What's Up with Riot?

With TC at the ranch, I've been able to hang out with Rico a lot, which has been so fun! I've taken him on walks and groomed him a lot, as well as doing some of the pillar work with him. I'm trying not to push that on him because 1) he's generally fine physically and 2) I've made it my mission in his retirement to not make him do anything and a lot of the time the only thing he wants to do when I come in to do pillar work is to do his tricks and get treats, so that's what we do. 

Most of my interactions with Riot involve pulling
the pony away from him lol

Sometimes I feel bad for Riot because he's last on my pecking order for attention. I've kind of heard my parents talking about how Riot isn't doing all that well lately, but with how insane work has been, I've been kind of letting them deal with it. From what I gather from having conversations and glancing at him occasionally, he's just been a little foot sore. 

Earlier this week though, my mom asked me to help her by looking at him. He'd been standing very oddly for a while and it was getting worse. They put shoes back on him to try to give him some more support (he goes barefoot for the winter when the ground is soft but he's always needed them back on in the spring and it's tough to figure out the timing for that). But then when he wasn't better, the vet recommended injecting his right hock, which they did. He's also been wormed, been tested for allergies, and had his blood run (all fairly normal and we removed anything he was mildly sensitive to). 

The farrier came out on Wednesday morning and said that he was very uncomfortable getting his trim behind. My mom mentioned that Celeste was coming soon, and the farrier said that bodywork would be great for him. In the mean time, my mom asked me if I could look at him and to please get him on Celeste's calendar. I said sure! 

Riots bizarre mountain goat posture

My evaluation, as someone who is NOT a bodyworker and not even CLOSE to being one is that he's pretty compromised and there's very likely some pain involved. I don't know horses who stand like that for funzies. Typically horses stand like this when they have heel pain, he doesn't respond to hoof testers, but that is still an option. 

I palpated him and it was pretty apparent that his lumbar area was really rough. This top photo honestly doesn't show how bad it was, but there's basically no muscle there and his glute sticks up in an odd manner. It was very tight. His shoulder was also super tight. Surprisingly, his chest is fairly wide and his underneck wasn't as rigid as I expected it to be. 

From there, I used my massager all over his body, focusing on his shoulders and his lumbar area in the same way I did daily for TC when he was early on in his pillar work. Riot definitely thought that was wonderful and wiggled his nose as a thank you. 

Next, I started pillar one and found that he was very willing to do so. I alternated between pillar one and having him do a belly lift and then a butt tuck. We did that for a while until his back didn't look so bad. Then I started pillar two and he started to stand more normally. 

After some pillar work

I decided to do TC's PT exercises to see if Riot would let me. He let me take his left hind across his body and even seemed to relax into it with some licking and chewing. His right hind though? Not so much. Same with the front leg exercises. He let me stretch his right front all the way out comfortably, but didn't like it when I took his left front out. So, clearly something is going on with that diagonal pair of left front to right hind.

My mom came out to ask me how things were going and what I thought. I told her that I thought we should treat for encysted worms and for hind gut ulcers just in case. Both of those can cause major pain in the hind end. 

We are then putting him on a low dose of prevocox to see if we can at least stop the degradation. I'll be working on him whenever I'm down there and Kate is coming out this morning to look at him too (since she *actually* has lots of bodywork experience). 

And he sees Celeste in the next couple of weeks! My dad is going to be there so that he can learn how to do the pillars with Riot and hopefully we can get him feeling good. My dad really would like to ride him and Riot loves to go out and do things. 

In the Hills

The trails are BEAUTIFUL this time of year and so I'm trying to take both horses on the trail at least once a week, if not twice a week, while the weather is still good. As I navigate this job change, it's just so nice to be able to hop on a horse bareback and ride up into private trails where I don't have to worry about anything. 

I love this view

Pony!

So far I've taken TC by himself, TC with Riot (and my good friend who is getting back into riding!), Sunny alone, and Sunny with Riot (and my dad). I would say that Sunny is best alone and TC is best with a friend.  

Sunny was totally fine when he was in front but he struggles to keep up with Riot's big walk so kept trying to trot to catch up and seemed to get a little worried when Riot got too far ahead. So we put him in front and he was a happy camper and Riot was a bit confused as to why he was having to go so slowly behind the pony.  

On his own though, he's so happy out there. He's totally relaxed, walks quietly along the trails, and seems pleasantly interested in looking at things. I'm definitely going to be taking him out on his own every week. 

TC, on the other hand, loved going out with Riot. He thought it was nice of me to bring a fun toy friend out with him and spent the entire time trying to bite him. When will he grow up? Never. And yes, he did finally bite Riot right at the end and TC seemed to be cackling while Riot didn't even flinch, clearly he knew it was coming. 

TC isn't bad on his own, but he definitely wants to stop and smell the roses more, which can be really annoying. He wants to stare at birds and trees and the neighbors' boarding facility and me and everything around us. It's fine but it's also like... please keep going. 

Hanging out with my friend! We used
to work together twelve years ago at
the event barn I worked at, love that
we are still riding together!

Such a good boy out there alone

With work starting soon and the rain staying away, I'm excited to add trail riding in as a regular thing on both horses' calendars. I'm going to theoretically have twice a week where I ride in the morning and then drive up to work, meaning that I need to get both done quickly. I could either only ride one and give the other the day off... or I can ride one in the ring and take the other on the trail. An arena ride with a saddle takes longer than jumping on bareback and going on a trail ride. So that's my tentative plan depending on what my timing is for getting into work each day. 

I'm always so unbelievably grateful to have trails right out the back of the barn. It's made such a huge difference in so many ways. Being able to just go out there and relax has been great for my mental health. Being able to get TC on the hills every week is so important for his stifle. 

Trying Out the BEMER

So L has been using the BEMER on Dante for a while now and we've joked about me sending her my acupuncturist and her sending me her BEMER lady. Well, she won, because her BEMER lady was coming up to the bay area (with another BEMER lady, all the BEMER ladies!) and L put me in contact with her!

We texted back and forth a bit and it was so affordable that I figured I'd do all four horses at the barn. I'm trying to make TC's stay at the ranch as pleasant an experience for my parents as possible and some of that is treating it like a co-op and dedicating time to taking care of the place. But some of that is just spending money doing things for their horses that they wouldn't normally do. Like acupuncture and the BEMER! 

I rode Rico on Saturday and he was
perky!

I've used a BEMER once myself and didn't feel much difference in my body. But I'm lucky in that I don't have any chronic pain or bad joints (yet). I hear a lot of people swear by it though. My mom, ever the skeptic, looked it up and saw that it was a registered medical device, so she gave me permission to try it out on her horses. 

She even came up and grilled the ladies a bit, which is her go-to whenever I bring anything other than traditional vet medicine into the program (she's nice about it don't worry). I dunno, life is short, this isn't going to do any harm so at worst it's an expensive (but enjoyable) conversation while my ponies got attention and at best, it could help them out! 

But after having it put on all the horses, I've decided it has to do SOMETHING given how they all responded, and they all responded differently, which made it enjoyable and at times, hilarious. 

Sunny being sleepy

I told them a little bit about each of the horses and they expressed interest in doing Sunny first, given his history with silicosis. He's doing really well after two acupuncture appointments and the traditional vet medicine that my mom has done for it. But again, can't hurt! 

He immediately fell asleep before the blanket was even fully on. He had a yawn or two and a lick, but he mostly just snoozed in the cross ties enjoying himself. 

Riot was next and I haven't written a ton about him on the blog. Relevant things to know about Riot are that he's highly emotional and very skeptical, his main goal in life is to not upset anyone and to not be murdered by the dangerous world he lives in. He's also lived a very simple life with no boots, no blankets, nothing on him other than a saddle, bridle, halter, and some fly spray. So Riot thought that I'd brought these ladies in to potentially murder him if he did anything wrong and he began to feel all the feelings about it. They were so sweet to him and he eventually relaxed and we got some licking and chewing but I think he's probably still wondering what the actual fuck happened to him on Friday while he was wearing all those clothes. 

He did relax after a while

I had them do Rico next because he was in from the pasture and TC was trying to be the center of attention as always so he was definitely going to be in and easy to catch. 

While Riot was getting done and Rico was getting out, they had me sit on the BEMER so I was stuck and they put Riot back and took Rico out. Rico was kind of sleepy, slow moving and somewhat relaxed in the cross ties. They put the boots on, the blanket on, and focused on his neck as well (I told them he had neck arthritis). We chatted about Rico's history as Rico started to relax and yawn a bunch (which is not his normal MO so that was cool). He seemed like he might just fall asleep like Sunny. 

But then about half way through, Rico slowly got brighter and brighter until we were basically wrestling him to keep him in the cross ties. His ears were perked and he was pawing and poking me with his nose. He looked like he'd shed 10-15 years and was acting like he used to when we'd go to new facilities and people would tell me where the round pen was so I could longe him (I always just jumped on lol). 

It honestly made me so unbelievably happy. In that moment I was thinking "I should buy one of these things just to put it on Rico every day so he can be happy" and I talked myself out of it. Maybe. But that's how joyful he seemed to me. All I want is that horse to be happy every single day.  

So much yawning

TC was next and he was very ready to be the center of attention as always. Like the acupuncture, TC decidedly ignored the BEMER and tried to entertain his new audience to the best of his ability. He pawed incessantly, he smiled at him, he did his shoulder lifting trick. They were a fabulous audience and just loved him. 

Luckily for everyone except me, I had to jump on a meeting with my boss to figure some stuff out, so they got to do TC alone. He's always better when I'm not there so I'm sure he was much better. They seemed very in tune with all the animals (Ruby included, she and the other lady were so cute together hanging out) and apparently TC was very communicative with them. I agreed, although I'm not sure what kind of communication they were talking about. To me, he just seems very interactive, you can always tell what he's thinking or feeling and undersaddle you get a lot of feedback from him. In comparison, Sunny seems like a closed book to me. It was kind of cool to see someone else think the same thing about TC, even if it's not in the same way. 

Look at this skeptical animal, they
had just started, he was confused

I rode TC after his session and he was very different. Now, it was cold and windy, I'd just upped his LMF Gold because he was starting to get lazy, and it was dusk so all the squirrels were running around. So I think regardless of what happened to him in the BEMER session, I was going to have a nutty weirdo on my hands. 

After spooking a lot, he did settle into probably the best trot work we've had in a long time. Was it the BEMER or just the fact that his trot is always better when he's higher tone? Don't know. But like I said, it can't hurt and the horses all seemed to enjoy it in their own special way. 

I rode Rico the next day and he was pretty perky. Again, BEMER or not? No idea. He went out with Riot and he hadn't been out in a while so maybe he was just excited. 

Overall, I think I'd do it again given that it's affordable and can't hurt! I figure it's like the CBD I take for my anxiety. Is the science bulletproof? Nope. Is it going to work for everyone? Nope. Could it be mostly the placebo effect? Absolutely. Am I going to keep taking it because it helps me regardless and can't hurt me? Obviously. 

Riot at the Bombproofing Clinic

A week and a half ago, we had another bombproofing clinic! And this time, I decided to bring my dad's horse, Riot. 

Riot is a nervous nellie and he showed it in the first five minutes I got on him by tip toeing his way into the arena and standing in the middle trembling at everything around him. We brainstormed and this might be his first ever time in a covered arena. He was a trail horse before my dad got him and he's only been ridden at their property and on the trails for the years he's been with my family. 

He would not go near anything in the arena and I could feel his heart pounding as we walked quietly around in the middle avoiding everything. He's a good boy and his go-to move when he's nervous is to stand still and try to blend in with the background, but I was really hoping to get him near... something. 

SKEPTICAL

Noodles

After walking around and observing every obstacle from far away with lots of praise, I did finally get him to walk over the bridge, which I figured would be a good first obstacle because he's walked over bridges on the trail. We did that a bunch and I praised the hell out of him, trying to convince him that if he just held his breath and tried a tiny tiny bit, he'd get rewarded. 

From there, we would try getting closer to an obstacle, then return to the bridge to gain some confidence. Eventually he followed a few horses up to obstacles and would watch them do their thing while he stood and observed. This really helped him relax, and that plus interspersing the bridge, got him a little more curious and less terrified. 

Pulling the cart

He stopped caring after a while

From there, we slowly (over the course of two hours) made our way through almost every obstacle!! I was ridiculously proud of him. He came SO FAR over the course of the day. We kind of did them in a random order, making some progress on one, then going to an easy one, then going back to the original one, then introducing a new one, then going back to an easy one, and so on. 

He slowly gained confidence with each. Going from refusing to go anywhere near the car wash, to slowly following a friend through it several times, to cautiously walking through himself, to then relaxing about it and walking through no problem. 

The monkey in the barrel made him nervous, so at first he stood stock still with his eyes bugging out of his head, and eventually stood with a foot rested while it went up and down. 

Unsure about the monkey

The mattress was very scary and he was rather skeptical. I got him to put a foot on it and he scampered away from it. Someone else worked on it at one point so I let him stop and watch that person for a long time before trying again. Then he was way better at that. 

The tarp went about the same way, he was a little worried and put a foot on it, but then eventually made his way over it! 

The noodle wall REALLY worried him. He did not think he could walk into them. I ended up getting on and off, first making the walls very far apart with one noodle each, then slowly adding noodles and pushing the walls closer together. He ended up going through it with the same kind of relaxation that TC gives me through it! What a good egg. 

Am I doing a good job?? He did not
go in the water though

Walking through the car wash after a while

I was probably most proud of him with the flag, which we did at the end. The instructor carried it around on his horse and I had Riot walk behind him, then slowly we made our way next to him. The instructor carefully transitioned the flag onto my foot and then handed it to me, and soon Riot was carrying the flag without realizing it, because the horse the instructor was on was still close. Eventually the instructor peeled off and Riot realized he was carrying the flag. 

He got a little worried and wanted to freeze and then speed up, but we just kept walking and he slowly started to realize that the flag was not going to attack him. 

By the end, he was letting me do this to him: 

Relaxed and carrying the flag around

Fine with it going over his head

Good boy, Riot

I decided to end on that. I would have loved to get him to do a little more and go through everything again, but going from standing in the middle of the arena LITERALLY trembling with his heart pounding to letting me whirl a flag over him was progress enough. 

I almost wish I were bringing him this weekend, but I do want TC to go to another one for fun. My mom was considering bringing Sunny to the one this weekend but my dad needs to get a COVID test for a routine doctor's appointment and that requires a five day quarantine for them or something like that. 

Hopefully there will be more bombproofing clinics this spring/summer so that my mom can do one on her own and I can bring Riot to another one! I had the best time with him. 

Not a Seahorse, But a High Electron Horse

I've been wanting to take TC to the beach for a long time, mostly just to check a box as something he's done.

There's a beach about an hour's drive away that is pretty low key. Not a lot of trail riding to get to the beach, not a ton of sand before you hit the water, and usually not too many people.

I invited my dad and Riot to have someone there to call the ambulance for company. Riot has been to the beach a few times and although he's rather neurotic, he's safe and stays pretty quiet.

What a good boy

TC has not ridden out with another horse since before his suspensory injury almost four years ago. That's a long time! I've mostly avoided it because in the past TC has 1) gotten very attached to the other horse and 2) been a slow walker, so has always had to trot/canter to catch up and I don't like that now that I'm the one paying the vet bills. And it works for us, I mostly trail ride alone because of my random schedule.

But I figured it was time to start taking him out with other horses and see how he does! I also don't get to spend much time with my dad, so it was nice to hang out with him for the day.

Riot is 15.2 maybe? TC is only a hand bigger but seems way
way way bigger lol 

I loaded TC into the trailer and he hesitated for a moment before getting in, maybe he's not a two-trail-rides-in-one-weekend kind of horse. We then drove over to my parents' house to pick up Riot.

Poor innocent Riot. He's been in my rig before but never with TC. TC has never hauled in my rig with another horse. They both handled this poorly in their own ways.

TC nearly turned around in his space trying to get to Riot as Riot loaded. I had to push TC's nose out of the way several times to keep him from bugging him. Riot stood, shaking, pressed up against the wall that wasn't next to TC as TC aggressively STARED into the depths of Riot's soul and decided that he liked what he saw and that they were BEST FRIENDS FOREVER. He was smashed up against the divider and had his nose in Riot's manger as the doors closed. I tied TC real short so that he couldn't reach over and bother Riot the entire time. TC wasn't pleased with that.

Hi, want to be neurotic best friends forever???

When we unloaded at the beach, Riot was still shaking (he is a nervous guy generally, but I'm sure being dumped in a small space with a very enthusiastic friend was a lot for him) but TC had settled down a bit. Until we unloaded Riot and TC freaked the HELL out. Okay, lesson learned, TC unloads first then.

I smacked TC's butt to get him to stop leaning on the butt bar and then he unloaded, took a deep breath, and relaxed.

I had one of those "this is my dumb horse, there are many like it, but this one is mine" moments. Actually, this entire trip was one of those moments.

This path was great, wish it was longer!

Not having a death wish, I decided to lead TC down to the beach and see what he was going to do before getting on him. I know him well and know all his moves, but the beach is such a weird place. With the sand and the waves, I just didn't want to have him flip out and bolt in that deep of sand. He never bolts in hand so that's helpful.

We walked down to the beach and the look on TC's face was hysterical and I didn't get any media because my phone was in the car. He HATED it at first. When the waves came at him, he lowered himself back and down so far (like a dog) that his belly hit the sand. At one point, he was sniffing a piece of seaweed when a wave surprised him, so he spun away from it and then fell onto the sand. This seemed to get him to realize how soft the sand was, so he took his time finding several spaces to roll.

By the end of our walk, he was fine, but he'd trapped me in the sea once and I was wet and sandy and just wanted to go back to the trailer to empty out my shoes. Note to self: bring another pair of socks, always, actually just put a pile of socks in the trailer.

As close as we got undersaddle

We decided to tack up but walk along the path on the other side of the dunes from the beach. I wish this trail was longer so that the trail alone was worth the drive, then I think I'd go down there more and get TC all dialed in as a beach horse. It's a beautiful trail and TC was amazing on it. He led at first, then let Riot lead and was super polite about it all. He passed bikes and people and dogs and was just so happy.

After we got back, we walked up the dune with the idea that we'd walk out to the ocean and back, but there were a TON more people there and I wasn't sure if it was a good idea to get near people. So we decided to do the little trail again and then go home.

Following Riot like a good boy

At the end of our second walk on the trail, we ran into a man walking a bike. He had a beard and was carrying a plastic bag, he kind of looked like Radagast the Brown. He stopped us. A lot of people had stopped to ask about the horses, so I figured he just wanted to ask something.

Radagast: Do you know anything about nuclear chemistry?
My dad, a chemist: No, I don't (he totally does)
Radagast: Okay so there are forces in this universe, right? Protons! They're very stable, they're positive. This world is very positive, lots of protons. Then there are electrons, those are very unstable, they do not do well in this world.

TC, meanwhile, isn't sure whether the best way to get around Riot is to go around him or to go through him, so has wedged himself up Riot's butt as our wizard friend is talking to us.

Radagast: This horse *gestures to TC* he is very high electron. Very unstable. With the forces in this world *gestures around us* he's likely to explode.

And then he walked away. 

TC would have loved to go play in this water

It was kind of absurd, but he kind of read my horse pretty well and I think it's hilarious. So from now on, I'll be referring to TC and horses like TC as high electron horses.

He's definitely not a seahorse though.

And FYI, Riot was way less nervous hauling back with TC, and TC was better when I unloaded him first at my parents' house before loading him back up to take him home.

WW: Two Trail Rides

This Saturday, I took TC out on the trails! I opted to just take him on the normal loop at our same old trail facility. I want to branch out this summer, and I will, but this was literally my fourth ride back on him since being sick. It was a great ride! TC was super excited at first but then settled and we had a great ride.

The best trail pony

We went the other way around and at first he
was fine about a quarter of the way through

Then Sunday, I took Rico out on the trails! I had immediately told my parents about the trail that Kate had taken me on with Flounder last week, they were interested in getting out there and I was also super into the idea of taking Rico. Rico has gotten really grumpy about being ridden anywhere he's been before, but he hadn't been to that trail facility and I knew he'd love it. And he did!

Happy about the water once he got over his
weirdness about it

He was glad to have the fly mask, even if it
made him look like a donkey

Two trail rides in a row was so nice! And now I won't be back out there for a few weeks, but that's okay. I'm so glad I have these guys. TC is such a solid citizen on the trails and it's so fun to see Rico excited about something other than food or biting Riot for once (he still tried to steal all the grass AND bite Riot quite a lot).

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.

Behind Brown Ears

On Sunday I drove down to the bay after riding TC around bareback to attend one of my favorite little festivals. It was probably not the best thing to do because all I did was walk around feeling VERY aware of the fact that I had just acquired a horse trailer and signed up for another show. I did get a snow cone though, worth it. And I got to give Rico some attention as well.

He's feeling really quite fit for an old guy due to how much he canters around in his pasture and despite moving away (only 2.5 hours), I want to hang out with him this summer as much as I can.

Such a happy pony!

 So, Monday morning, my parents and I loaded him, Sunny, and Riot up in the trailer and headed out on a trail ride. My mom was a bit nervous about Sunny, so I offered to switch with her if things went south.

The trail facility is one we've been to a lot, but they opened a new entrance, so to Rico, it was brand new. He unloaded and immediately was really excited to be in a new place. He hasn't been in a new place since he was hospitalized a year and a half ago!

I hopped on him bareback and we opened the gate for the other two heading out. All Rico wanted to do was charge up the hill, which was hilarious. Around the first bend, he saw a giant rock, which he was terrified of. Then he opened another gate for us, wrestled with me about wanting to trot up the hill (he was not allowed), spooked at another rock, then we started to settle.

Not the most scenic trails, I bet it's beautiful when it's green!

So excited to be at a new place! Oh man can he get on that
underneck...

Unfortunately, Sunny decided to be a bit of an ass and spook at a jogger and it made my mom a little nervous, so I offered to switch with her. I felt bad because she feels more comfortable in a saddle, but I don't have a saddle for Rico so I had just grabbed a bareback pad. Apparently Rico "exudes calm" and even though she was more nervous on Sunny in the saddle, she clambered onto Rico and they both had the best time!

I had a little less fun on Sunny, who went to spin at a bike with me and then had to walk VERY close to all of the other bikes and joggers and people that we saw. He also was very rude about wanting to catch up, shaking his head and trying to take off a bit. We had a discussion and by the end he was much better.

Rico had a lot of fun with my mom, mostly keeping up with Riot and jogging to catch up when he got left behind. He got sweaty, but wasn't completely exhausted by the end, so it was a good loop for him.

Riding the naughty pony

Even though I didn't ride him that much, I was still so happy to get him out and doing stuff. He's 22 this year, which isn't all that old necessarily, but with his neck arthritis and previous illness, I'm really impressed with how well he's doing.

Looking forward to more trail rides with him this summer! Maybe we'll get back to the beach too.

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.