Creating Better Everything

On Saturday I once again stuffed TC in the trailer. We've now gone off the property seven times this year, at five distinct places. And I think I'm safe to say that TC has really figured this whole thing out. Academic Horse Training (oh man I think this is what it's called, it should really just be called The Horse Training Bible), the book Kate lent me this winter that I really want to steal own one day, says that because horses don't generalize well, it takes a lot of repetition with things like this. They use a water complex as an example- a horse needs to go to five different water complexes in order to really understand that yes you get in the water EVERY time, not just at this one complex.

So this trip, to the fifth distinct place we've gone to this year, was a big one. Would TC get out of the trailer and just lose it because he hadn't been there before? Or would he confirm the number five as a magic number?

Looks pretty magical

We got there and had about thirty minutes before my lesson, so I tacked him up and we wandered around in hand. And he was fine. He was spooky, because he's a spooky horse, but he never left. We walked in both arenas and then way down the road to the additional barn that they had built for stabling at shows. He really didn't like that barn, probably just because it was isolated and he hates it when it goes from light to dark or dark to light. He spooks a lot going in and out of covered areas. 

Tracey showed up and I opted to ride in the outdoor arena. It's bigger and the rafters in the covered are low. Not that TC has threatened to do any sort of acrobatics lately, but I still feel claustrophobic on him in arenas with low rafters. 

TC handled everything super well. He had to share the arena with another horse, and that horse left. He had to deal with horses being tacked up and untacked outside the ring, he had to deal with another instructor sitting in the judge's booth, he had to deal with the food cart being driven around. And he was fine. Like totally fine. Sometimes spooky, and we had one head-straight-up-what-the-fuck-is-that incident, but other than that, he just went to work. 

Ugh my gif maker isn't working so look, a screenshot. This one
shows him at the place where he's comfortable- a bit btv and closed
in his throatlatch, he needs to push out just a bit more. 

 And the work was SUPER good. I found myself feeling slightly bummed about our last lesson. Tracey tends to take things slow and I really don't want to push this horse like I had to push Rico. My goal with TC is the upper upper levels, I don't really care what we do in between now and Grand Prix with him. Some levels we'll breeze through, others we'll take our time with, it's not a big deal, and I'd honestly like to score well instead of well enough. But at the same time, the idea that we'd be doing Training level all year made me feel a little meh. I embraced it though, reshuffled my goals around, and for the last two weeks since that lesson, we've been working our ASSES off with the new concepts. 

This lesson had a lot of new information for us and I was excited to not get too much of the same instruction. At one point, Tracey said we were basically ready for First (okay she said ready to start First level work, but TC already does all the First level movements) except that TC's canter needs to be slightly more adjustable. She's incredibly picky (remember how she was really concerned about me going PSG on Rico and then we got a 65?) so I feel much better about the idea of being able to do First this year with a respectable score. 

He's really figuring out how to use the part of his neck right in
front of the withers. 

We started with the trot work. The main issue in the trot is that TC wants to carry himself behind the vertical. Tracey said she had this problem with her Grand Prix horse. TC feels great like that. He feels wobbly and hesitant when he's on the vertical. This isn't anyone's fault, it's just how he's built. He needs to learn to get his chest back and sit down, but also to reach forward out to the bridle. I felt like he was reaching, but he was still a little too round at the poll. So I was encouraged to get my hands out in front of me and uncurl him. 

It's hard because the connection actually feels much worse out there, and this is why I want to give my dad a huge shout out for being there and videoing my entire lesson. He fell off Riot recently and has a cast on his arm and some broken ribs, so my mom wanted him to get away from the ranch so he wouldn't work. I need help turning the trailer around at ASH so it all worked out! The video made all the difference to me and I can't tell you how many times I've watched it.

Bending left is his favorite

The trot got better and better as we rode and Tracey tweaked my position. The main issue is my unwillingness to realize that my horse is, you know, actually trained now. It kind of sneaks up on you. Like he goes on the bit and he bends in each direction and he leg yields and he does his transitions without inserting his ears up your nose mostly. But I tend to still want to get my hands a bit wide, which Tracey said act like draw reins. Wide hands don't get the horse to connect in the correct way, they just get the head down, which is fine on a young horse when they're first learning. But TC is an old pro at this dressage thing and I need to get my hands closer together so he can connect properly.

I also had an issue with my left side, which is a normal thing for me. I tended to fall back on my left thigh, meaning that I was riding too much off the back of my thigh on that side. I also had a bit of a twist, which was pointed out to me briefly last time I rode with her. As I go to sit, my left hand takes back slightly, then as I go to rise, I bring it forward. It's not super noticeable, I can't actually see it all too well in the video, but TC is quite a sensitive fellow in the bridle and it causes the slightest bit of a head wag every now and then.

Wide right hand, he can't connect to it when it's out there. And
hey maybe your super short backed horse doesn't need your leg
back there to bend, Megan. Man I miss the control I used to have
over my body when I was stronger!

After fixing us both- TC in the connection and me in my everything, we started to do some leg yields. The leg yields were primarily for getting him more even in the reins. TC isn't uneven in the reins, but he does tend to want to connect more to the left rein than to the right. Moving him off the left leg in a shallow leg yield got him to connect better to the right rein, which worked out really well. My job was to not take back on the left rein at all in that leg yield, as it brought him a little crooked and artificially connected him to the right. He had to step to the right rein from my leg, not from me just pulling him sideways and dumping him into it. 

Off the right leg was trickier. He wants to fall away from the contact on the right rein and not put his right hind under him, so my job was to keep him straight and almost counter bent and keep him up to the right rein. When we got it, it felt AMAZING, it felt like I've never felt a correct leg yield until now. But then I haven't been able to replicate it at home. Oh well.

After the first couple of leg yields each way, we did some fifteen meter trot circles at each end. That size circle is good for us- he's really comfortable on twenty meter circles, and ten meter circles are still kind of a crap shoot. I can get him around them and they look fine, but they aren't easy. So the fifteen meter circles are enough to really get him bending and coming around, but not so much that they're easy to fuck up.

So hard to get him to stay up to the right rein but bring his right
hind under him

To the right, he needed a lot of encouragement to get his right hind under him better. I tended to want to bring him around in the bridle and then stop before he really had to soften. Tracey urged me to a) keep more consistent contact on the rein to encourage him to do so too and b) to bring him slightly more bent than he is comfortable so that he really steps off the right leg and steps into the right rein. To the left, I just needed to allow more with my right hand so that he could take his right ear forward more in the connection. It's amazing having a horse who is so sensitive, one small movement like that completely transformed the way he was going. He is so cool.

This post is already getting long and we haven't even talked about the canter! So I'll go over that and my struggles with the sitting trot tomorrow. 

The Birds

Friday morning I woke up early and rode before work. TC hadn't been ridden since Wednesday morning, and I didn't think it was a good idea to wait until Friday night and then go have a lesson on Saturday.

Unfortunately the guys were watering all the arenas first, then going back and dragging everything later. I hit the arenas when they were all watered but not dragged, so my ride was a little trickier, trying to dodge the parts of the footing smooshed down by the tractor that pulls the water thing. And my ride was also made trickier by BIRDS.

Seriously I have so many show pictures

Birds and butterflies have been the bane of TC's existence for a long time. It started with bird shadows last summer, which he would leap up and over whenever they'd come at us. Butterflies would float around in front of him, which he would strike out at or kick at. And then in the winter we had problems with bats and owls shrieking and flying through the covered arena. 

Basically anything that flies or floats near TC while I'm riding him can fuck right off. 

Since then we've had a few incidents with birds in the covered arena because the birds love the new footing for their nests. They will come in and pick up little fluff pieces and take them back to their nests. I was super cool with that mostly because the fluffy pieces are for sure going to be swept up toward TC in the wind and he'll try to strike at them. We still had bird incidents though, as the birds would fly in to get the fluff and if I were anywhere near them, TC would kick out at them. 

Free walk right before he looked over at his fan club

He started to chill about the birds eventually, but then Friday morning we had the craziest bird incidents yet. 

Apparently the birds have had babies in the nests in the covered arena, because they were VERY unhappy that I decided to ride in there. 

The first time a bird swooped directly in front of TC's face, I thought it was just a stupid stupid bird that had no idea what it was doing. But then it happened again. And again. And I got swooped on too. And we were in an all out battle with all these damn birds dive bombing us. 

I love his color right now

At one point I yelled at a bird that dive bombed us- HEY BIRD I PAY BOARD HERE AND I CAN RIDE IN THIS ARENA IF I WANT TO SO LEAVE US ALONE! So if anyone thought I might not be a crazy person, I put that to rest real quick. 

The only saving grace of our ride is that TC has become an incredible horse in the last month. Seriously I can't wait until tomorrow's post about my lesson in a BRAND NEW PLACE. But the horse just kept working. He kept working no matter how many birds flew directly in front of his face. No matter how many times I yelled at birds or got distracted trying to hit one with my whip. Even when the tractor came in to drag and I forgot to stop him and we just kept going until I realized oh shit better leave. 

I got real lucky with this one. He's a good egg. 

Still a Bit of a Trouble Maker

For a few months, TC has been essentially my dream horse. He's been just getting better and better and better with every ride, every trip off the property, and our relationship continues to get stronger.

But training is never linear, and so on Tuesday night, we had a bad ride. 

It started with me not being in the best mood, right, as all bad rides start. I'm still struggling with my sleep, which makes me a little more moody in general. I feel like a bit of a crazy person, and I feel really bad for the individuals who have been experiencing the brunt of it, namely bf and TC. 

That night I went out to ride after him getting Monday off (and a light ride on Sunday) and found that it was super windy. I got on and found myself getting a bit annoyed by his spooking, which is totally normal for him in the wind and I shouldn't get annoyed by it. It's just who he is. So already I knew that I'd be extra nitpicky and already he was quite amped. 

Can we revisit this day?

Warm up went well until the first OMG I HAVE TO FIX THIS thing happened: the canter work. 

At the trot, he's really reaching well to the bridle, and at the canter, he doesn't. He'll either curl or retract his neck, or both. I had a moment of how are we ever going to get through Training if the mechanic of his neck is SO COMPLETELY WRONG panic (even though like... lots of horses are going around at Third and Fourth with bad neck mechanics) and made a plan to address it. 

Into canter, he flung his head up and ugh you can't just do that anymore, TC. I took it kind of personally, despite that truly being left over from the show where I didn't really insist he be as through. So we drilled that, which always amps him up even more. I've also been on his case about staying straight in the canter transition, so we had a few moments where he'd go to do the transition and then slip out sideways, so we'd have to do it again. 

Soon I had a very fired up high horse cantering around the windy arena alone as the sun went down. So what should I do? Let go of my reins of course.  

I used the mirrors to help me get his neck out. He kept trying to curl, so I lengthened my reins a bit more and then helped him by bumping him up slightly. I must have looked ridiculous. Mirrors... I did look ridiculous. But hot damn did he really change the way he was using his body. He looked amazing. The base of his neck was way up and I could actually follow his oscillation because there WAS oscillation to follow. This is how we need to canter from now on. 

Really uncomfortable carrying his neck here in the canter

But he didn't like that. He feels comfortable being balled up at the canter, leaning against his knees and chest, keeping his back tight. That's his place. So he tried a lot of things to get me to let him be there- he surged, he went a little sideways, he broke. 

And he bolted. 

We haven't had a bolt in... like two months? That's my conservative guess. We've had like minor scoots and some zippiness. He gets hot and does that baroque thing where the legs fling everywhere and he gets super quick but his back stays still. But this was a downshift, head in my face, no control, gallop down the long side bolt. 

And it wasn't that bad. It certainly brought back some bad memories, and I really brought him around and explained to him that we do NOT do that. I had a moment of "should I just get off and go longe him?" before talking sense back into myself. 

By the end of the ride, I was riding him around the ranch on a loose rein and we even ended with some cantering around the whole arena, including right by the place where it happened. I don't think my confidence was knocked at all- we've built up our trust bank enough where I think it'd take a few more of these days to really kick me down. 

Would prefer to be here (me too, we are not good at dressage)

But as I put him away, I still felt a little defeated. Probably more due to my moodiness than what actually happened. Illogically I reminded myself that I could always sell him, and that he's doing well now so I could actually get more for him than I would have if I had sold him this winter (insert eye roll here, I'm not selling this horse right now). Logically I remembered that these bad rides used to happen EVERY DAY. And actually a ride with one bolt and some zippiness would have counted as a VERY GOOD ride. 

Perspective, I don't have it. 

But really, I'm glad to be in a place where I can pout about him not being straight or through enough in his canter transitions and how he bolted down one long side (vs like an entire lap) in one bolt. Even if I know I shouldn't be pouting at all. 

And yesterday morning he was brilliant as always as if nothing happened. 

Another Schooling Show

On Saturday, I once again loaded TC up into the trailer and we were off to our second schooling show of the year. This one is one of my favorites, and I'm really glad that the organizer decided to do them again. It was our first ever schooling show back when TC was 3 years old, and it's only 10 minutes away. Even though it was so close, I still managed to not have enough time to braid, woops. But that's what these shows are for- no stress.

When we got there, I left him in the trailer to go get my number since I was able to park so close. Plus, the last time I had brought him with me to get checked in, I had to sic him on one of Kate's kids and according to the look on her face when she hastily handed him back, he was not keen on waiting for me.

I think I'll keep him

Centerline

I got back to the trailer and unloaded, and TC was really not having it. He couldn't see any horses (there was literally one on the other side of the trailer) so therefore, I had taken him to this horrific place where horse clearly couldn't survive and he would surely parish. I wrestled his tack on him and led him out to the show ring. He seemed to get more and more nervous as we walked over and I promised myself I would go back and get his longeing stuff if I got on and felt unsafe.

We saw Kate's group and stood with them while I tightened his girth and asked myself why I keep insisting on doing things like this. And then I walked him into the arena and got on. He reached immediately into contact, relaxed, and we went to work. He was just... ready to go. Totally relaxed and rideable just like he is at home.

He warmed up great for Training 2. I focused on relaxation and connection, wanting to first and foremost have a test where I felt like he was rideable and then hope to continue to work on changing the mechanic of his hind legs from pushing to carrying so he pulled his chest back and got his neck out. Throughout the warm up, I was just amazed by him. All of the work was exactly like it is at home. Better in some ways even, he's a lot spookier at home. The whole time I kept laughing and asking Kate "whose horse is this?!" to which she'd reply "yours!" And then I'd say "I think I want to keep him," at one point being told by a lady on a tense horse trotting near us that she'd like to keep him too.

Beginning of a loop

Being a good pony

When the time came, we walked casually over to the show ring and put in a mostly clean Training 2 test. His stretch circle is sort of broken from our lesson- I'm insisting that he stay more connected, so he's curling pretty bad right now. We had some moments of distraction in the free walk, where he kept looking over to his kids (he's adopted Kate's kids as his own best friends). There were some questionable moments in the canter transitions- not the wrong lead but a little hollow. And for some reason in tests, I just really can't canter. We lost our nice relaxed canter in favor of a more enthusiastic but less rideable canter. Why not use a half halt, you ask? I don't... I don't know.

I didn't pick up my tests until after Training 3 because I didn't care. I didn't care what the score was or even if we got a ribbon. Because at the end of the test, having that kind of test was quite enough for me. We had just put in a test in a show ring, in a place he hadn't been in nearly two years, that rivaled the ones we have at home. No spooking at all. No bucking. Just a few expected problems that we have at home too.

The second we were out of the ring, most of Kate's herd of kids came up to pet him, and TC soaked it all in. He wanted to let everyone hug his face and also to make sure that no one had any carrots they were hiding. He stood like a rock with maybe five or six kids petting him and cuddling with him. And he loved it. It made me so happy! As hard as it will be to sell him one day, I really do want to find him a kid to love him. Or an adult who will cuddle him and dress him up for his birthdays.

So fun!

Slow but steady

About 25 minutes to our next test, I had to break up the love fest. He was so good for the first test that all I wanted to do was the loops for Training 3 and maybe a couple of canter transitions that were more through. But I ended up having too much fun in warm up. I thought we might have overdone it, but I checked my equisense (told you I couldn't live without it) and saw that we were okay.

Back int eh show ring and we put in another solid test for where he's at. I made a couple of minor mistakes, like not getting into a corner well enough before a loop and asking for a downward transition too early. He definitely felt a bit tired in the canter, leading him to wring his neck and increase elevation on our left circle- something he does when he doesn't want to sit down. And to me, he felt a little tense, but it had also gotten colder, so that could have been me.

Once again, I walked out super happy. This was FUN. The first purely FUN dressage show in years and years. With Rico there was always so much pressure to get scores and he was a lot more physical a ride and got tired more easily, so I had to be very precise with warm up. Then in the last few years with TC, it's been about managing his baby moments and keeping myself safe. But this show, this one was just really fun.

So relaxed. Too relaxed, even. We didn't get any "too slow"
comments though.

End of a loop

I headed over to pick up my tests to find that we'd won our Training 2 class of five! We scored a 70.192%. There were a couple of eights (walk to trot transition at C with the comment "very steady" and the final centerline with the comment "balanced") and only two 6.5s- the stretchy circle and the free walk. Yeah. To be expected. Everything else was 7s and 7.5s, except a 6.5 in the collectives on impulsion with the "suppleness of the back" part underlined. Remarks said that we were a lovely pair and that it was a steady test. But that TC was a bit tight in the back and comes behind the vertical at times. To be expected. His back isn't tight, per say, but it definitely has a lot less swing in it with the smaller trot we're working in right now. When he builds up strength, then we'll push forward again and he'll start to swing more.

I stuck the ribbon on his bridle and decided to hang around talking to people until my next test came out. TC wasn't pleased about this. He was fine with the ribbon, but this trip really confirmed that if he's not working, he's worrying. And honestly, IMO these barns don't seem the most horse friendly. They're all paved and you have to try to find actual dirt on the property. So I didn't blame him too much for his worrying, but I did ignore him.

Finally our test came out and I grabbed another blue ribbon and saw that we got a 71.136%! The comments were mostly the same about him needing to reach out to the bridle more and needing to loosen up his back more. We did improve our free walk score to a 7.5 this time! But our stretch trot dropped to a 6. The only other sub-7 score was on a canter circle and let me show you why.

Oh there it goes

Being ridiculous

And yeah that deserved a six. I dunno what that is but I do know
that it is not a stretch circle. 

We packed up and zipped out because I had a camping date to get to. On the way back to the barn I couldn't stop smiling. We finally had a show where I didn't feel like I had to explain away anything. Or yell at someone to watch out as we went careening by. Or worry about where he might go if I fell off.

We still have SUCH a long way to go before we can even think about a rated show. First and foremost, I need to buy his memberships ($$$$ seriously) and a jacket ($$$). And we also haven't been to any facilities where rated shows are held yet. The one from Saturday does hold rated shows, but I'm out of town for the rest of the shows this year. I have plans to get to a few more facilities before we start really making plans for a rated show. But tentatively there's one at the end of July that I'd like to do. And I think I can get to that facility at least two or three times before then.

Trotting along

In the mean time, traveling will not stop. I need to start keeping him overnight at my parents' barn and get him used to sleepovers. I have emails out to a couple of new trainers who I can visit at their barns. And I'm really hoping we can do a real trail ride next month. He's slowly, SLOWLY becoming the horse I was hoping he'd be. We're not quite there yet, but we're close.

Bareback Wandering

Sometimes it's easy to forget how far TC has come in the last few months. Most of the time I forget that I was so close to giving up on him and instead I just get frustrated that he still thinks it's okay to throw his head into the air in our canter transitions, or that I just can't keep my seat back in the tack at the canter without tipping forward.  

Ranch wandering

But every now and then, there's a moment where I'm like "holy shit have we made progress" and that happened on Tuesday. 

I've been sleeping pretty poorly lately. Like over a week of not even being close to the 7.5 hours my fitbit wants me to get every night. Sometimes under 6 hours. I'm in some serious sleep debt. 

Tuesday morning I woke up after not enough time and just laid in bed with my first world problem pouting about how I couldn't sleep. Laid in bed too long. I got up and wasn't very quick in my morning routine because tired (which then makes me late for work, which then makes me late to the horse, which then makes me late getting home and then I have less hours to sleep). By the time I got to the barn for my morning ride, I had thirty minutes. Oops. I normally leave 1.5 hours for morning barn time, which is enough for a quick-ish ride, hose down, feed, and change. So I had a third the time. Not even enough time to fully tack up and untack and feed him.

So what to do, I'm literally standing at the barn (didn't think to, you know, go to work first and ride in the afternoon when I'd have more time) partially asleep with thirty minutes to entertain the horse. 

So I grab him, put on the bareback pad and the hackamore like I used to do with minimal time on Rico, and hopped on him. 

And he was fine. We wandered all over the ranch! We had one big spook, where he scrambled away from a guy putting a sprinkler in the WRONG PLACE. But he took me with him, and I think that's what I'm realizing about this horse. He's very spooky, sure, but he wants to save me as well as himself. I was riding one handed, bareback, and he darted away and there was a place for me to sit. So that gave me a lot of confidence. 

Had to get a mirror picture

As I was driving to work, I started thinking of other things that had changed...

- I no longer dread going to the barn

- I am not afraid of riding my horse anymore

- Even when it's windy or rainy or in groups or in new places

- I keep forgetting to bring my longeing stuff to new places

- I actually haven't longed him in over a month

- I am actually excited to spend a full day with my horse

- I don't carry a whip out in front of him (or at all) when I hand walk him

- His bolts have decreased in length, severity, and frequency

- And they don't scare me at all anymore

- I don't worry that I'll have a bad ride after a day off

- I don't worry about wasting money taking lessons (though I am on a budget so can't just take a bunch of them)

- I kind of hate his days off because I'd rather be riding him

- He is still reactive in the cross ties (accidentally kicked my hand the other day spooking at something) but I'm trusting him more in them

- I don't do any more ground work before rides, we just get on and go

- We walked around the loop! And I'm planning on trail riding him this summer. 

His mane looks a lot longer than it actually is
in this picture

I'm super pleased about how far he's come, both in the dressage and just his general behavior. We have our second schooling show of the year tomorrow! We're riding Training 2 and Training 3, mostly because after my lesson I want to put a hold on the lengthened trot and also play with the loops in the show ring. 

Hopefully it goes well. I rode T3 last night and it was quite good except the canter transitions, which are a mess right now for no reason. Can't wait to show my horse! 

On the Back Loop

Sunday my plan had been to haul TC to the ranch again, but I opted to stay at home and ride in the covered arena with the mirrors so that I could see what TC looked like. I wished I had been able to have someone video my lesson the day before, but I figured I could try to replicate what we did and look at it in the mirror.

I started with a nice long wander around the ranch just because I was sure he'd be a little sore using new muscles. We ended up walking behind the riding school, which we haven't done successfully undersaddle yet. Every time we go back there, we have problems- it's a little far from all of the other horses, Rico thought it smelled like pigs, and there are sometimes people working in the fields that surround it.

But this time, for the first time ever, TC was totally fine back there. I mean, for him. He was pretty certain that he was going to be attacked by something that he was sure was living in the bushes. And he wasn't really sure what to do with himself when he saw a tent thing flapping in the breeze. His answer always seems to be "put head in the air and go faster" but I'm getting better at a) not reacting with nerves and b) redirecting him so he realizes that he's being silly. At the end of the short loop, he spooked at a horse spooking at him. If horses could distinguish between others being afraid of THEM vs being afraid of something they should be afraid of, well, this winter would have been a lot easier.

TRAIL RIDE (well, "trail" ride)

In the arena, I started in walk and just couldn't get it together. I realize in hindsight, after a really good ride on Monday, is that I was looking in the mirror for what I thought it was going to look like rather than focusing on getting the feeling first, then looking in the mirror to see what it looked like. And I have the nerve to get mad when my boss sends me a pre-written paragraph and asks me to "plug in the numbers." I gotta have better methods here.

Into trot, TC reminded me what an awesome learner he is and immediately picked up the small trot. I felt very uncomfortable in it aaand so I immediately felt really discouraged. I feel like this sometimes after lessons because all I want is to take a lesson every other day because I feel like there's just so so much to fix and I get frustrated that I can't just make a big change and fix it all in one ride. Maybe not the most logical thought.

I decided that I would just work toward it a little at a time. As long as his trot was slower than it had been, that was fine. As long as I'm working toward getting my hands better at the canter, that was fine. I'm not on Rico any more. I'm not under a deadline. So I felt better about it and ended up having a good ride.

He is so gross and has no respect for me hosing him down

I had thrown out some ground poles to play over. A set of three trot poles on a straight line across the middle of the arena, and then a curved set of four poles in a corner.
-
TC is not good at poles. He just hasn't had a lot of practice over them. I can count on one hand the number of times he's had to deal with multiple poles in a row. So we tripped over them quite a bit until he figured out how to get through them. And then they were really good!

He definitely wants to get tight in his neck when he goes over the poles, so the curved poles were excellent. I also tend to want to freeze when going through poles, so I had to remember to, you know, ride the horse.

It was great to feel him really lifting up under himself and maintaining the activity in his hind legs in the slower trot (I deliberately made them kind of short so I'd be forced to slow him down). One of my fears in bringing him slower is that his hind legs will just stall out and spend too much time on the ground. The poles gave me an idea of what the trot should feel like, and then we were able to maintain it.

Angry smiles for me when I don't give him his
food right away

As I said, Monday was a much better ride. I reread my blog post that day so that I could see what I might be missing.

We started again in walk and I finally got him to where he needed to be and wow the difference in the mirror was huge. I could see him lifting his chest just a bit upward and backward. His shoulders seemed like they had more room, and the quality of his walk was much better. He was covering a lot more ground without wanting to jig (well, not too much, always gotta jig). And his neck was long without being flat after his withers.

Tracey was right in that he still can't hold himself in front of the vertical like that. I really hate that retracted, curled neck look that so so so many people on baroque types in this area seem to like. So we're building muscle to get him to step out to the bridle. But ugh I guess we're going to be behind the vertical to do so. If I just forced him up and out, he'd just learn to brace. He doesn't brace, never has, and I want to keep it that way. But it's not necessarily the prettiest thing to look at just yet. As he builds muscle in the base of his neck and under the points of my saddle, I'll be able to keep his shoulders up and his chest back and then I can bring his neck out where it needs to go without him dropping his shoulder and leaning on his knees.

I own a pinto now

The canter felt great as well. He was actually oscillating his neck a bit. Then breaking. Then getting antsy about getting back into canter so he could do it again. Calm your tits, TC. But the canter was covering probably too much ground. It's so hard to keep him back on his hocks but also get his neck out and oscillating. The more power he has from behind, the more he oscillates, but then I lose all steering and he dives down in front, pressing his forehead down, and the oscillation looks a lot like nodding. So there's a balance that we have to find. The canter is just hard.

My seat and hands did feel better in the canter though, so I'll take that! I still so want to give at different times with each hand. Just slightly, but enough to make him wobble a bit in the bridle. So I'm still working on that. It's just hard.

The rides after our lesson have been a little dull, but I feel like we're making major progress. Just lots of transitions, circles, and changes of directions. But that's fine, we're just plugging along.

Let the Dominoes Fall

Saturday morning I took a lesson! I had high hopes for this lesson, but was still nervous because my last lesson on TC was such a disaster. He's been really good about his naughty behavior, but he can still be a spooky, reactive horse. Just yesterday he spooked in the cross ties and as he went to splay his feet, hit me in the hand with one. Those are big freaking feet. But I seem to be okay. I can type at least, and that's all that matters on a Monday.

At least he makes up for it in being really fun to ride?

I hadn't ridden with Tracey since October. I had been planning on riding with her in November, but then TC had some growing pains in his stifle. Then I wanted to ride with her in December but uh we had some behavioral problems. That lasted through March. Then I wanted to ride with her in March but she had to take some time off of teaching. So finally I got on the list for this last weekend.

The first thing she had me do at the walk was to push him more out and forward. Not necessarily covering a ton more ground (though his walk is a little lazy), but she emphasized getting him into the bridle a bit more. TC tends to retract his neck and lead with his chest- almost get out over his front legs with his chest. Last lesson she said that his big front end helps to keep him balanced. But he basically leans onto his knee action rather than setting back and pulling his chest back and away from his front legs. Basically if he had less knee action, he'd fall on his face.

Already at the walk I could feel that this would then give way for his shoulder to come up and out. Rather than leaning onto the movement of his front legs, which makes him very mechanical, he's going to lean away from the movement, opening up his shoulder. I can't wait to see how this changes his gaits at the trot and canter.

I loved that visual, and we carried it into trot. A slow trot. Verrryyy slow. He's got enough activity and is not behind my leg, so I don't need to harass him forward so much. Rico was always slow behind, so I needed to quicken him. TC isn't slow behind, or he is but it's because he wants to get his hind legs out behind him vs under him. Rico was slow because he was lazy.

You can see him pushing forward into his chest vs carrying himself

At the trot, Tracey emphasized making the front end match the back end. With a big front end and a smaller back end, it's easy to get that ugly disconnection where the front legs and hind legs aren't parallel. TC isn't ready to get his hind legs to match his front legs, so we slow down the front legs to match the hind legs.

This also allows me to get his chest back and start to really push his neck out as I mentioned earlier. She described the part of the neck right in front of the withers like dominoes with these horses with chess piece necks- when the neck is upright, the dominoes stay up, you want to knock the dominoes down and away from you to lengthen just that part of the neck. This makes SO much sense to me since sometimes nose to chest he's pretty long, but the shape of his neck still looks bad. It was super hard for him, but he buckled down and never complained.

The trot work was just circles and long sides, with me trying to mask the ugly geometry I've been riding lately. It was a lot easier to steer and keep our shit together when he was slower though, so maybe there's my problem. Riding the horse past his tempo (doesn't feel that way) where his balance isn't on the forehand in the usual way (getting downhill) but leaning forward into his chest, and no wonder I have problems after the lengthened canter getting him to turn on a circle. He's like an elegant freight train.

Vs here where he's lifting his chest more, still not perfect though

After getting him back on his hocks a bit more, I revealed another weakness as we switched directions to the left- my complete and utter inability to ride to the left.

And actually even before this lesson, it was getting so much easier, and I'm super proud of myself for that. I was having some major issues with steering and connection that way about a month ago- to the point where I couldn't get him on the bit and our circles were spiraling out.

I realized quickly that a lot of it was me- I was shifting my seat outward and leaning in with my shoulders. That coupled with my love of pulling on the left rein made me pull him so off balance that he couldn't do anything but work against me to stay upright. Gah. So I fixed a lot of that on my own. Get my right seat bone in the middle of the saddle and pull my shoulders back over my right hip. Ride him over straight, nearly counter bent at times to realign my feel. Get him round and down on the right rein.

Tracey said she didn't notice my crookedness for quite some time- it only actually came out in the right canter of all places.

But she did notice the issues to the left even though they're better. We experimented a little with a couple of things. She had me ride him a little over straight/counter flexed and that helped a lot. But over bending actually helped too. She was saying that he really needs to step up to the right rein, vs going through it I think. Left leg on is good to put him up to it, but right leg needs to be on to push him forward to it as well. Then my right hand likes to drift toward his withers (lol last lesson I got told to keep my right hand near his withers since it liked to drift out. Dressage is hard), so I was told to keep it directly behind the bit ring.

Here's a classic TC trot picture- everything looks okay but that
one place in front of his neck isn't right

We went into canter after doing an interesting exercise in trot to test out the throughness, my ability to keep him slow, and transitions. It was just a three loop serpentine with walk steps over centerline, then a shallow loop on the next long side. He wanted to get fast in the shallow loop and didn't stay as through as he could be in the walk to trot transition over centerline, especially when changing to tracking left.

The throughness thing is definitely something I've noticed. Transitions should improve gaits, not detract from them. And I feel like I have to rebuild the trot when we go from walk to trot. He should just pick up the trot I want. Tracey urged me to get him a little hotter off my leg, but this is always a tricky thing too, because TC is a naturally pretty forward horse and getting him hot of my aids can make him a little less rideable for me. So we played with the balance there.


The canter work was good for where he's at. Despite how far it has come in the last nine months or so that he's been back in my life, it's still for sure his weakest gait. My position was questionable in a couple of ways at the canter, which I think I've mentioned in the last couple of weeks. I really feel like I'm working against it. And that's because I am.

There were two major issues- one that in hopes of following his canter more, I messed up my seat. I need to think again to pull my seat back in the saddle on the upswing. I totally thought I was, but then I'd see a video and wonder why I seemed to be so against him. Old habits die hard, especially when I'm not taking lessons.

Yeah he's really upright

The other issue is an old old issue, like very old. I used to ride with a completely rigid left arm and floppy right arm. My right arm followed well, but my left one just jerked randomly. This was fixed in 2010 when I took a clinic with a trainer who really drove it home. Rico was so easy to ride at the canter that it didn't really come out on him. TC is more challenging, since the canter is bigger, so my stuck left elbow is back, along with the jerky left hand. So TC is developing a little bit of a wobble in his connection at the canter.

TC also has some of his own issues in the canter. The tempo was good but he did want to get charge-y down the long side. And he is rather resistant to oscillating his neck. Those are again related to his conformation. He wants to canter a little on the baroque side (though ugh with that warmblood trot, he is so bouncy) with his chess piece neck just sitting there and his legs moving wildly around his very still body. If we didn't cover some serious ground, I'd think he wasn't moving at all.

So we worked to get my hands working with his minimal oscillation rather than against it, and he felt really uncomfortable with that. He does not think that he should move his neck at the canter other than to just nod it or follow a jerky rein.

Lifting okay here but still leaning onto his chest/knee action

After the canter, we let him stretch. I knew I was going to get in trouble about the stretch circle, so I tried to ride it a little better. Unfortunately TC is used to me dropping the contact and him just dumping his face on the ground so he jerked the reins out of my hand and stretched down. Now, let me clarify that when I started riding this horse, his poll was at least a foot and a half above his withers at all times, so the fact that he will stick his nose down on the ground right now is fabulous in and of itself. But it's not a stretch circle.

Tracey emphasized him needing to a) stay very connected as he went down and b) lift his withers. This is another way that his conformation makes things tricky for us, because I just measured him the other day and he's grown again- he's 16.2. His butt hasn't grown since he was 16h. He's build really uphill and upright. So he can throw his head down and leave his hind legs out behind him and really play the part nicely of a horse stretching and staying uphill. But is he using the right muscles? No. Are we going to get 8s at First? Maybe. Is the stretch circle as it stands now helping me further his training? Nope. Soooo I need to ride better. That's pretty much always the answer.

Down in the base of his neck = not okay

Overall I was SUPER pleased with the lesson. It was really nice to dig into the connection and I left feeling like we still had a lot to do at Training level, but that all of that is going to set him up so so well for the future. But mostly I felt like it was the first lesson I've had where I genuinely thought that I was making my future FEI horse. And that was really empowering.