Pushing Buttons

Saturday I taught a lesson and then spent the day with my SIL in the city. It was so fun! We went to Superbowl City, which, for two people who could not care less about football, was really awesome. The bay bridge had a light show and fireworks, so that was a blast. Then we packed onto the train like sardines and made it back to my town for tofu!

By Sunday, I was itching to ride a pony SO BADLY. I hadn't ridden in almost two weeks because of one thing or another. My initial pony riding plans were foiled by my friend's illness (she's fine), so I scheduled another lesson last minute and then headed down to ride Rico and Riot. I wanted to ride a pony, damnit.

I got to the ranch and saw that my mom was turning Rico and Riot out in the front yard to eat down some of the grass. It has better footing than the pastures and it means that no one has to mow. Nice!

He's pretty unkempt these days

I ruined Rico's day of eating by taking him out. But then I trusted him too much to stand ground tied and he got loose. He just trotted out to the grass and as I hurried over to grab him, I could tell that he was thinking about galloping around the property, but I caught him before he could act on his idea.

I just hopped on bareback with the hackamore, it was a little late to ride two before dark so there was no time to really put effort into tack.

The arena footing was surprisingly great and Rico felt as good as he's felt in a long time. He's been cooped up a bit, so I expected him to be stiff, but he really wasn't at all. He was actually super game... for Rico. So not putting in 100% effort to get out of work, probably just 90%.

We started at the trot but then almost immediately started the canter. I immediately got on his case for his laziness. He's proven time and time again that he isn't some old crippled horse, so he had better move when I asked him to. I need to get on with some spurs... and maybe a saddle next time. Instead I had my mud boots and the end of a pair of western reins. Good enough.

I groom my horses so thoroughly

We schooled EVERYTHING through Grand Prix for the first time in a long time. We started with a little piaffe and passage, then schooled some two tempis. The piaffe was pretty good and at first the passage was flat and terrible, but I motivated him and he gave me a lot more. The twos were foot perfect and he even dumped some ones (three in a row! whaaat) into them accidentally.

He gave me an ugly zig zag in trot and canter, but that was my fault. He got ahead of me in the half pass like he always does, and then kind of took advantage of me being a half step behind him. Woops. Not used to riding that anymore as all the horses I've done zig zags on recently have been pretty simple. We also did shoulder-in, which was probably the best shoulder-in I've felt in... exactly one year and two months.

I totally made him do canter pirouettes, just one full one in each direction. The left was downright GOOD- six solid steps right on the spot. Like I would have taken him into a show with that shit. The right was to be expected, he did it but it was hard to keep it small. Just like the good old days.

He kept offering passage after that, so we did some more of it, playing with the elevation in the collected trot with passage-trot-passage transitions. That's probably my favorite thing to do- work on the quality of the trot using passage. It's so fun to feel the difference in elevation and cadence. I didn't want to stop riding him ever. I love riding that horse (when he's actually excited to be ridden, which is almost never).

So dirty

It was SO fun to have this kind of ride on him, he's been so meh lately, which I thought was our norm now. I never thought I'd feel him do a canter pirouette again. Love it.

And the icing on the cake is knowing that I like riding TC so much more, I'm so excited to get him back (back to focusing on the positive after my kind of depressing post yesterday!).


Riot was next, and I just threw the same tack on him- bareback pad and a hackamore. The wind was howling (it even hailed on my drive home, craziness!) and Riot was spooky, but the most he ever does is just splay his feet and snort at stuff.

My main goal is to get him into running walk, which is so much easier now! I told my dad that he was doing a good job and he said that he watched my last ride and was practicing what I was doing- spiraling in and out, then doing transitions from walk to running walk trying to eliminate the pacing.

The pacing was only there at the beginning, so I worked on getting him to cover more ground (extended running walk? lol). It was a blast to ride him around, and we only had one big spook at the gate closing. I always forget how fun he is.

Love the green hills

Here's a question for you people- has anyone ever had a horse click (not grind) their teeth while being ridden? When Riot is in running walk, he seems really relaxed, but his teeth click. It's almost like he hangs his mouth open (in the hackamore- no bit in his mouth) to relax and the head nods (part of the running walk) so his teeth click together. Nothing I did seemed to help it- I couldn't figure out a pattern. He is absolutely not stressed or upset- he lives an extremely easy life here. It doesn't bug me that he does it and we probably won't try to stop it, I'm just curious if anyone else has had experience with it.

November's 10 Questions

Thanks Viva Carlos for giving me some writing material! Not riding full time makes this blog kind of boring.

1. Have you ever owned a horse?

Yes! On my records, I've only owned Rico (since he's the only horse I've owned since I was 18). In the past, my family has owned a few more for me including Stretch, Quest, and Tammy. I also rode my parents' horses, Dandy, Shawnee, and now Riot. Stretch, Riot, Dandy, and Rico are the horses at my parents barn now. Shawnee and Quest died while we owned them (Shawnee living to 36 and Quest into his mid 20s). Tammy was a naughty pony that was way way way too much horse for me as a 12 year old so we sold her. 

This one is my favorite though

2. What is your favorite aspect of your discipline?

I love how I can throw my type A personality into it and it actually pays off. 

3. What pet peeves do you have concerning your discipline?

Uh how about how trainers are allowed to school horses MINUTES before their client gets on and goes in the court. 

4. Do you do barn chores?

Yep! Rico is at my parents' ranch so I help out as best I can when I'm there. Typically I'll just clean his paddock and make sure all my stuff is tucked away. 

5. What is your least favorite barn chore?

I don't really have a least favorite but I will fill wheelbarrows up to their very fullest capacity before I'm walking that shit down to the pile. 

6. What do you consider the worst vice in a horse? 

Rearing isn't great, although it depends on the rearer. Rico reared a fair amount as a young horse, but with Rico, I trusted that he would never flip over or put me in danger, so that ended up being fine. With a stupider animal, I'd be scared. I really hate horses that twisty buck. I'd take an intelligent rear over a twisty buck. 

7. What saddle brand is your favorite? 

Custom for dressage, Devoucoux for jumping. 

8. Do you ride with a quarter sheet in the winter?

I have my fleece one for especially frigid days when he's full clipped and a rain proof one to either get to a covered arena or, these days, just ride in when it's raining.

For rainy days

9. Does your horse wear boots? What kind?

Yep, always in front and sometimes behind. He typically wears PE cross country boots in front (I have the hinds too for jumping) but sometimes I'll throw on fleece dressage boots or polos if we're trying to be fancy or I want to keep his legs warm. 

10. Full seat or knee patch breeches? 

Full seat, even over fences, I struggle a lot in knee patch. I used to do full seat for dressage only and knee patch over fences but after doing dressage exclusively for so long, I can't jump without them. 

Hanging out with Rubis

I rode Rico dressage yesterday. We did a bit of trail riding out in the pasture next door where I let him run, then came into the ring for a 30 minute school. 

He's definitely getting rusty in the movements now. My once super responsive and sensitive horse is kinda dull to my aid and making more mistakes than he used to. Meh. We still made it through the entire PSG canter pattern, the I1 zig zag, a bunch of piaffe, and even some walk-passage transitions. He's still fun, just not AS fun. But doing dressage for 30 minutes once a week is a very different work schedule than doing dressage for 45 minutes 4x per week. 

It was funny, I kept thinking "gah, he's not doing XYZ, I'll bring that up to Heidi" and then realizing that I would never take another dressage lesson on Rico. That kind of isolation was kinda scary! I haven't been out of regular lessons since 2012 and I struggled a lot then. I'm twice the rider now than I was at that time though, and it doesn't matter how shitty our dressage gets, so we'll be fine. 

Not going to be this fancy again though

I am struggling with the serviceably sound thing. Rico wants to be ridden, he wants to gallop on trails and jump fences and do dressage. But yesterday we had no fancy trot because he was a bit sore in his front feet. Not lame, but on hard ground in a tight circle at the walk, he definitely struggled. Undersaddle he felt sound but just not wanting to let those front feet do very much work.

I have an email into my vet asking if I should just leave him be or if I should bute him after/before I jump or trail ride or just ride in general. He certainly doesn't need bute to be sound enough to ride or anything. He's a lot sounder than Stretch who I don't bute to ride. But I worry about causing inflammation in his feet- I don't want those coffin joints remodeling themselves. I also don't want to rip up his stomach either, or have a horse that I'm constantly medicating if he doesn't need it. 

This is all new to me having a serviceably horse in semi-retirement! He's having a blast though.

Hanging out in pasture, he loves those trees behind him

The Last Lesson

Rico's shenanigans yesterday didn't appear to do any damage to his fragile legs, so this afternoon, we headed out to Heidi's for our last lesson before the show this weekend. This lesson had the potential to be our last dressage lesson EVER.

Soon hopefully our last (dressage) show (at this level) ever

Our lesson wasn't until four, so I went to crossfit this morning (and have a new PR for squat cleans woohoo) and then drove an hour to a tack store and back to procrastinate doing my homework. I'm looking to replace my jumping saddle once and for all. My current saddle is WAY too small and doesn't fit Rico at all. I'd love to get something to play over fences and go on trail rides in. No luck for me over there, but I got to drive on highway 1, close enough to see the water so that was really nice.

When I got home, I gave Rico a bath, he was super gross and my mom came to take some video today so I didn't want to be riding a dust ball! Unfortunately we didn't cross paths at the barn so I don't have them quite yet. I'll post some when I get a hold of them, maybe tomorrow evening if I decide to ride.

Beach! I wasn't this close...

One of my clients was taking the lesson before me. I love it when my clients ride with people I know/ride with so we can collaborate. This is a particularly sassy young horse, so it was nice to talk to Heidi about a plan for the winter to turn some of that sass into better throughness.

Speaking of sass, Rico was on FIRE today. He took off with me twice and spooked at a guy with a hose during warm up. We started with tempis and I warned Heidi that he might kick.


First, let me say that I can't do threes to save my life anymore. Ugh. So those were shit. We then did the twos and they were great! Only once did I have to zoom him out of them for getting behind me. They were much straighter than normal too. Yay!

Then we did the ones... We started with SEVEN! SEVEN ONES!!!!!!! SEVEN! Seven is the most magically powerful number after all and Rico is pretty magical so there you go. Then I fucked them up a bit, then got seven AGAIN! The plan is to try to get seven twice in a row. But I have a feeling that we may get more... I only stopped at seven the first time because we were closing in on the wall, we could have done more. Oh my god to have anything more than that would be amazing.

I kind of want to keep working on them after this weekend even if we get my score to see if I can get fifteen eventually... but then the other part of me influenced by Rico's laziness says nah.

This is what six ones got him... seven ones got him a blanket
tonight so he wouldn't freeze his pony butt off

We then played with the piaffe and passage with Heidi helping by tapping his hind legs with the whip. She forgot that Rico is an escape artist so as she asked me to turn across, Rico took off sideways away from her. She was like "WRONG HORSE WRONG HORSE COME BACK!" which I thought was hilarious! I really hope there is a video of that...

With her help, the piaffe and passage was brilliant! He can really piaffe on the spot when someone is behind him. Such a talented pony. The passage just feels great all the time, but it was especially uphill and powerful with her help.

Passage from our last test

Then we started the test! Everything was great until the halt, I kind of walked into it. Rico knows the damn test (how did he memorize it so fast? It's taken me so long!) so he stopped early and I just let him ooze over to C before finally stopping. Not okay. The rein back was great, medium trots were perfect, but the piaffe in the first tour was complete shit. But we redid it and it was MUCH better. The next tour was VERY good, a little forward moving in the piaffe but nothing too exciting.

We stopped there to take a break for a bit and then tackled the zig zag. I did the zig zag once and it was perfect. 3-6-6-6-3. Heidi counted for me and then stopped me and asked me if I did it right. Apparently it looked too easy so she thought we skipped a 6. Nope! We're just getting really good at it! Again, Rico knows the fucking test (UGH), so he just DOES that movement. All I have to do is steer and keep him cantering. It will be a nice resting place for my cortisol filled brain.

Rico has extremely low levels of cortisol at all times

Next we did the pirouettes. They were... okay. He was a little hollow because he's trained me to not touch his face during them. He makes up these rules about him getting lazy. Don't make me go round, or I will stop. Don't make me be straight, or I will stop. And I abide by them like they're laws. Since when does he make the rules? I decided to change the rules and he was actually really good about it. We had a really great pattern after that.

Finally, we ended with the final tour up centerline. We had to do it three times, ugh. First, I let him just jog at X in the piaffe so that was a no go. Then we passaged around the first turn instead of having a good transition. THEN it was good. Phew.


Let me just say that riding at this level is exhausting both mentally and physically. It really is terrifying. It's so cool to say that I've done it, but nothing about actually doing it is all that fun in the moment. After I do a good tour or a good pirouette or zig zag, yeah it feels great, but as I'm doing it, I want to just jump the fuck off the horse and run into the bushes to hide.

I find that crossfit is the same way. I bitch and bitch and bitch during workouts about how much I hate -insert skill here- and then at the end I'm like "that sucked, great workout! See you on Thursday!" What the hell is wrong with me?

I think what I really like is the progression. I love that a year ago, we were just figuring out the Prix St George zig zag and the Grand Prix zig zag was so daunting... now it's our easiest movement. I love that my horse has doubled his one tempis in like two weeks, what is that?! I love that two years ago, I was gearing up for 4th level test 1 at this very show, our first show back in three years, and despite forgetting my test and adding in a bunch of stupid changes, we got our highest score at that test. I love that. Tangible progress.

Whatever it is, I'm certainly looking forward to a low key winter full of trail riding, thesising, and crockpotting. I found a chai latte recipe ahhhh.

Can't wait for more of this

edit:  I just had the funniest conversation of my life. I was telling boyfriend about my lesson and about how my cortisol has spiked because of the show coming up. This has lead to a lot of "what if" thoughts and I ran out of the normal ones like what if I don't get my score, what if the pirouettes suck and have started on the weird ones like what if he breaks his leg and what if we get hit by a car on the drive over there. I was going on and on about my what ifs and boyfriend adds what if he turns into a bunch of tootsie rolls to the mix. YES WHAT IF HE TURNS INTO TOOTSIE ROLLS AND I NEVER GET MY GOLD MEDAL?!

Seven More Days and Six More One Tempis

First let me just say that Rico got his THIRD body clip in SEVEN WEEKS yesterday. He was perfect as usual to be clipped and then pissed when he realized how naked he was. Maybe the other horses make fun of him? I dunno, he's always in such a mood afterwards.

It made for a really good ride yesterday after he was clipped and a really great lesson today (aside from some sass in the beginning). 

For entertainment, some artsy pony pictures

Once again Rico started off a little stiff at Heidi's and we both had a minor WTF moment before he cantered and then worked immediately out of it. That's just him now, I guess. He trots like a pony in hobbles for the first few minutes, then canters and back into the trot we go, this time as a Grand Prix horse. WTF indeed. 

Today started really amazingly well though. I had a little extra time for warm up so we walked a lot. One of the ladies that rides there was sitting and watching (not unusual since people who board there often watch lessons after they ride). She called me over and told me how wonderful I had looked at the Grand Prix test a few weeks ago. She said she was shocked to hear it was our first one and went on and on about how great Rico looked. How he was relaxed and it looked like he really enjoyed his job. I was so pleased to hear that :) what a great start to my lesson!

Rico decided to ruin that by being a twit. Apparently right pirouettes are now easy, while left pirouettes are suddenly extremely difficult and he can't possibly do them. After we worked through that bullshit, Heidi was pleased with both of them in that they both look more rideable. She noted though, that he doesn't really keep cantering very well in them. He kind of bounds up and down and loses a touch of rhythm. 

My task then, was to keep him in as much of a three beat canter as possible (actually rhythm loss is appropriate in the canter pirouette- they lose the moment of suspension and get four-beat-y, but Rico takes it too far). As we all well know, I'm not the most coordinated in pirouettes so I found that I couldn't possibly do all of those things at once and started messing them up. Soon they were just fucking enormous. Like not even canter pirouettes, just small circles. I did eventually get it but boy did it take me a while. 

The best pony nose

We then worked on the two tempis, which were good, except that I need to school nine in a row more often. For a while we weren't, but now Rico doesn't think that nine is a very good number. Five seems much better and after that he was just slipping into threes. Damnit! These are supposed to be good!

The highlight of the day was for sure what happened next: Heidi said "show me some ones" and I just went for it. I put him in the same place he was in the draw reins (slightly low and covering more ground) and just started swapping my legs. We did SIX AGAIN!! Six one tempis! So Heidi said to just quit and next time we do them (probably Monday or in my Tuesday lesson), try seven. 

She said ideally we could do seven and eight and have it look like I just miscounted once. I'm thinking we're more likely to do six then four then five or something. But Heidi said that six to start makes it look like we ACTUALLY know what we're doing and that I'm just kinda dumb about counting, so that's great!

Such a cute pony

We then did the zig zag twice- I need to start it MUCH earlier. Heidi says that this problem is normal- you come out of the corner and want to prepare for it so much that you eat up 15 feet and then have to smash it in. She said come out of the corner and just go into it even if it's shitty. I can always make it up later. 

Finally, we ended with the piaffe and passage. The passage was excellent, and so was the piaffe after Rico learned that he STILL couldn't halt in it. Poor Rico, he's ever the optimist. We had our best tour (trot to passage to piaffe to passage to extended walk to collected walk to passage to piaffe to passage to canter ugh omg) yet and we ended immediately with that. 

We're one week away. In one week from right now, I could have my USDF Gold Medal. Rico could be in his pasture for the first time in years and years. This has been such an incredible journey and we're just so close to the end. It feels so unreal.  

Can't wait

For now though, I need to do some homework, since real life hasn't really let up at all. 

Sideways

Today Rico and I headed over to Heidi's barn for our third-to-last lesson before our next show! We hadn't seen her in a while, which always makes me a touch nervous. I always think he's doing great and sometimes she quickly proves that wrong.

Luckily she was pleased with how he's been going. The one major complaint was that Rico has managed to convince me to let him be a little lazy. It happens primarily in the canter (most of our work is in canter and piaffe/passage so we don't trot too much), but what he'll do is negotiate with me that if I don't nag at him with my leg, he will keep cantering. The problem is that the canter he's giving me isn't that great... But I'm so pleased that he's being so good, I let it slide. Apparently I need to not do that. Just a couple more weeks, Rico.

We worked on the zig zag first, just the Intermediare I one. During the zig zags, I've been told not to go too sideways since one of his half passes isn't as steep as the other. If I really push for sideways, I go off center and it's hard to make the turn at the end. However, that doesn't mean that I shouldn't practice them steeper than I'll ride in the test. So we did the Intermediare I zig zag a couple of times working on getting him over. He was great! He's always so freaking great these days.

D'aww and he puts up with me

After the zig zag, we attacked the pirouettes. Heidi was happy with my work in the draw reins because he was MUCH better staying round and thus, both pirouettes were much better. The left one she said was a solid 6.5 and even a 7 with some judges. Nice! There's still this moment of do-we-have-to in one of the steps every single time. It's the one after the half way point. Like he realizes that he has to do a FULL pirouette instead of a HALF pirouette and he just stops caring for a second and then goes fine.

The right pirouette is still rocky but for different reasons now. I've been working the pirouette canter on a circle because I like using bend to help him collect. Woops, this has apparently made him a little crooked. Instead of going shoulder-fore before the right pirouette, he throws his ass into the bend and then steps sideways into the pirouette. When asked to do shoulder-fore, he pitches a bit of a fit. So we have homework. But the very good news about this pirouette is that we finally have the turn down! I can control his shoulder really well within the pirouette and it's now the right number of steps. Now all we need is the entrance to the pirouette and we'll have a GOOD right pirouette, incredible.

Instead of this monstrosity... Which was actually one of our
better pirouettes at PSG last year

We finished out our canter work with some one tempis. I've been starting with four now instead of two and it's helping a LOT. I have a theory that he only has so many ones in him in a given day and that we waste them by doing two at a time, then three a few times, then finally getting to four and he poops out. We were able to get four in a row three different times today! Heidi said to start playing with five now. We'll see about that.

The twos were good too. The problem in the changes is that he slides a bit sideways, it's probably what makes the ones so hard because he cant. He kind of jumps across the ring to change rather than staying straight. We worked this into the mirror and I'll be pulling out my poles this week to work them in a shoot. My issue with keeping him straight (which I AM capable of and need to remember that) is that I can't keep him straight without keeping him VERY into the bridle and I can't do that without him stepping up to the bridle. Unfortunately when I take a hold of his face, he backs off, so it's either straight and behind my leg or crooked and forward. I'm curious to see how the shoot of poles helps us.

This is from 4-2 in June 2013 but you can see how wide he gets
behind and how that means sideways. You can also see how his
rider does not help at all by twisting in the tack.

Finally, we ended with the piaffe and passage. Both were excellent today. No stopping in the piaffe and the passage was powerful. We struggled a tad with the turns, Rico knows the pattern now so thinks he can just dart sideways when he knows a turn is coming. I'm going to set up some cones in my ring and turn around them a bit. He'll have no idea what hit him.

We worked a tad on the centerline pattern. You come up centerline at the very end of the test, passage at D, piaffe at X, and passage til G where you halt. That damn piaffe is hard. Especially because I tend to wait until X to ask for it, so I only get a few steps of passage out of it before halting in the judge's lap. We worked on that and I'm planning on looking at the court at the show and deciding where to piaffe.

Rico says no thanks to piaffe on centerline

After the lesson we talked a little about me as a rider, which I almost never think of, being so focused on this goal and having ridden the same horse exclusively (well, client horses don't count) for a couple of years now. Heidi said she'd be curious seeing me on other horses, that I ride Rico incredibly well and have trained him really well- getting to Grand Prix on a horse you've trained yourself is obviously really fucking cool. But he's one type of horse. She's like "you've perfected the art of riding the lazy horse."

That's how I've been feeling lately. Give me a horse that gets behind the leg and off the bit and I'll turn that sucker into a Grand Prix horse apparently... what about a horse that is hot and ducks behind the bit? A few years ago when I was an assistant trainer to an event trainer, I rode a LOT of horses- hot, lazy, sensitive, dull... and yeah there were types of horses I was better at riding than others (usually yeah the lazy ones and the ones that *no one* could get on the bit). That being said, I feel like ten times the rider level-wise now (I had ridden at fourth level when I started there) but Heidi is right, it's on one type of horse. Maybe I'll get the chance to ride some other types this winter so I can calm my seat down a bit.

This one was hot and spicy sometimes and I loved it :) 

This conversation got me thinking about the difference between riders/trainers who are "one hit wonders" so to speak, as in they did well at a very high level but it was only on the one horse vs those who are truly masters of the sport where they do well at a very high level on a multitude of different horses. I think that there is a difference there and that Heidi is right that I should try to ride some other horses to get that ability back. However I'm still young in this sport (28), so I still have time to prove myself on a different horse if I so chose (I do NOT choose though, bring on my desk job and trail horse!). Makes me really think about what to look for in a trainer though. Interesting.


In other news (crossfit news), yesterday I finally hit my bodyweight in my deadlift. This isn't that impressive, most people can easily lift more than their bodyweight in a deadlift (my coach can literally lift 5x my bodyweight). But for ME it's really exciting because my lower back has had several serious injuries and has always been a weak point for me. I'm feeling stronger and stronger these days and have plans of riding regularly without my back brace for the first time in ten years starting after this show. Yay!

Moonlit Dressage

I'm starting to feel the pre-Grand Prix crazy. It came out two days ago when I panicked about letting Rico go out on lease. Then yesterday I got REALLY sad while I was riding him. And today I forgot to grab those damn cheesecakes (they still need to be torched- which we're doing today but OMG they are so good even without the torching... except I need to learn how to strip a vanilla bean properly because they aren't vanilla-y enough) twice. I have them with me now, but not before having to run back into the house twice. Yes, twice.

Luckily my horse has transformed back into the amazing creature he always is when we ride these days. Saturday must have been a fluke caused by the heat.

This one was so good

Monday I waited until the evening to ride him- he's already SO hairy and I didn't want a repeat of Saturday. We started as it was getting dark and rode in the moonlight! Which is definitely light enough to ride in as long as most of the house lights are off so my night vision isn't ruined with every circle.

He was great! We worked a LOT on the piaffe, playing with the slow trot to piaffe to slow trot transitions and working on taking the piaffe forward for two steps, then back on the spot. I even played with piaffe pirouettes, which I've only seen a few times. Rico gets crooked sometimes in the piaffe (mostly shoulders go right, butt goes left) so I worked on moving him a tiny bit every step and he complied.

The passage was semi-decent, I'm not getting as much lift from him but I think that's both of us being kinda meh these days. We need a lesson, we have one on Friday.

I then picked up a canter and oh my god he was so forward. I could tell that he wanted to run so I let him- cued for his fun bucks and he BOLTED. He flung himself into the air and played and played out in the dark. Spooked at the mounting block, shook his head, and kept wanting to go more and more so we finished out our last set just playing.

Will looking at winter pictures cool this heatwave down?

Today I got up at 6:15am to get out to the barn to ride before it got too hot. It was VERY worth it because when I got off at 8:15, it was already ridiculously warm. He got hosed down even! At 8 in the morning! He appreciated it but damnit, when is winter going to get here?

I broke out the draw reins (sue me) because I wanted to work on two things. One is that damn left bend in the left half pass and the other was the tempis.

The left bend IS getting much better, he's much better connected on the right side without leaning right too much and he stays up on the left side, but now he's taken to throwing a fit if I want him to maintain this in the half pass left. His version of a fit is doing the movement with his head in the air. Enter: draw reins. Head came down, fixed the half pass.

The trees lining the arena get so pretty

The same happens in the tempis- he'll do them but gets super hollow. We started with some threes and fours just getting his neck down and getting him to change over his back rather than flat. Much better! Then we played with the twos and those were rough, he'd hit the draw reins and want to back off. Once as I got him jumping over his back in the twos, he started going SUPER sideways in the change. Ugh. So we fixed that.

Then we did four one-tempis in a row in both directions and I quit asking for more. Four is plenty. I mean it isn't fifteen but whatever. I pulled the draws after about 15 minutes of work and we played with the half pass without them (much better), a line of twos (much better), and finished with some zig zag work.

I can't do the full Grand Prix zig zag at home since I have a short court to ride in, but I can do one zig and one zag to practice the changeover. From the left to right, we're super good! From the right to left, likely because of the bend issue, we get a little discombobulated. I focused a lot on the bend in that changeover and it was MUCH better by the end.

Clouds! I miss clouds

After two hard days, Rico gets tomorrow off and then we have one more ride before our lesson on Friday! It's been a while since I've seen Heidi (since she was gone and then I couldn't have a lesson because I was getting tortured by the dentist), so I'm excited to get back to it. Rico has been excellent so I'm not too worried about the lesson, or even the show for that matter.

Oh wait, that last part is a fucking lie. I'm losing my mind and we still have 2.5 weeks to go. Everyone in my life has been well warned that I have taken residence atop the crazy tree and will not be coming down until after the show.

This isn't winter, I just love this picture

Through the Ribcage

Rico was excellent yesterday. I feel as though we're really starting to solidify the movements at the Grand Prix level. A month ago he felt incredibly green at the level, and now he still feels green, but he's definitely more on board with doing his pirouettes, the piaffe is becoming really energetic and strong, and I can feel the passage slowly SLOWLY evening out. It's cool to think back even just a month ago, struggling with him in those movements and now they're getting stronger and stronger. Go pony!

First time piaffing, note uphill balance and sitting

Better sitting but very much forward moving and downhill

Much better on the spot, a LOT more uphill

Yesterday though, we worked primarily on the basics within these movements with a special focus on the left bend.

The left bend is a relatively new issue, his chiro is coming out in a little less than two weeks to see if it's something physical. Training wise though, I wanted to get him to really step into the right rein and bend through his ribcage. He's happy to take his neck to the left, so he fakes it really well, but the bend doesn't translate to his body and thus, he won't connect.

I sat on a circle for a bit to get my body in line- I want to do one of two things: fall to the outside and counter bend him or fall to the inside and neck rein him. Both are quite wrong, obviously, but they feel SO RIGHT. I forced myself to sit in the middle of him and keep my right hand the same and actually use my useless left leg.

We did some shoulder-in to the left. The right shoulder-in is so pretty, I can regulate his angle and bend without much effort and he really reaches with the left front. The left shoulder-in is like pushing a bag of rocks down a hill. I can't control the angle as well and the bend is this weird combination of looking left but his body being bent right. By increasing the bend and insisting that the angle is controllable, Rico connected much better to the right rein.

Right shoulder in is quite nice!

Once as the shoulder-in was good, I used the half pass to test whether I truly had him reliable on the right rein. Uh no I did not. The left half pass has been very tricky throughout all these years of owning him. Obviously we can get through the Grand Prix zig zag and snag a six, so it can't be that bad, and it isn't. I have a lot of control over the step and direction that we're going (necessary for counting to six and quickly doing a change and switching directions), but what we lack is bend, connection, and cadence.

A good half pass is hard. In leg yields, your primary sideways aids- inside- are the same aids as your primary "bend" (flexion) aids- inside. In a half pass, your primary sideways aids- outside- are different than your primary bend aids-inside. So in the half pass, your aids have to be rather coordinated. Hahahahaa.

But you can't argue that I'm not improving...

4-2 in June 2013
Zero bend, rider way off to the outside

PSG in October 2013
Better bend and reach but balance lacks (falling left) and
rider way off to the outside

Intermediare II in August 2014
Rider faking it really well, horse still lacks bend but is amazing
look at the balance between PSG and I2! He's much more upright

This means that I either get a LOT of sideways (necessary in the Grand Prix at both trot and canter) or a nicely bent, but fourth-level-shallow, half pass.

I worked a lot on asking him to lengthen his neck and let me still half halt the outside rein for sideways. Unfortunately the right rein half halt always shortens his neck, which takes away bend. This wasn't super effective. I tried both ways- first getting the bend, and then pushing him as sideways as I could without him losing it (not working), then I tried first getting the Grand Prix sidewaysness and then adding bend (working okay but not as well as I would have liked).

It's a work in progress! We ended on a great note with some zig zags at the canter. I didn't realize how much we did yesterday, we did our full workout (which he hasn't done in a few weeks since I was injured, then sick) and he was all foamy under his reins and between his cheeks. I hosed him down and promised him a trail ride today.

YES ALWAYS DOWN FOR TRAIL RIDING

We're heading up north to STCP. My mom and dad took their horses there this weekend and said it was ideal for Rico- lots of flat ground and rolling hills and a lot of different places to explore. He's going to have SO much fun. Hopefully my mom wants to come with me and take some pictures of us, but I'll certainly get a bunch from his back and possibly bring my camera, tripod, and remote and get a few before heading out.

I can't wait to see his face when he unloads in a NEW place. He hasn't been to a new place in quite some time (sorry horse) and I think I'm going to use my saddle this time, just in case he's too enthusiastic.

Grand Prix

In short:

Test was good, not perfect, but good. We won the class (out of two) with a 61.3%. BAM. Grand Prix horse.  Blue Ribbon. Trail ride tomorrow.

I mean he just has the elegant LOOK of a Grand Prix horse, right?

In long, drawn out, and possibly somewhat unreadable due to large amounts of cortisol in my system: 

I spent all day Saturday freaking out and assigned people to distract me. Boyfriend got the morning, best friend got the afternoon, and my parents were stuck listening to my crazy that night. Poor innocent people. 

Breakfast of champions (Saturday morning) = nutella french
toast with strawberries and bananas

Bareback ride in the dark on Saturday night

Rico was a piece of shit to get ready this morning. He was VERY unamused by his bath at 8:45 and not willing to stand still for braiding. Despite having to deal with Rico's antics this morning, I handled myself fairly well. I managed to eat breakfast (and not throw it up) and was terrified but surprisingly calm as we drove up to the show.

It's such a nice venue- the footing is always good, the covered is nice to show in, and it's generally fairly quiet. So much of my showing career has been at this place. My first show ever on Rico was there, my first Prix St George, my first Intermediare II, my first Grand Prix, Rico's first Prix St George, and now Rico's first Grand Prix.  I was feeling quite a bit of nostalgia as I was getting tacked up.

Rico's first dressage show ever

I look so tiny on him! I really haven't grown at all since then...

I got on way late, which was planned. I gave myself 14 minutes to warm up. The show management and Heidi were not amused. Everyone came looking for me. What? You think Grand Prix horses need more than 10 minutes of warm up and 4 minutes of being told not to mess up the right pirouette by turning it into a reining spin? Pfft.

The test was decent.  There were no major mistakes other than the expected ones. The twos were excellent, the zig zag was perfect, the extended trots were awesome. The piaffe was shit, although not stopping, and the ones were shit. Of course! 

All tacked up and begging for treats

However, the judge seemed to think that Rico was pretty great, and that I was kind of dumb. The plan was to make it seem this way though- string together enough ones to make it look like I just miscounted and get out of the piaffe early enough so he doesn't stop. I got a lot of "needs more steps" in the piaffe and the comment for the ones was "fair attempt, counting mistakes." *woops* it's not like my horse, you know, doesn't have ones. 

The overall comments were that we had potential but that I needed to get him forward before the movements. Heidi was like UH YES YOU DO. The test comes up SO FAST that I felt like I was rushing through it. The plan is to have me ride the test more often at home to get used to it. We have about six weeks until our next one.

So yes, a blue ribbon and a score toward my Gold. I couldn't have asked for today to go better than that. I can't believe we made it. 

Love

Pictures soon! I have so much homework to do today!!

Pretty Rider, Not Effective, Needs to Chill

I had another lesson with Heidi today. I was hoping that Rico would be more forward now that he's clipped, and I guess he was a bit better.

For picture entertainment- some recent instagrams!
Rico's new BFFs

We kind of overdid the warm up. I understand the pressure to get my clients to end on a good note for each movement in warm up. I'm not about to send a client into the show ring with a shit leg yield when I'm pretty sure they might do that in front of the judge. I like to give them confidence by letting them do all their movements in warm up and telling them YES LIKE THAT or NEEDS MORE PUSH or whatever else trainers yell at their clients. Sometimes I go on auto pilot where I ignore what's coming out of my mouth and think about other things.

I'm also not one to send myself into the show ring if I don't feel like I can get a good piaffe or pirouette or whatever, but Rico is a big challenge. He's got only a few good piaffes in him until he really shuts down, same with pirouettes and really everything (hah). So the biggest challenge is to set him up so the best work comes in the show ring, not right before. Unfortunately today, we overdid it and his best twos, piaffe, and pirouettes were the ones right before the test riding. He was very tired.

That being said, shitty Grand Prix is still Grand Prix, right? So the test.

The view from Juniors

The centerline was kind of awful, he wanted to change the whole time so we got a 6.5 (oh did I mention Heidi brought a scribe to my lesson?! I did my best to remember what we got). The first extended trot was AMAZING oh my god this is what a GP horse feels like, he was on FIRE coming out of the corner and now I just need to regulate him when he does that. We got a 7 on that and on the first half pass (right). The second (left) could only be a 6 because I let his haunches fall out, shit. That can be better.

The halt and rein back Heidi thinks can be a 7 but she said I need to chill a bit in it because I made it look tense by being a complete dingbat for a 6.5. Then the medium trot was good, a 6.5 for rushing at the end (more chilling necessary). The first piaffe passage tour was kind of shit. Well, the passage was good for solid 6.5s the whole time but the piaffe was a 4, he stopped. Woops.

Extended walk needs more overstep for a 6 or 6.5 but his medium walk is a pretty solid 7. The walk to passage transition was good but she said he started to get tired so that meant the passage was more like a 6. Second piaffe was a 5, he kept going but he moved forward a lot. The canter transition which is always so good was shitty so that was a 6. It should be a 7. IT WILL BE A SEVEN.

On the trails with Riot

The twos weren't to Heidi's liking (or mine), again I think I got my best line of twos right before the test. He was kicking (UGH) because he was tired and I was flinging myself around. I got a well-deserved 5.5. The extended canter was actually the best he's ever felt, but it's still not a real extended (how much faster do I have to go oh my god I am not on a race horse) so we got a 6.5 or something. Then a 4 for the change because he basically trotted through my half halt, ugh. He was sooooo tired at this point.

The zig zag was good! But good for us is a 6. It was accurate but lacks bend and sometimes the haunches lead. The ones sucked, obviously, for a 4. The left pirouette was semi-decent (I thought I got a better one earlier) for a 6.5, but he flung himself across the ring in the change so that was a solid 5 or 5.5. The right pirouette wasn't a pirouette or even cantering. It was a reining spin for a 3.

Our trot transition was a 7 and the next medium a 6.5 since he was losing steam and got low in the bridle. Then it was solid 6.5s the whole way up to a 6 halt on the last piaffe/passage tour up centerline.

The cutest

Collectives were as they always are: 7 on gaits (judges love the horse because the horse is perfect, obviously), 6 on impulsion, 6 on submission, 6.5 on rider. Heidi is so funny. She was placing blame at first on him saying he's not forward enough and because of the mistakes his submission is going to be low. Then she hesitated on the rider score. She's like "well I'd give you a 6.5 but it could be lower... uh... I'd probably circle position and write... um" and I'm like oh let me guess: Rider sits well in the tack but isn't effective with the aids. I literally get this on every test.

For the last ten years of showing Rico, that has been written all over my tests. Pretty rider, needs to learn to use aids effectively. Nice position, rider could be more effective. Beautiful seat, could communicate better with horse. Rider sit nicely like statue, need to use legs and maybe hands sometimes? Every single freaking test. One day I want to compile a list of all the different ways it's been said to me.

Heidi said since she's ridden Rico now, she understands that I'm working my ASS off the entire time, but she said it won't matter to the judge. I just look like I'm doing nothing and when the horse isn't doing anything either, it's obviously my fault (I mean, a lot of it is, but some of it is him)

Haul from the farmer's market + my parents' garden

Overall I thought it was shit. But if that's my shit, I'll do alright! Score came out to be a 59.7. Boy I'll be a little let down if that happens, I need a 60! Hopefully the judge this weekend is easier than Heidi (I said that and both Heidi and the scribe laughed so I'm hoping I'm right) and hopefully I can get my shit together so we don't botch the movements we should have gotten better scores on (come on a 3 on the right pirouette? the twos? the fucking lead change, a lead change Rico, it's from third level).

Both Heidi and her scribe (who is a BEAUTIFUL Grand Prix rider herself oh my god) thought that I would pull a 60. Even my best friend said "you keep a lot of nice things up your ass, including a 60 at Grand Prix." We'll see. I just hope that it's better than the test today. Improvement is all I can ask for, right? I just need to CHILL.

 From a bike ride last week