Reliably Forward

I finally linked my dropbox to my phone so I have easy access to all my pictures that I take on a regular basis here on my computer! That means yay more pictures! Throughout this post will be a few of the horse-y ones (and a few others) that I've taken in the last few weeks.

Also before this starts, I want to brag about my boyfriend who rode my old horse, Stretch, this weekend. In his second ride ever (first ride was being led around on Rico), he CANTERED. What is that shit? It takes me weeks and weeks of expensive lessons and hard work to learn a new thing and he just gets on and canters around like a pro. No fair.

Alright back to this post!

My barn has the best sunsets!

So it turns out that I'm a laziness enabler. Want to be lazy? Come hang out with me, I'll do all your work for you while you laze about. I'll even praise you for what little work you do end up getting around to and will blame myself for anything you do wrong.

Xena is my assistant

I've been going a bit nuts working on half pass boot camp for a few weeks now. It's getting much much much better but yesterday I had a massive realization that in working on the lateral work, I've lost a lot of the forward.

Rico's cool with that. And so am I (apparently). In fact, I'm totally happy to get off of Rico, let him sit on MY back and play with my iphone while I do the lateral work for him.

Rico says "Thanks Mom!"

That's not going to work if we want to do anything more than western pleasure (Rico is totally up for a discipline change and think he looks cute in a western saddle). So yesterday I worked on maintaining energy in all of our movements and it really paid off. My new mantra is RELIABLY FORWARD. Meaning that I need to NEVER second guess whether he's going to stay in the gait and in the level of collection/roundness I'm asking for. That thought is not allowed to cross my mind.

Tonight we had a lesson with Tracey and I told her of my new found ability to ride confidently forward. She said "I've been telling you that for months." It's true.

I think what really hit me, and I talked with her about this, is that when Rico is forward into my hand and hot to my leg, he's FUCKING SCARY. Not because he's naughty, he's the best horse in the world. I've had him for over 9 years and know for certain that I'm NOT coming off of him unless I do something really dumb or unless he falls.

The world's sweetest animal

But damn, when the thirteen hundred pound holsteiner who seems to be made of pure muscle and power sits down in a canter, leaps up over his back into a firm contact, and one twitch of my leg means an extended canter... THAT IS SO SCARY. Every time I ride that canter I think I'm going to pee my pants. I can't possibly explain how scary it is. It takes everything in my power not to pull him back to a less impressive canter. And this is a horse I trust! How do people ride this on horses that WOULD buck you off if they wanted.

That's why I've been kind of sabotaging us. I'm comfortable with a lazy horse. Having to nag a horse forward is so safe. Welp, as Pam Nelson said last week when I went to see her horses for sale for a client, "you never see a horse without an engine at the upper levels, it doesn't happen." So Rico, you're getting an engine, damnit! Even if your rider wets herself.

Its not like we're doing this coffin complex into the court
which doesn't make me nervous, wtf?

With our new powerful gaits, we jumped into the pirouette work. I don't do the pirouettes much on my own because I tend to mess them up. Tracey gave me some great progressive exercises. We started with just establishing a good canter on the circle and moving forward and back between a forward collected canter and a pirouette canter.

I need to not push the pirouette canter too collected, especially when he's so energetic, because it takes away from the energy. The pirouette itself will collect the canter, so I can keep more ground cover than I think I need.

With this in mind, we started riding a square with two quarter pirouettes in two of the corners. So every other corner was a corner (which I sucked at riding) and every other corner was a quarter pirouette (which I was better at for some unexplainable reason). In both directions I needed to let go of the left rein, put my inside leg on, and keep him up to my outside rein.

We then did the half pirouettes from Prix St George. Turns out that I kind of just drift into them. I fixed that problem and he shut down. Rico says that unless he gets to do them on his terms, he doesn't want to do them. Too bad! So we fixed that.

Why can't we just trail ride?

We then played a tad with the trot work, Tracey wanted to see my half passes since I've been borderline obsessing over working on them. She was pretty impressed even with the quality of trot we had, and so was I! Rico was SUPER forward and into my hand which again was mildly terrifying but in a good way. We did a half pass in both directions and other than saying "sit to the inside," Tracey only had good things to say! At the end she was like "you were whining and moaning so much about them last time, now they look great!" Sorry Tracey.

Then we did a bit of passage just to add some upward lift to his trot. Rico was tired, and I am going to work on getting him more fit, but the passage he gave me was very forward into the bridle so Tracey was happy. In the past he's sucked way back and I've had less control.

Seriously pretty skies!

Overall I was SUPER pleased with the lesson. But I wasn't going to let Tracey leave without asking her this awkwardly phrased question:

"Uh so I have a question. With it in mind that I don't have too many more months left with this horse and I don't care about my record or his and I want to get my gold on him before he gets hurt or I run out of money... What is the timeline for Grand Prix I should plan on?"

Apparently that was brave! But Tracey was super nice about it. She said fall! THIS FALL!! We have the following to deal with:
- The one tempis, Rico needs them, we're doing them next lesson (side note, Rico now has THREE in a row pretty regularly! Heidi said we needed six before we went GP so we're half way there, right??)
- The pirouettes need to be much better
- The zig zag will be the bane of my existence
- The passage and piaffe obviously need to be better

But honestly, that's it! His 2s have been super reliable, although slightly hollow, the trot work is coming along very nicely, and I can't help but to think that the energy we're now drilling into both of us can only make all this work easier.

So, there's a chance that I'll have my USDF Gold Medal on a horse I trained myself by the end of this year. Unbelievable.

My neighbor's longhorn cows are back after winter vacation!

So cute!!

Vulturesque

I'm going to keep the depressing part of this post short-ish. Rico may be on his way out. He's exhibiting the very beginning signs of his original DDFT injury, which is that during trot warm up, he's hopping as if he's going to canter. This was the first sign, and the second was that his trot went to shit.

I know that it's likely the passage and the one-tempis that could be causing this issue. I'm taking precautions- on the days where we do these movements, I'll be putting on tendon support boots and I'm going to reduce the amount I expect out of him during each workout with an emphasis on just checking on the movements and keeping him very uphill so he's off that right front. He'll also likely be moving home June 1st so that I can be even more careful about footing. 

Despite my precautions, I'm prepared for a day where he starts exhibiting more signs and is obviously uncomfortable. On that day he'll be immediately thrown into grass turnout, taken on a trail ride, and then retired on my parents' five acre grass pasture with his very own box stall and paddock and lots of shavings if I can help it. This makes me really sad. So we're going to keep pushing until Rico tells me it's time. And with that, we come to my actual post! 

Not a bad place to live out his years

I'm getting MUCH better about my left rein issue that I spoke about last time. We've also been going through some pretty intense half pass bootcamp with Tracey and then last night we had some left lead canter bootcamp too! It all culminated last night with Rico and I having the BEST LEFT CANTER HALF PASS EVER! 

Part of the problem is that I have realized that I'm actually a little intimidated by Rico's canter so I tend to shut him down a bit. This means that his canter is super smooth and fun but it's not bounding and energetic like it needs to be for us to be able to do a half pass.

In the last few days I've been trying to be a bit bolder and expect a little more energy and jump in Rico's canter. I've found that on a circle, I'm very comfortable, but down the long sides, I get a little tentative and stop riding. This leads to Rico dropping his back. I've been mostly cantering down the long side and when I feel his back drop, circling and getting him more energetic/active, then trying again. 

Luckily, today was MUCH better than yesterday so I expect this issue to be fixed in the next few days

What isn't fixed is my ability to "look like Snoopy when he's imitating a vulture" while I'm riding. 

Hey look, a picture of me riding! Rico and I are about
to run this kid over though...

I do tend to look down but it's to the point where I'm now leaning forward, looking down, and curling up into a ball. Tracey at one point said "you don't need to be round, HE needs to be round" and "gosh Megan pull your head back, you're rounder than he is!" 

My trainer certainly doesn't.

So I have another project... 

Return of the Rogue Left Hand

Every year my horse tries to turn into an appaloosa.

My little appaloosa

Ignore the ill-fitting halter...

Fixed the halter... 

He's always been pretty dapple-y but this year is craziness! He has them everywhere. I wouldn't be surprised if he started to shit dapple-y manure.

This week is spring break! And I started off the week by visiting my brother, his girlfriend, and my best friend in southern California before coming back to a big dose of ego deflation at my lesson with Tracey this Tuesday night.

Ego deflation made better by pretty pictures

I've spoken before about my issues with my own perception under saddle. I sit what I assume is perfectly straight in the tack at each lesson while my trainer violently cringes at my crookedness. The stupidest part of all is that despite having access to mirrors, I cannot see my crookedness.

That's what you want in a trainer, eh?

But I have no problem seeing crookedness in my students. I can see someone sitting crooked from a mile away, but myself? Nothing.

Good thing I have my own trainer!

The lesson wasn't great. I mean it was great because Tracey knows all but it wasn't great because I almost cried like six times. Part of that is left over from midterms, part of it is the stress from last weekend, part of it is because of a few other minor personal issues that arose earlier in the day. But most of it is because I was having a minor tantrum.

Lucky horse 

Remember my issue with pulling on the left rein? If you don't, let me brief you: I pull on the left rein like it's the rope tied around my family keeping them from plunging to their deaths. I pull on the left rein like I'm trying to start a chainsaw. I pull on the left rein like I'm drawing my hand back to punch someone in the face.

I have myself completely deluded into thinking that Rico is heavy on the left rein and that pulling is the answer. Lately he's been heavier. Interesting that he's heavier the more I stress. And the more I stress the more I pull... Totally unrelated. Not.

Tracey scolded me for hanging on the curb rein at the beginning of the lesson. I dropped it a bit and felt the heaviness on the snaffle. Ugh. I complained. Tracey gave me a list of reasons why he's feeling heavy and we began plugging away. First, I ride him too much behind the vertical. Second, his neck gets short. Third, I PULL ON THE FUCKING REINS ALL THE TIME LIKE MY LIFE DEPENDS ON IT.

At least the barn I board at is beautiful?

After fixing the first two, we began on the third. Don't pull on the left rein, Megan, don't do it.

I struggled a LOT and we stopped. We evaluated why I pull on the rein. I pull because I feel like I need to. I pull because he's heavy on that rein and I need to *soften* him. I pull because he isn't bending.

News flash: none of those reasons are real but Tracey was more delicate than I would have been.

Tracey asked me to uberstreichen. Basically let go of the left rein. Pfft, I thought, he's going to fall on his face if I do that, he's going to counter bend, he's going to come off the bit.

He stayed in balance. He stayed uphill. He lightened. He stayed bending. All that happened was that I felt his little brain sigh in relief as his stupid rider finally got her head out of her ass and rode properly for once.

DAMNIT! Like I said, my ego is pretty badly bruised.

He isn't totally perfect... I mean he does paw occasionally

"Why do you pull on the left rein?" and I had no answers. I don't know why I pull on that rein.

I'm not going to pull on it anymore. Rico approves.

Rico also approves of fresh shavings

And naps!

Today I have an ENTIRE day off for the first time in a long long time. I plan on reading, running if it stops raining, cleaning all my tack, and riding my awesome horse. 

Transitions Transitions Transitions

Last night Rico and I had our first lesson back after his injections and my back injury! It went very well. We worked primarily on the piaffe and passage, including our first lesson on transitions between the piaffe and passage and the walk-passage transitions.

First let me start by apologizing for being a little MIA recently. I've been completely losing my mind a bit stressed over graduate school. All posts I attempted to write in the last two weeks or so ended up being a massive bitch fest about graduate school and had nothing to do with the horse other than "I couldn't ride today because I got on and started freaking out so we walked around a bit."

Now, however, I'm feeling better. We only have one more paper which I have done and one more (take home) midterm which I'm almost done with. The work isn't over with but the massive stress that was this week is now dwindling and I'm so much happier.

I was feeling better enough to actually take my lesson last night! Yay!

Like I said, I came in asking Tracey to look at the passage. Since she last saw us, the passage is much better, and she agreed. She said that he's very even which is awesome because when we first started, he wanted to flick his right front way out instead of really lifting. She now wants me to start playing with transitions within the passage. So I'm supposed to ask him to cover a bit more ground, then bring him back, then go forward again. I could feel how he struggled with that. He's kind of stuck in one movement which is great but makes it difficult to do any sort of transitions in and out of the passage without him falling out of it. More on that later...

We then moved on to the piaffe. Apparently Rico is finally learning to SIT in the piaffe instead of just do the half step shuffle. Tracey told me that I did a good job keeping him moving forward and not pushing him to be too much on the spot. Right now since he's learning, it's important for him to learn to be active and step up to the bridle in the piaffe rather than getting backwards and sticky. Eventually when he's stronger, bringing him more on the spot will result in a really quality piaffe! Nice :)

Rico needed a little breather so I asked her about transitions. I've played with them a bit and it's HARD. The only way I get good ones are when Rico is feeling too good and I risk being launched.

She said he was strong enough now to begin playing with transitions as long as I took it slow. Progress!

We first played with the passage to piaffe transition. A lot of horses, she said, struggle with that since they kind of drop into the piaffe OR they stay in the passage and just passage in place. Rico tended to drop which isn't a bad thing at this point. He understands, but he can't keep his rhythm yet. No big deal, I'm supposed to play with shortening and lengthening the passage and continue strengthening the piaffe.

The out was... entertaining. He knew UP was the answer so he'd usually fling himself out of the piaffe sideways, then trot two steps, THEN passage.

The same thing happened when attempting the walk to passage transition. This damn thing has been the bane of my existence and I wasn't all that enthused about having to do it again. Leo took a LOT of leg, he made me work for it, so the first time I did it on Rico... he stood up.

Whatever, it wasn't big and technically he did do what I was asking.

Those got MUCH better once as I stopped aiding so hard and he realized that I wasn't trying to get a rear out of him.


Overall I'm super pleased. I feel like we're making some real progress with these upper level movements that were once impossible.

Oh so I have some awesome conformation pictures of Rico buuuuut they're on my desktop computer and have not been edited yet. So I may edit this post and add them later!

A Year of Lessons

As of March 3rd (tomorrow), I've taken lessons with Tracey for a year!

I can't believe how much Rico and I have changed in the last year. Biting the bullet and taking regular (expensive) lessons with a big name trainer was a really hard decision. I had to put away my ego and brace myself for a constantly depleting bank account but I'm so glad that I did.

At the end of 2012, Rico and I showed for the first time since 2009. We did fourth level test one and scored a 62% and some change. It was about the same quality test that it had been in 2009 and I was closer to Prix St George only in that my horse was finally sound after three years of battling injury after injury.

Riding with too high hands and too high a headset on a
frustrated yet unacceptably patient horse

First show back in 3 years

Not terrible but not an FEI horse

Winter of 2012 was rough. Rico and I started having issues again brought on by my inability to ride a horse this powerful, problems I had always had with him. I started looking for a trainer and at the end of February, I watched a clinic Tracey was teaching and was impressed. Her attention to detail is incredible, she sees everything, even things I can't begin to feel. She is firm about the basics coming first and wasn't afraid to bring riders in the clinic back to the walk to address a concern.

March 3rd in 2013 was my first clinic with her. I came into the clinic without any expectations. She asked me what I was working on and I blurted out that I wanted to do Prix St George on this damn horse. I wanted him to do the pirouettes, I wanted the zig zag to be better, I wanted to have him do his tempis without getting so crooked.

Getting scolded a bit. 

My first lesson was all walk-trot transitions with a little canter at the end. And that's when I knew she was the perfect trainer for me.

Lots of walking!

Oooo some trotting

I get really ambitious. Too ambitious. The sky isn't the limit for Rico and I, there is no limit. I wanted him to go Prix St George so badly that I was focusing exclusively on those movements figuring that if I practiced them enough, we'd be able to do it. Tracey knocked me down to reality and helped me retrain my horse.

A month (or so) after our first lesson

After three months of the basics, in June of 2013 I moved Rico up to 4th test 2. We earned a 65% and I was in absolute shock.

Half pass right

Preparing for our first pirouette

A few weeks later we did another 4-2 and despite a bad warm up and a high horse, we earned a 63%.

Move over, Rico!

Trying to hold it all together

After a pelvis injury at the end of July, Rico and I were back on track for Prix St George. I picked the show carefully, we were going to do the September Yarra Yarra show. The same facility I did my very first show ever on Rico. The same facility I did my first Prix St George on Leo and my first Grand Prix. I have a lot of really great memories there and I know that the footing is perfect and that Rico performs well there.

Young Rico and teenage Megan trying to stay in control at
Rico's first ever dressage show!

We earned a 65%! I couldn't believe how well it went. We struggled a tad in the pirouettes, and had a misstep in the 3-tempis, but other than that, perfection. (I have pictures but not on this blog for some reason... I might go find them and post them but they're not that impressive).

I decided to do another Prix St George at Greenville in October. We had a miscount in the 3s and 4s (one my fault and one his) but we walked away with a 66%!

Charging up centerline in my fancy new shadbelly

Right pirouette coming along alright

Finally, I decided to end the year at Starr Vaughn Equestrian in November. I should have scratched. I was very very sick and couldn't ride very much the week coming up to the show. We arrived and my horse was a psycho. I barely made it through the test and ended up being sick the entire next week. But we got a 61% for 3rd out of 7!

This horse is sassy.

So sassy

At the last minute, I was welcomed into an Alfredo Hernandez clinic at the end of November. I had my sights on Grand Prix. I'm missing my two Grand Prix scores for my USDF Gold Medal and to get them on Rico would mean the world to me. Alfredo thought my goal of Grand Prix was very do-able, that Rico was a great horse, and that I had done a great job with him. Yay! He now has piaffe and passage and we're looking forward to another clinic with Alfredo!

Alfredo liked Rico's trick!

Learning the passage

This winter I moved Rico to Woodmyst, we had a minor issue with a splint and a less-than-minor back injury on my part but we're both doing better now. Grand Prix may not happen this year, but maybe next year.

Woodmyst allows for ample silliness at night

But the fact that it's even in the future at all is all because of my awesome trainer! And a really really amazing horse :)

He's the best! Such a hard worker.

In other news, Rico gets his hocks done (along with a lameness check up) on Wednesday! Then we're back to lessons next week in preparation for Greenville at the end of March. Hopefully all of our hard work over the winter will pay off with a clean Prix St George and a good score. 

Burning Abs and Other Side Effects of Dressage Lessons

Rico saw the chiropractor on Saturday and his back is all better! He was just a tad out in his pelvis and lower back, plus a little sore in his under neck and lower back- all very normal, according to my chiropractor, for a horse at his level. It was nice to hear how good Rico was looking too! I think he looks great but I'm a tad biased. 

I was able to work on the pirouette exercise on Sunday, then did another stretchy snaffle ride on Monday before my lesson tonight. 

The lesson was BRUTAL. Upon hearing that my back was okay to sit the trot (I sat on Monday and it was weak but not painful), Tracey proceeded to demonstrate over and over again that despite the level I'm riding at, I have NO idea what I'm doing up there. 

It's all a lie up there... 

Lies! 

First was attacking my position. I've always been a *pretty* rider, not always very effective, but I always sat pretty in the tack. Because of this, no one really taught me HOW to sit in the tack, especially at the trot. I told Tracey this and she said that a lot of trainers neglect the trot biomechanics on people who aren't actively against the horse. I can see how that happens, I certainly don't spend weeks and months improving the sitting trot in my riders who don't need it. But at this level and as we're moving (albeit at a snails pace with a lot of obstacles in front of us) toward Grand Prix, I need to sit perfect in the tack.

So today I had one of my first lessons on the biomechanics of sitting the trot. 

I tend to get behind the motion slightly. Tracey said that the front of my body from my collarbone to the saddle and the back of my body from my shoulders to the saddle need to be the same length. I was shortening the back of my body and lengthening the front of my body which would then lead to my reins being too long and Rico being folded up slightly behind the vertical as I'm essentially waterskiing behind him. 

Instead, I needed to pull my seat back in the tack (which is made harder by the riser pad under my saddle that I don't think I need anymore) and push my chest forward, not by arching my back, but by bending my hip. This allowed me to absorb shock better and VOILA my legs stayed still! I've been being harassed by Tracey about my legs for a few months now and no matter what I did, I couldn't keep them still without tightening my entire body up. 

She then insisted that I sit like this for the remainder of our lesson (uhhh what?). Despite my intensely burning abdomen, it was MUCH easier to ride once I was in the correct balance! Rico was a lot more forward and much better in the connection. It was also a lot easier for me to focus on the quality of the trot once I could actually feel the cadence better. 

We did some lateral work at the trot, playing with maintaining the cadence I had gained by sitting correctly, and also maintaining the lateral suppleness in the right half pass and shoulder-in. Rico tends to suck back away from the left rein, which means that in his lateral work to the right, he gets a bit tilty in the poll. 

After trot work, we briefly rode some walk pirouettes which reminded me that I needed to spend more time in walk. I struggle with feeling what is going on underneath me at the walk and can't aid effectively enough. Sigh...

We then played with the half pass at the canter. The right is fine, but the left is BAD. SO BAD. We spent a lot of time on it, but what we realized was that I am so crooked that direction that I don't know what a real half pass feels like. I'm always shoving him more and more sideways and more and more crooked that when he's doing it right, it feels bad, and when he's struggling and doing it poorly, it feels fine! 

So my homework is to stare at the mirror until I sit better and can half pass effectively! 

In other news, Rico's 18th birthday is TOMORROW!! 

Eighteen?!

AND guess who we see in a couple weeks?

Back to Alfredo!!

Fantastic Pirouettes

This morning I woke up in a lot of pain because I had tried to push myself up in the middle of the night without thinking and had hyperextended my back. It felt kind of twinge-y all day in a spot that hasn't hurt me in a long long time.

About 8 years ago, my back was seriously injured by a certain brown horse at his first show at First level. A water truck came into the arena and this horse chucked me up into the air and then generously caught me on his back. Unfortunately my back was arched at the time and when I landed, a disc in my back slipped. Obviously it was very painful, but it also gave me a weird twinge in the joint, like it was unstable.

"I would NEVER do that"

I took a couple weeks off of riding, pledged never to ride without my back brace again, and managed to get through half of Junior Championships before being forced off my horse for 6 months that winter. Ugh. Luckily, it hasn't hurt me since. My other injury (facets in L4, L5, S1) have certainly hurt, but not this weird disc thing.

Until now!

That being said, tonight I had a lesson with Tracey and it was great! I tried to sit the trot during warm up and my back wasn't having it. I went into canter and it felt okay so we worked primarily at walk and canter.

We started with some walk-halt and halt-walk transitions. One of the most wonderful and most frustrating parts about lessons with Tracey is her amazing ability to make any exercise, big or small, rather difficult. By the time I got to Prix St George, I'd have thought I knew how to halt. Turns out, nope. Rico tends to *stop* which is very different from a *halt* which I didn't really know. When I ask for halt, Rico stops his legs. They just stop moving. Evidently this doesn't count as a halt.

We worked on keeping him up to the bridle and over his back in the walk, then insisted that he complete the halt with all 4 legs, not just one and then the rest cement into the ground. By the end, I really felt a big difference!

After that, we did a bit of work in the quality of the canter before moving on to a great canter pirouette exercise.

Rico has been getting MUCH better at his pirouettes lately. But it still feels like I aid for it, then I hold on, he does the pirouette, then I regain control. So from the outside, they're looking better! But from where I'm sitting, I still don't have much control over what happens inside them.

Zero control but nice sitting on
Rico's part!

Tracey had me establish a good connection on a 20 meter circle, then had me maintain the connection, length in the neck, bend, energy, and collection as I went to a 10 meter circle. This alone was hard! Rico wanted to get short in the neck, lose the energy, collect too much, and become hollow in his neck and back. We did a lot of just cantering on a 10 meter circle allowing me to gain more influence over these requirements.

After that, she had me put him in haunches-in on the 10 meter circle maintaining that long list of requirements. To the left, Rico was able to figure it out pretty well! To the right, we both struggled but by the end were able to get something resembling a working pirouette.


I was really pleased with the exercise because it felt like I had a lot more influence over the connection, bend, energy, and collection in a way that I hadn't before. Like during a pirouette I could actually make a correction and that correction would go through without making the pirouette worse.

This made me feel like we were making some real progress!