Mandatory Shelter In Place

As of last night at midnight, my county, along with several other counties in the bay area and beyond, put out a mandatory shelter in place.

If you're not aware (I wasn't and definitely initially thought that meant mandatory homeless shelters, which I was supportive of), this means that all bay area residents have been instructed to not leave their houses for any reason other than absolute necessities.

Every morning I feel like I have a mild panic attack reading
the news, ugh

When it was announced, I was working TC in hand. We had stopped to take a break and I'd taken off his side rein and we were just chilling. Immediately upon figuring out what it really meant, but not reading much further, I had a pit in my stomach. The one shining light in this horrible horrible storm of COVID-19 has been the barn. It's the only place I feel normal, the only place that the world doesn't seem to be collapsing in upon. The threat of that being taken away was one thing, but then a horse got cast and panicked, thrashing around, and I very nearly lost it.

It reminds me of several articles I read on chronic stress in the brain during grad school. Underlying stress, such as the stress of housing insecurity or food insecurity or even just living a life where scarcity is a big part of it (paycheck to paycheck) takes a major toll on the brain. Brains don't work properly under stress. It's why you see the rich chastise the poor for buying unnecessarily or not making good financial decisions. Decision making and self control are not easily accessible when under chronic stress.

And so while a horse being cast and panicking (horse was fine, by the way, got up and standing on all four legs just fine) normally would make me a little worried for the horse, it now sent me into near hysterics. TC was also nervous, but he immediately recovered when the horse got up. I needed a bit longer to stand there and tell myself it was okay, giving him a hug while he stood with a foot rested, begging me to start training again so he could get clicks and treats for doing his fancy prancing.

Hah, not even

We did go back to work and had a great in-hand session, then had a good rest of our ride after that. I did some lead changes and pirouette canter and then we called it a day. I might have definitely kept riding him around the ranch a little extra while getting on my conference call. Every day we get to ride right now is a gift so I'm going to take advantage of being at the barn for as long as possible each day.

Reading between the lines of the mandatory shelter in place policy, it DOES look like it's okay to go take care of people and animals. Would my horse die without me coming down to brush him, hug him, ride him, and feed him? Absolutely not. Would I suffer mentally so much that I might commit homicide? Um, decline to comment. But at this point, a lot of bay area riders (myself included) are choosing to interpret this as us being allowed to continue to ride. But some barns have already shut down even to boarders...

My barn owner walked around and told everyone yesterday that the barn would remain open. I figure it will as long as he's in charge of that decision, so for now, we are okay. Whether things will progress, well, we'll see in a week, or maybe even in an hour or two.

Hey it's me, also the rest of us

My job in academia has transitioned to full remote and we've all admitted that work seems so silly right now. It's a good distraction though, so we are starting some fun new things to help our faculty and staff access data off the network. Teaching, as far as I know it, is still happening. I've had one client decide to do remote lessons, as they are at a private facility and need to limit people coming into the property. More power to you, I'd do the same if I had my horses at home and could control that. I haven't yet heard from my other clients, so we'll see what actually happens, but I am not going to be the one to decide not to teach, at least not yet.

I'm luckily okay without my business income right now due to the SO and I combining forces housing-wise. I can't show or take lessons or do anything fun without it, but those things are off the table anyway. It'll be tight, but I'm okay.

That being said, I'm bored as shit and it would be nice to be able to do some of the things to help small businesses like buying gift cards and all that. So I'm opening up remote lessons (variable rate, please inquire), video lessons ($40/lesson), and video test riding ($10/test, I'm still in training so I figure this helps me too). If anyone is interested, please message me on IG (@alchemy.dressage) or shoot me an email (alchemydressage at gmail).

Kate and I are talking about having some zoom meetings where we just chat about biomechanics or what she's learning from her amazing groundwork person or what I'm learning from the L program. It won't be very structured or anything, but we like to think we're entertaining when we chat on the phone about this stuff. We're going to talk more about it and then if we do decide to do it, we'll make some kind of invite for people, stay tuned if you want entertainment.

Literally the SO was like "do we have enough oreos??"

Fingers crossed that the barn remains open indefinitely and that we are successful at flattening the curve. So far I've had a slight fever last Saturday evening that only lasted a few hours and was gone. I immediately canceled my clinic on Sunday and spent the entire day inside mildly freaking out as my temperature stayed normal all day. Monday I went back to normal (lol "normal" what does that word even mean right now) and I've been feeling fine since.

Hope you are all staying safe and staying at home to the best of your ability. We haven't yet seen the worst and without testing anyone, we don't know how much our efforts are working.

Piaffe Training & Fixing the Canter

On Friday, I went down to see TC. I wasn't going to, because I was going to go into work and stay there all day for a meeting. But my boss and I chatted on Thursday night and I told him that the best part of my day had been something I ate for breakfast, so he took the meeting I was supposed to go to on Friday and let me work from home. So I slept in, the boyfriend made me a latte while I worked, I put a bunch of plants in pots for our front porch, and then went down to play with TC before teaching.

I just rode TC around bareback and chatted with my trainer friend at the barn about flying changes and how difficult dressage is in general. It's nice to have such a great community of trainers to chat with on a regular basis, even if it's just to have a good bitch session.

Saturday, I prepared for the worst. Like I said yesterday, I honestly thought about not going, but I did want Tanya to help me with his piaffe, so I told myself I could just tell her that I'd deal with the canter issues on my own and that we could focus on piaffe and the trot work. But it ended up being really good, so no regrets.

More beautiful pictures from the ride on Sunday

I parked the trailer and TC unloaded totally relaxed. He's only been to this barn once before and he was a happy camper to be out and doing stuff even as we got rained on a bit while tacking up. I grabbed all my stuff for in hand work and went over to the ring. Tanya had me do a bit of warm up walking and trotting and then we walked over to the outdoor (the rain stopped, phew) with a fence so we could begin his piaffe training officially.

I've played with it a bit but Tanya is adamant that this horse have a piaffe on him by the end of the year, so we are getting serious.

Tanya's way of doing it is very simple and really worked with TC's claustrophobia. I stood in front of him, held a longe line attached to his left bit ring and a whip to use if he blew through me as we walked slowly forward. We had a side rein attached to his right bit ring to keep him straight on that side. Then Tanya came through with the piaffe whip on the hind legs. Our goal was to get two really clear, rhythmic piaffe steps and then stop and praise. We did maybe 15-20 minutes total, most of it walking or resting, and TC was a freaking star! No rearing, like I'd thought we might get to, no blasting through me. I only had to use my whip twice to remind him to give me space.

SO's spare bike that I get to ride! We're looking for one for me
but I refuse to spend too much on it because, and I quote "if I
had $3k, it'd be in my saddle fund" so we're looking for a used one

So I was stoked on that in itself! I honestly thought about being like "thanks! bye!" and heading home. But after seeing how easy the piaffe came to him, knowing that the passage was going to be his easiest gait, and feeling how much his trot has developed over the last month... I was determined to figure out what was going on with his canter.

We headed back to the arena and did a little trot work. TC felt way more under himself after the piaffe work and felt quite energetic too, phew. But then we went into canter and did some collected canter to medium canter transitions and well... it was more like behind the leg to bucking transitions.

I've spoken before about TC's weirdness with the GO aids at the canter, like uh, yesterday's post. I don't know if it's years of being told not to go under any circumstance or just his lack of a quality canter coming out. Either way, he's pretty convinced that leg on and/or whip on = buck. And so, buck we did, until he figured out that I wasn't going to let go of the reins or stop asking him to go forward. At one point, we scattered the people watching from the sidelines because he was kicking out right at eye level. At another point, I heard "don't fall off, Megan!" and I thought HE'LL HAVE TO PRY ME OFF WITH A FUCKING CROWBAR.

It took a while, but it definitely went through and I suddenly had a canter to match his trot work. He was round and jumping up under himself, and most importantly, when I put my leg on, he WENT. Tanya and I discussed the importance of me  not ever letting go of the reins on this horse. She wants him to essentially be dragging me around everywhere. Excellent, not like I spent ten years on a horse who wasn't allowed to put any weight in the bridle because he was so damn heavy, nor did I totally hop on a very heavy client's horse the day before TC. This shit is hard, yo.

Loved this field

We took a short break and then looked at the fancy trot. Holy SHIT this horse can trot. He was so amped from being told he had to go in canter that he WENT in trot. I finally got to see it in real time in the mirrors and wow this horse has some fucking presence. He bombed around the arena with me just clinging onto him. Tanya had just a few things to say, she wants me to be able to compress it a little more to shift his mass back, but without losing the energy and the fanciness. I did it once and lost the trot, then did it again and popped my leg a little bit and the horse gave me more trot than I've ever felt before, it was almost a passage, but a quick one. The air time was insane. And I obviously got no video to share! It's so infuriating that soloshot hasn't come out with their indoor tracker thing, but I'm not holding my breath.

Leaving the barn, I thought again about how well TC is doing in every gait except the canter. His trot is literally a higher quality trot than I had on Rico at Grand Prix. His piaffe is very green but it's coming on correctly with a pure rhythm. His passage is going to be too much for me to sit, I just know it. It's just the canter... We need to fix the canter for him to make it into the FEI levels. Everything else is there, if the PSG was just trot work, I'd be putting on my tails tomorrow. But the canter is going to slow us down unfortunately.

So, time to double my efforts on the canter. I don't want to bomb around in that trot too often because it's hard on his legs, so TC is getting maybe 3-5 minutes of that trot each day and that's about all the trot work I want to do with him. I need to use the rest of the time in my rides to develop the canter, but I think we can do it!

How to Manufacture a Hind Leg

When we left off, I was hyper-analyzing a situation, which, let's be real, is my near constant state, so it's nothing to write home about.

All my best friends

Kate came out to ride TC this Tuesday. She first watched me ride and asked me a lot of questions/told me what she saw:

- I started out showing her what I thought in front of my leg was. She said he looked like his back was tense and dropped. I said yes I could see that in the mirror and that it felt like I had to kind of hold him on the bit vs carry my hand, but that he felt in front of me soooo ?

- I brought him to a place where Tracey wants him but he feels behind my leg at the trot. Kate asked me to describe that and I actually couldn't describe it easily. He feels like he would stop if I took my leg off, but then when I did, he didn't stop. He feels like he would refuse to do a canter transition, but when I asked he did it. He feels like we couldn't do any lateral work from the trot, but he can.

- We went into canter and I put him in a canter where I felt like he was in front of my leg. He was mildly hollow and difficult to steer for me on the left side.

- Then I put him lower, softer, and slower at the canter and he lifted his back, but I felt like he was going to drop out from under me. He broke to trot a couple of times but nothing dramatic.

Hi, wanna see me make my neck REAL SHORT

After that, Kate got on. She rode him for a bit and I kept harassing her about what she was feeling. And then she said this:

"This is going to sound weird"
"Just tell me in whatever words make sense to you"
"I can't feel the ground, I can only feel it down to his hip but not down to his feet, there's a black hole back there"

Oh.

And she's right. When riding TC, you cannot feel his hind leg. We determined that there is some muscle not firing in his lower back that is responsible for that feeling. That muscle gets switched on in a negative way when he bolts or when I run him off his feet, so I can feel the hind legs and even if they feel like crap, I can at least feel them.

Love this place

I had brought my piaffe whip and had Kate trot around me. I tapped TC's haunches and when she could feel his hind legs, she'd pet him and I'd stop. He looked incredible. He was recruiting different muscles in his back and abdomen in those moments and you could see his hind end interact with the ground in a very different way than he normally does. More with his heel than his toe.

Kate and I switched and I got on him, handing Kate the whip. I trotted around her and aided for a shortened step while she tapped. I felt it a bit in trot, but especially coming back to walk. I felt him in front of me in the way that I had wanted. He felt like he was carrying me forward.

And it's not "in front of the leg" as much as I could feel where his haunches ended and where they were going. And THAT'S what I'm getting on my client's horse that I can't feel on TC. It has nothing to do with his level of responsiveness or being in front of the leg. It has everything to do with the way TC interacts with the ground in his hind legs.

Not for sale, if I can't afford a good hind leg, I'll make one

We brainstormed some things to implement into TC's program:

1) I am going to bring Kate out to help me on the ground once a week.
2) I am going to do piaffe work in hand once a week
3) I am going to clicker train holding his hind legs up for 30-60 seconds at a time
4) I am going to do long and low over raised trot rails
5) I am going to teach TC how to jump small cavalletis to work up to getting him comfortable with a series of small bounces

TC is also going to start adequan and I'm putting him on a muscle builder again. He's also going on some aloe pellets just in case this work stresses him out.

Tracey was concerned about putting a piaffe on him because of his mental state, but he loves me and he loves Kate, so he just thought that was a fun game. We're going to have the clicker and some cookies next time so it's even more fun for him.

I'm so grateful for friends like Kate who I can throw on my horse, tell her what I'm feeling, and ask her what she thinks of him. And now we'll see how much the piaffe training helps with all of this! Either way, it's fun to be working on something like that.

Not Feeling His Age

During my four day weekend, I hopped on Rico of course. This time I was smart and put on the reactor panel saddle so my lower back didn't hate me so much.

All he wants to do is stare at stuff. He looks so young in this
picture :)

I'm kind of digging this saddle. It's not the right size for me and I think that if I were going to spend the money to actually buy one, I'd get one with a better rise for me in addition to a different seat size and block. It seems to fit Rico quite well, and the coolest part about the Reactor Panel saddles is that you can fit them to anything AND the even cooler part is that they can do remote fittings for $75 plus supplies. So they send you everything you need and then you get someone to basically do a live video (she has skype, facebook, whatsapp, anything really) and she walks you through the fitting. I'll be sure to post about that when it happens.

There's a large part of me thinking of switching over to these saddles when I finally save enough money to justify buying a new saddle (not holding my breath, remember how I just moved back to the bay area? lol). I love my custom but being able to adjust the fit myself (and for so little, I pay like $350 if my saddle needs its tree adjusted) sounds amazing.

It was such a pretty evening at the ranch

Anyway, after I tormented TC on Sunday, I headed over to the ranch to ride Rico. I brought my equisense (and TC's girth, which fits Rico better than Sunny's pony size girth) to keep track of what he's doing. He's really not doing a ton, but I do feel a difference in his abilities. Whether it's that he's actually getting fitter or that I'm just delusional, I don't care. He does look like he's putting on the tiniest bit of a topline again, his butt is just a bit rounder. I dunno. Maybe I really am delusional.

We started out with a walk down the road and he was AMPED. He kept wanting to prance and had his head straight up in my face. Then he'd stop dramatically and stare at a cow before snorting and prancing off again.

In the arena it was more of the same. He either wanted to zip off with me, yank me out of the tack, or stare at nothing. He didn't really want to do anything in between. I had to kind of poke him with the spurs and push him around a bit to get him to pay the fuck attention to what I was asking him to do, which was a riveting... trotting in circles.

The canter feels really good when he isn't trying to yank me out of the tack with his "bucking" behavior that he thinks is a good time. Like I've said, TC is a nice horse and everything, but Rico has like a 9 canter. This horse can fucking canter. Just his natural, under-muscled, arthritic canter is way better than TC's canter. He's definitely gaining strength in the canter and even gave me a lead change! His first change in a long time.

Seriously, I got basically no other pictures

The equisense, which I used on Sunday, thinks that he is sound, which is nice to see. It makes me low key question the equisense, but you know. He's feeling serviceably sound, and he does feel a little better every time I get him out. Either that or I'm just getting used to him feeling like crap. I'd like to think that as he gets stronger, he'll be able to support those arthritic joints a bit better, but we'll see.

Monday afternoon, I grabbed Kate, Riot, and Rico and we all went on a trail ride! Rico was feeling great, super sound and was offering piaffe and passage everywhere because he was a bit wild (for him). At the end I swapped with Kate so she could play with it too! I'm so glad he's doing well, lots more trail rides and arena rides in our future.

Flashback

On Sunday the rain let up for about half the day and I was able to go get on Rico! I didn't think that with all the rain, my parents' arena was going to hold up, so I hopped on him bareback. I walked by the arena and it looked good... so I went out there and, damn. That arena holds up! There was not a puddle in sight, the sand was just well saturated and some of it was making its way down to the creek.

Rico is a bit too wide OR a bit too bouncy. He's wide enough where he puts a little extra pressure on my hips and SI joint, and if he were super smooth, that would be fine. He's also bouncy enough where he puts a little extra pressure on my lower back, and if he were a bit narrower like TC, that would be fine. I figured whatever, Rico needs to do some cardio, I'll take one for the team.

Work it, Rico, sorry about your back, Megan

He was AMPED though, we walked down the road a bit and all he wanted to do is passage. He hasn't offered me any passage at all since I started riding him again. My main goal in riding him again isn't to get him in shape for dressage as much as it is to get him in shape for life (to just try to keep a little more muscle on him in his retirement) and for some trail riding this summer. But if he wants to passage, he can, so I took him in the arena and let him play a bit.

My back was bugging me immediately so I figured I should just canter him. But Rico thought that was a ridiculous idea and thought he'd rather buck. He can't really get much air, but he certainly can yank me onto his neck when I have no saddle.

He was pretty offended when I opted not to canter him anymore, he got all head shaking and prancy. Prancing is similar to piaffe, which Rico hasn't done since before his pigeon fever. It's a movement that requires a lot of collection, which, I mean he's certainly fitter than he was a month ago after being ridden like... five times by me, but in the same way that I'm closer to being a billionaire because whenever I ride Rico, I plug my car in for a little bit of time to save money on gas.

But hey, he seemed enthusiastic and he's the sort of horse who isn't going to offer something like that without meaning it. So I asked and he did it! Kinda!

Slooowwwwly drawing him on the spot

It was yet another movement I wasn't sure I'd ever feel out of him ever again! I mean, again, we have to remember he's now 23 years old, had nearly died just two years ago, has arthritis up the wazoo, and not a lot of muscle on him. I don't usually ask him to do anything fancy when I ride him because of all of those things, but if he's game, I'm game.

He's doing so well and it's only February, I'm really hoping I can keep this at-least-once-a-week-hopefully-more riding schedule through the summer. It will get way easier when it's lighter later and I can come by after work on the days I don't do crossfit. He obviously is way low on my priority list with new clients starting soon, keeping TC going, keeping my fitness up, and my actual job lol, but I love how much time I've been able to spend with him lately!

Does What He Wants

Saturday after my long day I still managed to ride Rico. I sort of had to convince myself to do it though. Nothing like the Fitbit hanging over my head, reminding me that I spent the majority of the day sitting to motivate me to move.

I rode him after dinner and it was an awesome ride. Rides have been hit or miss in the last couple weeks with Rico. Whether it's his joints/neck pain, the fact that I've had more not-Megan-riders on him lately, or just me being a crazy person, I don't know. But he's been a little extra lazy and he occasionally throws in unclean changes, which is very odd.

But Saturday he came out to play and I was happy to have my horse back.

Rico's new best friend came cantering up to us

One thing I did do is use the BOT quickwraps for tacking up. I'm planning on using them with TC- basically putting them on the moment I get to the barn and leaving them on until after I put the saddle on. So I figured Rico could use them too, he's getting the star treatment until the dumb baby horse comes home and takes all his stuff.

I got on and let him zip past the arena and out to the road like he always tries to do. We came back to the arena after walking around the corner, but he got to have a moment of victory.

In the arena I mostly wanted to work on my position. We're only a little more than two weeks away from my first rides on TC (YAY) so I'm hoping to really work on myself leading up to that. I actually have now put my stirrups down a full two holes since I started riding TC, one hole since this fall. I raised them in the first place because on young big moving horses who buck, I need shorter stirrups. As he was better about being round and not darting randomly around the arena, I was able to lower them, but I never got them down to where they once were.

And when I got back on Rico, I was so used to the shorter stirrups that I was riding with short stirrups on all horses. So they're back down to where they belong! I'll still probably put them up a hole when I ride TC for a few weeks, but I'm hoping to be down on hole 13 permanently fairly soon.

So cute!

As always, we started in canter. He felt super good in the bridle and right on my seat, although not super forward. We did a few single flying changes and they felt good. The left-right change tends to get real crooked/kicking and so we worked a little on that in warm up.

Then we played a little in a forward-moving piaffe. I don't want him to have to do it on the spot too much anymore since it puts unnecessary pressure on his hocks. Piaffe is fun but it's not my favorite, I mostly do it to get him engaged and thinking more collected, and an on the spot piaffe isn't necessary for that.

Passage though, that is my favorite so we did a little bit of that. He lost the walk to passage a little bit, he takes a trot step before really getting the height. And with a couple of non-Megan rides, the tempo got a bit too fast so I brought it slower, which he seemed to appreciate actually. I think people who haven't done the pi/pa a lot struggle with how SLLLOOOWWWW the passage is. It really doesn't cover a ton of ground, and the tempo is quite slow.


And as much as the piaffe and passage are two of Rico's best movements, the reality is that he learned to passage in November of 2013 and then we stopped really training it in October of 2014. So he only has a year of training on them. This means that riding it poorly results in him changing the way he does it, vs say a shoulder-in that he's had on him for most of his dressage career so you can fuck that up all you want and I'll still be able to get a good one out of him without working on it.

But I don't mind, I'm not trying to compete this horse anymore and honestly the look on peoples' faces when they first sit his passage and hearing my friend tell the rest of our friends at dinner the other night how wonderful and trained my horse is makes rides like this where I sort of have to pick up the pieces totally worth it!

They were all cuddly, so cute!

Back in canter I mostly worked on my position, getting my leg to be a little longer, which is hard for me since it wants to creep up to the block. Rico is super about letting me drop my leg down, as it makes him collect more since that's how I would always work on collection. So we played in a few different canters while I made myself stop tipping forward with my left shoulder (a new-ish issue I noticed while riding a horse at my new barn that has mirrors) and worked to not sink into any sort of rotation with my hips. Sometimes I get a little hula-dancer-y at the canter. Inside seatbone forward, emphasize the forward and back, don't fucking wiggle.

We also did the tempi changes and for the first time in a while, Rico was kind of a shit about them. Not in the old-horse-losing-strength way, but in the way that used to drive Tracey and I nuts. Here's how it would go:

Tracey: show me the threes
Me: rides a line of threes
Rico: throws in a two for funzies
Tracey: Megan, there was a two in there, do the threes
Me: I'm trying
Rico: bahahaha
Me: goes back across the diagonal
Rico: starts the twos before I even ask for any changes
Tracey: MEGAN NO, THE THREES DO THE THREES
Me: I AM TRYING I AM NOT ASKING FOR TWOS
Rico: lol

So I headed across the diagonal and rode the threes and he ended with a two. I thought that my aid was probably off so I came around again and he STARTED in twos. I don't want to get after him, I mean no one cares now whether he's doing twos or threes. I kept laughing, but was also mildly frustrated with him. Damnit Rico, I talk about how trained and perfect you are and then you pull shit like this.

So cute

In the end we walked down the road and visited Rico's new best friend. It was such a fun ride. We don't get rides like that all the time, mostly because I don't think I've quite determined how many rides a week and in what order I can do to maximize rides like this. Too many rides a week and he gets lazy, too little rides a week and he gets unfit. Trail rides make his coffins hurt so I limit those. It's a balance that I haven't put much effort into figuring out. But when things come together like on Saturday, he's super fun.

Ponies and Beer and Tacos

On Monday, it turned out that L was going to be just a little bit up the road from Rico and I, so we made arrangements for her to come by the ranch! It actually worked out well that I've been riding Rico more, since now he's at least fit enough for a fun shortish ride vs a quick pony ride.

One of them had more fun than the other

When she got there, we went right up to get Rico, no time to waste!

I had been nice and told her to bring her saddle. Having ridden Ramone both in my saddle and hers, I desperately preferred mine- not because hers is uncomfortable, but my knees feel like they were up by my ears- I could imagine it'd go the other way. Nothing like riding a horse trained in a completely different discipline AND having to fight my saddle's blocks at the same time.

Luckily her magic saddle that fits all horses fit Rico, and after throwing white polos on (for optimal dressage fanciness), and the pelham on my snaffle bridle, she hopped on.

Rico can be ridden in any bit, but he goes really well in the pelham and always has. I don't have the wheymouth he likes, and as I said on Tuesday, he actually is going well in the one he doesn't like but he gets behind the leg easier and I knew he'd be lazy for L no matter what. He goes well in the snaffle too, but you really have to get on his case about lightness/roundness and I just felt like this ride was more for L playing with Rico's tricks and less about making her trot on a 20m circle and get my dumb horse off his forehand.

Rico the jumping horse?

The best horse

L has been the first person to come see/ride Rico from the blogosphere, meaning she first "met" him on my blog, which is interesting. I was really hoping Rico would be good for her, not that he's ever bad, he's just sometimes lazy. I was also interested to get her take on him. He's quite trained and very willing, but he's a totally different ride than Ramone and Carlos and trained in a totally different discipline.

The first thing she said when she swung up on him was that he was SUPER wide and called him an overgrown Thelwell pony. That is super accurate. The horse has withers but his lungs spring like no other. You'd think that'd mean there was lots of room for his lungs but the way the horse breathes when he works a little bit, it's very likely that his stomach takes up much of that room.  And his heart, awww. 

Tempis!

Expressive upward transitions

We wandered around the arena and Rico immediately knew that an educated butt was on him. Rico tries to decipher who is on him to determine how much he can get away with not doing. He's always willing, and that's what I adore about him, but he wants to know right away whether he can slack a little bit.

I told L just a few things about him- first, if you teach him that you'll nag him, you'll have the same problems I had two years ago where he'll randomly halt in your work. Second, if you trot before you canter him, he will feel like a broken down crippled horse.

So after the walk, we cantered. And that's when Rico was SUPER confused. L's aids were slightly off for him because of the stirrup length I think so he had no idea what she wanted and kept offering passage instead of canter. He's like I know you're educated and want me to do things but I don't know what you want so here, have this shitty passage.

Finally she cantered him around for warm up and we did a couple single flying changes. Rico has great changes so it's just a matter of keeping him forward before and after and keeping his neck on straight so that you get the response you want. He'd rather do changes than counter canter, so he waits for an aid that sort of seems like a change aid and he's on it.

More tempis, Rico would like to do them as slow as possible

Cantering really helped Rico figure out L's aids, he's a smart horse and does want to be good so he tries to adapt himself to other people to the best of his ability. He still keeps the effort minimal, but he doesn't actively work against his rider, which is something I just adore about him. I feel like it speaks the tiniest bit to my training as well that someone else can just hop on him and school a bunch of the Grand Prix movements.

Back in walk for a bit we talked about piaffe and passage.

I had brought down my driving whip and bamboo to help L get the feel of it, and to get Rico putting a little more effort into them. He's a little uneven in the passage these days and isn't sitting much in the piaffe, which is totally fine, but it'd be nice to improve them a tiny bit whenever I have a good rider on his back.

We started in piaffe and Rico mistook the aid a little bit and reared (woops, but his rears are small and L rode it without a problem) before settling into a pretty good piaffe. The passage was fan-fucking-tastic with the bamboo helping him out and L lost a stirrup because it was so big and we both dissolved into giggles agreeing that the passage is the most fun ever. I never want there to be a time where I don't have a fucking awesome passage to ride. Like, TC had better step up his game as Rico edges closer to full retirement. But for now, Rico's passage will do. And it's a great one despite the unevenness right now.

Piaffe, Rico's favorite part is getting told he did a good job

Next up was piaffe and passage transitions, which she rode without too much of my help! Rico isn't easy to ride those on because some dumb person trained him to walk in them because they kept taking their leg off. I told L not to take her leg off but to slide the leg back to piaffe and then forward to passage. She rode it basically as well as Rico was capable of doing it and he complied easily.

After we finished up with that work, we headed into canter again. I told L about the tempi changes- all you need to do is keep him forward and straight in between the changes and he'll do them. She got some 3s and 4s and even got a 2! We also did some school canter, Rico can't quite canter on the spot anymore but he can still get close.

School canter sorta

We finished up with a walk pirouette and some general trot work, where Rico offered his fancy trot (trot + a little passage feeling to get him up in the shoulders). Rico was only a bit sweaty, so we wandered back to the barn and I grabbed Riot in my dressage saddle so that we could walk down the road and back.

Along the road is a wild plum tree, which hasn't managed to kill me yet, so we stopped for some plums and it felt like the ultimate Saddle Club adventure!

After riding, we tasted some of my dad's beer (he's a chemist and he home brews) and then headed out for lunch. I'm not much of a beer drinker but man a cold beer on a hot day after riding was amazing.

Passage

A bit more passage right before a canter transition, he was a bit
uneven so the video didn't turn out that great

For lunch we went to the local seafood place and surprise, ran into a couple of my friends from my new barn. They opted to join us for our lunch. We talked ponies for a LONG time and realized what a small world it was, all of us knowing some of the same people from various times in our life. It's amazing how getting horse people together always turns even the most introverted of people into the chattiest people.

It was such a great day, we're definitely going to have to do it again! And hopefully go on more Saddle Club Trail Ride adventures too. 

Off His Pedestal and On a Trail Ride

I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I tend to put Rico up on a pedestal because that's where he belongs. It only got worse when TC was acting up. Rico is perfect and always has been and therefore TC acting up is so much worse than anything Rico has ever done. That's extremely false. He proved that to me a bit on Wednesday when we went on a trail ride.

He ran to the end of his paddock to avoid me, would
not come in for food

On Wednesday I decided to haul Rico out to Harvey Bear. I'm down to the last month and a bit of TC not taking over my life, and who knows when I'll get a job and be ridiculously busy again. I really want to go on some adventures with Rico while I still like horses and still have time.

When he saw me getting the trailer ready, pulling it out and putting shavings in, he walked quickly to the end of the paddock. I brought him a little bit of bute, something we've been doing for trail rides to help calm his coffin joints down (avoids the need to inject them since they only bother him on trail rides). He still refused to come in. I had to go get the halter. After that though, he was super on board with going somewhere.

He bullied me on the way to the trailer, trying to get me to move out of his way so he could rush in. On the way out of the trailer, he started screaming and staring into the hills, seriously thinking about biting me while I tacked him up at the facility. I had to double check his color and teeth to make sure I had the right horse, and hadn't unknowingly switched him and TC out at some point. Nope, this is my twenty year old very well trained dressage horse who was pawing and screeching at me.

Whinnying to no one

Omg we are at the trail ride place

Stop taking pictures of me and tack me up damn it
I think he's looking pretty good for being twenty and sort of neglected
since last summer

We headed out to the first gate and Rico immediately picked up a trot on the way. We got there, went through the gate, got past a few people hiking and then he picked up a canter. Eventually he stopped and tried to turn around. I kicked him forward and he picked up a trot. For a while he was like this- he wanted to go fast, but then he'd get tired and want to go home. Why can't you just walk, Rico?

I had my camera on me (and lost my lens cover, boo, had to order another one) so got some really cool pictures. I also got a bunch on my phone too (these pictures since the ones off my camera go into my massive editing queue). And I did enjoy the scenery as well. It was such a fun trail ride, especially since Rico was super into it.

Any time he was pointed up a hill or was on flat ground, he wanted to trot or canter. On the one hand, I love that he's feeling so good and having such a good time. On the other hand, slow the fuck down I did not ask you to do that you asshole and you are making that hiker you're following so closely nervous.

YASSS TRAILSSS

Second gate

Taking the "this is not a trail" trail

We saw a herd of cows about halfway through, which was fun. As was seeing that the little pond the cows were all enjoying was basically full! It's been years since that pond had any water in it, let alone been anywhere near full. I'm sure the cows enjoy that, and I know a hippo who would have dragged me down the hill to get to it.

Throughout the ride, we saw a few people. No one on horseback, but a few mountain bikers and hikers. Rico is so freakishly solid on the trails. I love being able to assure people on bikes that they can zip by us without a problem, like don't even slow down or give us any space. With TC I can't help but to try to prevent disaster, at least by shortening my reins and putting my heels down. Rico stays on a loose rein and I remain completely distracted by the scenery, my camera, or my phone.

Yay water in the pond!

Everything the light touches is Rico's, also everything the light
doesn't touch

He dragged me down this not-a-trail too

Loves cows

I had initially wanted to ride all the way to the top of the hill to see the lake on the other side, but chose not to because Rico isn't that fit.

I chose wrong! On our way down, Rico got more and more amped, with more and more random canter transitions on any sort of flat ground he was presented with. When we were almost back to the trailer, he zipped out along another trail.

For a while I was pretty convinced that this was because he didn't want to go home. I later found out that it was because he found two horses to follow (we hadn't seen any other horses out there). He got really obsessive about catching up, trying to trot and canter downhill to get to them. Because of his coffins, I avoid doing anything other than walking downhill. And he usually doesn't even want to walk very fast downhill.

Eventually we caught up to almost-creepy levels of following. At this point he was all worked up about them, whinnying and prancing. So I asked him to piaffe and passage along the trail. And he did, better than he does in the arena! All this after a nice long trail ride.

When we passed them (they stopped), he immediately tried to slow wayyy down to hang out with them. Until he saw the horses tied next to the trailer and then wanted to get to them as fast as possible. Seriously Rico!

He put his head down to snort at the shade

Cow!

Wouldn't get back in the trailer

It was super fun to be out and about with Rico again. I think we're going to go on some more adventures over the next month so that I can really try to enjoy the good horse before the bad one comes back. Although the good one sort of lost his place way way up on that pedestal.

Next up I'm hoping for another beach trip with him!

Getting Stronger

Dover post tomorrow for coordination's sake.

Sunday I had to teach all afternoon so I got up early to ride Rico so I could sit on something other than a fence all day!

I really think that the tea place I like down there should open earlier than 10, since I had to stop on the way out from Rico rather than on the way to Rico, terrible. I also think they should close/move before I move TC down past there, since then I will be quadrupling my tea consumption every week. No.

The fuzziest horse

Unfortunately I got caught up playing with my parents' dogs, who gave me the BEST greeting when I walked in, that I didn't have much time with Rico. Poor Rico, but Rico doesn't give me awesome greetings like the dogs do. I opted to ride bareback in the hackamore, not because I wanted to, but because of the time. Rico was totally okay with this.

All of the horses are shedding, but Rico really has never embraced his California life and continues to grow a winter coat that would not look out of place living outdoors in Germany (or the North Pole for that matter). I tried to brush him really quick with a regular brush, but that just seemed to create MORE hair so I grabbed the shedding blade and cleared a spot for my bareback pad.

Rico also had a TON of mud packed into his feet so I continued destroying my wrist by picking them out. I say continue because on Saturday night I went to the gym to run but then got bored after a mile (hey a mile is good for me) and did kettlebell swings but went a little too heavy and it flipped over backwards and my wrist wasn't too happy about that, woops!

If I were a horse, I would own me.

Rico wondering why, just why

I finally jumped on and did a bit of canter work while I was trying to post a picture of him on Instagram. He was not happy with my distraction (he is NOT appreciative of being the subject of many an instagram post) so he kept trying to break. Eventually I got him going pretty well when I put the phone away and actually used both hands on the reins.

We did a bit of piaffe and passage. The piaffe was excellent but the passage was a bit lazy. He definitely felt iffy on the right front- he's been doing a lot of running around in the pasture and given the number of rocks I found in his feet (and the farrier said that his toes were a little thin these days), I didn't blame him. He was sound, just not wanting to pound on those feet in passage.

The canter was great, he's feeling really strong in it these days, which is fun since over the summer he had felt kind of weak and I was worried that he was on a fast track to full retirement. We mostly just worked on changes at the canter. He was falling onto his left front leg and I had major flashbacks of his crookedness from years ago. For a long time he weighted the left front leg and it was super hard to get him to bend left. The techniques I used to get him off that left front (namely pulling on the left rein lol) made him fall out and become even worse to ride.

It was almost fun to have him back where he was so many years ago where I found him SO difficult to ride, since it was an exceptionally quick fix. Connect the outside rein, inside thigh lifting his wither, outside leg engaging right hind. Done. Soft and light on the inside rein/front leg, no pulling necessary. All those lessons really paid off, can't wait to take more this summer!

Roses + green at the ranch!

I then just trotted around and worked on my sitting trot. My goal is to get my seat back to where it was a year and a bit ago so that I can feel really confident when TC comes back. Rico is perfect for this- just bouncy enough to make me work my abs but not so bouncy that my hip wants to get tight. I really worked to loosen up the hip flexors that have been so tight since starting my job and not riding in sitting trot as much anymore.

I felt as close to my old seat as I could have been (and later that day rode my favorite paint horse and was FOR SURE back to normal- I felt so strong, phew). And Rico gave me some great half pass and shoulder-in just for entertainment so he didn't have to trot around like a lesson pony.

We ended with some stupidity. So grateful to have this horse while TC is at rehab. I love riding other horses, but Rico is one of the highlights of my week every weekend. This coming weekend I'm at the ranch both weekend days (and Friday night, I might ride him in the dark) so Rico will get as many rides as I can squeeze in. Poor Rico, hopefully one of those days will be hauling out to the trails though.

The best horse

Typical Behavior All Around

Saturday afternoon after driving almost three hours in the morning, I got home and figured I hadn't driven quite enough that day (regrets, so many regrets).

So I hopped in the car and headed an hour south to see my favorite.

I was still feeling terrible, this is the never ending plague cold, but man is Rico just the best pick me up, even if I could barely ride him.

I didn't leave my house from Sunday night until Wednesday
morning so I did the most crazy-cat-lady thing ever: cat photoshoot

Lucky Rico has been out on pasture all day for over a week so unlucky me had to pick out his damn feet, which were packed with mud. I had to grab a screwdriver, but managed to get his feet all picked out. Then had to go sit down and catch my breath.

He wasn't as disgusting as he was the last time I had to brush him, which was a welcomed change. He is shedding like it's his job though, so I got a lot of his hair off of him. TC is also shedding, though smells much better as they keep him bathed. Rico's worst nightmare! And TC's by the sound of what he's been doing about the wash rack.

I actually put on a saddle, bridle, and polo wraps (glorious bright blue camouflage ones too, gotta be fancy sometimes, Rico) on Rico, and real boots with spurs on myself. I even grabbed the stock whip just in case he needed some more motivation (he did but only twice). That horse was going to work! If I could just... stop... coughing.

so cute!

Rico was great to ride. We started with some canter to warm up and he felt downright strong in the forward-and-back exercise I played with. Just wanting to make sure I had access to his different canters from the get go- especially without him getting crooked, which is what he tends to like to do.

I read back through all the lessons I took on him (you really run out of internet after 2 days in bed) and straightness is such a theme in every lesson. This gives me hope for TC since that had been one of the main things I focused on all last year. I'm excited to take some lessons on him this summer with Tracey to get him all straightened out so that we don't have as many issues as Rico and I did. Reading back through the lessons made me appreciate that, while I didn't want one to begin with, having a hot horse means that I won't be so focused on forward. Because that was another theme.

I gave Rico a nice break after warm up to hang out before starting the piaffe and passage. The piaffe was pretty good, although leaning on his left front, which is pretty normal these days. His right hind has the ringbone and has always been weaker (maybe because the ringbone was developing? unsure). The passage felt powerful and not as uneven as he usually has been. We even did some transitions between piaffe and passage, which I haven't done in months and months. I love coming out of a good piaffe into a really powerful passage, that feeling is so fun!

the best model, she was staring at birds

At the canter I schooled the changes, which were surprisingy obnoxious. Rico usually has really good changes, and even when they're not, they're always clean, which they were on Saturday. But they were what I would consider labored. The twos took a lot more effort than usual. I mean he's the sort of horse you point across the diagonal and swing your legs wildly and he just sighs and does two tempis. So effort means that I actually had to ride them, oh what horror is this that I actually have to ride? But I at least got the single changes pretty easy.

We also did a couple of pirouettes. The right one fell apart and the left one was good. Sounds about right. I realized that I have a lot more anxiety about pirouettes when I'm in the saddle with all my weapons than when I'm on bareback with just a set of western reins to smack him with. Interesting.

Either way, I think I'm going to put a hold on schooling those, he just doesn't feel strong in them and I don't want to ruin his soundness for a movement that I don't particularly enjoy. Passage is one thing... pirouettes? Meh.

Pfft clean apartment before taking pictures of cat? nah

I lasted about twenty minutes and then was exhausted. To make matters work, I stubbornly agreed to dinner that night with some family friends and basically spent the entire night coughing and feeling like shit. Then drove home late, couldn't fall asleep despite copious amounts of nyquil and woke up the next day extremely sick. Just in time for the horse show, which I barely got through physically.

But my student did well and trainer friend scraped a 60 and change at Grand Prix despite winning the warm up. And I spent the entire show leaning against things and taking pictures that I *actually* managed to edit on Monday because I spent the entire day in bed feeling like shit just in time for another day (Tuesday) spent in bed feeling like shit. Maybe next week I'll be able to work an entire week. Boo.

I'm back at work today though and feeling as normal as I've felt in a couple weeks! Which isn't saying much... but still!