Even More Falling

Man, I haven’t fallen off this much in YEARS. Not even when I worked at the event barn did I hit the dirt twice in what, two months?

So, it’s been insanely hot for February in the last week or so, most days it hits at least 75 degrees, some days getting to 85 degrees. That’s nuts. TC’s coat is shedding normally and he has always had a normal winter coat, not too hairy but enough to keep him warm. He also has a lot of heat tolerance, as evidenced by him leaping through the air in a show when it was 107 out. 

The pony though, he is an actual ball of fluff in the winter and he was SURE that it was going to snow any day now, so he hasn’t been shedding as aggressively (he now finally is). 

Because of this, TC came back into work normally, but the pony has been mostly just walking down the road and back and trail riding when it’s been hot. I felt so bad, one day I took him up into the hills and he was SOAKED in sweat, poor pony. The same day, TC barely broke a sweat. 

Poor pony got so hot on the trails

Of course, it decided to plummet from 78 to 58 between Sunday and Tuesday. On Sunday, the pony dragged himself down the road and back at the walk and I let him go back to the barn instead of working because of the heat. Monday they both got the day off, and then Tuesday it was cold and windy. 

I thought that TC was going to be nuts, but he actually felt amazing on Tuesday. We had some really amazing canter work and some fabulous changes of direction at the trot, which has been challenging (he is super comfortable changing from right to left but not left to right). No antics, although he was a bit spookier than he usually is. 

I kind of write off the pony a lot of the time. I figure that TC is more athletic, younger, and more absurd, so if TC is fine, then the pony will be fine, right? Wrong. 

Hi please stop letting me experience
gravity in this way

The thing I appreciate so much about TC is that he lets me know when he needs to leap around and play. I can then decide to ride him through it (I trust him to not launch me but sometimes one is not interested in being tossed into the air and caught like a rag doll) or if I want to turn him out and let him gallop. I kind of take this for granted though, since I now assume every horse will give me a warning. 

The pony does not do this. He tries really hard to be a good pony and seemingly at random, he will explode. 

In the past, these explosions have always happened after he's lost spinal integrity or when he's having a really hard time emotionally. They feel fairly similar to me. 

This time though, he was going around being a good pony and then leapt into the air. It was so much smoother than I'd felt in the past though, and instead of continuing to explode, he landed and bolted. Then when I slowed him down, he ducked and spun. 

It was right around that moment that I figured I was going to fall off of him. So I just stepped off of him when he went to spin. I tried to hang onto him but then gave up on that too and let him go. I pretty much landed on my feet and then dropped to my knees, so at least I wasn't any worse for wear. 

He's still a good trail pony even if I'm now going
to be just constantly prepared to hit the ground lol

Pony ran off and bucked a few times, then let me catch him. I put him on the longe line and he leapt and ran and leapt and ran and bucked and just had a grand old time. I then stopped him and we did some clicker training and then I took him back to his stall and gave him a cookie. 

I mean, looking back, I should have just longed him. I'm just used to TC who is the most perfect and who never needs a longe. 

The good news is that I rode him the next day and he was fine. I also felt fine myself. This has definitely made me realize that maybe I am not as sticky as I thought I was and that TC is just kind to me. And it has also made me question exactly how small I want my next horse to be..... I mean, I am closer to the ground on the pony, but apparently I am more likely to hit it because of how quick he is.

Going Backwards, Woops

Whoops, a few rides ago, TC started his balking again. I, unfortunately was having kind of a rough day of it, so I tried to push him through it like I used to and things got very slightly worse. Luckily the moment they got worse, I stopped and got off. 

I put him away and rode the pony in the ring, having a much better ride than I had on TC! This is a definite perk of having two horses going at the same time. 

I love this view

The next day though, they switched. I rode the pony first, who was great on the trail but then shit hit the fan. 

Ever since our trail ride adventure he's been incredibly emotional and spooky. We are working through that and I'll be having Kate do some ground work with him to help him through his emotions. But it turned out that work was being done in the pasture as we walked down to the barn and he was concerned. 

My dad was mowing the lower pasture and my mom was moving the pony's fence line out. Unfortunately she didn't realize that Riot was in the upper pasture and she left the gate open. As I was riding the pony by her, she was like "oh shit, I need to go drive down to the gate to close it!" as Riot was like "hmmmm what is that over there" and starts moseying that way. 

Looking down on the valley!

As she walked in front of the pony, he flipped out, so I had her stop. She sat in the ATV waiting for me, but then I told her, not loud enough, "actually, I'm going to get off of him so you can go close the gate, hold on" and started getting off. She didn't think much of it, and why should she, the pony has been bombproof up until a week and a half ago, but she slammed the door of the ATV. 

Right... as I was getting off. 

And he bolted. 

Now, if I'd been fully on, I probably would have been fine, but I was half on him and I was not fine. I got flung into the ground. 

I gave him a cookie afterwards, it
was not his fault 

At first, I didn't think that Land Safe had helped all that much. I didn't feel like I had too much control over how I felt and I blamed it on the pony being so low to the ground, me being halfway off. It all just happened so fast. 

But then I realized... I was heading head first to the ground as I fell but, while I crumped my visor of my helmet, my head actually didn't hit the ground. My left arm hit first, then my left knee, and then I rolled sideways to the left. I think I would have probably continued rolling if I didn't smash into a T post mid-back first. 

I definitely thought I broke my arm since it was under me and it hurt a ton, but luckily I escaped with just some soreness and bruises. 

So thanks, Land Safe! I do think that they helped me quite a bit with that fall. 

I love it up there

So unfortunately, two minor setbacks this week. One that TC is apparently balking again, he did in our ride yesterday too (although was fine when we worked at liberty the day I fell). One that the pony is clearly struggling a bit right now and needs some help. 

Luckily, for the first time in a long time with issues, I feel really well prepared. TC and I went back to walk work and are fixing an abduction problem with his left hind, which I think is causing his balking, the spinal integrity doesn't feel as good as it did a bit ago and I think he's learned that he can communicate that to me now. If he's still not feeling great, I'll probably set up another lesson with our bodywork clinician to see what she sees. I also haven't taken video yet so maybe that will help, I'll do that today. 

He's still a happy camper

The pony and I went to a clinic the day after my fall and we swapped from it being a dressage clinic to doing some ground work. I got some really good feedback, but knowing that Kate is an expert in ground work, the most helpful feedback I got was the general "you should fix this with ground work" so I told Kate we'd be working together! Until then, I think the pony and I are going to just focus on having fun together, so we are going to start trail riding (alone) every other day and that's it. 

I'm kind of excited to get better at ground work! It's definitely a missing puzzle piece for me in the skills department. And I feel more confident on TC since I fell, so it's all a win win in my opinion. 

The First "Fall"

I have a really stupid story to tell but before telling it, I want to assure everyone that both TC and I are fine. One of us is just supremely stupid. It's me. I'm the stupid one.

The smartest pony

So, on Monday of this week I fell off my horse. Well, you could say that. You could also say that I wasn't exactly ON my horse in the first place so does it really count as falling off of my horse? You decide.

I was in a rush because although I got home on Sunday with plenty of time to do everything I needed to do and get to sleep early, I did not do that. So I get to the barn late and I want to streamline things so I have the maximum amount of riding time.

My tack is currently living in my trailer (which is living at the barn, yay), so instead of bringing tack to horse, I figure that it'd be best to bring horse to tack.

Such fun rides this week

TC immediately concluded that being tacked up at the trailer at his home barn was an obvious indicator that the apocalypse was coming. So he was already a bit upset. I decided to just get on at the trailer because usually when I get on him and start walking, he calms down.

Now, TC isn't the best at mounting. He's fine, don't get me wrong, but he doesn't stand still. I work on it every day but a day like this was not the day because there are some days where making him stand still makes him feel claustrophobic. It's fine, it's still just a work in progress.

However, I did not mount properly that day. Instead of mounting from the wheel well, I mounted from just by the tack room. It was a perfect location to get my right foot caught in TC's rope halter as I swung my leg over.

The offending halter

I didn't quite realize what was happening when it happened, so I tried to really yank my leg over him in that moment. He was trying to leave and I didn't think to like, tug at the rein to stop him. In the instant I realized that I wasn't going to make it over, he bolted out from under me and I landed on my face, foot still stuck in halter, right next to my trailer. I watched from the ground as TC galloped off.

I got up and walked over to where I saw him go. He had gone over to his old paddock from before and was standing still snorting as if he wasn't sure what everyone was so upset about. You, TC, they were upset by you.

I caught him and looked him over. He had kept his reins on (pros to having a horse with such a high neck set I suppose) so they weren't broken, his legs looked fine, but his eyes were bugging out of his head and he was looking at me like I was a demon. Great.

I dusted myself off before getting on him but
later found dirt in my boots lol

I took him back to the trailer as he pranced and snorted next to me. I set him up to mount (this time taking note of where the halter was) and took my time getting him comfortable before hopping on. He jigged and cantered in place walking out and I was aiming to get into the covered arena (his comfort arena) ASAP, but they were watering it. He's pretty good walking around the barn so I thought that'd be a good idea to calm him down. Unfortunately as we walked back toward where he had run to, the garbage truck arrived.

Somehow it got behind me (I was walking in a loop) and TC exploded, so I had to hang onto him while gesturing to the garbage man to slow down and give us more space. I finally stuffed TC in the arena and was getting his brain back to me when the garbage truck drove by the arena behind a fence + shrubs so he couldn't really see it.

Mirror selfies every day

But you know what. After all that happened and the garbage truck finally left, TC settled down and put in a great ride.

He's been one who, when set off that severely, is not really "fixable" until the next ride. There are some rides that are just a bust with him when shit goes down. This was one of those shit days where I expected to have a very tense ride with some bolts. But he was great! I mostly worked on relaxation at all three gaits and then called it a day, so it was very light and easy for him, but he was able to come back to me mentally!

I was so proud of him! Totally not at all proud of myself, but proud of him! I'm glad we were no worse for wear and I'll definitely be very careful with mounting from now on.

You Win Again, Gravity

I talked a lot of my situation with TC this week and thought I'd share a stupid but kind of funny story to break the heavy stuff up.

I have this pipe dream of taking Sunny, my mom's pony, to a schooling event at intro level.

Sunny has silicosis, but that seems to be pretty well managed at this point. I'd been riding him a bit this winter for my mom, because she gets nervous about riding him, then avoids riding him, then feels more nervous about riding him because he hasn't been ridden. Also he's fat. So as things got tricky with TC, I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone, and start riding Sunny a bit.

Sunny! I don't have any pictures of me riding
him I guess

At first I just rode him for fun. It was cool to have a pony to mess around on in the winter, ride him bareback, canter around with my arms out, basically relive some of the stupid shit we all like(d) to do with horses when we were kids now.

One day I put up a tiny jump and trotted him over it. He hadn't been jumped in a while, actually since the silicosis diagnosis (which, before then he had been very reluctant to jump due to the joint pain that the disease causes). He was SO excited for the jump, so my mom got excited about letting him jump again and bought some jump blocks.

Since then, I've been jumping him occasionally, mostly bareback, mostly over the tiniest of jumps.

Last weekend after my *awful* lesson on TC (just due to him being a dork and me realizing I had to move barns for him, not the new trainer, who I adore and who has been emailing me every day with suggestions/ideas to keep TC happy until I can move him), I figured I'd like to go jump Sunny.

Riding Sunny also has a perk of hanging out
with this amazing dog

I put on a saddle, but forgot my boots and helmet, so I just borrowed the spare helmet that my parents have for guests. Tennis shoes... sure. I thought about riding bareback, but then I remember seeing that the tiny intro logs this weekend weren't as tiny as I thought they were, and that if I wanted to do intro one day on him, I needed to up my game. So saddle it was. And the jumps went up (not that much though).

I was trotting around in the saddle when my left ankle pinched. Ouch. I have pretty bad anterior ankle impingement on that ankle (getting it looked at this fall, it might need surgery, ick). It affects me mostly in weight lifting when I have to squat because my right ankle has way more mobility and my left ankle hurts when I try to match it. So I have to be careful to not twist over my right ankle.

The first time I ever felt the anterior ankle impingement was when I was encouraged to put my heels down while jumping a long time ago. That was when I switched from riding in tall boots to riding in short boots (with laces that I could make very tight to prevent the ankle from flexing all the way) with half chaps. Dressage never makes me feel iffy in my ankle so I forget that it's a thing when I'm riding.

Tiny jumps

So, I'm jumping Sunny in the saddle that evening realizing that I'm constantly standing over my right leg, which is not a normal thing for me. My right ankle was just more flexible so that leg stayed down and anchored while my left leg was less stable and I had to kind of stand in the stirrup to prevent my ankle from flexing too much.

It didn't occur to me that this would be an issue. I mean, not that day. I figured I'd wear my boots next time and see how it all felt, then maybe find my old half chaps and boots and keep those with Sunny so I could have boots to use AND protect my ankle from the stirrups. But whatever, Sunny used to teach tiny children, he's safe.

My parents' barn is amazing

Alright, so we're coming around to the fence, set a bit higher than we had been jumping (I've only jumped him once since being sick and I made sure it was very tiny, this was slightly less but still very tiny), and Sunny sees a longer spot, which he sometimes gets excited about and leaps over. He did just that and I stuck with him, but when he does this, he usually lands bucking his tiny stupid pony bucks. We were jumping on a circle to the left, so as he lands bucking, he turns left because that's where we were pointed. My weight went down to the right. All of it.

I hit the back of my head pretty hard and had an immediate headache. But other than that, I was fine. I hopped up, yelled "I haven't fallen off in ages!" and then got back on and finished the jump school. I was a little more firm with Sunny, who I always think is this plug of a pony who used to teach beginners and has silicosis, but he can be a bit of an ass. He was way better and I learned a valuable lesson with him, don't trust him so much.

The most hilarious part of this story is how my mom reacted. I came up to the barn and she asked how he was, my face was real guilty and I admitted to falling off. This was her response:

"He WHAT? Wait, you're telling me that *my* pony bucked you off? My pony bucked off a USDF Gold Medalist and 'A' pony clubber? REALLY?" Then I gave Sunny the finger and heard "did you just give him the finger??"

For the rest of the night (it was father's day so we went out to dinner), she made fun of me. Said she couldn't believe TC hasn't bucked me off yet if her pony managed to do it. Asked me how many times I had actually fallen off, said it was less than 100, then said that I wasn't a perfect rider yet (my first ever instructor said you have to fall off 100 times to be a perfect rider), and randomly just started laughing during dinner. I asked her if me falling off would make her nervous to ride him and she laughed and said no, he'd never do that to her.

Thanks mom, also your pony is an asshole.