The Return of Counter Canter

I'm really pleased with how TC is looking and feeling these days. He's finally getting to a place where I can really ride him in the more collected paces and have it feel somewhat easy for him. I think this is due to how much spinal integrity he's starting to maintain on his own. He's really learning to hold himself more together instead of relying on finding the outside edges of my aids and ping ponging off of those. 

Because of this, we've started to scratch the surface of moving back toward Second level! In our last lesson, we found a hole in the spinal integrity as he headed into canter, so I figured that I'd challenge him with some counter canter. 

For some reason I only clipped from left lead canter,
it was due to a time constraint, his right lead is better

It was really interesting. I went right first, so his harder lead but his easier direction, and it felt really weak. Like I could not ride it without feeling like I had to chase him a bit. That's fine, but nowhere near where I want it to be. 

The other direction though, well, I've never ridden a better counter canter. It felt unbelievably rideable, super uphill, and just downright easy for him! So that was fascinating. His left lead has always been the weaker one, but this is definitely a little more than usual. But I figure I'll give him a month or two of schooling some counter canter a couple days a week before I start using it as any sort of a diagnostic tool. He could also just be rather uncoordinated. 

I love trail rides on this horse

Beyond that, we also looked at some lengthened and shortened trot. TC has always had a lot of "pushing" power, but most of that power was actually just pulling power with his hind legs out behind him. We've been working hard on the carrying power, engaging his hind legs and lightening the forehand. But I also do need to access the *actual* pushing power rather than him always defaulting to pulling. 

I figure the best way to do this is to put him in his place of carrying, then ask him for a bigger gait, then put him back in his carrying place. It's a lot easier to go back to carrying if you don't completely change from rear wheel drive to front wheel drive. 

This was *very* hard for... me. I want to feel a big surge heading into a lengthening and that surge is only available by him pulling right now. So it was good for me to have to maintain a semblance of carrying in the lengthened trot. 

Best gray horse

But then that lead to some hovering on his part. Another thing that my body automatically rewards because it feels like passage. A hovering trot does not a passage make. A passage has both carrying and pushing power. The hovering is created by him just pulling himself with his neck and front feet and bouncing the hind legs along to create what feels like more suspension but what is actually a large heap of garbage. But like most people, it feels like passage so therefore I get a stupid grin on my face like wheee he's so bouncy and fancy. 

I've been there before though, so I've been working to let him know thank you, but I will not be requiring childlike joy from a hovering trot. I will ask you for more suspension later when you have the strength to do it properly. He's fine with that, just wanted to offer a shitty passage-like trot if I would like to have it. 

We have five baby cows by the way!
More in another post hopefully

All in all, it feels REALLY good to not have the harder work lead to him completely dropping through his thoracic sling and looking terrible again. His body is looking pretty good, not the way I want it to, but we're also struggling with how much food they're getting in pasture, so I think he was being a little underfed. He's getting more calories now so hopefully that helps us out in the topline department. 

He still looks way better than he did before, but now I've gotten greedy. My main goal though is for him to continue looking better. I don't mind if it takes a little while, but if he starts actually LOSING topline, that's when I need to stop and reevaluate. We aren't there yet, but I think this level of work and having enough to maintain weight but maybe not put on muscle (maybe? it's so hard to know when they're on pasture) can explain why he might be plateauing the tiniest bit. 

Step Through

Saturday I woke up early and stuck TC in the trailer to take him back over to my trainer's barn for another lesson. This time though, Peony lent me her Pixio!! I seriously have the most amazing friends.

The drive over there was a titch rough with it being Drive Like an Asshole Day and all, but once as we got there, TC hopped right out of the trailer and was totally fine. Not impressed. One day he'll be like that even at brand new places!

Get it pony! Do more planks, Megan!

I tacked him up except for the bridle and then took him and the Pixio down to the barn. I left TC in the cross ties and then went and put everything up. Peony and Andy had stopped in (bringing me in n out!) the night before and helped me set it up in my apartment (and then Peony demonstrated some really amazing dressage moves on foot) so that I could figure out how to do it. It wasn't hard to set up, the only thing that was tricky was actually working the camera because I kept looking for a button that wasn't there. Yes I remember going over this the night before.

Back in the barn, I grabbed TC and took him out to the ring, turned on the camera, looked at it skeptically for a while, and then got on to walk him (totally forgetting about my equisense, seems like one equine-related technology is enough for me). He was just the tiniest bit balled up, but when I started trotting, he settled right in.

The first thing Tanya said about him was that he seemed really quiet! While I warmed up, she helped me with my posting mechanic. I tend to tuck my butt a little bit on the top of the rise, which is not necessary, so I stopped doing that and it made his trot feel much better! She also wanted me landing a little bit further back in the saddle. I've always been the sort to arch my back so it's interesting that I'm going in the opposite direction. Sticking with the biomechanics part of the lesson, she also wanted me to get my elbows down and my hands up a little bit. I don't normally ride like a monkey but I was really sore soooo yeah.

So he's coughing a little bit here so obviously the answer to that
is to do WILD AND CRAZY THINGS WITH YOUR  HANDS
but you can see my posting mechanic change a bit 

Immediately in the canter we had the issue I've been having - TC gets behind my leg and then bucks. Finally! I was so glad to have this happen in front of her! We talked about the whole spectrum of the canter. I've been feeling him get behind my leg, swinging to let's say the right of the pendulum, and then I've been only swinging him back to neutral, which isn't far enough, we have to go all the way to the left. I need to basically gallop him forward until he's super committed to being at neutral or above. She said to fix this now before it becomes a problem. And I was like dude it's a problem now!

Boing boing boing , you can see he does it when he's asked to
get his hind legs under him and he's like nah how about this other
shit instead? Btw he does it both ways and is not in pain, his rider
could be better though, or much worse. 

That's more where he needs to be for warm up! 

But once as TC is in front of the leg, he stays there pretty well, so that's great! We did some lengthenings down the long sides and then shortenings on the short side to really test this out and he only broke once I think. I still need to be committed to bringing him shorter, but I think I'm kind of afraid to do it because I might lose the reach from his inside hind leg. Gah I wish I had mirrors! I've been historically bad at really feeling the hind legs and yet I continue to buy horses who like to leave their hind legs behind them... Excellent life choices!

Go pony! Still working on getting him pushing from behind vs
just pulling along with the front end, so I have to keep him a
bit more compressed in these for now, one day he'll have a big
scary extension though!

We took a walk break after that, but at the end of it, she wanted to check on our walk pirouettes. I've been working on them on and off for a while and have always thought that TC's mechanic was excellent but that he wanted to just get a bit slow. The one to the left was excellent, but the one to the right slowed down. Not getting sticky or stepping out or anything other than just making it look like we were doing it in slow motion. 

Tanya had me go do a "working walk pirouette" which I have always called an "endless walk pirouette" where you're just in the middle of the arena going around and around and around. She had me put him forward 1-2 steps out of it when he'd slow down, then immediately get back in it. Hey that sounds familiar... I can't find the post about it, but I for sure took a lesson on Rico where I did this exact exercise in a canter pirouette.

I love him! The left one is easy, just need a bit more throughness
and a bit more bend for the show ring I think

To the right, what we ended with, obviously it needs a lot of
work but it was so much better than before!

The lesson continues, but that will be for tomorrow's post given how long it's taking me to make all these gifs! It's amazing to have the video though. I really need to start scheming and figure out how I can get me one of these cameras... 

Upright Spinal Processes

I had two really amazing rides on TC this last weekend. We're working hard on the stuff I learned from Alexis and Kate recently, as well as making sure that all of our First level stuff is set for what will hopefully be our first shows this month.

He's like "please just put me away"

One thing that I didn't mention about Kate coming to visit is that she rode TC. She ended up riding him on a day that was NOT a good day to ride him. TC is generally really a good boy, but there are days where he can be rather unrideable. It's usually when stuff is going on around him that he wants to look at/spook at and he gets himself all in a tither and just can't be with you right now. Kate rode him beautifully through it, I told her when I got on that she better keep a lid on him or she'd be getting run away with. Then I kinda just left her to her own devices and talked to Nicole. Poor Kate. But she is one of our stickiest friends so...

Aside from riding him through some shit, Kate said some words that really resonated with me. She said that TC's spinal processes were almost always pointed right.

This is 110% caused by my right thigh not being on my horse for however many weeks/months/years/forever. I've made lots of room for his spine to be tilted to the right. This really clarified a few things for me:

1) TC feels way more balanced to the left but is harder to get a feeling of throughness on
2) TC's left circle feels more balanced but his right one is easier to get smaller
3) TC's right lead feels like it's on the forehand more often than the left

It also makes sense as to why I have so much practice pulling my right leg up, his body just disappears below it so it feels like I have to reach up to put my leg on, which takes my thigh off even more, making him lean more. Dressage is fun.

I still think he looks so awkward, but at least he's getting a neck
and a booty!

That, and Kate's assertion that I need to stop pulling on the left rein, made a huge difference moving forward. I feel like I can actually ride him to the left. I still super want to pull on the left rein but I'm resisting it pretty well I think.

Since fixing this issue and really drilling the canter work, TC has been feeling great. Both Saturday and Sunday we tackled some of the stuff from First level, including leg yields, lengthenings, and stretchy trot.

After our wander around the field on both days, we played around with some trot work in warm up. I'm mostly doing circles and changing directions in trot to help myself notice the spinal processes and to get him loosened up and stretching into contact. It's really apparent when changing directions where the spinal processes are pointed, and I'm trying to keep them upright. Having something like that to think about gets my right thigh on him a bit better than just thinking about putting it on. Feeling the difference in his balance is really motivating.

The circles have been something that I've been neglecting. It gets easy to ride on a bunch of straight lines in the big arena amidst all the jumps, so I've started using certain areas where there isn't a ton of room to try to fit circles in. We start with big ones and then work our way down toward 10 meters. At 1-1 and 1-2, we don't really need the full circles at that size, but 1-3 has one in each direction. He can do them, but it's hard to compress the trot enough without losing cadence or energy. So we work our way down and I try to focus on continuing to kneel into the trot so he maintains energy and cadence in the smaller steps.

After those circles, we usually canter. I've been forcing myself to do the lengthened canter a bit more, so after a few 15 meter circles, we played with it. In talking with Alexis, she noted that if the horse was going to act up in the canter lengthening because they were a dork like mine, she didn't really ride them. Going away from the judge, they can't really see the difference between no lengthening and a conservative lengthening, so they will often just throw you a 6-7 score and say "needs more" or something. I'm not one for half assing it, but I'm going to keep that in my back pocket.

The lengthenings aren't bad, actually. We can really push for a lot in the big arena without having to worry about it as much as in a smaller arena. He's playing less in it and we haven't had our patented turn-lengthening-into-bolt maneuver in a long while. He's also not the worst at coming back from it, maybe due to all the times I had to slow him down when he has done such antics.


After the canter work, it was time for trot lengthenings. I really wish I had mirrors, because it feels really good but this horse often feels good and looks terrible in things like this. I focused as much as I could to maintain a bit of carrying in the hind legs, since his tendency is to push his hind legs out behind him and fling his knees up to hold his balance. The connection felt good, so I think we avoided that.

My own tendency in the lengthenings is to let go of my thigh and pick my legs up a bit too much. I think this is left over from Rico and also that TC is still green in them so he still thinks "oh, faster? Cool!" rather than understanding that the lengthenings are a thing we do. I can't quite plop him into it yet. It's like when he was learning leg yield and it was just kind of a drift, vs now he confidently leg yields over.  That just takes time, so we're going to be doing a lot of lengthenings!

Leaning on my right thigh, well, where my right thigh would
be if I put it on

I threw in some leg yields amidst the trot lengthenings too. The leg yields feel pretty good these days, I absolutely drilled the lateral work at my old barn with the mirrors, so I think we're staying pretty straight in them. TC is also pretty good about steepening the leg yields or making them more shallow. If I have a complaint about them, it's that they still tend to lose cadence in them. I really need to do some long leg yields in posting trot and kind of hassle him over a bit.

He's quite good at the zig zag from 1-3, though I need to get in a court to see how I'm actually doing with the geometry of that movement. For some reason there's not much issue for him to be leg yielding one way and for me to just swap the other direction. He even does half pass zig zags in trot no problem. I really hope this bodes well for the upper level canter half pass zig zags, though I've found that those can be more dependent on the quality of the change than the quality of the trot zig zag... we'll see.

Overall, some super nice work out of this young horse. He's figuring out all the First level stuff nicely, and is even schooling a bit of Second (walk to canters when he breaks and I'm annoyed; canter to walks when he's quite balanced, walk pirouettes, counter canter, shoulder-in, and haunches-in). And we're of course continuing to school all the basics, lots of transitions (esp trot to canter, we gotta make those perfect) and figures.

Happy pony

I have HUGE NEWS. Well, for me. I am taking my first lesson on TC this Monday evening! There was an opening in a local clinic with a trainer I've been wanting to ride with and they were going to have to cancel it without another rider. I offered but said I had no way of getting to the facility so she offered to come to me! Barn owner agreed and said that we could write it on the board to get other people interested too. I'm really hoping this becomes a thing that we do, since one of the few downsides in my barn is that it's not infested with dressage trainers.

Lengthenings and Leg Yields

The first show of the season is coming up for TC and I. Our first rated show probably won't be for a little while, but we're going to go play at a schooling show in about three weeks. While we may stick to Training level for our first rated show to keep it safe, I definitely want to see how First level rides at the schooling show.

To be able to ride those tests though, we kind of need to look at movements. I haven't done much work on movements since early October when he was schooling some of the Second level stuff too. We kind of casually throw them in here and there, but most of my work since then has been on getting his connection and impulsion up to where it is now and I'm feeling like he's going around like a pretty solid First level horse now. We're even playing a touch with increased engagement and collection.

With good basics comes good movements, so I wasn't surprised to find out on this last week that the leg yields and lengthenings weren't too bad!

It was windy and cold on Thursday morning and
he was a huge dork about it

The trot lengthening is quite good, he definitely is covering quite a bit more ground than he has in the past, and his shoulders are looser than they've been in the past. I think in the future, he's going to have a really stunning extended trot, but at this point, I'm very aware of his old injury and his tendency to get super tight over his topline. With the topline tight, he'd be easy to teach to fling his legs. So with that in mind, I've been riding it at more like 80% of his capabilities and helping him figure out how to really take the bridle and push over his back a bit better as he covers more ground.

Thursday I decided to do the lengthenings sitting and that helped a LOT in keeping him over his back and into the bridle. We got some really amazing moments where those loose shoulders came up and out more like a medium. It was super cool! But his tendency is still to suck back and drop his back, so we have a lot of work to do until it gets really solid. Just gotta keep plugging away!

He's so cute sometimes

The leg yields are also coming along really nicely, though not as nicely as the shoulder-in, which is a bit annoying since we're still a while away from Second. At least when we get there, we'll have super solid lateral work. I think the reason why the leg yields are trickier are that they don't have the bend that the shoulder-in does to help him really come up and over his back. In the shoulder-in, it feels like his trot gets better and better with every step in the shoulder-in, which it should, like that's the point of these movements. But the leg yield doesn't. It's like I need to prepare to do it and then clean up the trot afterward rather than allowing it to improve his gaits. So he just needs more time in that.

Just like the lengthenings, the main issue (and forever the main issue with this horse) is getting him to stretch more into contact and remain loose in the back. Connection and impulsion. When TC can really press into the bridle in the leg yield, and really push from his hind legs to step over, I'm sure that we'll get to that same point in the leg yield that we are at in the shoulder-in. I think that the lack of bend in the leg yield is tricky for him since it's so easy for him to get stacked up in the straightness, it's similar to the struggle in the lengthening. But we can school the lengthening on the circle for a while, but the leg yield inherently is straight so doing leg yields on the circle won't help much. So we'll just take our time!

Destroying stuff as usual

The canter lengthening is funny. It's probably his best movement of the ones we're talking about today, but it's also the one most likely to lead to him leaping through the air, swapping leads, then running away with me. So I'm going SUPER slow with this movement with him. I have a feeling that we'll have "conservative" written on a lot of our tests until his emotional maturity catches up to his dressage training.

But just like the trot extension, I think his canter extension is going to be scary as fuck really powerful. He's less likely to get short in the neck and braced in the actual lengthening at the canter (vs the trot), but the downward transitions are tricky. As they always are when the horses are learning this movement. He very much thinks that trotting is a good answer, or stabbing his hind legs into the ground rather than flexing his hocks and his lumbar.

So obnoxious, he always does this and I think he
is going to yank his shoe off, ugh

I'm still working mostly on all the Mary stuff and on TC's connection. Just in the last three weeks since the clinic, everything feels so much better. My instability tracking left is getting much better and TC is really stepping up in that direction now that I'm giving him what he needs. There's still a lot to do, but I'm trying really hard and things are starting to feel more normal. I definitely want eyes on the ground soon and am on a waiting list for a clinic coming up, but mirrors and letting TC tell me when I've got it (or really don't) will have to do for another week or two!

Installing Seat Aids and Adjustability

I had a couple of comments a couple posts ago about my position techniques while riding for collected/extended paces so I figured I'd talk a little bit about that today. May as well since I'm thinking about it a lot as I go to fix the adjustability in TC's canter work. 

Extended trot- thighs open, pelvis rotated

When I was a kid, I was taught to sit deep to slow a horse down, and to get up off the back of the horse to speed a horse up. It made sense, race horses are raced with riders off their backs, dressage horses are ridden with rider's seats on their backs. 

I wasn't really taught much about my position and how it influenced the horse beyond having good balance and good equitation. I was always pretty balanced and a nice looking rider, so no one really bothered to teach me about how my position affected the horse. I stayed out of the way, which is pretty good for a teenager riding at the lower levels. Just get out of the way. 

Pirouette- light seat

It wasn't until I started riding Leo, really. He was the first horse you really couldn't just sort of PUT on the aids, you had to ride him on the aids. If any horse has helped me with TC, it's him. He liked to retract his neck and he liked to drop his back. That sounds familiar. 

Rico had spoiled me with having a strong back and a lack of sensitivity to me as a rider. I could pull his face and kick him up and tell myself I was a good rider because I could get a horse on the bit. I got on Leo and the second I picked up the reins he stuck his head straight in the air to get away from my backwards seeking contact and he dropped his back out from under my heavy seat. 

Leo was a Grand Prix horse, by the way. 

It was Leo, and of course his owner/trainer who coached me, who really showed me what the aids were for collection and for extension beyond the reins and the legs. He also taught me a lot of the movements that I would later go on to install in Rico. If you have any access to a horse that knows more than you, do everything you can to ride that horse and take lessons from someone who knows him/her. You won't regret it. 

Passage- more weight in seat, but thighs lifting

So onto TC. 

I'm teaching him, as I've taught many horses before, to sit down and collect as my weight is distributed more into my thighs and to extend and push as my weight is distributed more into my seat. 

There are several reasons why I do this. 

First, if I want TC to do something, I have to give him room to do it. If I want him to go forward, pulling on the reins is a bad idea. If I want him to do a leg yield, blocking him on the outside side is a bad idea. If I want his back to come up and his hind legs to come under, I have to make room for them, so sitting deep and down into the tack with no tone in my seat is a bad idea. I'm just squashing his back muscles and making it harder for him to lift them under me. We primarily teach horses to move away from pressure. 

Asking for more trot- more weight distributed in seat, still some
in thigh though

Second, my thigh controls the recycling of energy. Thinking of sitting on a hose instead of a horse, pinching into my thigh is going to cause less water to come through out the front than letting go with my thigh. Putting weight into my thigh and out of my seat recycles the energy backward rather than letting it flow forward. You can't really pinch in the knee without taking weight out of the seat. 

Third, I like aids that are very simple for simple concepts like cover more ground and cover less ground. It all goes back to the idea of baseline gaits, I want to have the simplest aids to communicate the stuff I'm going to be asking for a lot. So I have my rein aids that cover the length of the neck (using both reins) and the direction the nose is pointing (using one rein). I have my leg aids that cover the amount of bend (using one leg at at time) and the amount of energy (using both legs). And I have my seat that covers the mechanic of the hind legs (carrying vs pushing), or the way the energy is recycled (cover ground vs on the spot). Pretty much all movements are within reach then. 

I don't like it when aids are doing too many things. Like if my reins controlled the speed of the horse, that's my seat's job. What happens if I want a long neck and want to slow down? That's going to be kind of impossible. And if my leg controlled stride length and energy, well, what if I wanted a lot of energy but on a small stride length? That's going to be especially difficult. 

Pirouette- more weight in thighs than seat

If you look at the top riders in piaffe, the majority of them are sitting lighter in the tack than they sit in the extended trot. I've added pictures throughout this post of Rico and I in various degrees of collection. 

So Tuesday's ride was all about making sure that I had a horse who was committed to being in front of my leg at the canter. I did a little forward and back in that ride, but really wanted to build on it on Wednesday with some actual schooling of lengthenings and shortenings in both canter and trot. It's one thing to make sure that when I ask him to, TC goes forward, it's quite another to school the lengthenings with a clear idea of what the transitions in and out should ride like. 

I started with some transitions between gaits to make sure that my aids were independent of each other- hands not slowing down the horse, light leg aids to change gaits, etc. Then we went into canter and started our work. 

For a horse like TC who wants to push himself over the ground, I started with the forward part of the forward and back. He knows that sharper, slower taps with the whip = cover ground (vs a light taptaptap means speed up those legs), so I would change my seat, put my leg on, and tap him once if he didn't respond. Then I'd bring him back by half halting and using a voice command at the same time as changing my seat again. 

Piaffe- light seat

The seat aids aren't complex. Neutral seat for TC is let's say 60% weight in the seat and 40% weight in the thigh. If I want to collect him, I swap that around, 60% weight in the thigh and 40% weight in the seat. If I want to extend, I push it to maybe 80% weight in the seat and 20% weight in the thigh. I wouldn't do 100% of one or the other, because I do need contact with my seat bones in the collected work and I do need weight in my thigh to maintain tone in the extended work. 

TC took to this REALLY well. Actually too well. Soon I had a horse who would really move when I relaxed my thighs and would, sometimes reluctantly, come back when I closed them. That downward needs a bit of work! 

The hardest thing for both of us was maintaining energy in the downwards. It's really easy to think of the collected gaits as having less energy than the extended gaits but that's absolutely false. The collected canter should feel like it has an extended canter within it, and you're just recycling the energy back to the hind legs before it gets a chance to come out the front at all. But the whole act of slowing down the miles per hour of the canter makes me want to take my leg off. Ugh. 

TC is a smart cookie, so he had me fixed in no time with that, add leg to collect! 

Extended trot- pelvis rotated, thighs out, leg forward

We also played a bit in the trot, and that's where things got real fun. TC has always had a really good lengthened canter. He just can really cover ground. And he's had a lot of practice when he zips off with me. The lengthened trot has been hit or miss. Sometimes I feel like it's coming along okay and other times I feel like his friesian bloodlines take over and it's a hot mess of legs everywhere as he starts trying to go baroque in it. 

This time I used the same aids in trot, adding a bit of lift with my thigh just before I asked, and we got an AMAZING lengthening. It felt huge! And I only had it at maybe 75% since I didn't want him to fall on his face. It's still slightly on the muscle, but I really like what he's doing with his body. He's really trying to cover more ground and I'm all for that. 

I'm usually not one to get all excited about a movement being done in a way that I wouldn't want to see it in the show ring (like TC has offered many an unclean change and that mostly just depresses me because they're not clean. I don't care if he's technically on one lead and then switching to another, it's harder to fix an unclean change than it is to wait and put on a clean one), but I really felt like this was on the right track. 

Pirouette- light seat

Today hopefully we'll address maintaining throughness in the lengthened trot and keep plugging away at the canter! 

Lateral Work Repetitions

Monday I tried to schedule out the rest of the week just the way I wanted it since once again my weekday evenings were packed (what's it like to just go home after work and eat dinner in your own home?). Then trainer ruined it by having a life outside of giving me lessons on my horse. Oh well, I'm not relying as much on my trainer to be there, except maybe on the days after days off when TC gets quite nutty (uh like yesterday's ride). Eventually we'll drop down to 2x/week, though I have some traveling to do where it's pertinent that I have him in a program so my travel plans don't get more expensive than they need to be.

I tossed him in turnout on Tuesday and he wanted to be in the
pasture next door instead

On Monday, TC once again started out super on edge about walking around the ranch. I think by clipping off a bit of his chest hair (not nearly enough, he still gets soaked, clipping more this weekend I think), I left a nice big spot for evil cold wind to inhabit him and make him nutty. Or maybe he's just not thrilled about having the only owner who rides in the evenings.

But just like Sunday's ride, Monday went super well even though he was a little concerned about walking around the ranch beforehand. It seems as though work is becoming something he seeks when he's not feeling totally confident, rather than screaming his head off and running away from me. So we went right to work and he focused on me and ignored everything going on around him, and soon we had a nice relaxed forward trot.

Love that the hills are turning green again (these are all old
pictures btw, I failed at media today)

I didn't really know what to work on for Monday. All I want to do forever on this horse is transitions within the trot. He's got a solid lengthening on him I think (though we don't go for as long as a full diagonal) and I'm playing a little bit with getting the transitions crisper without losing the throughness and looseness. Horse can downshift but he does it with a moment of tension.

I tend to shy away from working on stuff I enjoy too much, since I get worried that I'll only do those things. So Monday I begrudgingly worked on the lateral work (and then the lengthenings after that, weee).

TC does shoulder-in and leg yield now, but we're still working on the ease of movements part. His short back will make his collected gaits super easy (hopefully... it feels like we're doomed in that department too), but the lateral work is going to be tough for him.

The firefall was so beautiful, hopefully it happens again this year

In the leg yield, he stays pretty round, but he wants to get shoulders leading, which is not helped by my desire to hold onto the inside rein too much in it. Basically, we have a straightness problem, which is to be expected at this point. I could be helping things along faster by letting go of the inside rein, so I'm working on that.

In the shoulder-in, he gets a little bit less supple in it, and still struggles with holding the angle steady without me helping him too much. He comes a little off the bit, I mean nothing you don't normally see in your average Second Level test, but we've got time to make it perfect so we will.

In all lateral work, his trot gets smaller. This is normal for a lot of horses, but will need to be fixed if I want more than a 6 or 6.5 on those movements. He needs to retain the same looseness, cadence, and stride length in the lateral work that he has in his regular gaits. That just takes time and repetition. Which means that I can't just ignore it and hope that we have lateral work one day! So we practiced. Didn't make big leaps and bounds forward, but we got in a solid day of practicing.

I've had this little kitty for over a year now!

After that I did let both of us play with the trot a bit. Building on the ride before where I found that the transitions lack a little in suppleness, I started with the figure-8s where we shorten the step to change direction and lengthen coming out. That went super well, I'm beginning to really feel when his back comes up vs when he just tightens his shoulders to slow down. I made sure to make a big deal about what a smart animal he was to bring his back up. We then went onto the circle where we had a lot more success with maintaining throughness and suppleness in the transitions.

This time, I added in both lengthenings on quarterline and lengthenings across half diagonals. It was actually a lot easier on the half diagonals than the quarterline (and both are about the same length in the smaller covered arena). I think it might just be my abilities- I've ridden a lot more lengthenings across diagonals than on the long side. Or it could be that the mirrors helped me see how bad the quarterline lengthenings were and I basked in my ignorance on the diagonal.

Either way, it felt quite successful!

My old running trail, I don't miss wheezing up that hill, but the
view is beautiful!

The canter was a little weird. We'd have some moments in it where I had zero steering and we nearly ran into the fence twice. Then we'd have moments where I was certain that pirouette canter was a half halt away (it was not, but it felt like it). Inconsistency is okay in this department, he's trying really hard for me and it's just going to take time.

The transitions were MUCH better than the day before, and our mistakes were completely in the opposite direction. For a few days, any time I'd sit the trot and ask him to go forward in trot, he'd canter. Now he lets me push him forward, but then when I ask for canter, he zips off in what could be an extended trot if it wasn't wildly off the bit and sideways. Its not very comfortable.

A bit of inside leg and spur in the transition helped with that and we had some of our best transitions yet. They're not as round as they were in my lesson, but that's why we take lessons, right?

Gotta find my way back up to Yosemite this winter

It was a great ride overall, I had so much fun playing with the trot and it's relieving to know that even if he starts out a little tense, I can get him back to me on my own without my trainer's help. This winter isn't going to be a blast, but I'm starting to feel like we're going to get through it in one piece.

Forward and Back But Mostly Forward

Sunday morning it poured rain so I delayed going to the barn until the afternoon, which was a good idea. By the time I was out there, the sun was out and it wasn't too chilly.

TC seemed a little more on edge than on Friday and Saturday. Probably because he stays in his stall when it's raining and was really excited to get out. Walking around the ranch he was spookier than normal, and not very happy with me because I made him walk through all the puddles. Horse loves water, I had turned him out on Saturday and he played in the water trough for 30 minutes and whenever I hose him down, he insists on drinking out of the hose, but ask him to walk out into the rain or walk through a puddle? NO. 

Sunday was a good day though

When we made it into the arena, I was expecting some shit. But it never came. He started out in his normal "pony trot," which to me still feels like an acceptable working trot. We did some figures around the jump in there, working on suppleness and connection, just getting him looser and looser.

I worked on Tracey's exercise of using the figure-8 to get him to learn about collection, half halting with my seat as we started the turn, sitting 3-4 steps while we changed directions, then pushing him forward out of it. He needed some taps to not clunk down into a slow trot when I would half halt, and soon I had a great feeling of him lifting his back after I asked him to sit down a bit. Pushing out is also tough for him, he wants to get slightly mechanical in front and get stuck in his shoulder.

I transitioned to working on just shortening and lengthening the trot on the big circle to drive home the maintenance of looseness through the transitions without the challenge of having to turn and switch bend. I wasn't sure if it was the transitions or the turns that was making it challenging for him. And I found out that it's the transitions. Good information. I worked to keep my hands together and very still, and to increase bend during the transitions to help him maintain looseness. We didn't have as good of downwards as on the smaller circle, but the upwards got much better.

All he wants is friends to play with him

My back was sore that day because I went to a Halloween thing the night before and had stood around a lot (standing and sitting makes my back sore, laying down is the only thing that doesn't but I can't live my life laying down). So this made sitting the trot into canter much much harder. TC and I had a few misunderstandings. It's hard to not feel slightly relieved when he does pick up the canter while I'm sitting, even if it's at the wrong time and he should just trot more forward. I think I'm sort of telling him that I prefer the canter, so I'm sorry pony. I really need to figure out what to do about my core strength or I'm facing a severe back injury when we start doing Second level.

I got really frustrated as I was struggling with it because if he causes back problems, I will need to sell him early. I know he'll land in a good home and I'll probably take my time showing at Training and First so I get to enjoy him more (and put on all the UL movements). But I have faith that I can learn to sit it, especially as we add passage into the mix, which we'll for sure be starting next year at least.

But nothing needs to be dwelled on for now, we did have some spectacular canter work. It's still frustrating that we don't have even the minimal power steering we had with the slower canter, but we're getting throughness and that's amazing!

Hanging out in turnout on Saturday

I started doing some forward and back in the canter to start getting him more in tune with my seat. The trot is so fun to ride because he follows my seat really well. If I post slower, he goes slower, if I post bigger, he goes bigger.

At the canter, he basically just canters and my seat either means stop or nothing. So I'd push him forward over the ground in what will be his lengthened canter, and then I'd half halt with a LOT of leg and a touch of hand to get him to slow down, then immediately let him forward again. It's not about holding it yet, it's about installing the aid.

During the canter work, the horses were all being fed. TC is pretty good about not being sour about working while this is going on. Rico would have been quite insulted that other horses were eating while he had to work. TC loves work and happily leaves his food to hang out with me. But there were two horses that were just going nuts in the paddocks next to the arena. TC handled it well, though I did let him stop and look, which I know I shouldn't do. But no spooking and just a little head flinging when we did go back to work!

Am I blind or is he getting a little dapple-y?

It was an excellent ride overall. I get discouraged sometimes about the canter transitions, how big his gaits are becoming even in just the last week, the fact that I might not be able to sit his trot ever, how laughable it is that he will ever have a pirouette on him.... but all that is dressage. I get frustrated and discouraged about dressage. Not because he's bolting or bucking or scaring me. Not because he is acting up or fighting with me. It's just dressage, which you could say is inherently frustrating.

Riding in general is like that. You're always working toward something and so therefore you're always not good at something. There's always something that's hard and frustrating. I'm really happy that we're at the point where the hard and frustrating things are overwhelmingly dressage-related vs nutty young horse on rehab-related.

Lazy Sunday

This weekend was my brother's wedding! A great time was had by all and it was wonderful to see all of my family, my SIL's family, and all of their friends. It was amazing and beautiful and perfect. My SIL (now official!!!) is one of my very best friends and it was such an honor to be standing up there, sobbing, while she walked down the aisle.

I wasn't alone though, in that moment, my brother cried (YASSSS I love it when the groom cries), several groomsmen cried, and every bridesmaid cried. More crying happened when I went to hug my brother- we both started crying and stayed away from each other for a while. And two groomsmen started crying during some pictures and I told them that anyone who is crying has to turn around since then that made most of the bridesmaids (in the picture) cry.

It wasn't all crying though, seeing my aunts and my mom on the dance floor was AMAZING and I got to see family members I normally don't get to see. We ate delicious food, partied late into the night, and generally had a blast.  I'm exhausted and sore and not at all ready to work this morning but I'd do it all over again in a second.

Don't worry, this post isn't all about the wedding, this is a horse blog, after all.

Even though I missed out on riding TC on Saturday, I did book it home on Sunday to get him out in the middle of the day, a major priority of mine. Mostly because it was literally the only day I had free to work on my thesis, but also because ponies trump all.

So cute!

TC had Friday off and then was ridden by my trainer on Saturday. I like this schedule of having trainer deal with him after days off, even if I don't like having two days of no riding for myself.

After last week, all I wanted to do was have fun on my horse. I have a tentative lesson with my dressage trainer on Tuesday, so I decided while I'd still work on my crookedness in Sunday and Monday's rides, I'd leave all the stress and frustration for her.

TC felt relaxed and confident walking around the ranch. We wandered down the back road, where we normally don't go because I like having a place to circle him without the risk of landing in the agg fields next door. But he walked with his head down, swinging his back, and a long rein the whole time.

He tried to get me to do another loop when I pointed him at the covered arena. I had wanted to ride outside in the dressage court, but I vowed to force myself indoors because that's where I'm stuck all winter. I stuffed him into the arena past some very scary things (I called bullshit on him because he switched what he was scared at like three times and then almost poked his nose with a cactus) and we went to work.

Felt so good to be back on this guy

Went kayaking on Friday!

He felt lazy, wanting to drop his withers and propel himself over the ground rather than sit down. I went to pick up the trot and his head popped up, a very unusual behavior. Wait, unusual? When I was surprised that his head popped up, I realized that we had now fixed the walk to trot transition! I hadn't noticed that it had become something so solid that I didn't give much thought to unless it was bad. Crazy! Clearly progress happens without us even knowing sometimes, and I'm pretty quick to pat myself and TC on the back for any minuscule amount of progress.

I put him in canter to help get him more forward. He felt good in the bridle and over his back so I started playing with some forward and back. TC understands the forward, but the back part is hard. He thinks it means trot, so he goes forward into a not-quite-lengthened canter and then I half halt and he dumps into this horrific trot. I started tapping him when he did that so he would pop back into canter and eventually we got a really janky downward transition, but at least there was no break.

FIFTY FIVE BOBBY PINS guys

While cantering around to the right, I came across the diagonal and TC felt exceptionally balanced. I had read a couple years ago that trainers often quietly ask for lead changes here and there throughout the 4, 5, and 6 year old years before actually putting changes on. Just in case the horse does it right, so you can reward and then they have a knowledge of that movement well before you need it.

I did that with TC his 4-year-old year to no avail. We went across the diagonal and I asked and... nothing. 4-year-old TC had no clue what I was asking. Not wanting to get on his case about it then (obviously), I ignored it.

My mom! She is the best

So now, his 5-year-old year, but honestly not even really six months more riding, I felt him set up. I asked and he swapped one step late behind. Okay, it was a response, but I don't want to encourage a late lead change, so I vowed to try one more time, use my timing skills to tap the inside hind leg to remind TC that it exists, and if it was clean, great, if not, then, well, we're waiting until next year to put them on anyway.

I came around on the right lead, set him up, tapped his inside hind leg at the same time that I asked and... a buck but a CLEAN LEAD CHANGE. I stopped him and told him that he was the smartest animal there ever was.

Wanting to solidify the concept, I came around again, tapped lighter this time, and just got a slight hop sideways with the inside hind during ANOTHER CLEAN CHANGE! I let him stand in the middle getting a lot of pets for about ten minutes.

While standing in the middle being a good pony

We absolutely are not working on these. I love that the change is clean and prompt and on the aids. I do. But the way he's doing it (with what will eventually be a VERY expressive hind end but for now is a big crow hop), he's not capable of maintaining any uphill balance, so if I continue to train them now, they will become croup-high and I'll have to retrain it later, which will be much harder than being patient now. I need to wait until he's stronger so that he can bring the front end up too. But I'm super glad that we have a change, since you always kinda wonder about it until it happens.

As I was petting him, I thought about how much my trainer believes in him, and how sometimes I think it's unfounded and that my trainer is a little delusional (barn friend told me yesterday that trainer told her that he never wants to get off my horse, yay for trainers liking my horse! I know I like him, but that's likely the result of a sunk cost). But that day made me really think that this little horse is something special. Clean changes his first ever time schooling them. What the fuck is that? I'm sure that's normal for most UL riders on their young horses, but it felt pretty amazing!

Hair took 2 hours, make up took like 40 minutes
in between hair (they did my bangs last, hence the
clip) can I just get this tattooed on my face?

Seriously I'm not a big selfie-taker but maybe I
would be if I could make my face look like this
all the fucking time

We then had about ten minutes of disagreement because TC-logic stated that since he got praised at the canter, we should canter FOREVER because canter = praise and trot = boring. I finally got him trotting and we played with shoulder-in, lengthenings, and leg yields off the outside leg (to sort of bait the canter so I could tell him no). The trot felt great, though again still slightly dropped through his shoulder. The shoulder-in helped with that and soon we were trucking around in our show trot, which wasn't as intimidating, and therefore I felt like was lacking some pzazz. Damnit TC, I need you to scare me a little bit for me to know that we're really reaching all that you're capable of.

Back in canter, I got on his case to the left about staying round. I had to do this to the right a few days before he really started being reliable. It's time. I really want November to be all about getting a really solid WTC on the aids, through transitions, etc. No point in having a shoulder-in if he can't stay on the bit in trot-canter transitions.

Today

After the ride, a wander around the ranch, and a bath, I finally headed home to relax work on my thesis defense. Overall, a great weekend and a great ride and I'm all ready to consume a LOT of caffeine and get through the next week.

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.