For a year now, I've been wanting to take TC up to my trainer friend's barn and have a lesson! First we were delayed by a global pandemic (you know the one). Then we were delayed by fires. Then we were delayed by smoke from the fires. Then we were delayed by a vaccine appointment (not mine unfortunately, though I am eligible and will be getting it soon!).
Finally on Saturday of last weekend, we made it!
The drive is about 2 hours and 15 minutes, which is honestly unheard of to get to a trainer around here. The area is absolutely crawling with Gold medalists (there are four GP riders at my barn alone and like four additional ones come in for clinics throughout the year) so traveling more than an hour for a lesson is like "what, you don't like literally anyone at your barn or between your barn and their barn?"
But this trainer is my favorite trainer of all time! She made me an FEI rider eleven years ago and is the only reason I got my Gold medal on Rico. It was a very "she thought she could so she did" situation, except more like "she thought she could because Katy believed in her so she did." There's no way I made it to GP on Rico without first learning everything I learned on Leo.
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| Still so much to learn on this horse who is getting way too light |
The drive was actually pretty good! I drive most of it on the way to my clinic barns twice a month, so it wasn't until we were on the new highway (about 15-20 minutes away from the barn) when I got a little stressed. Then the road all the way down to the barn (like two miles on a one lane but two way road with a rig about the width of the road) extra stressed me out. We did make it okay and I decided to let future Megan worry about turning the rig around and just put it in the middle of the parking lot.
TC was happy to get out of the trailer and then really happy when he saw that we were going to be full of adrenaline today. I hid in the tack room and took some deep breaths and chatted with my friends to try to take it down a notch. TC stood on his tip toes staring at me like I'M ON YOUR LEVEL OKAY LET'S DO THIS.
He did relax though, especially because we were early and so went to go stand and watch the lesson ahead of us. He was foot perfect the whole day except for some screaming, but he just likes to scream so I never worry about that.
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| Who do you think you are with this split and the right front leg out in front of you, TC? |
When my lesson started, Katy asked what she could help us with and I launched into a large discussion about how weird my horse is.
I told her that starting from the basics, the connection is very tricky and therefore the collection is hard to get. Like truly lowering the hindquarters in the stance phase and quickening the front legs off the ground when they pass vertical. Then layered on top of that is the slipperiness of our aid system (separate post coming soon to dissect that).
And on top of that, I'm shit at half pass. We obviously did not make it that far.
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| Half pass IS easier with better basics though |
We started out talking about the connection and Katy wanted me to ride him in a variety of neck heights/lengths as I warmed up so that she could observe. We trotted around making an attempt and then Katy asked if he had a stretch trot. Tracey would have been horrified but I dropped my reins to the buckle and TC put his nose on the ground like the western horse he'd like to be. It was 0% connected but the point was that yes, I could put his neck literally anywhere I wanted to, why?
I then had an entire lesson in what felt like very low stretching gaits but in fact looked like this:
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| What the hell, he felt so low and BTV the whole time and he just looks fucking fantastic |
Katy's theory, which she implements on two of her horses who she says are similar to TC, is that you find a more forward, down, and out positioning in the bridle and then you add leg and connect the hind legs to the bridle. TC is not connected from the hind leg to the bridle all the time, this is what makes him feel slippery to me, the aids don't stick to him, they don't go through him, not all the time.
She said that TC was behind my leg, and as I went to object as much of the time I do not have my leg on him in fear that I'll send too much energy through his body to manage and he'll shorten his neck, she said it wasn't a traditional leg aid he was behind. He was not behind my go aids or my lateral work aids or anything like that, he's responsive to those, he's just not reliably responsive to a "connecting leg" aid.
The result was fantastic. TC's first response to this connecting leg aid (basically just upper calf with lots of thigh applied) was often to retract the neck back at me, Katy had me just gently encourage him to keep the same posture and then try again. We did this until he got it and then praised and then kept trying. I kept him in working gaits on big figures and changed directions frequently. We played a bit with quickening the tempo and alternating between working and lengthened strides.
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| A bit of lengthened trot |
We did a bunch in trot and then stopped to chat a bit about the theory. Then I picked up canter. Immediately Katy asked how our counter canter was and I told her we'd actually been doing a TON of it to help improve the flying changes. So we switched directions and then she asked me to put him in a stretchy working canter in the counter canter. Weird, but sure.
The idea was the same as in trot, keep him forward, down, and out, and then install a connecting leg aid. When we got it right, he felt "normal" to me, like we had a normal aid system! He no longer felt slippery and it felt so pleasantly predictable. I just loved it. The left lead was our harder lead and getting him connected like that led to a LOT of breaking, like at least once every circle. That's SUPER unusual for him in the counter canter but I think it spoke a lot to how much harder he had to work to be this connected.
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| The hard way! But the way pivo liked more lol |
After that, we did a little true canter on the left lead (the harder lead) so that I could try to get the feeling of sitting into him and at the end, I told her that he felt like a normal horse. She said "oh poor TC!" but I was being serious! He's a very strange ride right now and I really appreciated being able to have my aids go through him like that. It's been a long time coming to get access to him and every year I feel like I peel off another layer and realize how little access I still have.
We chatted and she said she wanted me to ride with her trainer sometime because she thinks it'd be really good for us. She then told me how much she liked TC and his "type" which was a surprise. A lot of people like TC for reasons, he's funny, he tries hard, he and I have a lot of harmony together. But not one has ever liked his type. He's a like riding a hunk of jello shaped like a horse that's been coated in olive oil for some reason. But she really likes this type of horse, she thinks that with some of this work, we'll be in a much better place and he'll be better connected, easier to collect, and far less slippery.
She recommended I do this exactly ride three times a week and then twice a week (I only ride four dressage rides a week so we'll do three and one), warm him up like this and then do some movements. On it!
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| Loving his shape in these! |
We ended the lesson there, with stretchy trot, stretchy counter canter, the entire time restructuring the aid system that TC and I have been fiddling with for years. We walked back to the trailer and TC stood quietly tied while we hung out in the barn and I met all her horses.
She invited me to a show this weekend, which is a bit soon, but we are definitely going to go to one with her in April. I'm even more motivated now to get my remote setup working. She's busy but she seemed to really like diving into the deep technical stuff that we did. I'm hoping I can bribe her to help me once or twice a month remotely because man that drive is tough. I was exhausted by the time I got home and so was TC! Next time I think we'll go for a long weekend so we don't have to do the whole thing in one day.
I'm so excited to see how it goes for the next three weeks as we gear up for the first two shows of the year!
