoning the basics though. Training scale wise, we're still working on straightness, and this I can see being an ongoing thing. Not because of him, but because of me. I just love pulling on the left rein. And his weak left hind wants to stay out behind him and to the inside, which makes me feel like I'm being propelled right (because I am), which makes me want to pull even more on the left rein (which I shouldn't). So a lot of our warm up is spent doing lateral work at the walk and riding figures at the trot and canter with the main focus of keeping him up to the left rein and not bending him at all that direction.

It's hard. But boy when he gets it, he's a different horse! And then he breaks. Oh well.

I'm also making engagement and activity in his hind end a priority. As his shoulders get less tight, he's learning to use them more (he stretches them himself in the cross ties as he gets his front leg as high up as he possibly can and just leaves it there, he'd love to be in the SRS) and he's moving bigger in front, but the hind legs need to catch up. I'm struggling with how to do this- he's already so short coupled and I feel like his legs go under him enough for where he's at training wise. He's got that baroque type in him (but I wouldn't really consider him totally baroque) that produces that big front end and slower hind end. Gotta speed up those hind legs, but without adding tension.

He's like riding a bouncing ball

On Saturday I managed to get some pictures (on this post) and video (coming when I can get it uploaded, ugh) of us! There were some things that I was really happy to see, but obviously with any media, there were some things that I really wanted to change.

He's still not looking as strong or fit as he was last year, but he's getting more comfortable with his balance and that's showing, especially in the canter. There were a ton of pictures to choose from at the canter, and not as many at the trot, which really shows how much it has improved. And actually I ruined most of the trot pictures (and so many canter pictures too, gah), not him. I texted Kate that it looked like Carl Hester had let some peasant ride one of his fancy young horses. She had to remind me that I did kind of make the horse. I forget that.

Oh yah, he didn't do this when I started with him

In addition to the basics, on Friday and Saturday we schooled some movements. They were mostly from First level, though I am absolutely drilling the haunches-in, renvers, and half pass at the walk and starting it at the trot too. I've been using test riding to kind of test out how these movements are going, and I've been really pleased with how easy he is to test ride.

With Rico, it was always the tests holding us back, not the movements (meaning we could do each of the movements but not string them together), and maybe that's just the FEI levels since the tests are so so long and difficult. But I'm really appreciating TC's attitude toward work and how developed his baseline gaits are, both of which help in test riding (and were Rico's weaknesses). During tests he doesn't need much adjustment or influence from me. There's not much prep work for any movements and when you, er, make a mistake and have to pull him into a movement, he just complies. No questions asked. As if that's just how you're supposed to ride (luckily he doesn't know that your rider shouldn't be going oh fuck I think we're supposed to lengthen here, go go go!)

The baseline gaits make all the difference. In no test did I have to remind him to stay on the bit (except early on he was coming a bit hollow in the canter transitions, that's gone now), stay forward, stay bending, stay focused, etc. He just does it. The more out of his way I can get, the better he goes. Sometimes it feels like I'm only there to cause problems and make mistakes and that if I just got off, he could do the test much better.

"Lengthened" canter, it's not as lengthened as he can go, but tbh,
I'm kind of afraid of his actual lengthening

I really expected First level to be too much for him, because the canter lengthenings are tricky and the leg yields and the smaller figures. But no, actually his 15m canter circles are more like 12m and his canter lengthenings are bombing as long as his rider lets him GO. Which I don't want to do. It literally feels like I'm galloping them and he's barely moving.

The leg yields are really easy in 1-2, and I'm only just starting to school the zig zag for 1-3. I have schooled some counter canter and I guess he had enough time on the wrong lead as a baby (so frustrating lol) that he feels totally comfortable in counter canter. Only occasionally will he boing up and swap (and honestly, it doesn't happen in the counter canter as much as it happens down the long sides), but I can't really complain about that right now since I have asked for changes recently. Woops.

He's so fun, even if the trot isn't as strong these days

It was a great ride and I'm really glad to have the test riding to help me understand where he's at. We're definitely going to do more test riding in the future (unless the rain keeps us out of the dressage court again, boo) and still picking away at the engagement, quickness of the hind legs, and my inability to ride him straight. And just enjoying the horse, that's been really fun recently.

Through Transitions

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

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

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

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

Baby cows! They're running back to their moms

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

They are so cute

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

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

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

He insisted on stopping to drink all of this water

Ignorance is Bliss

The ride after a clinic sucks. I feel like at least for me, it's very different than taking weekly lessons. When I'm in a consistent program, I know that I'll make slow progress each week and then get a nice lesson to give me a boost, then slow progress, then boost, etc. Taking clinics every couple of months means that I delude myself into thinking that we're on the right path, then am torn away from that path, put back together, and given a BIG boost on a new path before both of us really know what is happening. 

So it's tough to know that my clinic on Sunday is the last one I'll have for a while, unless I can convince my old trainer to drive down to mystery barn to teach me sometimes (and if mystery barn allows me to bring people in, sometimes they only allow their own trainers to train which always seems to mean that their trainers suck and just require no other trainers on the property because if they did, the trainers would be out of a job). 

I fail at having TC media, so enjoy Rico in a schooling ride
about a year and a half ago. It's a lot prettier than what I look
like now on TC so you're welcome. 

Obviously I let a few things get to me, as I always do:

1) I wanted this clinic to "last" a long time, so I kept obsessing over addressing all the things we went over, rather than focusing on one thing at a time, just so I could remember everything (despite writing it all down on this blog) 

2) I got on my own case about the quality of my riding. It's just something I do on a regular basis now. I miss being in regular lessons on an FEI horse and am having problems coping with not being the rider I was a year ago. I can still get on Rico and ride him just as well, but having to come back down to the beginning (I think part of this is that most of my riding with BNTs has been at the FEI levels, not at the lower levels. Also not having a mirror means that I can't train myself easily either, hopefully mystery barn has mirrors) is more difficult.

3) I assume that, because I can understand humans and have been thinking of the clinic for two days, TC is doing the same thing- he listened to Barbi and is ready to make all the changes. 

I mean he looks pretty friesian-y here

The main things I got out of the clinic were these:

1) Do not let my baggage with Rico affect TC- ride with a whip sometimes, don't chase him into his big trot if he is behind my leg, don't get rigid in the hand.

2) Engagement. I need to take the big trot down a notch and build the connection and relaxation again in the small trot. 

3) Straightness. I need to address the left shoulder issues head on. 

He was an amazing horse but I do have some baggage

Obviously the technique I used on Tuesday was to do ALL THE THINGS. I swear this move is making my brain mush. I was immediately on my own case about my riding, insisted that he was straighter, and insisted that he stayed more engaged. 

Poor horse! I totally forgot in that ride that he is four!! He is not Rico!! He has confidence issues!! I am happy to report that he REALLY stepped up and handled all the changes pretty well, although he did get tense so I kept the ride short and productive. 

TC is not this horse, sometimes that is nice, sometimes that is
frustrating

I'm doing what every rider I've ever taught to be softer in the hand does: fluctuate like a maniac. I went back and forth between don't touch his face just don't but maybe just touch it a tiny tiny bit if you have to, which created a horse that was off the bit and spooky, and get him round first and then soften but remember to soften wait you're not softening at the right time, which created rigidity. So back and forth between me doing too little and not too much. I had to laugh because I've taught these lessons. I am not immune to the most basic of mistakes! 

I finally got it down to very little fluctuations. Like I could feel it because I'm picky, but TC was going along really steadily so it probably wasn't very noticeable. Excellent. 

I was thinking about why this is hard, because I ride a very heavy, rigid horse on a somewhat regular basis for a client and manage to be really soft on him. I think it's the sitting trot guys. My timing is so shitty in the posting trot because for the last five years, I haven't done it except in warm up. I wish I could sit on him, but he is so young and his back is not nearly strong enough. Looks like I'll just have to figure my shit out. 

One of my favorite pictures ever

Then I worked on the engagement. We worked smaller circles at the trot (he can do 10m circles now!) and I kept him rocked back pretty well. He actually was really good about this. Sometimes we'd accidentally book it around a bit, but he responds to the seat so well that I can just slow my posting and he's back to me. 

What I realized as I was working on this was: TC has a lot of power to him, but it's primarily seen in his big trot, his small trot is not very powerful and therefore I'm having to nag him to keep going. I need to teach him how to be powerful in his small trot, which will lead to him being better in the collection later. He needs to understand right from the get go that power does not mean the same thing as impulsion- that he can be powerful within the engagement. 

I'd give anything to sit this passage again

The straightness didn't go well. It just makes him tense. He gets tense about the whip, he gets tense about having to be more engaged (since that makes him a little balled up, which we want, but he's definitely a lot more free and relaxed in the more forward trot- stuff to work on), he gets tense in general. So he's got to learn to relax while being straight, which is going to take time. He just doesn't have the strength. 

I feel like it's the difference between trying a new thing you want to be good at (so you're a little tense because you're trying to figure it out) and doing a thing you've been doing for years and are really good at (nice and relaxed). It's like riding in a correct position- when you start you're really having to hold yourself in the right position and that means holding yourself there with a bit of tension, then you start to develop the right muscles, become more confident, get more balanced, and eventually you can sit really well with very little tension. 

He was so fun

The canter was okay, he definitely turned better to the right, though he was quite tense. And the left was pretty nice too in terms of bending. The one thing I started working on was the transitions from straight lines to circles and circles to straight lines. We're bad at this. I feel like it's basically as close as I've ever gotten to the feeling of driving drunk. I'd aim to get back on a straight line and he'd fall out, then randomly turn 60 degrees, then dart out again... it was obnoxious. 

He just gets crooked in the canter, and I know that we're so far away from fixing his straightness entirely but it's really obnoxious at the canter because his canter is so humongous that a little bit of lost balance can lead to flying halfway across the oversized arena. It's easier in a smaller arena, because he hits the rail and goes straight along it, but he needs to learn to go in straight lines without help. 

I think the canter was difficult at times because of the tension he had in that ride. It's hard to feel that, because he's been so relaxed and amazing these last few weeks and it's almost like the clinic completely ruined that. I know that it didn't, that we're now working on stuff that is harder for him and that is going to help him more in the future. But boy do I understand the phrase "ignorance is bliss" a lot better now. 

Ignorance was never bliss on this horse because he was an ass
if I wasn't riding well

Today I have no idea what my plan is. I have to ride a client's horse about an hour north. And I want to go to my new town (which is an hour north east vs an hour north west for client's horse) to look at barns and places to live. 

In a perfect world, I move into a place this weekend, TC gets his vet check on Tuesday and passes, I write his check and move him on Wed or Thur, I enjoy a relaxing thesis-filled weekend at my new home, and then I start my job a week from Monday. Oh but it's not going to go like that because that's too easy. 

I am excited though, amidst the complaining. 

I'm hoping to get one more trail ride in on this guy before I leave

Eliminating Baggage

Thanks everyone for your kind words about my job! I officially accepted the offer today and am now scrambling to get everything all ready for my start date in two weeks. I'm now no longer a dressage trainer (although I'm keeping a few clients), it feels good. And it's apparent in my ridiculous struggles this weekend at the clinic.

Sunday morning was the morning of what is probably going to be my last clinic for a while, so I was determined to get something really great out of it. I rode with Barbi Breen-Gurley, an S judge down in Southern California. I’ve never ridden with her and have never audited her, which goes against my always-audit-before-clinics rule, but I break that rule all the time. I looked up a few tests that she rode on youtube and was super impressed with her. Her horses are so light and steady, something I value so much and want to ensure of TC’s training. I also looked up what people thought of her on COTH and such, nothing that anyone said gave me red flags, so off I went!

After enjoying a beach day on Saturday! SIL and I rented boogie
boards and played in the freezing cold water. I remember saying
"I'm finally used to the water!" and then realizing that I was
actually just completely numb. 

We arrived right on time to do some longeing and for me to hop on. Boy am I getting brave about the amount of time I leave for my baby horse to load into a trailer by himself, be quiet on the longe line, and be quiet undersaddle. But the lesson was 45 minutes and I normally ride him 30-40 with no longeing, so I didn’t want to exhaust him. I also wanted to work through any tension or retraction in the neck with Barbi. Sure I don’t get a lot of that at home anymore, but getting her opinion on how to fix it was invaluable as it is likely that I will be moving him within the next month and will need to reinstall the relaxation, connection, and throughness, possibly with little to no help.

Longeing was fine, he was super relaxed and soft, yet responsive. I got on and we went into an arena we had never been in, so he was a little questionable. Nothing horrible, but he was looking around a lot so he started to get rigid and I started to get rigid. I was happy when Barbi showed up to call me out on all of my shit from the get go.

Much more relaxed (but just as impressive) than this

The biggest takeaway, which I’ll say now since I will reference it a few times, is that I have baggage from Rico that is negatively (and positively, I mean I have a lot of confidence in my training ability because of him) affecting the way that I am training this horse. So keep that in mind as I go on and on about it.

We talked a bit and I told her his story- I started working him in January and did a lot of his training on my own. I told her a little bit about my story- Gold medal last year, GP horse retired, having fun while struggling to ride at the lower levels again on such a tricky green horse. Our biggest new-place problem is tension, retraction in the neck, and my idiot attempts at matching his rigidity instead of fixing it. When we’re at home we are working on alignment and throughness.

This actually happened, right? Because sometimes I ride like
I have never done this shit before in my life.

She had such nice things to say about TC. It felt really great, since I feel like I kind of saw through the ugly in the beginning. Ali and I have been his biggest advocates in terms of him being a quality dressage horse, which is not to say that other people don’t like him, but it’s a western barn and he’s kind of big and gangly. Barbi agreed and took her praises even further. She says his gaits are fantastic and he’s an amazing horse, I just need to be sure not to fuck it up (my words!). She commended his walk and trot, and said that his canter was good but lacked strength.

We started with leg yields, a little off the rail and a little back. Then some turns on the forehand. She wanted me to use a whip so I had Ali (who came to watch, I’m going to miss my awesome supportive barn!) run to the trailer to get it. She kind of got after me for not using one. I told her that I was so reliant on Rico with the whip that I had wanted to avoid using it on TC (baggage). TC also doesn’t respond too well to it, as evident by his kicking a few times at it. Eventually he caught on though.

This guy, really? One of the first "conformation" pictures I
have of him

Barbi emphasized precision, but not in an unyielding way- she didn’t care if he whinnied or ran sideways or looked at stuff. She said he was just a baby, still sucking his thumb. But precision as in small movements to fix problems (baggage). I rode down the long sides and she had me flex him to the left for 8-10 steps, then go straight, then flex him to the right. Not enough to be noticeable, just enough where I felt like I had him between my reins. I think if someone was watching, they’d just have seen me going in a straight line. Really small, precise movements. I liked this a lot, because he gives me such a great feeling in the bridle that I assume he's totally between both reins, and a lot of the time he is. But I need to ask him questions about it, rather than just assume he gets it, so that he really truly learns what it means to be between my reins. 

She wanted me to be MUCH lighter. I don’t see myself as a heavy rider, certainly not, but I do get rigid when he does (baggage). Every time I had to use a rein aid, she wanted me to give, much more than I was used to. Even my aids had to be lighter unless he wasn’t getting it. TC was a little confused and refused to stretch into contact at first, but then he started listening harder and stepped up. I know on this blog I’ve gone on about how great he is in the contact. That contact is now COMPLETE FUCKING SHIT. This contact was electric, not only was he right there as he always is, I also felt like the tiniest minuscule aid would go right through him. Completely and utterly connected. I can’t imagine it getting better than this, but that's how he felt before, making me further believe that everything can always get better and more magical.

Not a great representation of how he's been going at home due
to my rigidity but this here, this is shit

She nailed me on the engagement thing that Tracey had nailed me on a few months ago. But I finally 100% understand what I need to do, and TC handled the change a lot better than he had at Tracey’s clinic. I think he’s ready for it now. Basically the pace I have him going at is too big and fast (baggage and baggage). Barbi said that he had big gaits, like super big, and I’m thinking more about the scope than the strength and I’m risking scaring him (personally I think he trusts me enough where he won’t get too scared but I get her point).

So I need him to slow down and learn to engage a little bit better, be better balanced. I stopped and we talked about the nagging (baggage). She basically said “well don’t,” and we had a laugh about that. But I pressed further, asking if it was okay to push him into a bit of a bigger trot to make my point about the forward. She said yes but that I have to go back to the engaged trot. I can’t recreate how she said it, because it’s more than that, but it was perfectly clear to me. I have such baggage about Rico being lazy that I’m letting my issues with Rico’s laziness transfer and TC is being run off his feet in the process. No more of that.

The canter was questionable, she had me work on the timing of my aid from trot to canter (which has always been a weakness of mine). I have to ask when the inside front leg is on the ground, and she insinuated that posting into it wasn’t a bad thing, but that I had to be on the wrong diagonal. The canter itself was kind of shitty, she had me on a 20 meter circle and got on my case about not riding him on small enough circles. I agree, I’ve been choosing to ride on larger figures to help with the quality (no regrets, his canter is much better) but I do need to push him more at the canter.

Or does the horse just need more cookies?

Overall, it was such an amazing lesson. I loved her teaching style for a few reasons.

First, she was incredibly enthusiastic about TC. It’s so nice to hear those things from someone who judges at the Grand Prix level and has presumably seen a lot of really nice horses. I didn't ask her how far she thought he could go, but I left feeling more confident about his abilities than I have ever felt. I don't think he'll be my next Grand Prix horse, but Sunday morning was the first time I felt a tiny inkling that if he stays sound and if I make the right decisions, there is a chance that I could at least make it back to the FEI levels on him. I would love that. Anything after Third with him will be icing on the cake. 

Second, I love a clinician that talks constantly, and we were always interacting. We even stopped and talked about a few concepts here and there and it felt like she really cared what I had to say and never dismissed me. Her theory was on point, and she explained it well. If I didn’t get it, she’d reexplain it in a different way. We came back to engagement vs energy so many times and she explained it in a different way each time. I finally got it at the end.

He listens well too

Third, she managed to give me a massive kick in the pants without making me feel bad about myself or my horse. I have zero excuses for the bad habits that I've developed in the last eight months on this baby. It was obvious that she expected much better of me. She told me that I should know better about a few things that I was doing, like the rigidity, like the baggage I’m carrying from Rico. But she always made it feel like she was on my side. That she wasn’t blaming me for how I had been doing, just that she wanted me to know that I was capable of more and that I should step it up for myself. It was really empowering to essentially hear “you’re not riding like a Grand Prix rider, knock that off.” Basically, her phrasing could have been so much meaner but she made me downright excited to ride this week. So sad that I am moving even further away from her. 

So yeah, if it isn't obvious, I highly recommend her as a clinician. 

On the way back, TC forgot how to horse and picked a fight with the trailer. He scraped off part of his gaskin and got a tiny cut on his pastern. Oh well. We sprayed some Aluspray on it (totally getting this when I buy him, it went in my ever growing Riding Warehouse shopping cart).

No bleeding on this, just scraped off all his hair

Cut and his chippy toes, I'm also going to buy
a rasp to delay my farrier visits too

Sunday night I spent with family. I have some really great family members. I have some family members who are super supportive. I have others who think that they are being supportive but their support is incredibly condescending and made me hide in the bathroom for a while (worth it, I finished Serial in there, so good!). Those family members make me a little glad that I'll be moving a bit further away from them.

My to do list has quadrupled with this move. So many loose ends to tie up- finishing at part time job, finding housing, finding barns, emailing clients, getting vet check, and I'm having a bit of car drama (which is resolving itself, I'll update later on that). And I need to finish my thesis. Luckily on Monday, I have the whole day to work on things. I'm going to power through that to do list and my thesis! Orrrr I'm going to read all of your blogs and go shopping for work clothes. 

Introducing Straightness

I've added almost ten pages to my thesis since I last complained about it, which means that I'm closing in on 30 pages. Most of it is still notes, and sure, one of the pages was a table of contents with hyperlinks because this mother fucker is getting hard to navigate, and yeah another one of the pages is a second page of references (which will be expanded even more soon), but STILL. probably fifty pages left or so, too bad I'm not only going for page count.

Before even touching it today, I headed out to the barn (and am writing this blog post... and I might go make food... and don't I need a new saddle pad? From a tack store about two hours away? Wasn't I supposed to be half way to Canada by today? Thesis may need to wait).

Enjoy more pictures from our last ride- I can't remember/am too
lazy to go see what I posted last post so sorry about repeats

The baby horse had made me pretty happy by giving me about 80% of his home awesomeness at the neighbor's arena last time I rode so I had high hopes for today.

Once again, I was disgustingly looking forward to riding there because of how energetic he is when we're there. Just two weeks ago I felt such dread thinking about riding there.

We started at home again. He was still so sticky and fussy in the bridle so I ended up dropping the reins and just getting him to go forward without any restrictions. After he experienced life without connection, he realized that I was actually there trying to help him and started stretching into contact. We had a couple of nice loops around at trot and canter, then headed out.

He's starting to look more steel gray than black, yay

I opted for more walk work than usual when we got to the neighbor's because I wanted to get him stretching down again. He's been so reluctant to let go of the tension in the base of his neck. We got a REALLY nice stretchy walk all the way around the arena both directions before heading into trot. I was so glad that he was quiet enough to actually do walk work for once- normally we get over there and he starts screaming (screaming still present today though, he is so shrill) and ends up getting himself all in a tither before I let him trot it out.

Into trot, he was perfect. Not 80% of what we get at home, this was 95%! Still ever so slightly tense, but I could attribute that to his loss of confidence over the last week rather than us riding at the neighbor's place.

So we did a lot of figures, serpentines, figure-8s, some spiraling in and out. He was great through all of that so we did some trot leg yields (they're bad but they're good enough to be referred to as leg yields) and actually managed a shoulder-in in trot to the left!

Such a good baby

I also started playing with working on the straightness and throughness in the walk-trot transitions. He tends to wiggle and kind of throw himself into trot, and I thought this would be a good way of both a) cleaning up the transition and b) getting him to engage his hind end where it's HIS idea rather than me slowing him down so much.

At first he was confused, but he's so energetic over there that he wanted to trot so he figured it out quickly. None of them were perfect, but there were a few that let me see where they were heading.

Once again, we cantered, and this time we cantered for a long while. I'm starting to put more pressure on him to be round, even if it's not necessarily perfectly correct, at the canter. It's been about four or five months since he started cantering undersaddle, so I think it's time to start cracking down on this concept. He readily accepts contact to the right, but the left is harder for him. I'm primarily just asking him to bend more, and sliding the bit a tiny bit on the inside rein- enough to get a response but not so much to throw him off balance since I do like the balance he brings in the canter.

One day he will relax the base of his neck!

One of the main issues I'm now realizing that we have is straightness. I'm getting paranoid because it feels quite pronounced (although when I watch videos, it isn't as obvious) and I know that crookedness can be caused by a weak hind leg which can be caused by hock spurs or arthritis or whatever other problems may arise that would cause him to fail the vet check and me to lose him.

He essentially falls over his left shoulder all the time. It makes him easy to turn to the left but easy to bend to the right. He struggles to pick up the left shoulder, hence why the left lead canter is better than the right lead- it forces him to pick up that shoulder.

It's bad enough where I notice it while picking his feet- he won't let me pick his left foot for very long before he starts leaning backwards so I drop it or trying to paw it out of my hand. I think normally I wouldn't have noticed that it was specific to one foot (because let's face it, picking feet is an uphill battle with a horse that doesn't stand still while tied and paws like it's his meaning in life) but I struggled a LOT to get him to pick up his left shoulder while riding today so was sensitized to it.

He's so fun

I don't know whether his crookedness is:
a.) totally normal in young horses and will go away soon if I make it a priority in his work

b.) a product of my own crookedness (which makes no sense because Rico was crooked in the OTHER way so you'd think I would encourage horses to be that kind of crooked)

c.) not normal in young horses and indicative of a problem or future problem in his right hind (will definitely tell the vet at his vet check and flex/x-ray his right hock)

d.) mostly all in my head because I'm in tune to riding 3rd level + horses right now who are very straight so the slightest bit of crookedness is very obvious to me while someone else who is not as sensitized to it wouldn't notice or care

So I'm obviously thinking that it's because he's lame and simultaneously because I'm crooked too. Because why would I think that it's just normal for even a young horse to be one sided or that I'm now a good enough rider to feel exactly what is going on under me?


After careful analysis, I helped him out a bit by working on bend and a little haunches in to the left and getting him better connected on the left rein to the right. He definitely improved, and I think it will get better with time. Unless, you know, his right hind leg simply falls OFF of his body.

We walked back to the barn the long way down the trail by the busy road and the whole time, he was on a loose rein! What a grown up baby :)

Also very grown up cantering at a place that isn't his home arena

This weekend is a relaxed one and next weekend is a potential second show for us. But I'm not sure if it's something I want to do or if I just want to go to school. I have until midweek to decide!