Making Progress!

TC is now up to 6 minutes of trot total per day, we do 6 x 30 second trot sets in each direction. I've added in some trot poles since he seems to be interested in that and WOW I haven't seen him trot like that in years. I really do think he's feeling better with his shoes set back and the modified trim. He's not entirely excited to go forward at all times, but he's also very much out of shape and rehab is boring. I don't always love the gym but as I get stronger I feel better about it. 

He's also completely stopped lifting his legs and asking for scratches during grooming, which is wild to me. Such a small change can really make a huge difference I guess. And he's MUCH less nippy when we do my basic bodywork stuff. He went through a phase where any time I'd work on anything, he'd really go after me with his teeth. But now he seems to just enjoy it, and you can feel it in the muscles of his back and hindquarters too - they feel much more maleable even 3 weeks after his shoes got set back. There's still more to do but he feels great. 

He was helping with fencing the
other day

Unfortunately since he feels good, he is pretty bored. And now he isn't allowed to have his salt! I'd removed it about 24 hours before his chemistry panel, so it was unsurprising that the only thing that didn't come back normal was his sodium + chloride. We think that he's just really messed with his mineral balance just downing salt and water all day long, so I'm anticipating that there will be some time where he has to adjust. Right now he's taken to eating a wooden post... I'm hoping he's just bored/missing his salt, but if he continues to chew on the post, I'll chat with my vet again since that's not normal for him. 

Add to his lack of salty entertainment, he hates his boring rehab plan since so much of it is walking in the arena. I'm still restricting him from walking down the road, since I want to give him time to recover from the mechanical laminitis. He really hasn't been asking to go down the road, but I'm sure once we get in the arena each day and do our 15 minutes of walking on the longe line before his trot sets, he'd rather be anywhere else. 

I made him work in the misty rain and he hated it

Then we do our trot sets and that's where he seems the most happy. He gave me very happy ears on Monday after his first trot set where he pressed his ears so forward that they were almost facing each other. I'm trying to challenge him with some forward and back and some cavalletti work and I think he likes that a lot. 

But then it's back to walk for the last 15 minutes of the arena work, and sometimes afterwards we walk up in the hills. Anything to get him burning calories and strengthening his body. Soon, we'll be doing more trot work and eventually cantering, which will allow me to shorten his warm up and cool down a bit. And we'll also start trail riding undersaddle hopefully this fall. So it's going to get more interesting!! But it's hard to explain that to him. 

My coworkers all think it's hilarious that I tested my fat horse for horse diabetes and now he's on a fitness plan that he hates. We were at the gym yesterday with our personal trainer and it came up because I found out that he and I use the same interval training app! Now TC knows how I feel at the gym when he pulls out the Tabata timer for core work at the end. 

He needs to be involved in everything

Next week, he gets his new pads and then I'm going to schedule the next round of things I want to torment him with. On the docket are:

1. Nutritionist - even though he doesn't have EMS, I want to make sure that he's on the right track to lose weight with as much roughage as I can get into him. I'm a little worried about ulcers when he's consuming this little hay. I also want to talk to her about the salt obsession and make sure that his minerals are perfectly balanced. 

2. Bodyworker - I think I'm going to start having a local bodyworker come out every month (maybe more frequently to start) to help unwind his back. Although he's actually doing a good job of this himself! I want to probably start this in mid October to give him a week or two on his new shoes/pads. 

3. Joint Injections - I'm debating delaying these a little bit, maybe early November or even waiting until spring. I feel like I'll get more bang for my buck in the spring since that's when he's historically started having problems BUT I also feel like I should do what I can now to get him comfortable so that I can use the winter to put muscle on him. So far he isn't showing any issues being forward on the longe line (outside of what I can categorize as boredom, which is just at the walk), so I might wait until I'm ready to ride him. We'll see, I at least want to get some info from the vet office about the injections since I've decided to do them at a vet office vs at the ranch with my local vet. 

Gotta check everything

Fingers crossed the new shoes + pads next week go well! 

Almost Back

This weekend was a big weekend for me illness-wise. I did THINGS each day (one thing you saw yesterday!).

I rested all day Friday in preparation. Pretty much just sat on my couch all day working and then ended the day going to bed early and sleeping in on Saturday.

Me on Saturday morning

Around 10:00, I got in my car and drove the 50 minutes north (the longest I've driven since May 9th) to the Woodside Horse Park, there was an event going on and I wanted to see my event student do her show jumping round and then watch Kate's students too. In addition, Nicole was in town!

I wasn't sure how long I'd last and I wanted to longe TC afterward too. When I got out of the car, I felt pretty good, it's nice to know that driving isn't a whole ordeal. I found Nicole watching Advanced cross country and hung out with her for a while before Kate joined us.

I ended up lasting ALL DAY. I didn't leave until 5pm. I even went on Kate's BN course walk! The day's total was 12,000 steps, the most I've walked since early May. Mono can't keep me down. Well, I felt like crap on Tuesday soooo yeah.

The one picture I took at the event, look, a palomino running
around advanced!

I did get some shit from my clients who were shocked to see me after only three weeks of mono. Whatever. I felt fine, more tired than I'd normally be, but fine. I mostly felt like I'd never stepped foot inside a gym in my life, so I noticed the terrain in the course walk (hills are hard) and I did end up laying down on a jump a few times to rest while Kate was coaching.

After watching way more than I thought (everyone did amazing!) and chatting with my college student who is back for the summer (she's pulling me out of jumping-instruction retirement because she has no coach for an event in a few weeks and Nicole is putting that one on so I'd love an excuse to go visit her and Peony), I headed south.

To the softest gray nose

I had longed TC on Thursday, then gave him Friday off. On Saturday evening, he was happy to see me and glad to get out and move around.

He's looking really good even though he has also lost a lot of fitness. He was so good for me in the round pen. We worked on turns on the forehand, spiraling out to a shoulder-in type movement (he was just in the halter and longe line).

After that, I put a little pressure on him within it with the whip on top of his butt, an aid I want to use for his eventual piaffe training. I kept telling him to stay with me and when he slowed the trot but didn't break, I took the pressure off. I want him to think he can get that whip tapping to go away if he slows down so I can use it as a way to get him to tuck his little butt under him.

He's the cutest

It also has the perk of putting pressure on him and him getting that pressure to go away by slowing down versus by running out the front. I mostly care about that right now. Can I teach him that there's another way to get pressure to go away that doesn't involve him getting out over his front edge? Yes, hopefully.

He seemed to enjoy his work but I was dying by the end. Not of exhaustion, but of frustration that I can't ride him yet. I'm so excited to get back to it. I've got my trainer lined up for a lesson when I get better (she was like "listen to your doctors" and I am reluctantly doing that) and I've already planned out a last minute All Breeds push if we want to go for it. I'll see what she thinks. He's got all the movements from 2-3, it's just a matter of getting him back into fitness and polishing a few things.

Or we'll just quit dressage and trail ride for days, I don't care, I just want to ride!

This was four years ago! Look at how dark he was and how far
down my leg used to go... I thought he might end up being a
titch too small for me back then, 

It was a great day. I'm still obviously sick. Still contagious (I had to back away from everyone wanting to hug me and was really careful about staying away from people), still experiencing some symptoms, still have shit liver values (I get rechecked in another two weeks), but I'm doing way way better. This weekend was a breath of fresh air getting to spend time outside and with my friends and horse.

I still have a long way to go before I am 100% normal and able to go back to my busy life, but I'm so happy with this progress! Get in good shape, people, I shouldn't be able to do all this only half way through the shorter length of this illness, but I blame it on the insane cardiovascular fitness that my gym has dragged me kicking and screaming toward. Can't wait to get back to that, even though I hate cardio.

Wet Saddlepads

Friday night I was schlepped up to the city to see one of my favorite bands of all time in concert, they were opening for another band. I didn't bother looking up the other band, but I learned that I also like them, yay! I left straight from work to head up there, so trainer rode TC and I didn't hear how things went.

I can only assume that instead of riding him, trainer just gave him 10lbs of sweet feed and left him in a stall all day. Obviously this didn't happen. Trainer did ride him and had a good ride I'm sure. But on Saturday, I hopped on my horse, and he was basically a ticking time bomb.

We walked around the ranch and he grew two hands bigger. Like I thought I knew how high up he could get his head, but I was wrong.

Balmorhea (with two of the other band's members helping them
out, they were missing members this tour, fingers crossed for spring)

I walked him once around in the covered arena before getting off. I was exhausted from the night before, so was so not in the mood to deal with his shit. Some days I come out like I'M GOING TO DO IT, I'M GOING TO DEAL WITH HIS SHIT AND HE WILL BE GOOD BECAUSE I WILL MAKE HIM BE GOOD. Other days I longe him.

I put him on the longe line and he immediately bolted. So we did a lot of work in hand while two turnout horses were losing it next to us. Finally I let him go in trot, where he stayed in trot and alternated between looking really pretty and really crazy. And sometimes both. I alternated between wanting to sell him and wishing that I was CD so I could look at his behavior and feel confident in my ability to channel it into good dressage.

I haven't seen him go in a long time. I mostly throw trainer at him when I don't want to come to the barn, and he hadn't been longed in about a month, which is honestly why things have probably been a little questionable these days.

He looks really good, much better over his topline, and much more off his underneck than before. The trot has gotten insanely big, though it still isn't as uphill or loose in the shoulders as I want it to be eventually. It got better when I half halted him and he slowed a little bit, so I have faith that he'll be looking like that all the time.

Super amped

For the canter left, I took off the inside side rein and longed with just the outside side rein at its tightest hole, which isn't very tight but tighter than normal for him.

I then put him on a 15m circle and made him stay there. He got irritated at first, with a few bucks and leaps, but eventually he was super soft and turning really well that way. I think he's going to get some longeing bootcamp for the left lead for a bit and hopefully that helps us over that hump with the steering issue that way. It's nothing more than a strength issue.

If he's that uphill with his front leg that far under his body,
he'll be walking on his hind legs eventually

By the end, he was soaked. He sweat right through the saddlepad, which made me glad that I have the saddle fit so I can use a half pad. He stood quietly while I looked at the videos I had taken of him prancing around. He walked quietly behind me on our way back. He stood relaxed while I sat with him and seriously considered putting him up for sale. But then he isn't worth much with no scores. Okay I'll show him in the spring and get some scores in the 70s at Training and then sell him. Well if he's going well enough to score in the 70s at Training, I may as well keep him...

Oh well. A few (thousand) more wet saddlepads and I'll have a good horse! Update: he was great on Sunday :)

Learning From Video

(Sorry, but this post won't have the video since I need to sit down and splice it together, sorry if you were only here for that). Friday was an all around questionable day. Basically everything outside the arena that could go wrong did go wrong and it wasn't TC's fault that he wasn't relaxed and all too willing to do his job. So we just longed and while he never settled, he tried, and that was good enough for me! So no covered arena time for us, I told trainer sorry and that we'd have a lesson on Monday morning to make up for it.

After every ride, he needs cuddles

On Saturday, L and Peony came down to meet TC! Ramone is nearby(ish) so L and Peony stopped in to see him (I missed it because I was busy, boo) and then came to the ranch to leave L's car and let Peony meet Rico, who very reluctantly showed her his trick but still enjoyed the attention, before we headed out to TC!

I initially told them that TC was getting the day off so our plan was to give TC his food, maybe take him on a walk and dump him in some cross ties to learn patience for a while, then go to lunch. But instead I texted them after Friday's ride saying that my horse had been a piece of shit and that I really should ride him on Saturday, lest I be murdered on Sunday. He's boring to watch these days, because it's just a lot of circling (and honestly will be like that for at least six more months just based on his level of training), but I somehow convinced them that it would be fun. Or maybe they're just awesome friends. Probably the latter.

TC LOVED them, obviously, TC loves everyone who glances in his direction. But he loved them especially because they were paying attention to him, which is his favorite thing ever. We got him ready slowly, since much of getting him ready includes either disciplining him for something or keeping my favorite gray cat from being squashed by his large feet. I love that cat, but sometimes I feel like it's only a matter of time before he is killed by my horse before my eyes and I freak out about it.

He's a good pony

We wandered around in hand and TC was great. No bolting or spooking, good pony! I decided to keep the ride fun and short, just working in the round pen where we're comfortable.

On the longe he was fine, I think maybe one minor misbehavior coming into a transition, but I honestly just remember the day being great. I hopped on and we worked through the crappy trot. I told L and Peony not to judge us right away because TC trots around like he's been up all night partying. Head straight up in the air, not paying attention, and darting sideways randomly.

It's all about balance and straightness with him. Just get him to stop popping that shoulder and send him forward and he comes right on the bit. I imagine setting up a channel for him, where he receives pressure from the sides of it (outside leg pushed slightly forward, outside rein a touch tight when he pops his shoulder; inside leg a bit back and inside rein open when he throws his haunches in) when he isn't straight. It helps me to think like that because then when he goes straight, I make sure that I don't put any pressure on him.

Sometimes cuddles are too cuddly and he must
resist the cuddles

After getting a normal looking trot, I asked L to video the rest of the ride! Media! I'm still working on getting the video put together, hopefully tomorrow or the next day, but I've littered this post with crappy screen shots from my phone.

We just did a bit of trot and canter each way, with a few transitions and one bucking explosion (not caught on video, prompting L to yell "I didn't get it, do it again!" lol). Mostly worked on straightness and throughness, as per usual these days.

The video revealed a few things to me. First, my pony is pretty. I showed the video to my best friend who said "he looks like he should be trained," referring to his topline. His topline does look a lot stronger than it is. I think it's just his breeding and build.

I also noticed that I open my inside rein way too much, which I did feel. It's better than holding it or pulling it back, I'm super happy that I don't pull back too often, but it's not great riding. I could use the excuse that he's green, and he is, and the aid does help him. But green horses don't get better trained by riding them like they're green. So I'll be fixing that over the next few weeks.

I love this so much

TC is quite different on either side, which is to be expected, but I'm excited to work on it. To the left he's actually better in the contact- no ducking- but he's worse balance-wise. He wants to get quick and covers too much ground. To the right, he's much better balanced- doesn't get as quick and I have a lot more influence over him. But he gets a little low. It's still connected and feels great, but it's the start to curling so I want to fix that soon. I want to talk to Tracey about this, though I know what she will say, because I know my instinct of raising my hand is wrong- it will just cause him to curl more. Hopefully she has time to look at the video and let me know what she wants me to do about it.

The canter is ugly. He's struggling a lot. When he gets balanced and actually relaxes his topline a tiny bit, he's MUCH better and it looks normal. But I just think that the eight months off of cantering helped only in that the canter is slower now, which could also be due to the round pen. I think for a while I'll just let it be, give him more time in the canter to figure it out. I might throw draw reins on for a bit, I might do more cantering on the longe in side reins, I might harass Tracey about that too... I dunno. I think honestly what is going to help him most is just cantering more.

Cantering is so rough right now, this is a carefully
selected screenshot

All that being said, there's a lot to like. He's very steady, which I LOVE. Rico was also really steady and Heidi complimented me on that. TC was not steady on the bridle for a long while. In general I think my greatest achievement on this horse is making him so good in the bridle. He also lifts through his pectorals and his back really well. He tracks up, which I feel like he'd have to try not to do given how short his back is, but hey it's a positive and I'm taking it.

My riding hasn't disintegrated as much as it could have despite my efforts. I have had two real dressage lessons in the past year. One on TC in September and one on my friend's horse in June I think? July maybe. Whatever. For the most part I've been on my own and on a lot of different horses who could have given me different issues. I still have my faults- I absolutely under no circumstance will look up, which throws horses downward, though is a common dressage fault. I've always done it.

I also need to open up in my chest, sit down on my right seatbone, and keep an eye on my legs that like to travel backward. But generally I feel like I'm out of his way enough (though lots to work on still). I do a good job of not falling into the traps he sets, like the one on the right lead where he wants me to sit on the left side of him. No. I sit in the middle of horses, pony.

Look at him lift through those pectorals! Pony push ups. 

Even though there was a lot to like, when we went to lunch, I spent much of the time giving Video Megan a lesson. I mean Lunch Megan, who has two hours more time on the planet (spent hosing the pony down, feeding him, and driving to lunch), is obviously a much better rider than Video Megan.

We wandered around downtown after lunch to make an attempt at digesting food faster so that we could stuff ourselves full of gelato. During our wanderings, we found the tack shop. The tack shop downtown is weird. The town that TC is in is quite old and very western. Rico's town (one town north) is a little more upscale, but like, neither of them are anywhere close to even the crappiest town on the peninsula. So having a super upscale tack shop is confusing to me. But we actually did find a few things in there that were reasonably priced. Including a shirt that Peony got that I REALLY WANT and might go back to get.

My purchase was a super obnoxious blingy browband, that actually threatened to blind me when I put it on TC's bridle yesterday. I love it though. It wasn't expensive and not exactly what I want, but it's loads more obnoxious than his current browband so it will serve as a good holding place before he can get a nice one.

That neck!

Gelato was AMAZING. Definitely one of my favorite places (as was lunch). We sat in a nice cool room and chatted about ponies and blogging and various other fun subjects. It's so nice to have such good friends who are willing to drive so freakishly far to watch me trot in circles for a while on my silly rehab horse. I was sad to see them go, but then had to immediately hop in the car and drive up to my friend's house so that we could do another photography adventure (this time astrophotography omg). You'll have to wait to hear about that until I manage to get some time to dump all my pictures in photoshop!

Exceeding Expectations

I'm happy to report that the baby horse stepped of the trailer yesterday at his new home and I was SO glad to see him.  

Making friends! 

Hi pony!

TC was scheduled to come in around 8 so I was planning on leaving the house at 7. I get a text at 6:30 moving the time to 7:30 so I quickly zipped over to the barn, only to get a call as I was turning onto the road the barn was on saying that they were there, damn! Apparently to get to the barn by 7:15, their day started at 3:30. I'm glad that's not my job. They had five other horses going to the vet hospital about 1-2 hours south of the barn and their appointment was at 9 or 9:30. So we got an early start and I was glad for that.

TC unloaded super well and then spooked hard. The owner of the rehab center led him into his stall for me. He really didn't do much other than spook a few times and passage next to us when two horses went nuts in their paddocks right next to him. I thought that was pretty good!

Oooo a friend

So glad to have this face home

Once as the trailer left, I hung out with TC in his stall. He seemed super stoked about having a paddock, though didn't think much of his water trough. He lapped the water like a dog (wtf) and kept dragging his lips over the wire. His neighbor on one side (the other side is empty) is another young baby horse also there for brain installation so they reached over to touch noses. I like these stalls because the horses can reach out to touch noses but can't play very easily over the railing.

TC seemed SUPER happy to be there, but not all that interested in me at first. Oh well. I gave him some cookies and made sure he got food for breakfast.

After making sure he'd be okay, I ran some errands. I had thought I sent him with a pan for his food, but they didn't give me one and I also thought that he still had a salt lick, so both were picked up at the tack store up the road. I also got myself some breakfast since I had run out of the house that morning.

Weird

No more pawing his food!

Back at the barn, it was nice and warm. I hadn't wanted to try anything with him until the fog burned off, setting ourselves up for success, you know.  My goal for the day was to keep absolutely no pressure on either of us. If we sat in the stall all day, we sat in the stall all day.

So we started in the stall with some work on the ground. He was super good and seemed so happy to have something to do. The horse loves to be told what he should do.

I grabbed my groundwork weapon stick, his sports medicine boots, and the rope halter and cautiously led him over to the cross ties. He was fine. He snorted at a trash can so we looked at that for a second, but it was generally uneventful.

Finally got the fly mask on

We spent a while in the cross ties, which he hasn't been in since December. I was answering the phone a lot, talking to recruiters, clients, and my mom, who wanted to know what was going on. TC would very carefully paw whenever I wasn't paying attention to him. When I was paying attention to him, he looked at me the way Tormund looked at Brienne. I felt like his pet, or maybe his own personal entertainer. He was so excited to have me doing anything with him, even pulling the shit out of his mane.

I mostly used the solo comb (and wore out the blade), but did thin it a bit with the pulling comb. He was fine but I didn't want to push it. I got it short enough but over the week and weekend I'll be trying to thin it out a bit more. It's so poofy!

He was super good about a few things that he used to be terrible about. First, he doesn't yank his feet out of your hands anymore. Woohoo! Second, he seems a LOT less attached to other horses. I think 7.5 months in a box stall where he had no direct contact with other horses did that. He only whinnied at another horse twice and didn't care about horses coming near him and then walking away. Third, he doesn't paw nearly as much as he used to. He still does, but it's not the crazy pounding it once was. Apparently he also doesn't paw in the trailer anymore since he had to be on it all day whenever he had a vet check. Progress!!

Before

After!

After getting his mane under control, we went on a walk. My goal was just to go as far as we could without being stupid, then turn around and come back to the cross ties. If that's all we did, great.

We wandered out toward the round pen first since he had been ridden in there a lot the last time he was at the barn and he had already been led by it on the way in from the trailer. He was fine. He wanted to walk on top of me and did spook hard at nothing once, but other than that it was no problem. Once as we did some ground work though, both of those behaviors stopped. He was fine walking out to the round pen, so we did some work in there. Just turns on the forehand and reining back. He is SO good at his ground work and so in tune with me. I just love it.

After being in there for about five minutes, we wandered back to the cross ties and then out to the covered arena. I really want that to be a safe place for him and it was completely open so we headed in. We did more ground work and looked at the mirrors. He was totally fine. I had a moment where a car passed us and I wondered if he was going to lose it. Not sure why he would, but still. I just put him to work and it was fine. I gotta trust him a bit more!

He's so cute!

Cones are fun!

We went back to the cross ties and he stood with one foot rested, just watching everything. He was so good in hand that I decided to keep going! I went out to the tack locker and got his saddle and bridle. I also grabbed longeing and riding stuff just in case. No pressure, but I wanted to be prepared.

The saddle surprisingly fits him quite well! I'm not sure if we'll even need to have the fitter do much to it. I played around with the balance, I'd rather it toss me in the back seat than the front. The bridle obviously still fits, and I got to put his bridle tag on it! He accepted the bit easily and I kicked myself for forgetting sugar. He got a cookie instead. No need to worry about him.

He stood there fine while I was messing with him. I banged the stirrups around on him and fixed the pad. With him being so good, I put side reins on the saddle, grabbed a longe line and my helmet/back brace and off we went to the round pen!

Tack fits!

Once again I just wanted to see what he did. If we just walked in a circle, great! If we actually longed, even better! Side note here: I was super proud of myself for putting zero pressure on us, that's very unlike me.

We started by leading around the outside of the round pen doing ground work because someone was riding inside. When they left, we did some ground work inside the round pen too. Longeing went well, I had him walk for a while, working on the whoa aid since I want him to think that we do a lot of stopping and turning in on the longe line just in case.

He was totally fine so I asked him to trot. And he exploded. But only a little. He mostly really wanted to put his head on the ground and shake it. Then he'd just porpoise. I sort of made a bad decision at that point. If he hadn't been on rehab I would have smacked him forward, but I halted him. Then we tried again. He got better and better with each transition and was eventually fine trotting each way. But looking back I probably should have just pushed him forward, he was just excited.

I put his outside side rein on and he was even better! The inside one came on shortly after and we did a lot more trotting in each direction. Only once did we have head shaking and bronc bucking but I sent him forward that time and it was much better. I'm so worried both on him and off that if I send him forward, things will get worse, but with the side reins giving him a place to go, it got so much better.

A little lazy but so fancy

If he was any more over his back he'd be a fucking beach ball

Just a bit of sass

After trotting I just really really wanted to sit on him. But I knew better. Hah. No I didn't. So I put my stirrups up (forgetting that Emma was the last one to sit in the saddle and we had to raise them a couple holes woops) and brought him over to the mounting block.

He stood fine as I banged the stirrups around again, leaned over him, and shifted the saddle around a bit. I just wanted to make sure that none of that was going to result in a problem before I jumped on him. Nothing phased him. I got on. That was fine. He stood for me to take a behind the ears picture. And then off we were in walk.

My first thoughts were these:

OMG I AM RIDING MY PONY
Hmmm no one is here to scrape me off the ground
Is he going to kill me?
I guess not
Damn he's lazy
I should have worn spurs
I want my whip
Ugh he's over bending
Ugh I'm nagging with my leg
Damn these stirrups are short, need to fix them
Okay that's better
Probably shouldn't have dropped the reins when fixing them
Ugh he is SO LAZY 

The fact that those were my first thoughts shows you how good he was! He was super behind my leg, a bit short in the neck, and kept popping his shoulder, but there were absolutely no incidents. None. Even though a horse across the property (we could see them) was rearing in hand and the horses in turnout next to us were moving around. We did some figure-8s and I nagged him the whole time, trying to remember to sit in the back seat. Whatever. I can fix all that later.

I got annoyed that he was so lazy that I asked him to trot. He immediately threw his head down, shook it, and did one bronc buck before I stopped him. I asked again and he just shook his head and then trotted the world's smallest trot. I smacked him with the end of the reins (who the fuck am I?) and we got a half circle of trotting in before I decided not to push it anymore.

YESSSS

But the day was perfect. He walked quietly back to the cross ties, stood quietly while I sat on the mounting block posting on instagram, and stayed relaxed while I untacked him. He even went into the wash rack and got a little hose down. No pawing, no obnoxious behavior, barely a spook in him. Just quiet, relaxing, super fun baby horse!

I couldn't have asked for a better first day. Fingers crossed today goes well, it's our first lesson with BRH trainer and I'm hoping for me to get him more forward without bucks and maybe for him to pop on to walk the pony around the ranch a bit.

But we're in no hurry. So happy to have him back!!

Improvement in the Connection

Tuesday night was my last ride on TC until he's home for Thanksgiving. I'm super excited to get him experience with sleepovers, even if it does mean taking the chance that he will ruin my vacation! He moves to my old barn (the one I kept Rico at two winters ago) today and I'll ride him tomorrow morning.

I was hoping to turn him out, because he won't get turnout until at least Sunday- the barn he's sleeping over at has small turnouts that I think I can use, but they're not big enough to let him do much more than roll and trot around a bit. Sure enough though, on Tuesday it had rained enough to close the upper arena, so we were stuck in the indoor.

It was pretty cold- 45 degrees by the time I was getting him out. I just found out yesterday that the barn does have someone who can blanket, so I'm thinking of giving him a strip clip and getting him blanketed. If only to not be having to give him so much food every month keeping enough blubber on him. I pulled him out and he was all poofed to stay warm, upon brushing him I realized that the big hump in his back was NOT fluff. So he got his fleece quarter sheet stuck on him and I opted to longe first. 

Not poor saddle fit, just a baby horse ready to get to work

He was actually really good on the longe line (and even let me longe him in the quarter sheet)! A bunch of kids were standing just outside the round pen and kept making weird noises and yelling/screaming as kids will do. He handled it okay, got a bit spooked sometimes but other than that he was pretty quiet. I felt like a bit of a sissy longeing him at that point, as part of me was expecting Rico-like explosions. But longeing gave me some really good info about the connection.

I experimented with just using the side reins with no chambon (since the chambon is a pain in the ass to put on) but that was a no go. He just curled. The chambon really helps get him to stretch down into the side reins. I had him canter a fair amount on the line just to really look at how he's using himself at the canter. He basically just gets flat. So I took that information and logged it away. 

I also noticed that to the right, he's super round and soft on his under neck, but to the left, he's a bit on the muscle and braced. Not bad, just not as good as the right. So that made me feel instantly better. Sure, me pulling on the left rein is NOT helping and I need to fix that, but part of it is him. Probably just that he's struggling to the left again. He went back and forth for a while, then was pretty even for a long time. Now we're back to back and forth. 

Fence videos ftw! He's so freaking compact.

Once as all the screaming kids vacated the arena (phew, I had a headache and the screaming was quite enough), I ventured out. Part of me just wanted to quit with the excellent longeing, but the idea that I wouldn't have a chance to ride him when he's at least somewhat sane for a full week made me jump right on. 

Immediately I wanted to get him to step to the left rein. I had read a TON of my own blog posts about my left hand issues from Rico earlier that day so was ready to apply my knowledge. I think the biggest issue was getting him to be straighter on the right side. He wants to fall away from the left side and onto his right front leg. I came on strong with the outside aids and USED my left rein but didn't hang on it like I so enjoy. It's different than what I had rashly concluded during my Sunday ride- that I shouldn't use the left rein at all. It wasn't as much hanging on the left that was the problem (although I shouldn't do that), it was more that my hands don't match. He's a light enough horse where a small discrepancy is enough to throw him out of whack.

It was hard. Riding is hard. I had to really focus on my outside aids when tracking left. I get caught up in a baby moment as he zips out the outside shoulder and I pull on the left rein to keep us from careening sideways.

I modified one of Barbi's exercises and did a little work keeping him over straight (not counter bent like she likes, but I have learned the hard way so many times that the opposite of a problem is not always the right answer) on the circle. Basically tugging on his nose and his tail to straighten him out like a bent pipe cleaner, connecting him to the left rein, then bending him again focusing on pushing the inside hind leg and the outside foreleg to the midline.

Terrible left hand pictured here

He was super to the right though. I worked to really bend him and to correct the sideways shuffle that we get into with my left leg rather than my left rein. In general, I really felt like I had my horse back, yay!

We then really drilled the canter, since I don't know how much canter I'll be able to do this week if he's being a bit of a nut. 

With the main issue in the canter being that he's flat and getting a little earthbound in the front end, the first thing I wanted to do was get him rounder so that I had access to his back. Once as I gain more access, I can hopefully fix the issue in the canter. It definitely got better, I think the longeing helps a lot, but we have a long way to go.

He really can't hold himself round very easily, and knowing that he can't even go truly round on the longe line, I really shouldn't expect much undersaddle. I think that this week will be good for the canter, as we'll be doing a lot of longeing. And I should probably start longeing 1-2x per week, really focusing on the canter. I need to find the right side rein + chambon combination to get him to be round. And feel free to freak out at me but I haven't ruled out slapping on the draw reins to help him in the canter.

Riding this weekend

After the canter, we revisited the trot for a little bit to get the connection really solid, then ended for the night. Walking back down to the barn in the dark is always fun and we had a couple of incidents, but generally he's really adapting to the ammy lifestyle of riding in the evenings. He'll be happy to ride in the daylight for the next three to four days though.

He wasn't actually very sweaty, but I still left him tied for a bit just to watch him and make sure he was cooling out well enough. While he was hanging out, I packed up all of his stuff into my car for the weekend. Yay pony sleepovers! I hope we both make it through this weekend. 

And this one will experience travelling too!

In the Dark

TC has experienced some good old fashioned pony neglect this week (no ponies were *actually* neglected in the making of this post). My Sunday ride wasn't that great, so I was looking forward to the beginning of this week where I had some excellent excuses to give us both a bit of a break.

Monday it was absolutely pouring. But my barn was not as bad as Karley and L's barn one town over, where it hailed enough to stick to the ground! But it was very wet.

Hiding in the barn!

I headed out to the barn because that was my plan. I'm pretty bad about canceling plans even on myself. I just don't, it makes me feel guilty. It's biting me in the ass a lot recently, like when I get on my horse after he hasn't calmed down on the longe because *the plan* was to ride him and I had my boots on anyway so I may as well get on. But Monday I paid dearly for my plan. I should have stayed home.

I got to the feed store right after work around 3:45. I'm switching TC's food, so needed to pick up alfalfa pellets and I loaded up on rice bran and psyllium too. I also got him a jolly ball and a couple of salt blocks, which he gets when his paddock dries a bit. It was randomly pouring rain and hailing, then clearing up at the tack store. So I was like ehhh it's fine. The plan was to turn the horse out and that was what I was going to do.

So I get to the barn and it's raining, not too hard. I'm pretty immune to rain sometimes. I didn't have a hood or anything waterproof, who cares, it's just water. I booted him up in his stall, dragged him up to the arena and threw him out there. It started getting worse and worse so I snatched him out after a bit of trotting and took him back. He was pretty traumatized. He's never had to do anything in the rain- he didn't have a blanket or a shelter last winter (lucky horse this winter will have both!) so he'd be too wet to ride. Because he was young and in pasture, I usually just ignored him if it had rained.

I left him after that to head home and peel off all my wet clothes and dry my hair (and get harassed by the cutest kitty ever) before going out to a nice dinner with a friend.

She's so cute (ugh see that crack under my
window? That shit won't close all the way and
I'm going to fucking freeze this winter)

Tuesday I was going to the comedy show I had been SO excited about for months (it was AMAZING omg) so I zipped out to the barn after work in my work clothes. I managed to throw him into the covered arena for maybe 5 minutes to trot around, then led him around the ranch. I dumped his grain in the tack room (since it was pouring the day before so I kept it all in my car), ran my board check up to the office, and sat in traffic for almost two hours, sat at the train station for ten minutes (Waze ftw), sat on the train for a half hour, and then got to eat some amazing ramen with SIL and brother (who came with me) in one of my favorite districts of my old town before walking over to the theater and having a really fucking amazing time.

I got home super late, which meant that I got up later than normal. I had to drag myself out of bed and shove food into me before getting in the car for work. Late to get in the car means that my commute more than doubled and I rolled into work late. Leaving work late also doubles my commute so by the time I was a the barn, it was basically dark (woohoo ammy lifestyle). And I had a horse who'd had two days off. Great.

But I was determined to entertain the horse. So I got him out and tacked up. There was one incident while I was in the tack room when I heard a ruckus, but I came out and everyone was acting like nothing had happened... hmmmm. Baby horse shenanigans will be over one day, at least he's getting smart enough to act innocent when I know he's been pawing the wall or slamming himself against it.

He loves his stall but he loves food more

He snorted the entire time on the way up to the barn. There are minimal lights getting from my tack up area to the arena, so I used my phone's crappy flash light to make sure I wasn't going to trip on something and fall on my face in the mud.

He longed really well inside the round pen so I didn't longe for very long. Back in the arena, there were a group of teenagers hanging out at one side. Apparently, I learned later, one of them loves TC, she really wants a dressage horse and so I was warned that she might steal him. I don't think she'd like him as much as she thinks she would. But on good days I guess he can be somewhat flashy (his canter was shit in the roundpen so I have little faith in his gaits right now).

Anyway, I love it when the kids are in the ring since they have really quiet horses and have senses of humor. I can ride around without worrying if my horse's brain falls out of his head and they just quietly move out of the way if he runs sideways into them. TC likes having company so I hopped right on with the plan to only ride as long as it took to get him the tinest bit sweaty (since he isn't clipped and I didn't want to wait for him to dry) or until the kids left.

Tuesday morning I got real excited about seeing
a squirrel! I was like the dog from Up. But I live
in a small city and work in a bigger small city so
squirrels are relatively rare.

We did a bunch of trot work. Mostly working on the connection, which has basically disintegrated over the last month. He doesn't really seek contact as well as he once did, and he's learning to get on his underneck. Yay connection evasions, my favorite. So we worked really hard on that. Just the fact that he hadn't been ridden since Sunday and it was dark and it was in the covered AND we could work on connection made me really happy.

I could have ridden him forever like that but the kids were done riding and started to leave. I immediately hopped off and gave him a pat, but I kept him in the arena in hand doing some groundwork for a bit so that he didn't think he gets to leave whenever other horses leave the arena.

Sure he still takes longeing and to be babysat to have good rides, but the fact that we did have a good ride in the dark gives me a lot of hope for the winter. I just hope those kids hang around a lot! But I hope I don't lose my horse to one of them. Although some days, I'd gladly hand him off to a teenager and save for a trip to Europe.

Slow Progress is Still Progress

The thing about being sick is that there is a massive difference between "I'm too sick to come into the office" and "I'm too sick to ride my horse." I mean one of those is a severe illness, likely to almost be killing me. The other is a little worse than the sniffles. I think we can all agree which is which.

I'm not saying that I wasn't actually sick, I spent all morning laying on a bed of pillows and blankets on my bathroom floor, unsure of how bad the nausea really was going to be (it wasn't as bad as it felt FYI). But I did still make it to the barn in the middle of the day to ride my pony.

At my second Intermediare II on this guy in 2011, I
had a stomach ulcer that had caused me to lose
~15-20lbs and I still rode and scored in the 60s.
NO ILLNESS CAN STOP ME FROM DRESSAGING

The barn is very slowly growing on me. It's not that I didn't like it when I saw it, I mean obviously I'm boarding there. Well, I do not like the rafters, and plan on telling you that in every post, but other than that, it's growing on me. But I think I need to stop comparing it to the two barns I had wanted to be boarding at (both have year long waiting lists). This barn is NOT one of those barns, but it also doesn't come with those barns' price tags, so I should be appreciative. I parked in my normal spot, said hi to a few people I don't know because I'm there almost exclusively in the evenings, and headed into my tack locker.

The locker is finally organized, kind of. I need a few things to better organize it, some extra hooks and I think some drawers or another tote, but other than that, all of my stuff is accessible.

When I got to TC, he didn't give two shits that I was there. No whinnies, although he did walk up to me eventually. It actually made me feel better, he is clearly totally fine with his life in the paddock. He was hanging out with his friends in the corner and had shavings on him- he had discovered that shavings are nice to lay down in, go pony!

Oh cross ties, I miss you

Tacking up, he slammed my saddle against the wall only once, and didn't try to yank his feet out of my hands. That was a nice improvement. He seemed eager to go for a ride and when he got on the longe, he zoomed off at the canter, shaking his head.

Poor guy was probably feeling a little cooped up going from pasture to paddock. I figured he'd take a bit to adjust to it. It's not like he ran a lot in his pasture, but having the opportunity to probably made him feel better. He'll adjust- Rico only got stir crazy if he didn't get out for like a week. TC clearly doesn't like full days off. Eventually I'll have someone hand walk, longe, or ride him on days that I can't get him out, but he's still a bit of a nutter butter right now and I don't know anyone at the barn just yet.

I got on him probably a little early. He had already galloped around a lot though, so I thought it'd be fine. I was also feeling sick from all of the spinning. We didn't have a very productive ride. Between lots of distractions on all four sides of the arena (cows, pasture horses, covered arena activity, and trail riders) and my inability to really hold myself upright all the way, we kind of squeezed out some work. But I'm trying to be positive.

One day I will have this horse back

The nice thing is that I'm using lateral work to get him back to me when he does spook, so we officially have a real bad shoulder-in at the trot now. It doesn't have a lot of angle, but it exists. The leg yields are also okay, but he's still kind of tense. The other nice thing is that we had no scoots, bucks, or jittering sideways undersaddle. I do appreciate that when he's distracted or nervous, he tends to just shy away from things (cows) or stick his head straight up and whinny (literally at everything that moves).

No cantering undersaddle yet, I just don't feel like cantering him if he's such a distracted jerk at the trot. No thanks. Hopefully we'll canter this weekend, maybe next week. I'm in no rush, he's already destroying his topline by going so short in his neck and tight in his back, no need to ruin the canter work too.

After our ride, I led him down to the little trail course. The barn has two trail courses- one is next to the covered arena and is basically just a gate, some tarps, and poles to walk over, the other is out in a pasture but I haven't it seen yet because to hell if I'm taking that horse anywhere interesting just yet. I led him over the poles and then took him to the tarp.

I miss working on things that aren't control and retraction in
the neck!

My goal was at least to get him to sniff it, maybe we could get one foot on it. He walked right up, snorted at it, put a foot on it, and quietly walked across. The second time there was no hesitation. Back and forth we went. He was fine. Damn, well that's kind of boring. Today we may tackle the big ball in the covered arena. Yesterday there were people in there so I didn't want to traumatize them.

TC legitimately stood still and waited for me to put all his stuff away. I deliberately moved slowly to give him more time standing tied. He gets impatient and moving barns has not improved this, so I've been teaching him that pawing and smashing himself against the wall isn't the way to get what he wants. He'll figure that one out someday.

Obnoxious. Cute! But very obnoxious. 

Overall, I wasn't super super pleased by the ride, but he stayed out on the longe well, only spooked at the cows twice, only whinnied twice, and still hasn't put much effort into launching me as much as just making my life a little harder.

I also noticed while riding that I was actually happy with the size of the outdoor arena, something I hadn't cared about when desperately looking for a barn. It's long enough to do some 1-3 counter canter loops, as well as a 3 or maybe a 4 loop serpentine.

It's not the widest ring, probably a little wider than an actual dressage court, but that works for us, since we need to ride on smaller circles anyway. The footing isn't terrible- it's sand and while it's a little deep (probably since it hasn't been watered all summer), I prefer deep footing to shallow footing. Especially for a horse like him who is a little upright and has the very very tiny developings of sidebone. And it's pretty consistent footing, which is excellent.

Although it was a lot of work, I liked having
control over my own footing!

I can't say the same about the covered arena, but the footing in there is my least concern with those damn rafters. Told you I wouldn't shut up about those. I feel like getting through this winter is going to be a tough one. But I have a rig that I can borrow (!!!), so I may need to haul out somewhere for a week or two if we're getting a big storm and planning on any shows. That would probably be a good experience for him anyway. And we may just switch barns entirely.

For now though, just focusing on getting my horse back to normal and not being so sick! I'll deal with the winter when it finally shows up.