Cross Country Camp: Hacking with TC

I was going to talk about TC in my last two posts but ended up deciding that it was better to talk about him separately! And I've been so bad at blogging lately, I may as well use any fodder I can to write more blog posts. 

My only goal with TC over the weekend was to not fall off of him and have him get loose on the property. Anything else was a bonus! 

Well, I did not fall off and he did not get loose, so that was good! 

Sunset hand walk on Saturday night

I wrote a bit about our first day, that ride was uneventful. TC walked, trotted, and cantered and he felt pretty good! I didn't get much video of him through the weekend, which is fine because I tend to overanalyze it anyway, but he did feel quite up and connected that first day, if a bit tense. 

On the second day, Kate had me use one of her client's dressage saddles to try. It's made by a local saddle maker and has a lot of the boxes that Mary gave me checked off. No point billet and short front gussets. 

We walked out on cross country to meet Kate's group and hung out with them for a while. Then when we went into the arena for the girls to warm up over a small log, I trotted TC. I have NEVER felt him trot like that and... not in a good way. TC was super amped and trotting like a cart horse. 

Such a fun weekend with TC

We couldn't tell whether it was because of the saddle or because TC was being a wild child, so I kept riding him and in some ways, the work felt really good once I got his ears out of my nostrils. Kate took some video and we agreed that while this was NOT the way I want him to go, it seemed like we might be on the right track here. He did not have any issue with getting his withers up and his canter had a huge moment of suspension and a lot of uphill balance. 

Now... was this because of the saddle or because this is a horse who canters around every morning harassing Rico (video coming on my next WW post) and he was now living in a box stall with a ton of hay to entertain him? No idea. So I will definitely be borrowing this saddle sometime soon to ride in at home. 

But let's just say that at this point, anything that isn't him rearing with a saddle is something to consider! 

This water wasn't full but there were two others
that were!

The next day, I opted to use Kate's jumping saddle on TC, which was hilarious. It's by the same company but fit him slightly differently. Looking back, I wish I'd grabbed the half pad that I use on Flounder for this on TC, but I didn't. It fit a little close to his wither for my liking. But that didn't matter because I only hacked him on Sunday. 

He had a lot of fun walking around in the upper field through the water complex. We even did a big figure 8 of trotting in that water which was so good for him. I'm seriously considering getting a Woodside Horse Park membership next year just to take him out there for dressage on the gallop track (hill work in good footing? sign me up) and to do trot sets in the water complex. 

We then walked down the hill to one of the other water complexes and did some more trotting. Then he saw the cross country group and started to get a little upset. 

Such a good boy

Maybe I should have immediately taken him to the arena and worked him until he was a good boy and then put him away, but instead I just let him hang out with them and then put him away. I'm almost always in "trainer mode" and I just didn't want to be for this weekend. 

Bringing TC was not about achieving anything, it was about doing something fun with my horse. Something I struggle with all the time. I am always a trainer first and then a rider. Make steady progress and have fun (or not, who cares) along the way. This time I just wanted to ride him. 

So he went back to his stall after his hack and I gave him his hanging ball while I tacked up Flounder for our schooling on Sunday. 

He didn't spook at all, not at the horses jumping or
at any of the jumps themselves

At the end of the weekend, we packed everyone up and hauled back home. TC was sad to drop Flounder off at home but then when he got home, he was SO happy to be back in his pasture. He walked around it and then trotted back to the barn to get a drink and eat his dinner. 

Adorably enough, Rico was SO excited to see him. The other two didn't care too much to see that TC was back but Rico followed him all over the pasture and seemed to be sad that TC didn't want to play with him. Rico kept hanging his head over where they normally play and looking at him. 

Even though we didn't achieve anything, I'm so glad I brought TC. It was super fun just to hack around and have no plans. Nothing really mattered except playing with my horse. I think I need more of that in my life. 

Cross Country Camp Day 3: Knocking the Rust Off

Day two started out well with Flounder thinking he was the BEST at cross country and being annoyed at me that I wasn't letting him gallop out all his feelings about how amazing he was. 

It was honestly so absurd to have him squeal every time I asked him to go forward and to feel mildly out of control while cantering around in warm up.

We finally started to jump and Flounder was insulted that we weren't schooling all the Prelim and that he had to jump a tiny intro log. He would land and do his version of exploding which is just to toss his head and squeal. I just love him so much. 

Didn't get as many pictures from the second day

Once we moved onto the BN line, he was much more interested in getting serious. Apparently the difference between intro and BN is enough to get him to calm down. 

We worked on this long, unrelated bending line for a bit. I was for some reason wanting to jump up his neck on takeoff and get too much into my stirrup on landing, which was frustrating but probably due to me being kind of tired and sore from the day before. 

That led me into so many realizations about the adults I used to work with when I was the assistant trainer to an event trainer. I laughed to think of how many times I didn't understand when the adults would be tired from the day before or when they'd feel like it was too hot out or when they'd say that a N fence looked big. And there I was being like "oh no I don't want to school the novice corner no thank you" and "my seat bones are sore but I'm also tired so I am not comfortable sitting or being up in half seat, I need to lay down" and "I know it's not *that* hot out but it's *really* hot out" 

But we made it through! For the most part! 

Flounder thought he was king of the
world at first

After our first few lines, we moved onto yet another pimple fence. If you approached it toward the barns, you had a flat bit right before jumping but you landed on the downhill slope. If you approached it the other way, you jumped from the uphill but you had a flat bit to land on before going downhill. 

We schooled it the way that was more horse friendly (landing on the flat bit) and Flounder reiterated that I wasn't good at jumping pimple jumps so he stopped. When we came back to it again, we made it over and it was much better. I really got the feeling of landing in my thigh on that fence and tried to commit that to memory. 

After that, Kate had us do a little course! We were to do the first two beginner novice fences, then come to the pimple fence (also on the BN course), do the first line we did (BN) and then go through the water and up the hill to a line we'd done the day before. We had some options for intro fences if we were having issues so I felt confident heading out. 

We started in the start box which was SO fun and Flounder was solid over the first fence. Then he started playing a bit and surged toward the next fence. I should have half halted earlier on but instead just let him go and thought he'd launch over the long spot. Well, Flounder isn't *that* athletic and so chipped hard and I had to slip my reins to let him figure out how to get over it. Sorry buddy! Thought you were more athletic than that given how you were acting. 

The next fence, the pimple, rode beautifully and so did the original line we had started with.  

The best fish!

We weren't that far into the course and my body was like "you know what, fuck you for this, I thought we were dressage riders" so I kept having to sit back down into full seat as we cantered to the upper field. 

This tiredness definitely made me look at the next fence so we had two stops there. That sucked because it had been a no-brainer the day before, but that's okay because it's all a learning experience and this is exactly the information I need: I need to ride in half seat WAY more if I want to do this sport again. 

We did get over that roll top and then opted for the last fence to be an intro fence to end on a good note. 

He's so cute and he made himself so
dirty the whole weekend lol!

That concluded our cross country weekend! I'm so glad it worked out for me to go. I learned a ton and had a lot of fun with both horses (more on TC tomorrow). 

My main takeaways were: 

- I need to do more work in half seat to get stronger/fitter for the gallop stretches on cross country

- I need to land in my thigh vs my stirrup to help Flounder balance better after the fences (and set him up for any related lines)

- I need to keep my hip back in the air/wait for him to jump

- I need to work on my down banks

- I also need to work on pimple jumps!

Overall it was a fabulous weekend! I can't wait for the next cross country schooling and in the mean time, it's all half seat all the time for me. Sunny is finally feeling better from his eye issue (long story but he is apparently allergic to something that made one of his eyes blow up and so he got himself a hospital stay recently, he hasn't been ridden much since then) so I think I'm going to start riding him again to practice my jumping work. 

I might try to pick up a saddle for him that isn't awful. Just something cheap that I can practice half seat in and do some small jumps at home in between my lessons on Flounder. 

Cross Country Camp Day 2: First School Back!

I didn't sleep super well the first night because my back was hurting. The entire weekend was a study in "you're an adult now, sorry" for me, which I found rather hilarious. Luckily for me, the back injury that was annoyed (my L4/L5/S1 facet syndrome) is always made better with riding, so getting on Flounder made me feel way better. 

Go Flounder go!

We headed out to meet Kate on the course and she asked us all what we wanted to accomplish this weekend. I told her that I wanted to 1) not fall off and 2) play with terrain questions. I'm happy to say that I achieved both of those goals! 

It's so fun to be part of Kate's barn. Because we're friends and chat all the time, I hear a lot about how she teaches and how she structures weekends like this, but I got to experience it first hand this time. We got a really fabulous talk about how horses utilize their bodies to maintain balance while traveling uphill and downhill (and how we can at the very least stay out of their way if not help them with this). Then Kate sent us off to trot and canter over some terrain for warm up. 

It has been a long time since I did anything other than walk horses up and down hills, so it was a really good starting point for me. Flounder thought he was a badass so kept squealing and trying to go faster. When I finally let him canter up a hill I was like oh wow, I did not expect to feel mildly overhorsed by the horse who really needs me to be dead on accurate if he's going to expend the effort to jump a 2'9 vertical but Flounder is a cross country machine so he ate up the terrain like it was nothing. 

Our first jump on cross country together!

Our first jumps were some intro fences, a small log to a gate type fence. It was perfect to get my feet wet again and each time we went through it, I got more and more confident. 

Cross country used to be my best phase, shockingly enough. I mean, the dressage has always been a strength for obvious reasons, but I really was a decent cross country rider in the mid 00s. The stadium was always my downfall in eventing. I think because of this, I started to settle into it as we moved onto some other fences and realized that a lot of my problems in stadium disappear on cross country. 

For example, one of my main issues right now is commitment to the fence when the horse hesitates. Flounder doesn't love jumping rectangles and when he says uhhh I dunno, my body's first response is you know what, neither do I and he stops. 

On cross country though? I finally found that get over it or die trying tendency again. It wasn't perfect and we did have a total of four stops, but two were with terrain questions and the other two were at the very end of the day on Sunday and it was more of a fitness problem for me than anything else. 

Tiny log, check

Oh god terrain - Flounder

I got annoyed and made him go through it

So much sass

From our first line, we went over to a pimple jump, which was our only stop of the day. Like I said, it was the terrain question that got me. We'd talked about how horses give up at the top of hills and that jumping something they can't see the other side of is tough, but sure enough, Flounder petered to a stop the first time. Woops. I came in with more vigor and looked above the fence (didn't realize how much the fence being in my line of sight as we approached would mean that I continued to look at it as we went up to it) and Flounder popped over it easily. 

We schooled the water and I LOVE the water, it's probably my favorite part of cross country, hearing the hooves go from dry to wet to dry, I dunno, I've always loved water jumps. Flounder was the best boy and marched right in and out with no hesitation. We talked about how water slows the horses down and then jumped a jump, cantered through the water, and jumped a quarter round about four strides out of the water. 

Some of the weekend my old cross country skills would come back and other times not so much. The pimple jump was an example of the latter but the water was the former. I felt him slow down in the water and so put my leg on and touched him with the crop as he came out of the water to gain power as we headed out over the quarter round. It was one of our bigger jumps for the day (I sent it to my mom and she's like "that's BN?!" and it's like yeah, Flounder is little!) and was so fun! 

Tiny pimple jump

Our last bit of schooling had two more terrain questions (Kate was like "you want terrain? I'll give you terrain" I guess lol). The first was to canter over a little house, through another water complex, up a steep hill, to a tiny "ditch" and "wall" fence. 

I learned from the pimple jump because I came at that fence with more vigor and we made it over! 

The next question was a down bank on a downhill slope. Now, I used to be decent at down banks but before then, I was terrible at them. Aaand I regressed too far in my education so really struggled with it this time! Kate even was like "what the fuck are you doing? I'll have to think about this" because while at first I was pitching myself forward off the bank, after the correction to keep me back, I was still doing something weird on landing. 

I got better but we never really got it down really well. So for me, that's going to be something I need to work on in the future! 

Omg he is so cute cantering up this hill

And that was a wrap for my first time back on cross country in a long time! It was so much fun! Flounder was such a good confidence builder out there and I loved how much I felt like my old self much of the time. There's still so much work to get back anywhere close to where I was but it's fun to be able to do things like this again. 

Tomorrow I'll talk about our second schooling the next day, including some hilarious Flounder sass. 

Cross Country Camp Day 1: Traveling

This weekend was my first time schooling cross country (for real) in almost ten years! 

When I got the email from Kate about what opportunities were available this summer and fall, I was bummed to see that this weekend of cross country schooling was double booked for me. Luckily, my clients ended up not wanting to show this weekend, so I quickly told Kate that I wanted to go if Flounder was available! 

I was on the fence about wanting to take TC with me or not, but in the end, I figured it'd be good to take him. Even if we didn't do much, he is still rather immature about hauling to facilities and staying there overnight. He's really only done it a few times and that shows in how he handles himself. He isn't dangerous or completely insane, but he does get a bit tense. 

TC says "can we keep him?"

So, on Thursday I did a ton of packing! I set up all of TC's food and then also brought some extra flakes of grass hay and teff just to munch on. I packed all my tack and my longeing/long lining set up. I had to dig through the barn to find enough buckets for water and a slow feeder. Then I went home and packed everything for me to stay, including setting up my tent to make sure that it was functional. 

On Friday, I grabbed all of Flounder's stuff and brought it to the ranch to pack into my trailer before waiting for Kate's signal that they were loading the horses at her barn. I put TC in the trailer and then took him over to Kate's barn to pick up Flounder. 

Flounder loaded great and he and TC became fast friends. Everyone loves Flounder and TC is super friendly too, so they kind of lipped each other and then I tied Flounder so that they couldn't poke each other too much. 

The boys next to each other!

And after that, we were off! I think this might be my furthest solo trailer drive with my rig to date. I have done a lot of 1-2 hour hauls in the past but never a 3 hour haul. I know a lot of you are probably smiling but we are such a mecca for dressage that even the highest level shows/regionals/CDIs are only a 2.5 hour haul max for us. So there was never any reason to go further. 

For eventing though, we are not the place to be. We have the Woodside Horse Park within an hour's haul but everything else is 3+ hours or further. Our destination was three hours south to Twin Rivers Equestrian, a truly amazing eventing venue with everything from intro to I think three or four star. 

Hi are we best friends?

My truck and trailer handled both horses just fine (I've only hauled two like... once, not that Flounder is big). The drive went smoothly and, despite a lot of traffic, we made good time. TC, Flounder, and I were the first to arrive. I unloaded them and brushed them and by the time I had done that, another person from our party had arrived and told me where to put the horses. 

The box stalls were airy and big! I was a little worried about TC being in a 10x10 stall because he's so large, but they were 12x12 and they each had a little window you could open to allow the horses to stick their heads out. 

I took TC out on a walk on his own and was happy to see that he wasn't too attached to Flounder. He hasn't hauled with a lot of other horses before so I was wondering how he'd handle that. He certainly liked Flounder (they stabled next to each other and I think that made TC more attached than the hauling), but he wasn't too screamy on our walk. 

Walking around the property

Once everyone arrived, we all hopped on to go for a hack. Luckily Kate had an extra kid (two kids were sharing one pony) so she took Flounder out while I took TC out. The kids all went out on cross country for a hack but one of the other adults and I decided to go ride in the arena together. 

It was getting dark and I wasn't sure how TC would be at such a massive facility. That plus my dumb bareback saddle that provides me with no support, really made me want to go school him in the arena instead of hacking around. 

TC was great in the arena, a little up and tense but he let me walk, trot, and canter him around with no shenanigans. Honestly, he was a little up and tense the whole weekend but didn't put a foot wrong other than preferring not to stand still and his neck being stuck too short. 

Flounder got a good report card too, although she did say that he was a little bit wild. Wild for Flounder is HILARIOUS so it just made me laugh. 

TC got a ball for the weekend because
I felt bad for him being in a stall

From there we made dinner and showered and all went to bed! More on the rest of the weekend tomorrow.