I Want to Get Off the Pony Ride

Tuesday and Wednesday of this week I took off from riding. Sometimes you just gotta see less ponies, right? Also I can't ride Tuesday nights unless I'm riding with Tracey since I don't want to share the arena with her lessons. And Wednesday TC got a day off since I'm trying to give him two days off a week now.

Look at that terrible no good too tight flash noseband
that is so offensive... you can seriously put a fist in it

On Monday, our ride wasn't so great. It was cool and windy out, so TC walked around the ranch terrified of basically everything. The arena work was fine, but he got scared of a motorcyclist who kept zipping down the road nearby so we had a series of bolts and I ended up stopping early and just putting him away.

TC got a trainer ride on Tuesday and got a good report. Wednesday I headed out to the barn after work to give TC his grain and say hi to him before I went to dinner. I ended up getting there quite early, so had about fifteen or twenty minutes to kill. So I hopped on him bareback. BO stopped me afterward and asked me if I was CRAZY. She knows the issues I've had with fear. But this horse is super quiet around the barn... like I'd never take him in an arena and try to work him bareback because then I would die.

My face when I hopped on and didn't die... yet

By Thursday, I was itching to ride my pony. I managed to get out of work on time and zipped out to the barn. I spent much of the day feeling excited about my lesson (which might be canceled due to rain) and reading all your thoughtful comments on yesterday's post, so I got TC out and brushed him and was ready to ride!

Walking around the ranch, TC was great, I mostly just talked with a friend who I rarely see since we usually ride at different times. Trainer found me and we headed out to the round pen. TC seemed so calm (friend even said "wow, he's so calm," which should have told me something) so I opted to just ride him in the round pen instead of longeing. Man guys, I should have longed him.

We started out okay, a lot of bucking- maybe a bit more than normal, but he always bucks in the round pen. He settled and was fine for a bit, but then the horses next door started galloping around like idiots and TC squealed and took off with me. Okay fine. We were tracking left so I kept him in canter and decided to make his work harder. That will show him. The canter felt AMAZING. Hell yes, let's do this, TC. I put him on the bit and... then he started broncing. I pulled his head up to be like NO and then put him back on the bit. More bronc bucks.

So I grabbed his face up again and told trainer "I LOVE THIS CANTER BUT I AM TOO AFRAID TO PUT HIM ON THE BIT" and we had a good laugh.

Good life choices right here

I got him back to trot and then the horses spooked him again. I felt a wave of adrenaline and told trainer that I thought it was a bad idea for me to try to work through it, maybe I should just fucking longe him. Trainer said no, just ride the horse. Damnit, trainer, my quarter got lodged in the pony ride and now it wont stop and I JUST WANT TO GET OFF THE PONY RIDE.

Eventually he settled and gave me some spectacular trot work. I felt really great about the ride and after some walk-trot transitions, it was getting dark and I said "that's good, we can head out now." And trainer agreed, and said that we can move to the covered arena now.

Wait no, what happened to getting off the pony ride?

So we walk in there and immediately TC is on edge. I'm happy to report that other than some head shaking and a bolt or two, most of his energy came out in a) being really fucking amazing and b) squealing.

The squealing is something he does sometimes. It's a high pitched EEEEEEEEEEE that he makes when he wants to whinny but is like too tense to get the whole whinny out? It's completely ridiculous.

Could have at least put on a bareback pad

But man, the other half of how he used his energy was awesome. I got his shoulder with me and put him on a 10m circle to do so. It's hard enough where he has to kind of sink or swim, and he really stepped up to work as he always does when he has to work hard. We did some 10m figure-8s and then I was thinking that it'd be easier to do in sitting trot, so I sat right down.

I've sat his trot a bit, but it's always been really unpleasant. This time it was great! It was the first time that he really kept his back up (I had stuffed it up there with the small circles, also I guess he was kind of humpy to begin with) and I got to feel the trot that I've always wanted out of him. It wasn't smooth... but it wasn't that sort of jarring trot that he's been showing me. I was able to sit into it and wrap my leg around him. Trainer was super impressed, he said he wished he had a video camera (and I was not about to stop and hand him my phone).

I played with the trot some more, including a little bit of lengthened trot (not sitting though... just no), and then we stopped. Like actually stopped. No reason to push things too far. Also I probably asked to get off of him like six times. It was not a fun ride! I'm glad I persevered and I'm glad things ended up being good, but I also just wanted to go home and relax instead of dealing with baby horse antics. Just one of those days.

I'm a bit over the evening rides, when is summer again?

I decided to hand him off today to trainer again. It's supposed to rain all day and the last thing I want to do when I get off work is drive to the barn (through lots of traffic because the first storm of every year seems to make people drive like they've never seen rain before) and ride my dumb young horse in the rain in the covered arena. So trainer can have him. I'm still going to the barn to ride my friend's horse, who is a gentleman in all weather conditions and who won't make me feel annoyed by getting there a little late since he's great in the dark too.

As much as having a few bad rides in a row sucks, I'm really happy that bad rides don't seem to get me so upset anymore. Some days, weeks, months, seasons, are just going to be shit. I've stopped asking why. Trainer taught me that real quick. He's just young. He's young and he had a day off and it was cold and windy and dark and there were horses running around.

The nice thing these days is that I still do get good work out of him even on our bad days. I might have wanted to get off of him for most of the ride, but I've never had so much fun sitting a trot on a figure-8.

Spring Fever

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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