Difficulty Multitasking

This weekend it was *actually* sunny for the first time in a long time. I've lived in the bay area my whole life and have never experienced this sort of crazy rain. There are three highways that can take me over the mountains to get to work, and all three have been shut down regularly. Meaning I have to drive completely out of my way to get around the mountain range, then drive all the way back up to where I would have gotten off before driving further to work. All on back roads. It's been insane.

So the few days that we get glorious sun here and there are really great. It's almost weird at this point to get a break in the rain. And obviously I was sick. On weekends where it pours rain all weekend? Totally not sick. On the one weekend where it isn't raining? Of course I'm sick.

But there's a fine line between too sick to work and too sick to

jump ponies

Last time there was a break in the rain, I went to ride Ginger with Kate (almost a month ago!), and since then I haven't really ridden. I've been on Rico maybe three times at the walk, and ridden TC a handful of times doing 3-5 minutes of trot each. Other than that, no riding.

I wasn't about to let being sick and seriously out of shape keep me from jumping again, so come Sunday I headed up to her barn.

I got there and her students ran to get me Ginger again. I'm seriously loving this pony and definitely need a 15.2h version of her after TC and I figure out what we're doing. We warmed up a bit, giving my lungs a break whenever I struggled to breathe (which was a lot). Kate asked to see my half seat and I was able to hold it for like... not very long. Maybe eight strides, but that'd be being generous I think. It's such a foreign feeling, and I mean even just being ON horses at this point for longer than a few minutes is, so half seat is extra foreign. Especially with really short appropriately long stirrups.

My leg was NOT going to stay where it needed to be, and I got into my old habit of nagging with my heel every stride. Something I do NOT do if my butt is in the saddle. I think it makes me feel more stable when I'm up in half seat though. So I worked on keeping my leg down, which then made me feel like I was going to fall backwards, causing me to float forward over my hand because, you know, I fall off the back all the time. Gah.

No more pony pictures because my phone ran out of battery,

boo. But here's Rico

We did a two stride, me only realizing it was two strides after a few times through, it's so funny how what used to be really natural behavior (counting strides between jumps) is now taking extra brainpower that apparently I can't let go, lest I run at the jump, let the pony drift, or lean forward/sideways/all over.

But even with more bad habits coming up, we did work on *different* things from last time, and I only got told I was jumping ahead a few times (that first picture is a good example of it, too bad my phone ran out of battery! I think it got better... maybe not).

And you know what, this time the fun outweighed the frustration. It didn't feel so odd to be cantering down to the jumps, I didn't have this weird deer-in-the-headlights feeling about jumping. And when Kate put the jumps up, my eyes didn't bug out of my head quite so much. I mean they still did. But not as much as they did last time. 

We ended with a little course, riding the line and then turning in the air over the last fence to a diagonal fence, then going back to the line the other direction. At first it was *really* hard to turn and jump at the same time.

I told Kate that I can't do more than one thing on a horse at a time. Okay so I can do the pirouette pattern from the Grand Prix test pretty well, enough for some solid 7s at my last test- pirouette on centerline thinking about sitting tall, weighting the outside hind leg, controlling the shoulder/steps/speed/roundness/vomit coming up my esophagus, ride out straight on centerline to a straight clean big expressive change without tipping or kicking or swinging sideways and immediately set up for the second pirouette in much the same way as the first before spicing up the canter around the corner to prep for the next movement... but please don't make me turn AND jump at the same time.

I gave him the worst haircut the other day and I really need

to go redo it lol

So the first try ended with me landing and then having to do a simple change for the turn, as the pony likes to push off more with her right hind than her left, causing her to want to jump right-left and land on the left lead. The next time around I managed to get the lead over the second fence in the line, but then the pony ran out at the diagonal fence because I once again left a door open, woops.

Finally the last time, I got leads over both fences AND we jumped all the fences. Buuuuut I totally did this move I used to do on Stretch when I was showing him many years ago and leaned hard sideways to get the leads. I laughed because I feel like I'm taking Kate on a rapid journey through my jumping career. I used to duck quite a lot, now that I'm not doing that anymore, I'm revisiting my jumping ahead and leaning that plagued my teenage years.

I wonder what's coming up next! Nothing for a while, as we're entering yet another crazy rainstorm that will likely leave me off the cutest pony ever for a while.

After the lesson we went to see if Junior was feeling better from his thrush (seriously SO MUCH RAIN these days) so that I could pay Kate back for her lessons by helping her with some Second level stuff with him. Alas he avoided the work, so I gave Kate my three favorite counter canter exercises and promised to help her next time!

Friends with Ponies

Yesterday I talked about how awesome my friends are. One of these good friends I've met in the last year (damn it feels longer) is Kate.

And Kate has PONIES and generously
gives me her belt to use as a neck strap lol

I could say a lot of really nice things about Kate, if you get the chance to meet her, do it (and also come see me too!). But one nice thing I can say about Kate is that she has ponies and is a generous human, so the second that I told her about the whole ordeal with TC, her first response was to offer me ponies (and not even in a "train my ponies!" way, since she offered to let me jump them even after the last time I jumped one I made it stop at a tiny fence because you don't need leg to jump horses, pfft). I do love me some ponies. And riding with friends! Riding Rico alone for so long, and having basically everyone at my barn vacate the arena when I'm on TC, I really love riding with friends.

This weekend the weather finally cooperated and I headed out to her barn on Saturday afternoon!

These are from summer because it was dark when we were riding

She offered me my favorite Ginger pony and we headed down to the arena. I haven't jumped regularly (like with lessons and stuff) since 2012, but as I've said on this blog, I actually have more jumping training than dressage training. I've just had higher quality (and more recent) dressage training.

We warmed up and I popped up into jumping position at the canter to try to knock some of the rust off. I felt super out of whack. Not only have I only jumped like five times in the last five years, I also hadn't RIDDEN a horse in over a month. Even just posting was a bit odd and I fudged a canter transition or several, but generally, flat work is my jam (er at least it should be). But I had a major problem with cantering in jumping position. It was kind of hilarious. And also incredibly frustrating.

Apparently when sitting, I ride just fine, but the second my butt leaves the saddle, my education leaves my body and I got rigid in my elbow, loose in my core, and had almost no stability in my leg. It was SO FRUSTRATING. Let me tell you, going from the very very top of one discipline to not being able to just fucking canter in jumping position without feeling like I was going to fall right off was really humbling. Riding is hard.

I was super wigged out by this fence lol

Kate was nice to give me a single tiny fence to warm up over before she sent me through a grid. It's been five years since I rode through a grid. I had drilled it into my head after the last time I rode Ginger over fences (this summer on xc) that I HAVE to keep my leg on. Ginger is super fun and simple to jump, but she's not a seeing eye horse where you can just take your leg off and get that deer-in-the-headlights look that I get coming to jumps these days. But I'm happy to say that I kept my leg on and most of the jumps happened!

I kept ducking and jumping ahead over the single fence. In general, that's been my major habit over the years. What, do I think I'm going to fall off the back of the horse? I've fallen on a lot more necks and over a lot more shoulders than I've fallen off the back... Still it feels comfortable to have a horse's ears up my nose and my leg way back. I'm also just not flexible at all for this sport- my hamstrings are tight and my body just feels like it won't listen to me.

Major props to Kate for dealing with me at this point- I was really frustrated by my old habits. Still, she had super good reminders and visuals for me and we slowly kicked more rust off of me, even if I felt like sometimes I was running around and grabbing the rust, slapping it back on, and complaining loudly that there was no rust on me at all.

She's the best pony

Grids are also hard. The first time we came in, Ginger ran out. You know, because I left a huge door open on the right side. Luckily I remembered that even when not in dressage tack, I know how to keep the shoulders on a horse straight, so it only happened the one time.

The grid was super fun, a one stride to a two stride. I kept letting her drift left and getting ahead again. But by the end I was miraculously able to keep it all together and even blocked another run out.

It was a humbling ride, evidence that, while I obviously still remember how to jump, I'm going to need a lot of work to get back to where I once was in my jumping. And that's hard. It sucks to go from literally competing at the highest level in one sport to struggling at a very low level in another. I wasn't expecting that (which is dumb) so it's going to take a little while to get used to re-learning (there was a lot of "I KNOW! Wait, am I not doing that? WTF?!" going on). Luckily Kate seems to have endless patience with me. Hopefully I bounce back relatively quickly jumping-wise, and obviously an attitude change has to happen too for this to be less frustrating and more fun. And that's on me.

I love ponies

I feel so freakishly lucky to have this sort of an opportunity to start jumping before I buy my next horse. I really want something that I can play with over fences and on the trails, and yah eventually, my little BN/N horse is probably going to be the only one that piaffes and passages. To jump a bit before having to buy something is not only going to give me information about whether I really DO want to do this, it's going to drastically change the sort of horse I can buy (which Kate reminded me on the phone the other day when I was contemplating trying to sell TC and taking the money to buy something else NOW). So massive thanks to Kate and the little Ginger pony for helping me! Even if I was a bit of a pain in the ass to both. Will work on that.

Trail Riding and an Impromptu Cross Country School

Kate and I have talked about trail riding together for a long time. The initial plan was for me to meet her somewhere with Rico, but Rico is out of shape for most trails (other than very short, flat trails) and I am kind of awful at parking the three horse trailer, so to make everyone's life easier, I met her at her barn and we took two of her horses!

I had the choice between a few of them, and despite itching to get on all of them at some point, I couldn't help but to choose the Ginger pony. I fucking LOVE PONIES and I had fallen for Ginger when I taught one of Kate's kids on her.

The BEST Ginger pony

Kate's barn has goats and this one was on the roof!

We put Ginger and Tango into the trailer and headed off to the redwoods! I was really excited to have a fun trail ride, as I haven't taken Rico on a trail ride in months and TC and I may never get back on the trail. But as we drove into the facility, I saw cross country jumps. Wat.

We've been talking about putting me on one of Kate's half dead lesson horses and letting me jump a bit. It's been two years since I jumped Rico after my Gold, four years since I jumped at all seriously, and six years since I competed in eventing. As I've said on this blog, I've actually probably had MORE jump lessons than dressage lessons in my life. But I'm very clearly a much BETTER dressage rider than I am a jump rider. It just goes back to riding with mostly crappy jump trainers and then the last three years riding with exclusively amazing dressage instructors (and before that with much better dressage trainers than any of my jump trainers).

But man that cross country course made me want to jump, so before our trail ride, because Kate is the BEST, we headed out on course!!

Megan, that jump is very small... you don't need to jump it for
the pony

We stopped in at the trail course on the way to the arena to warm up. TC is really good about walking over bridges, so I pointed Ginger at one casually, but at first she wasn't having it. Eventually I got her to walk almost all the way over, but every single time we were on it, she'd side step off. I couldn't for the life of me get the pony to walk off of it in a straight line. Granted, I probably would have been more effective if I hadn't been laughing my ass off the whole time.

After that we played in the arena a bit, which was helpful because this pony is a PONY and I haven't ridden a real pony in years (I'm going to guess five years). I was able to put the pony on the bit (phew, always my fear when getting on horses I don't know lol) and had fun torturing her a bit, working on self carriage and playing with the connection. Then at the canter I got up in half seat and immediately regretted not requesting a neck strap. Ponies are hard to balance on! Especially because she didn't have a big puffy mane for me to grab onto.

Yay the gate!

Look at me taking the high option after some prodding

Out to the field we went and I found the tiniest ground pole jump and after popping over it, declared myself Ground Pole Champion of the World. After that, I requested a neck strap, so Kate took off her belt. I felt bad, but apparently that belt has been a neck strap a LOT. I really didn't trust my balance and the Ginger pony probably wouldn't appreciate me grabbing her ears or putting my arms around her neck.

Ummmm I'm about to disclose some very embarrassing moments. So let me tell you this first. I am not a bad dressage rider. I sit fairly well in the tack, most trainers don't rip their eyes out of their head when I come to lessons, and my horses, while bolty pieces of shit (one of them at least), tend to go pretty well for me. Oh and I recently trained a client's horse to PSG, and my own horse to GP.

HOWEVER, this really weird thing happens when you take me out of the arena and shorten my stirrups. My brain actually drops clear out of my head and I become much more like a barely trained monkey and much less like I've had fifteen years of jumping experience. So please, no judgement, I promise I'm not *actually* this bad of a rider.

GROUND POLE CHAMPIONS YES

This pony is SO MUCH FUN! That's me not sure what to do with
my hands when I'm not holding onto the neck strap

Me, for most of the ride

Each set of jumps had three options. First was the ground poles, second was probably 18" at the most, and third was bigger, but no more than 2'6 but at least 2'-2'3. We started with some little round thingies (cross country fence knowledge: A+) and I popped over the middle option. It was probably 18" but I jumped up the pony's neck like it was a 4' fence. Erm.

After doing those a little bit and getting some very good instruction from Kate that maybe I don't need to leap up the pony's neck and maybe I should look up and keep my leg on (lol why would you do that?), I asked tentatively if I could jump the big fence.

I took one middle fence first, then cantered (okay let me be honest, I thought I was going SO FAST until Kate showed me the video... I was not going fast) over the big fence. Wait. Cantered TO the big fence, before I looked down and took my leg off and the pony very politely ran out. The first thing that went through my head when Kate told me to do it again and keep my leg on this time is my leg doesn't have to be on, we're going fast enough.

Like... LOL WTF. Hi my name is Megan and I'm a USDF Gold Medalist. I'm here to talk to you about how the only thing the leg is used for is speed.

Go pony! 

I burst out laughing and told Kate that although I keep my leg on quite well in the passage to piaffe transition, keeping my leg on to a fence made no sense in my little o/f monkey brain. So I came around again, put my FUCKING LEG ON so she jumped the hell out of the little BN fence and it was SO MUCH FUN!!!

We jumped around some more fences and despite sometimes Ginger testing my ability to ride porpoises after fences, she was AWESOME. Major props to Kate for dealing with my complete inability to look up and keep my leg on. I had other such revelations as sitting up means you won't get crow-hopped out of the tack after fences and you don't have to jump the jump for the pony and you really don't have to look at the jump, Megan, it's not a moving target.

Can I say again that I swear I know what I'm doing on a horse at least 50% of the time? I guess this just means that I need to jump a bit more!

HAVING SO MUCH FUN even though
I look ridiculous on ponies

After the jumping adventure, we headed out on our trail ride with Tango in front and me offering to give Kate her belt back but her refusing (thankfully, since it turned out I needed it). I've trail ridden a lot, but mostly at the facilities down near TC/Rico- not a lot of redwoods down there. It was nice and cool as we wound through the trees, chatting about ponies, laughing at Tango's fear of the ground, and wondering how sore I was going to be (answer: very).

The trails were fairly steep and had a lot of little steps/banks to ride up and down. Ginger is the best trail pony and hopped up and down the banks like a pro, she even jumped a stream, at which point I thanked Kate for not taking her belt back. Because I would have been IN the water right off the back of her if I hadn't thought to grab on. Ponies are quick, man.

After the like... zillionth down bank, I told Kate that I actually used to have a down bank problem, since I always used to try to lean forward and jump off them. It was all fixed in 2008 when I worked for the event trainer (back when I could actually ride more than one phase... but not more than two! I was always a shit stadium rider) and my friend took me out and taught me how to jump them. So luckily my lessons with her came back and only a couple of times did I feel like I might fly head first into Tango's ass.

Ginger pony looks less than pleased
to have me on her

The other side of that picture- Kate on Tango!

It was an AWESOME trail ride, so much fun to just relax and let go of the stress of rehab and crazy bolting baby horses. At the end (after Tango got loose on the property and just quietly walked away from Kate and I as we tried to catch him. Well, Kate tried to catch him, I video taped her and then decided to help well after I probably should have), we headed to Starbucks and then back to the barn.

Such a fun day, good horse friends are hard to find and I feel like blogging has let me find so many great ones!

Tannnggoooo come back please