Hopefully It's Me, Part 2

This lesson went over so much that I had to break the post into two parts. Here is the second part! We moved into canter after addressing the walk and the trot.

Smile, TC!

Quality of Canter

Tanya really wants TC to canter a certain way and after seeing the videos, I also want him to canter this way for the rest of his life. She emphasized the shortness in his body and how quickly he responded to my go and whoa aids. She wants me doing a ton of work in school canter, especially going from medium to school canter. He's got an okay medium to collected canter transition in that it happens! Which is saying a lot for a horse who once thought that the moment we were in medium canter, I didn't want a slower canter. But she wants it like, aggressively accurate. Just a couple of strides.

With that work, he gave me this absolutely magical collected canter and I got another lecture about how throwing my reins away is not going to get his back up. Until I have his back up and him sitting down, I have to keep the contact, THEN I can soften my hand forward and let him reach to contact while his mass is back. This is a place that TC loves to get, I can feel him getting really excited when we reach that canter. At one point Tanya said "bump him up again" and I just yelled NO I'M SCARED because the canter is SO powerful and he feels like he's just about to launch me at all times. He isn't, he's just so ON. It's something I need to get comfortable riding. Note taken, Tanya.

Then I left him alone

Canter Half Pass

Once we had the quality of canter we needed, Tanya had us school the haunches-in at the canter and then the half pass. As per usual, because I hadn't practiced too much, TC's right canter half pass was an 8 and his left one wasn't so great. I feel like to the right, I can just sit a certain way and he flies laterally. To the left, he gets really confused still.

We didn't spend too much time drilling it, she just told me to make sure I do my homework this time around. The one major highlight of this section of the lesson though was that she had me straighten after my right half pass and canter straight down centerline. Both her and my barn friend who was watching were shocked. Tanya said it was the straightest centerline at canter that she'd ever seen. We kind of laughed at how far TC had come in his canter, because it was a legit nightmare for so long. That's what happens when you put a canter rider on a trot horse I guess! Now for me to stop fucking up the trot.


Flying Changes

I first have to say this, at the end of my lesson, Tanya gave me a brief lecture about trusting myself and my training and to stop stressing so much about his progress. She said that what I've done with this horse is impressive, not least because I've managed to get quality changes on a friesian cross. I thought that was funny, I have heard they are difficult to get clean changes on!

The changes on the diagonal are super quality. She noted that he was no longer kicking at my leg and I said yes, I've worked my ass off to make sure that was gone. She liked the right left better than the left right, saying that he stays way better through in the former and gets flat and fast in the latter. I think I still just don't trust the left right change.

After doing a few on the short diagonals, Tanya gave me an exercise that I haven't ridden before on a horse this green to the changes, a four loop serpentine with changes over centerline. Four loops on THAT horse in a dressage court is VERY tight. I had to be super organized and the changes naturally disorganize him who naturally disorganizes me. It was such a challenge, but we did get through it without any issues.

I loved it because I'm super eager to get tempis on this horse. That and the passage are the two movements that I really miss riding on Rico. I loved just skipping across the arena on him for funzies, doing them on circles/figures. But TC disorganizes quickly after the change, so it's impossible to ride real tempis on him just yet because I don't have a reliable canter after a change. Rather than potentially ruining the tempis by stressing us both out doing them (we've done them once and they were fine, but it'd be nice to not do them until they're going to be good), we can have the same challenge to our organization with this movement that will never be shown.

This was apparently two years ago today!

Overall

It was such a fabulous lesson and gave me a lot to think about. Like I said, I do want to still address his program to make sure that there's nothing in his way, but I do need to stop comparing him to Rico at Grand Prix. Rico is a purpose bred warmblood who in retirement still has a fabulous topline. TC is not purpose bred and both his parents are very low tone horses. Ideal had some muscle on him, but stallions have testosterone. I don't think his dam has muscle as much as she is just made of jello and cuteness. In addition, TC at Third level, even when I think he's looking like crap condition-wise, STILL looks better than Rico at Third level. So maybe I need to take a chill pill.

But still, to do right by my horse I want to listen to my gut, the chirovet came out yesterday to check him.  I also have my FeedXL subscription this month, so I'll be evaluating his diet and making some changes according to that. And then in early July at least, the saddle fitter will be here, I'm going to try to get someone out before then though. Covering all my bases but it's nice to know that Tanya thinks I'm nuts here.

Speaking of Tanya, watching the videos made me realize how much she and TC just get each other. I have a pixem on order but it'll be a while before it's here because they're out of stock right now. So over the weekend, boyfriend and I began working out how I could start remote lessons earlier. More on that later, but I think we've got it nearly figured out.

Sitting

At home, mostly, but also in the car and on the horse. And encouraging the horse to do so as well.

But TC is not built to sit, he is built to pull a cart. I am the dumb one here deciding to try to make a horse built to pull a cart sit down and carry himself and also me around.

Currently, TC is deep in the collection part of the training scale. We still work on the other rungs through warm up: he needs more energy/tone a lot of days, wants to get quick in the tempo, wants to retract from the connection, and wants to tilt to the right with his withers. But that's all addressed in warm up and then most days, we jump into collection.

The most difficult part for TC is the engagement, defined as the lowering of the haunches via putting more bend in the hocks during the stance phase of the gait. Another difficulty for him, being a lower tone horse, is to keep tone in his thoracic sling, which allows him to pop his withers up. Pulling a cart would not be very efficient if he kept his chest up and back and his hind legs well under his body.

Um this creature is not meant to be able to do this. The magic
of clicker training!

Soloshot decided not to get very much video of my right lead

So the collected exercises are going to be tough for him, namely the pirouettes and the piaffe. And we've started on both of those now in their lower level forms: school canter and half steps.

The school canter has taken and will continue to take a LONG TIME. He is learning to sit down though, and it's made the canter so much more accessible. I can now ride a pretty controlled canter half pass in both directions, not particularly steep, but it's recognizable! Good enough for Third level. And I've been playing with shoulder-in and haunches-in on a circle in the school canter, which has been helping me teach him that he needs to keep his front end mobile and his outside hind leg engaged which is, of course, necessary for the pirouettes.

Sitting him down in his collected canter

Letting him out of it, love his reach here, and how much he is
lifting through his chest, that's not a natural thing for him

The in hand work is stellar. He is such a pro already! His transitions in and out of the half steps have gotten better, he's much straighter, much more relaxed over his topline, and at this point, I don't even use the whip unless it's to touch him lightly on the hip, which he then gets a little surprised by.

OMG I AM SO SORRY, WILL TUCK BUTT MORE - TC

I feel bad for him when I do touch him and he gets like the above picture, even though, with a little work, that's a fucking amazing piaffe right there. He got immediately praised, fed grain, and got a break. That tension doesn't last though, he relaxes right after all of this work every single time. I've learned from several pros that this is absolutely necessary. He needs to be relaxed in this work, despite it taking everything he's got. So we do a lot of praising for relaxation before and after as well.

Generally, I'm so pleased at where he's at right now. I'm excited to be able to develop him the way I want to right now, without the pressure of shows or qualifying for All Breeds. I was hoping to do Second and Third this year, then Fourth next year and PSG in 2022, but as long as I can keep training him and all goes well, we may be shifting his move up date to PSG much sooner. Amazing how much progress happens when you can ignore shows and stop thinking of your horse as "my Second level horse" because he's doing so much more than that right now, I don't really know what level I'd put him at, but not just Second. Definitely food for thought for my plans to develop my next horse...