Conformational Sink Hole

On Friday I had my second lesson with the new remote trainer and my first lesson ever using Pivo Meet! I have been so hesitant to try it out but it ended up working out perfectly, we were on the call for almost two hours actually (we are chatty lol). I'm just glad our lesson was in the morning because it was cooler, that was my only concern with it because my phone will often overheat in the middle of the day. I definitely want to invest in a little Pivo Meet station in the corner of the ring where I can put a little umbrella/fan/misters? or something. 

Anyway, my main goal for this lesson was to get some clarification on TC's posture in his work. For our last lesson, we used zoom and I guess the video wasn't so smooth. This time I was hoping the video would be smooth so that she could see his posture change throughout the ride. She only said the video got cloudy once! So that was great. 

Why is my horse so cute about cows?
My theory is that he lived next to them
as a baby horse so he watches them the
same way I'd watch 90s cartoons lol
bovine nostalgia??

This lesson was so good for me mentally. It really called me out on a lot of my own mental hang ups about the sport of dressage, which I will go over eventually, and it also just put into perspective who TC is and how much I am allowed to expect out of him and out of myself as we move up the levels. 

We began with me basically just dumping onto her how frustrating everything has been. Then I picked up the trot and she was super happy with what she saw. I had put my soloshot in the corner (the only downside of Pivo Meet is that you can't record lessons!) so I watched the first few circles of trot and like... he's not as good as he's ever been but it was perfectly acceptable, especially given that Thursday's ride was kind of a disaster. Kate watched the video from Thursday and thought he might be a little sore so hopefully he felt better. He's been galloping around every morning with Rico so maybe he pulled a muscle. Both are seeing the acupuncturist this week, TC because he's in work and Rico because TC's implemented a fitness program for him apparently. 

This day wasn't bad (this is from a different day)

I told her that I felt like I only had a feel of his mouth, not of his entire topline, in my hand. Like if you were to chop his neck out of him and it was just his head floating in space, I'd have no change to what I was feeling. She wanted me to play around a bit with movements and bending exercises to see if there was any way to get that to change. I don't know how much that changed in the lesson, but I will be experimenting with it in the future for sure. I want to figure that out because then I'll just clicker train him giving me more feel. 

I then complained that he was kind of ruining my feel because of shit like this. Like I shouldn't have to clicker train the horse to let me in, I'm a nice rider, he screams at me every day, we are a good team. But I can't trust what I feel anymore because sometimes he feels fucking amazing and then I see the video and I'm like "whoa... seriously? yikes..." and other times he feels... fine.. nothing special, and I see the video and I'm wishing he could look like that all the time. She said no, TC is not ruining my feel, it might feel like that right now but she firmly believes that TC is going to help my feel. After him, there won't be a single horse I struggle on (honestly I'm feeling that already, every other horse has felt pretty straightforward recently). 

She told me something that made me so hopeful, she said "he is going to turn you into the ride you have always wanted to be." She is so unbelievably positive, it's exactly what I need right now. 

Speaking of amazing things she said during that lesson, she told me that TC was a conformational sink hole and I should never blame myself for his postural issues. We will go days, weeks, months, years with no issues and then he'll randomly just struggle with it. If you build even the best foundation on a sink hole, you'll eventually have foundation problems. She said that I'll be nearly constantly going around patching things up in the foundation and then probably also having to restart at times, like we've done this time around. She said that I'll sign up for shows and then his foundation will crumble and I'll scratch. Other times I'll sign up for shows and the foundation will hold and we'll go out and do well. I can't put my self worth on how good TC's foundation is at any given time, just like I wouldn't place my self worth as an architect on how well a building survived being built over a sink hole. 

His neck is staying long rather easily right now but
I am also not asking for too much

From there, she liked how he was doing and so wanted to play with the lateral work. She says the posture should get better as he shifts his weight back so we need to start playing with that. But she says that he will always be the kind of horse who gets short in his neck and drops out from under me. So the plan is to do some lateral work and then stretch and then do some lateral work and then stretch. 

We did some of that and then we got onto the topic of "trick training" the movements. She says that she firmly believes this is what the top trainers do. She read a book about Anky's training methods and, rolkur aside, she read that the trainers would tell people to pull on the inside rein to ride a volte. She was like "no trainer in their right mind would say that, but what I think is that they've simplified the aids a TON for these upper level horses and riders, basically they've trick trained the Grand Prix." 

And that brought me to tell her about my trainer who got me to the Grand Prix who chased me around with a whip and then asked me why I don't have my Gold yet, who told me that "pirouettes are easy, Megan, you just canter, collect the canter, and turn." I've always laughed about that because pirouettes are NOT easy and that is NOT all you do, and chasing Rico around with a whip was NOT going to solve all our problems... but I think the simplification of the upper levels is really helpful for a lot of people. And horses, honestly. It definitely paid off for me in the end with Rico. 

Then we talked about the Grand Prix zig zag, a movement that she says she just can't figure out and I said "that was my easiest movement!" and I told her it was because I didn't use my legs or my seat in the movement, I just steered with my reins. I taught Rico to change leads in a half pass and go the other way if I swapped the bend. She thought that was hilarious (especially because it drove my trainer at the time NUTS "don't let him change when you straighten him!" but why not?) Trick training. My easiest movement and the one I walked out of the ring confident I'd earned an eight... I trick trained that movement. Interesting. 

Trick train your animals - USDF Gold Medalist

So we looked back to TC. Is there a way to trick train TC to do dressage? Absolutely. How about simplify the aids for the movements so much that I have all my aids available to help him in his basics? Do it. So we played with the shoulder-in to half pass. Can I sit to the outside in the shoulder-in and then train him to half pass by shifting my weight to the inside. Sit inside = half pass, sit outside = shoulder-in. That's it. That's the aid. It's not about my legs or my seat bones or my reins or figuring out which lateral work gods to pray to at each given moment. It's just a weight shift. 

That would mean that all my other aids will be used to keep him connected, to ride his neck longer, to keep his back up to keep him collected, you know. Sit inside = half pass; sit outside = shoulder in; sit middle = go straight; everything else = connection, throughness, smiling at the judge so they know that I'm good at dressage and don't hate it, collection, impulsion, contemplating what to cook for dinner. 

It will obviously take time, but one of the ways I can start doing it now is just repetition at the walk. Teach him the weight aids. 

This brings me back to this post about the baseline gaits and how I preached about simplifying the basics so much so you can just focus on the movements. Well, I guess in this stage of our time together (why? No idea still), TC is teaching me how to do it the opposite way. I will have baseline movements and then use my aids to help him through the basics. Could you teach a horse, maybe a horse who is better built for the sport, to simplify both the basics and the movements? Is that what our top riders do? Is that the secret to getting an 80% at the Grand Prix?

Sorry for all the walk work we are about to do, buddy

The other big thing we did was a TON of stretching work. She wants him to become a "stretching monster" like nearly constantly asking me if he can stretch. The whole time during a test she wants him being like "can I stretch?" and me saying "not yet just hold on for a moment" throughout. 

In order to do that, we need to stretch him down a TON so that he knows it's a thing that is likely to happen nearly constantly. Every movement is followed by a stretchy circle. This exercise led us to talk about how hilarious it would be to throw in stretchy trot in upper level freestyles. We talked about what a stretch circle being required at the upper levels would mean for riders and it was fun to think about. I also had this moment of imagining my warm up for TC's future PSG debut. One of my students just earned her USDF Silver medal, I warmed her up and everyone (including her) was going around doing fancy movements. But there I'd be doing a huge amount of stretchy trot and then heading into the ring like "I'll pick him up later" lol, I love that. 

Anyway, once he's so used to stretching that he becomes demanding about it, that's when I know I've got it right. The plan is to basically ride through the movements preserving the connection as best as possible but KNOWING that he will retract slowly over time due to his conformational sink hole and that is NOT my fault. Then on the short sides, let him out a few inches to stretch before starting the next movement.

Such a cute pony

I love this plan and am excited to get started. I definitely want to take weekly lessons with her for a while. I'm going to start clicker training movements based on weight shifting (she literally said she taught her horse to do extended trot based on how she was breathing, this is exactly the kind of outside the box thinking I need in my life) and various other oversimplified cues. And turn him into a stretching monster. And we just start chipping away at everything we stopped working on last year. 

Because he's still not showing the ideal posture just yet, I'm also going to chase down any physical reasons for why he might not be able to give me that. I feel like it was better in June and July than it is now. Is it actually that he hates this saddle? Maybe. Is it that he hasn't seen his acupuncturist in a while? Also maybe. Is it that he hasn't seen his PT in a while? Yes, maybe. Or maybe he's been in a low grade amount of pain for a while? Well, we'll know later because he's going on prevocox this week to see if he improves. 

Or maybe there is no ideal posture and my mental game is super off. That's a definite possibility! 

Offensive Furniture

Knowing that the rain was coming on Sunday, I opted to give TC a turnout on Saturday instead of riding. He had SO much fun galloping around and harassing the pasture horses next door.

Making friends! Look at that neck, sometimes he looks like a
real horse

Sunday morning it was sprinkling so I zipped out to the barn to get a ride in before the rains really started. I broke out the water proof quarter sheet, which TC has worn once on my saddle. I thought it was an intelligent idea to put on his tack without his longeing stuff, then to put the quarter sheet on his butt, then to jump on as if he was Rico. Things went well until the sheet was falling backward so I pulled it up. It felt like something jumped up his butt. So I flapped it around (while on him because why get off to despook your baby horse? It was sprinkling after all, the ground was wet and my boots aren't waterproof) and we went on our way. 

I decided to go out on the trails to warm up, mostly because I wasn't sure how much rain we'd be getting and whether we'd be able to get back out there before the next storm. To get to the trails, we have to go through two gates. At the first gate, I slammed my finger in it. It was my dumb mistake, not TC's, although TC isn't the best horse to open additional gates with when one finger is bleeding profusely all over your saddle, jacket, and quartersheet. But we managed through the second gate, and I rode him one handed until the bleeding stopped, which basically took our entire trail ride.

Derpy pony

Once I managed to get back in from the trails without destroying any other fingers, we headed into the indoor arena.

TC started out really excellent. Nicely relaxed and really into the contact. I worked on adjustability at the trot, getting him to move forward and back off my leg and seat. We also threw in some spiraling in and out and leg yields to work on the lateral suppleness. There's not much to say about his trot, it's just awesome when he is relaxed.

He did get a little heavy at one point, but when I released, he actually stretched way down in an almost legitimate stretch circle. I bet after the lengthenings on Friday, turnout Saturday, and trotting up the hill before our ride, he was ready to stretch out that back a bit. Good pony!

We played a bit in the canter, which actually prompted someone to tell me that he looked good! Yay for not having people run away from us when we canter anymore. Although it's getting to the point where I have just enough control to LOOK like I'm in control but not actually BE in control where then people blame me when he almost runs them over. Okay no one has deliberately blamed me but I can feel their judgmental gaze. I feel like I'm not always constantly having to apologize for us though, so we'll call that progress.

He wants to go on those trails but the one on the
left is really steep and the one on the right makes
me feel like I'm going to fall to my death

But really the canter, which is always going to be an uphill battle with this horse, is getting better. I usually avoid one side of the arena because the footing is so hard, and on Sunday I felt fully capable of avoiding it at the canter. He also stays on the bit, it may be a bit on the muscle and short in the neck, but his trot used to be like that too. He's also learning how to canter a bit slower, which is nice because the covered ring is small and we basically go three steps down the long side and have to turn.

After cantering, we wandered around at the walk before I picked him up again. It was about twenty-five minutes in and he had decided that he was going to be wild. What is wild in terms of tired TC? Spooking at a chair that has always been just outside the arena on a platform.

Now, let me clarify. This chair has ALWAYS been there as far as TC knows. It was there when he moved in, it was there when we started our ride that day, it was there when we ended our ride, it remains there today. Not once has it moved or done anything other than literally just be a chair. After twenty-five minutes of riding by this chair, leg yielding toward this chair, walking down the long side and looking at this chair... suddenly the chair was VERY OFFENSIVE.

Looking down on the barn

He would mostly just shy away from it and zip off, or dart sideways (not into anyone, phew) away from it. TC doesn't spook at things very often, and not usually without reason. This was one of the first times where he spooked at something without any reason, something he'd seen many times before, just because he COULD.

So we did a lot of work on that circle near the chair until the chair became less exciting. And then we ended with some lengthenings because I can't just not. They are so fun to ride. Which I know means I shouldn't work on them and should work on trot canter transitions and lateral work instead. But they're fun and riding should be fun.


He got yesterday off and today I'll be heading to the barn after work to ride in the dark. Hopefully he continues with his awesome attitude and work ethic from this weekend! But I know better than to think that this upswing is permanent, it's nice to get a few good rides in a row though.

Must Come Down

I woke up to my kitty who had gotten into EVERYTHING last night (she is cute but she has moved right in and is clearly redecorating) so I ran out of the house before finishing this blog post. My commute doubles in length if I leave after 7am so when it gets to be 6:50, I just drop everything I'm doing and hit the road. My work computer hates blogger, specifically hates letting me put pictures in posts, so here is a post with no pictures, sorry for the lack of visual entertainment! My writing will have to suffice for now.


Sunday morning I woke up to an awesome kitty and clocks that were all mismatched. Goodbye daylight after work! Really hoping TC adjusts well enough to that (Tuesday edit: it's not looking good!).

I opted to run errands and relax in the morning, not having taken a full weekend off since I got this job. I was also giving TC both Monday and Tuesday off (he got turned out in the dark and the rain yesterday, yuck) so I wanted to ride him as late as I could so that he had less hours between this ride and my Wednesday ride.


I finally got out to the barn around 3. TC was great to tack up as usual. I feel silly saying that at this point, he's always really good. A couple of people were around and asked about him. It's always the same conversations, but I don't mind. He's really big. Yes he is. How old is he? He's four. Wow is he still growing? I fucking hope not. He's so cute. Thanks! What breed is he? He's a registered FSH. He looks spanish/andalusian/friesian/warmblood/fucking enormous. Yep!

I put all of TC's longeing contraptions on him, wondering why I was even doing that because he's been so good recently. I hopped on and as we walked to the arena, TC was shying from everything and it started getting windy. Yep, that's why I put all of our longeing stuff on, because sometimes we REALLY need it.

And Sunday was one of those days.

I chose to ride outside since there were a bunch of girls out there. TC started out okay, a little amped because the pasture horses were walking quietly. How offensive. Then the girls left the arena to go to the covered arena down below. Great. Fucking no.


TC held it together as best he could and I made him trot another circle before giving up and longeing. No point in opening another massive can of worms. I really wish that he handled things like this better, since this is not really conducive to showing. But this is my horse and I have to do what is best for his training. Because I can ride through it, but all it does is freak him out more and get him all in a tither, while getting off and longeing seems to settle him down more.

After a nice long longe, where he got to work on 15 meter canter circles because why the fuck not if we're stuck on the longe line for 25 minutes. May as well inch ever closer to First level despite only functioning with part of a brain at times.

I got on and he was pretty good to ride after his brain was reset with the longeing. We worked primarily on the stretch circle, and did a little leg yield too. He was tired and sweaty so we ended without too much more.


The stretch circle really got me thinking about next year's show season. And I started sounding like a snob so brace yourself. Basically I want to make sure that I'm not just showing for the sake of showing. I actually don't like showing that much. Given the chance to ride in a clinic with someone awesome vs showing and getting a mediocre score at a low level... I'll take the clinic. I love dressage so much more than I love showing, but when I do show, I like to do well.

So I mean I do want to show, but I was thinking about this coming year on my drive home. What score would I have to feel like I was guaranteed in order for me to think that the show was a success? As in, what score would have me coming off of the ride thinking that the money was worth it and that I was glad I went vs skipping the show in favor of a clinic with one of the absolutely amazing dressage trainers in the area? 65% is the answer to that. I would want to basically guarantee myself a 65%.

So what does that mean? Well, our canter work is going to score one point below our trot work, and our walk work will be hit or miss. All those scores will depend on his level of tension. Regardless of what he does, my rider score should be up there, maybe a 6.5-8. His gaits will be a 6.5 or 7 even if he's tense unless the judge is feeling mean. His impulsion and submission will probably reflect our canter score. Our stretch circle at its best (like what we had at our old barn) will be a 6 but at its worst will be a 4. Same with our free walk. He simply does not have those anymore.


After mathing a little bit, I need to get a pretty solid 6.5 on the canter work and 7s and 8s on our trot work to get a 65%. We are not there even if he's perfectly relaxed. Like his canter is just a 5.5 right now when he's being good, he's tense and off the bit a lot of the time OR he's just unsteerable. His trot is okay now but it's nothing to write home about, probably a solid 7 if he's relaxed. But man, looking at these scores, if he's tense, we're looking at a score in the 50s. He's going to be tense. He just doesn't understand his life just yet.

So if we lose about ten percentage points due to tension, which I think is a reasonable thing to think- one full point per movement when he's tense, I need to feel like every single day at home, where he is theoretically comfortable, that we put in a solid 75% test at any level we show at. I mean like...  HAHAHAHA.


We're not showing for a while. I'm thinking that a nice June or July debut when it's super hot out would be good. I mean give me the 100+ degree weather. I will happily sweat to death in my wool coat (I paid money for it and I'm going to wear it, damn it) and hope that my horse will be feeling the same way.

I have some plans this winter to get him to different barns for clinics, as I basically get to throw half my 2016 show budget at them now. I think the more times he goes to a new facility, gets a longe, has to work, and then gets to go home, the more he'll get into that routine without basically just making me feel like shit as I put 55% after 55% onto my record. I'm kind of a snob like that. Schooling shows may be a possibility, but again I've always taken some issue with some of the L graduates in the area, it'd have to be the right person and the right facility and the right date for me to want to go.

I'm also planning a couple of sleepaway camps for TC this winter. I'll be visiting my parents for both holidays and he's going to be shoved at random boarding stables in the area and then trailered fucking everywhere because I'll have easy access to a rig again.

By 2017, this horse is going to be a bomb ass show horse. Just when we get to the interesting levels!

Whispering

So I thought I had my start date all set up, but apparently I did not (it was written all over my application)! So when the hiring manager asked when I could start, I said I COULD start on the 24th but that housing was being a bitch (not my exact words) and that it'd be ideal to start the 1st. He said yes. PHEW. So I get an extra week and a Monday to figure out where I'm going to live. I think I found a PERSON to live with, now to find a PLACE to live, which is arguably more important, no offense to my awesome future roommate.

This also gives me more time with my thesis. Which hasn't made much progress because my cortisol levels are so high that they are making it difficult to read. I had a glass of wine and watched a chick flick last night so that I could get this post proofread! But too much wine and too stupid of a movie to make any progress on my thesis, oh well.

AND most importantly, more time with my pony being normal before he goes crazy when he's told that he has to live in a new place and in a stall/paddock and by himself. I think new trainer is going to hate us for a few weeks.

Whinnying because he forgot how stalls work
and that food was outside while he was inside

Speaking of the best baby horse, our ride yesterday was amazing. He got trimmed in the morning by his current farrier. We spoke a little about putting shoes on him. Apparently his foot is so big that the farrier said they may not make aluminum shoes big enough for him. He said that some farriers can make them, but it's tricky. I have six weeks to find a farrier though, so I'll be calling a LOT of farriers asking them LOTS of questions. I'm going to measure his feet today or tomorrow and figure out how big they really are so I can tell future farrier and see what their reaction is. Ugh, complicated animal.

So I tacked him up (he stands still to bridle and ground ties to be fly sprayed now!) and we got out to the arena. He was in a really good mood. I think he was just so happy to be home and back in a normal routine after his crazy day on Tuesday.

So happy for food

We started with a lot of walking, I need to get in the habit of a long warm up if he's going to be in a stall vs a pasture soon. We did leg yields, free walk, and small circles. He's so fun on the small circles, he's going to have a ridiculously great walk pirouette on him one day because he's just so damn maneuverable when he wants to be.

The leg yields were good, I just need to make sure that I ask with as light of an aid as possible. It's funny, he'll leg yield off a normal leg aid with a little spur, so then I ask without the spur and he goes over too... and then I just shift my weight and he's moving over. So why use the spur at all? Old habits die hard, Rico always needed a little spur for lateral work to be cadenced enough (he'd do it with just a shift of weight but it was slow). Light and responsive is my new (well, continuing) motto- I need to whisper my aid, not say, yell, or shout it.

Those ears are just ridiculous

The trot was excellent, the more he walks on the bit, the better the trot is. We did spiraling in and out in both directions. The left was absolutely perfect, he spiraled in and increased the bend easily through his whole body, then leg yielded out and was much more supple on the larger circle.

The right was not great, but it wasn't the worst. First, there was another rider that got in our way a bit so that really affected my ability to go where I wanted. But really, he's just not maneuverable that way. He's stopped leaning on the left side as much (thanks Barbi!) but he still darts around a little. Not particularly noticeable if I want to go on a normal sized circle, but the second I went to change the size (as in spiral in or out) he'd take it way way too far. Again I need to be careful to use light aids, because he responds nearly equally to both. In the case of the spiral in, lighter aids made for a more refined shape of circle. I need to whisper the spiral aid, just hint that I want it, because he'll dart inside and I need to not play ping pong with his body.

Pure bliss

The canter was pretty good, I feel it plateuing again, probably due to lack of muscle right now, which will be remedied soon when he's in a stall and gets hill work 2x per week instead of 2x per month. He's round for about half of the canter though, and the other half he's on the muscle. I need to buckle down and fix it, but with how stressful things are for me, and how stressful things are going to be for him, I'm giving it a month before we really buckle down at the canter again.

He is improving in the transitions though, both up and down. He easily picks up the canter both ways with just a light leg aid. The downwards I'm really proud of. Despite not being totally round and on the bit at the canter itself, he is always round coming into the trot and stays with me easily.

Oh and he totally gave me a stretch circle in both directions at the trot in the end!

I was super pleased with myself in this ride too, I worked really hard to keep my hands incredibly soft all the time. It's funny because I feel like the more I post about his rigidity and my struggles with it, the more I feel like it seems as though I'm this rider with incredibly hard hands who is just totally braced on this poor horse all the time. In reality, I'm a pretty soft rider with an incredibly soft horse who goes from being super soft and light to rigid in a matter of milliseconds and my first instinct is to match the rigidity (as I think most people's instincts would be) rather than stay soft. It is definitely improving though, and I'm glad that he's making me a better rider!

Dusk at the ranch

Back at the barn, Ali had the vacuum out! I didn't realize we had one, so obviously we tormented TC with it. He's never seen it and after a couple of cautious snorts, he was ALL about it. He was leaning into it and really enjoying it. He even let me do his ears and his forehead! Then he played with it and got his lip stuck in the vacuum, which he thought was a hilarious game.

I went through all of my barn stuff last night too. I have my trunk totally packed with all of Rico's old stuff. I also have a first aid kit now, and grabbed a bunch of weird stuff that my mom had left over from when she was the perfect pony club mom and got prizes for our annual PC show- stuff like Cowboy Magic Green Spot Remover, which she doesn't use but I was going to try spraying in his brown tail to see if we can get any of the stains out. It's all ready for moving, whenever that will be.

Today we are hitting the trails and then Friday I'm driving up to look at apartments all day while TC gets his teeth done! I also have tentative plans to do an awesome last (or second-to-last) trail ride with Rico on the beach this weekend if all goes well. Damn I miss riding that horse.

On My Seat

Finally the crazy weekend was over and I had most of today off. I was 3 hours northeast on Friday, 1 hour northwest on Saturday, and 1 hour south on Sunday. My 45 minute commute today doesn't seem so bad, and I have to say that I love my Prius.

My student did excellent at the show, got a score for her bronze and all changes were clean. One more score to go!

I got really excellent news at the show as well. I ran into Heidi (my most current trainer, the wonderful trainer who got me my Gold on Rico) and we chatted about TC. She hasn't seen him yet but she sounded interested enough in him. I know that she goes to the area where I'll be keeping TC when/if I buy him and I asked her if she'd be willing to come over to my future barn to teach me on him every now and then. She said yes! Guys, I have a trainer! I probably wouldn't take weekly lessons, at least not now, but I'm really excited to not have to borrow a trailer to go see a trainer if I end up having any behavior problems or if I get stuck.

Behavior problems? Never!

After the show on Saturday, I'm feeling a lot more confident about TC's ability to stay with me in scary places. The horse park is a really scary place, the arena we were in was really scary, and he was actually really good.

I'm also feeling confident with his ability to do Intro B. Not so much that I want to abandon the test, but enough where I think at our next show, which is later this month, we may do Intro B AND Training 1. Because fuck Intro C for several reasons. First, fuck Intro level in general, he goes on the bit and hasn't jumped out of a court in two weeks so obviously we're ready for Training right?

Second, fuck cantering just part of one circle. It may take me a few tries to get a canter in the first place, I do not need for him to think that we trot immediately after that. Yes circles are great for control, but unfortunately TC gives me no more control on a circle than he does off. These are obviously the best reasons to move up so off we go.

I'm glad they dropped the stretch circle out of that test, because if that was still there, we would be doing Intro C.

Fish!

This morning I headed out early, trying to beat the heat, but was unsuccessful. It was 90 degrees by the time I got off of him. TC doesn't do so well in the heat and I'm sure he was still worn out from our adventure at the horse park so we kept our ride short and fun.

I wanted to start introducing more transitions into his life, because I'm continuously reading things that Charlotte Dujardin and Carl Hester have said and the emphasis on transitions has really stuck with me.

Unfortunately transitions between the gaits were NOT going to happen today. He was wiggly and hopping from walk to trot and kind of ran into the canter going left, which is odd because he never does that. So I abandoned that exercise quickly.

He DID want to show me his stretch circle, so we worked on that for a bit. To the right, we almost have a legitimate one. Like a solid 6, or 5.5 with a judge who wouldn't notice that his back legs fly out behind him and that he's more on the forehand than stretching. But what we ARE getting, that we didn't get before, is stretching forward (so no curling) and downward (so not just friesianing along). He'll eventually get those back legs under him!

The left side is hard only because he doesn't bend and instead falls over his left shoulder. I'm working really hard to get my left side back so that he has no excuse and he's so much on my seat these days (more about that later) that I can really influence him laterally by doing that. So now it's my fault if he dumps on the left shoulder, damnit. Once as he was better balanced, he did offer me a bit of a stretch, but it's still quite non-existent.

Someone wants to jump all the things. Nothing in this picture is
below Training so um sorry baby horse

His trot was loosening up really nicely after all the stretch work that I decided, well, if we can't do transitions between the gaits, let's do transitions within!

So we worked on lengthening down the long sides and shortening in the corners and short sides. I don't typically do this exercise, since I like teaching them to lengthen on diagonals or circles, but TC always offers lengthenings down long sides so I went with it.

He's so incredibly in tune to my seat these days.

He now has a really amazing half halt from my seat and thigh alone, and as I mentioned above, I can really influence his lateral balance by shifting my weight. He's going to be so freaking fun to ride later on, I can't wait.

These lengthenings were amazing. Not only does he have a natural ability to stay consistent in his tempo and relaxed in his back while lengthening, he already has incredible transitions due to the influence of my seat. He thought it was so fun to go blasting out of the corner and all I had to do was stifle my posting for a step and he was IMMEDIATELY back under me for the corners. He stayed completely steady into the bridle, even in the transitions where horses usually get a bit tense. Can't wait for that 4-1 test!

*4-1 has a movement that asks for medium trot on the diagonal with 5-8 (or whatever number) of steps across centerline of collected trot. That movement was made for this horse!

But you probably wouldn't be able to see all that much difference just watching because I refuse to push him past that amazing tempo. But as he gets stronger, he's going to be incredible. Knowing that I will, at some point, need to sit that beast of a medium makes me feel kind of nauseous though.

Yes, elastic contact is there!! Just not at shows yet...
These are some nice friggin collected marks, eh?
Damn that submission score, well deserved though, as was
the geometry score for our lopsided circle to the right!

The rest of today was spent inside avoiding the heat and then teaching in the evening. I love the summer and all, but this makes me want to start a new job ASAP because air conditioned offices sound amazing.

New Saddle Pad, New Movements

Yesterday I headed out in the morning to go play disc golf on the coast. Unfortunately I had pulled a muscle in my hip on Tuesday last week and it was still killing me. And SIL (who I was playing with) was sick, so we played eight holes and called it a day.

Obviously stopping by the tack shop on my way home was a MUST. I love browsing in tack shops but I'm in between horses right now so I don't usually buy anything. Until the check is written for TC, I'm not going to buy him anything (he'll need a halter and I'll need whatever supplies I don't have left over from Rico) and Rico is just hanging out and doesn't need new things either.

BUT I did realize that I wanted a few more fun saddle pads. I have two non-black/white ones, one is my striped cream colored one and one is the black and yellow daisy pad (seen in the pictures I posted last week).

I found a really cute navy blue with baby blue/cream piping that I just loved so I picked it up. If I buy TC, his color is probably going to be blue, just because it looks nice on him. If I don't buy him, blue is a pretty generic color and I'm sure that whatever horse I do buy will look fine in it. But the damn horse better pass his vet check! He needs more blue things that I refuse to buy for him right now.

He looks good in blue

Once I was back from the tack store, I tormented Rico with standing in the cross ties drying off (the worst thing ever) from a bath (the second worst thing ever) while I cleaned all my tack. I then walked down the road and back on Rico with my dad on Riot. Rico showed off his piaffe and passage skills in the dirt along the road. His passage isn't powerful anymore but his piaffe is still amazing! He was totally even and on the spot, very elevated. Ahhh I love that feeling.

So after a fun time schooling impressive movements on my Grand Prix horse, I went to ride a horse who struggles with equally as impressive movements like being straight and not falling over at the canter.

He's a pretty impressive looking horse, you
have to admit

But TC proved to be surprisingly fun today (not that he isn't fun every day but today was especially fun).

We couldn't go to the neighbor's because they were having some big western event over there so I did my first full ride in the home arena in over a week. If you remember, I used to LOVE our home arena and dread riding in all other arenas due to TC's erratic behavior anywhere but this one sandbox. But over the course of the last week, he's been amazing at the neighbor's and I really appreciate the added energy he has over there.

Today wasn't so bad though. I feel like I finally have my horse back from the clinic. It wasn't that the clinic wasn't helpful, but he lost a lot of confidence due to the whole fiasco. He's been kind of reluctant to be steady in the bridle and forward off my leg, but today I felt like I had my horse with the magical connection and excellent go button back. I love this horse in the bridle, if he doesn't pass the vet check, I'm stealing his connection and installing it in the next one.

This one wasn't always great in the connection, I feel spoiled now

So we legitimately got to work on fun things rather than connection and forward and straight.

I started out with some general circles, working on straightness and getting him forward, but TC immediately wanted to canter on the left lead (we were going left so I went with it). But he didn't want to canter like a normal horse, he wanted to canter like he was jumping bounces all the way down the longside. I appreciate the effort, but I kicked him forward and he actually gave me some excellent balance. One thing I really do appreciate is that he didn't buck at all, he really embraced the no bucking rule, which is good because I don't think I can throw him off balance to stop the bucking like I used to! He's too strong now.

Back to trot, we worked a little on leg yields but there was another rider in the arena which made it difficult to find a good line where I wasn't always in her way. However, the leg yields are definitely coming along, even if they are a bit crooked and he has to really REALLY think about them.

Love the neighbor cows

This one was being so cute!

My main goal today was to start buckling down on a stretch circle at home. I think I'll work on that every day during warm up before we head to the neighbor's (where it will be difficult to get him to stretch) so that he starts using the base of his neck a little more and becomes more comfortable down there.

We had some really good success, I worked on connecting him to the outside rein, then overbending a bit and softening both reins while asking him to be slightly straighter. He definitely understood where to go, but he kept charging off, getting on the forehand, and then not wanting to stretch down. But who could blame him? If he's already charging downhill, the last thing he wants to do is put his neck down, he'd probably sumersault. So this was a good time to remind him of the slow trot from the clinic and it worked!

We did some transitions from stretchy trot to stretchy walk and... back? Kind of. He doesn't really understand walk-trot transitions yet, at least not quick ones. He comes into walk and goes phew now a break so when I ask him to trot again, he gets really wiggly and throws himself into trot. So he learned all about quick walk-trot transitions today and by the end he was really embracing it.

To end, I let him drill the roundness at the canter. He was pretty enthused about it actually. He was quite a bit rounder today than he's been in the past and there were moments where I actually felt like I was on a poorly schooled Training level horse rather than a baby. Progress!

Such a good baby!

And tomorrow... procrastination procrast- procr- thesis!

Into the Outside Rein

TC had five days off because of the dressage show and my general need to finish my grading, my work for two different jobs, and my final paper for my final class. But I did manage to get out to the barn this morning to get him out (because if I hadn't, he would have had a week off and yikes).

He probably would have been happier to see me if I didn't ride him at 9am when he was still eating, but he was still happy to see me and happy that I took his food with him so he could eat while we tacked up.

And then he got to eat after, score!

All the way into the barn, he snorted. You know that snort that they do when something horrible is happening to them, it's not your normal blowing, it's like they're thinking holy shit I might die because look at that thing over there, it's just not right! There's a little more sound to it, not just air blowing out of their nose. Yeah he did that the whole way into the barn, the whole time he was being tacked up, and all the way into the arena, during his longe, and only stopped when I got on him.

So yes I was smart enough to longe the four year old I hadn't ridden in almost a week before I got on him. I am sometimes intelligent around this horse, it's rare though.

Lots of pawing, always with the pawing

I had to drag him into the arena because everything was different after turning into a feral horse and he couldn't stop looking at everything around him to actually walk. I threw him on the longe line and expected him to explode. He just walked. I asked him to trot. He did so quietly. I asked for canter and got a head shake. Then we switched directions. THEN he actually exploded, and by exploded I mean that he scooted a couple steps, stuck his head down and porpoised, then quietly trotted away. So yeah I just climbed up on top of him.

For the first five minutes, he was a complete moron. He didn't do anything wrong, but he sure didn't do anything right. He basically tore around the arena at the trot, evidently forgetting all of his education- no bend, no balance, and for sure NOT on the bit.

A couple of stern half halts later and I had my dreamy horse back. He was a bit more INTO the contact today than he normally is, but I actually liked that. His bit is so light right now (thick double jointed bit, think kk ultra but 2x as thick) that if he does end up being a little heavy, I can always throw him in a french link or something a bit more severe (hah) to get him to lighten up. I'm more concerned about him NOT pushing into the bridle because he needs to learn to lift his shoulders.

He's a cute one

By the time I had my horse back, he had already been longed for 10 minutes and ridden for 5. I'm trying to keep my rides under 30 minutes based on my recent reading. I think more rides at 30 minutes or less is better than 3 big long 40+  minute rides each week. So I quickly cantered him.

The canter felt amazing today. He was powerful and forward but much better balanced than the last time I rode him. He went immediately on the bit in both directions, though he's still learning to bound up into contact rather than kind of brace in the part of his neck right in front of the whither and careen around. He struggled once with picking up the right lead, which is good enough. We have so long before cantering in tests that I don't think it will be an issue. I try not to make it a big deal.

Back to trot, I worked on some figure eights. Today these were legitimate 8s instead of some weird boxy figure on the bottom and an odd tear drop on the top. Like I was able to push him out into the outside rein easily from my inside leg and he ACTUALLY CONNECTED TO IT AND STAYED THERE. Finally, this is what dressage is supposed to feel like.

Love his weird face

I was able to ask for proper bend by putting him more into my outside rein and softening my inside rein forward to allow him to stretch into contact. Then I was able to half halt the outside rein and switch my legs as I went to change directions so that he would be momentarily straight, as both of my reins became inside reins for a moment, before he stepped into the new outside rein and connected.

Best. Figure-8. Ever.

THEN he offered me a stretch circle. A real, live, locally grown, organic, non-GMO, gluten-free (did I miss anything) stretch circle. He dropped his poll for a step and I softened to let him stretch down. I kept him more connected/heavier than I normally would expect because he needed my support. It still needs work because he really can't steer when he's down there and we went careening off our line, but it was an amazing feeling to have that feeling in the bridle.

He's definitely still oddly shaped...

I let him walk after that and we ended with some shoulder-in and leg yields. Gosh he's so good in that damn arena. Now it's really time to tackle the neighbor's again. I'm hoping to get out tomorrow but one of my bosses (on a project I'm almost done with) is trying to call me in. I really really wanted to ride! So fingers crossed that he has time on Wednesday so I can ride my pony tomorrow.

I'm all pumped to get him going better in other places so that we can hit the show ring. After coaching this weekend I was itching to get him in a real show. He's going to be so fun once as he figures out that being in a new arena isn't the most terrifying thing that could happen to him.

Inside the Box

On Sunday, I headed out to the barn to ride in the morning because my brother was coming down to hike with me (poor innocent soul) in the afternoon.

Enjoy pictures from the hike!

On our way back down

TC was all excited to come see me. The day before, my best friend and I hung out and she had never met him, so we went over to the barn. There was no time to ride, so we just stood in his pasture and pet him. He was in heaven! He kept putting us between him and the other horses so that we'd protect him. So Sunday he was more than happy to come right over to me and stick his head in my arms for more cuddles.

He refused to stand still in the cross ties getting ready. Other than that (which has been a theme for a month or so), he's so much easier on the ground. I can throw boots at his legs now instead of carefully placing them near his legs. I can pick most of his feet without being nearly stepped on or him trying to paw his foot out of my hands. He's even starting to enjoy brushing- not that he ever hated it, but he just seems to like it a lot more now. I think the routine (I do the same things in the same order every time) is helping him become more confident. He also LOVES the sugar he gets with his bit, definitely his favorite thing about the tack up routine.

My favorite tree again, this time from a different angle with me
being on the ground rather than on a horse!

I hopped on and we started out by just walking and trotting along, working on forward and general steering.

As horses become more advanced, they obviously become more rideable. I feel like the rideability is most obvious to me when it comes to the amount of control I have over 1.) where their feet land and 2.) where their balance (and therefore, where their body) is. Take Rico for example, I could put him in any place I wanted. Like if you drew a small box on the ground, I could put any one of his feet in that box at any gait. I've been riding my little second level schooling third paint horse this week and he's also pretty maneuverable, but not as much as Rico is. The box is bigger for him.

With TC, the box has always been just fucking enormous. I've had very little control over where his feet go and where his balance is. Sunday though, I noticed that the box is significantly smaller than a few months ago. I was able to differentiate between turning across the middle of the arena (short court) at B/E and going across the diagonal for the first time today. I also noticed that I was really, truly, getting bend to the right almost all the time and to the left a good amount of the time. I could increase or decrease the bend to an extent without messing with the circle too much.

Love this place so much

Ruby wasn't sure what she signed up for

We finally FINALLY hit the fun stuff.

As the ride progressed, he got better in the bridle, and as such, more rideable. His canter transitions were spot on (except that he wouldn't pick up his right lead at first wtf) and he was not even thinking about bucking or hopping. Once again, the canter itself was pretty good. I'm still riding on light contact so he can figure out his balance, and I've been encouraging him to go more forward on the long sides and come back to me on the short sides. I think I'll check the field soon to see if I can get him out in a larger area to canter and really get him to gallop.

I decided to focus on the leg yields today after working on the rideability. It's getting to the point where I want to work on EVERYTHING. I want to teach him some lengthenings, I want to teach him the stretch circle and improve the free walk, I want to get him really good at spiraling in and out at the trot, and maybe even start a little shoulder-in soon.

But yes, leg yields today! I began with the leg yields along the wall, as we normally do, and those were basically perfect. So after one in each direction, I started to push him into a leg yield from the rail to centerline. They're not *good* per say, but they are leg yields and he does cross his legs over. We really need to drill the on the bit part as well as the straightness part, but for a horse who seems to be the least laterally coordinated animal on earth, he's doing very well!

We ended by working on some stretch circles, which continue to get better and better each day, and called it a day!

Most terrifying bridge out there (according to baby horses)

It won't be green for long...

After I put him away, I came back to the ranch to change into hiking clothes. I'm trying to go on a hike once a week (in addition to crossfit 2-3x per week and adding running in 1-2x per week) because best friend and I talked about doing the really strenuous 6 mile hike with a HUGE elevation gain at Pinnacles (where exbf and I went camping last month). It has amazing views but damn do I need to climb some things before then.

So I coerced my brother into hiking with me because his fiance (from now on known as SIL so I don't have to keep saying brother's fiance) was not around and best friend had a 10k because she's obnoxiously fit. Poor brother plays hockey and does fitness things on occasion, but isn't as into it as the rest of us weirdos.

I took him on a pretty decent hike at Harvey Bear. Almost 4 miles with a lot of climbing for a relatively short hike, but nothing near what Pinnacles will do to us. I feel pretty good (and even went to crossfit Monday morning for some squats and a horrible burpee/kettlebell swing workout, ugh) but brother was NOT having it. At one point, he and Ruby sat in the shade together while I waited for them. Lazy! But lots of fun.

It was Ruby's idea first...

Worst. Hiking partners. Ever. 

Love this place, glad I get to live here for a month or two while
I search for a job! 

Unlocked

Job interview went well! It's an interesting position, not one that you'd think of when you think of my degree (experimental/research psychology), but it definitely seems like a really cool place to work! It's in PR/Marketing and I would be doing "data correlations" (so like data analysis using zero order correlations?) for various clients hiring the company to do PR for them. I am primarily looking into more researchy positions rather than JUST the data, but the data part is my favorite part! So that could work, plus let me tell you, zero order correlations are super easy, they'll be getting a lot more interesting things! But I have no experience in PR or marketing soooo we'll see what they think. I emailed them to thank them today so that should get me extra points. I've also applied to maybe 15 positions since then so now we just wait and see (and apply to more positions!).

Today, after crossfit murdered my wrists with some overhead squats, I headed out to the barn to see little TC. I've been taking it easy on him all this week, mostly because of the horse show and my questionable mood. I basically just wanted to have fun with him so that I don't risk transferring my (now only occasional, yay) crappy feelings to him. So he's been getting extra pony cuddles, extra easy work, and just plain having fun.

Who loves progress pictures? Our second ride ever in January

Same day

We started at the trot and I worked on my position a bit while he stared at a blanket on the fence much of the time in warm up. I keep getting way way too far forward with my shoulders because he's so unpredictable with his balance and sometimes I get left behind. Well, a slightly closed hip angle is no excuse for leaning forward, looking down, and piano-ing my hands! I miss taking lessons and not sitting at a computer most of the day. 

Back at the walk, we really drilled the leg yields. He's getting much better, especially when I have a whip! I need to make sure not to hit him too hard, Rico needed a good wolap with the whip and I tend to over-whip horses sometimes (that sounds so mean! But it's just muscle memory). The one time I did smack him a bit more than he deserved though, he just shuffled sideways a bit faster and I prasied him and he was much better after so it doesn't help that my behavior is being reinforced. I need to ride one of my clients' mares with a whip a few times. She tried to launch me when I smacked her once. Good. 

First ride in the field (I think in February some time)

Same day

Same day

We tried a few leg yields at the trot but he's really not ready for them just yet. Good to know, he just kind of went faster and got confused, he wasn't upset at all, which made me glad that I could push him a bit harder and not break his confidence. Definitely couldn't have done that a month ago. 

Back to the trot, he was super super forward and wanting to canter, so I let him. 

And let me just say: DAMN.

Suddenly, over the course of like, two days since I last rode him, the horse has started to unlock his back and neck while cantering. For the first time ever, we had some sort of neck oscillation. The canter was MUCH less lateral and much more rocking horse than washing machine. He was better balanced than he had been in the corners and happily half halted (first half halt ever at the canter!) before the corner came. 

With the unlocking of his neck/back, the true quality of his canter is really starting to show. I KNEW it was in there. I always said "well his trot is nice, he'll make an okay third level horse for an ammy, his canter isn't good enough to go further" and I really believed that. 

Maybe in March? I'm not good with keeping track of these

Same day

BUT a few weeks ago, my mom (who knows a fair amount about dressage just by listening to all my lessons as a kid!) pointed out "but Megan, isn't his walk good? Doesn't that mean his canter should be good too?" and that is when I really started to believe that deep inside this horse is a good canter that was being stifled due to tension and lack of topline. Usually the walk and the canter are connected like that. So the other day, before the show, when I really let him gallop at the neighbor's, I could feel him start to change a bit. And now I'm feeling it in the small ring! 

Ahhh yes, I can just feel the stretchy fabric of my shadbelly all around me now! Or maybe he should learn to leg yield at the trot first... But damn, today is the first day that the fog truly cleared and I could actually see where this horse could really go. 

Back at the trot, we drilled the stretchy circle. He stretched better forward and downward than he did during our last ride, and was much more consistent! Love it. He tries so hard. Now that he knows what I want him to do, he basically just works on it on his own, I don't have to do much, just say "good boy!" when he gets it right and ignore him when he doesn't. He's a freakishly easy horse to work with. 

I ride again Sunday, and if I don't have to go into work, I'll be riding Monday afternoon too! 

First show (early April)

Same day, even though he was tense in these, he is SO much
better than the other pictures!

In other news, I've started running (for realsies) again. I'm mostly doing about 30 minutes of running, which at this time is an embarrassing 2.5 miles, about 3x per week. But my future sister-in-law offered to do a 5k with me, as long as it involved running at a 12 min mile pace and a fair amount of wine afterward. I thought that would be great! So we're looking into the Dionysus runs at local wineries and maybe some color/mud runs too. Even my intense runner best friend offered to jog quietly with us at a 12 min pace and talk at us (since SIL and I will be heaving and not talking haha) while we ran and join us for wine after. Fun!

For those of you who hate running, I highly recommend the (paid, but not too much) app: Zombies, Run! It keeps track of all your stats while also making scary zombie noises at you to get you to run faster. There's also a nice storyline about fighting the zombies and you end up "gathering supplies" as you run and then can build up the base. They have the regular app (which I use now) and the couch to 5k app (which I used a couple years ago), both are excellent. I always said that I would never run if I didn't have something terrifying chasing me, so there you go. It's entertaining and gives me incentive to run so there ya go!