Horse Expo

It's been apparently three years since I went to the Western States Horse Expo! I last went in 2018. Then I had mono in 2019 and COVID canceled it in 2020. 

This year though, I was able to go! I opted to take Friday off to go so that I could preserve my weekend plans (as I didn't think it'd happen so didn't find out about it until I'd already made plans) and so that I could go with friends! 

While I was at expo, the SO rode his bike to the
bay and took this picture! I can't wait to go sometime

I didn't have anything major I wanted to get except tan knee patch breeches for jumping. Kate was at a B rated hunter/jumper show nearby and Flounder was showing (he placed in the 2'6 hunters with his junior! Such a good fish), so she said I could come take him in a class if I wanted to! I was very tempted except that I have NO showing clothes for jumping, and I've also only jumped him like four times. I told her next time for sure!

I figure if I do the jumpers (I am not a hunter and I'm a pro so no equitation for me), I can get away with a polo shirt or my navy dressage jacket, but there's no getting away with white full seat breeches (or bright green, or navy blue, or dark gray, or checkered blue, I basically have no tan breeches at all). 

Unfortunately I did not find breeches, but I did get a few other things! I finally picked up a ball for TC, I also got him some Equifuse conditioner (omg it smells so good) and rehydrinse. Plus I picked up a Hygain supplement, just a two week trial size one. 

This helmet actually fit me so I took
a picture of it!

I also sat in some saddles! There was a brand that actually carried the Butterfly saddles, but I ignored those, they just don't work with my back, which sucks. 

The one that seemed the most promising was a company called MaxFlex. They have a special tree that allows more shoulder flexibility, so that's helpful. Plus they hand make all their saddles and they were beautiful (and reasonably priced! $3,000-$3,500 brand new), really good quality leather. I sat in one and it felt wide and the block put me in a weird place. We spoke about what could be done and they said they could change the block if I wanted. That sounded good! I decided to hunt for a seat that wouldn't feel too wide to me. I sat in another couple and they were also fine. Then I sat in the one that LOOKED the widest and it felt really good! So I wrote that one down. I actually loved the block on that one too. 

I wished I could have just grabbed it but I'm still waiting on the EQ Saddle Science people and have high hopes for that saddle. But if for some reason that saddle doesn't work, I'll bring the MaxFlex people out, they said they'd be willing to come down to me (they're just a couple hours north). 

This was my favorite one, it felt wide
but it wasn't! 

We watched a few of the presenters in the afternoon. The dressage person was a bit hard for me to hear, so it wasn't that interesting (I mean, I see dressage all the time lol nothing against the riders). But we went to watch the same cavalletti clinician who I rode with in February! 

That session was fun, it was the same lesson/presentation format as the clinic I was in, but I was able to watch rather than ride. They did a great job getting a variety of horses, there was a horse who was clearly a jumper (who jumped the cavalletti the first time and it was beautiful), a cute little western horse, a horse that was a little nervous and tense, a horse that was a bit lazy, you know, lots of sorts! 

It was fun to watch how the horses all changed throughout the ride. There was nothing entirely groundbreaking for me just because I've been in the clinic before, but it was still fun! 

I also liked this so I took a picture of
it, if it was navy instead of black I
would have got it!

After expo, I got to see my friend's amazing garden and it was so inspiring that I went out and bought more plants over the weekend. Just herbs but I also talked to the SO about planting more things in the actual ground (I'm out of space in my beds lol) and he's game. Our house is going to be like the produce section of the grocery store soon. 

And after that, I drove home and went straight to bed lol but it was such a fun day! I'm bummed I never found my breeches, but my bank account was happy I didn't buy all the stuff I had thought I might (except then I went to the plant store saying "I didn't spend that much at expo soooo"). I still need knee patch breeches and some show stuff for jumping, but that can wait! 

Mischief Makers on the Trail

So on Tuesday, I decided to trail ride TC, just take him up the hill at the back of the pasture bareback. Once we have a saddle that is comfortable for me to ride in, I'll take him on the real trails, but for now, I can only really do a 45 minute ride (at most) bareback before my back complains. That's perfect for the trails at home! 

Surprise trail buddy!

I had an idea though, one I've had before, but I finally did it. I ponied Rico off of TC for our trail ride! 

See, there are some things I need in place before I get a second horse. Things like, find a new barn where I can have both of them closer to home, comfortably save the amount the second horse is going to cost me each month, and teach TC to pony other horses off of him. Part of having two horses means riding two horses and that's tough to do with a full time job. 

As an aside, did I put this much thought into buying TC? Absolutely not. 

To help with this, one of the things I decided was that I'd hack them out together at least once a week, if not twice. That means they both get out but it only takes me as much time as one horse would (or one and a half horses). I could do that maybe twice during the week and then alternate their days off on the other days during the week so the only days I'd ride both would be on the weekends. 

I dunno, haven't thought too far along, but I knew that I needed to make sure TC is happy to pony another horse before getting another horse. 

I just love this!

Rico hasn't been ponied before (to my knowledge), but he has been driven with another horse in his youth, and with TC and Rico now being good friends, I figured that they'd be fine together. And I was right! Sort of. 

I managed to get on TC while leading Rico, so that went smoother than I thought. Then Rico dragged TC and I over to the grass to graze. Poor TC was just pulled along by my bodyweight leaning off to the side as Rico went to basically yank me off of him to get to food. I managed to get Rico to stop grazing and we headed down the road, Rico in the lead.

About half way down the road I realized that I had no idea how I was going to turn these weirdos around as I had almost no control over Rico. I think Rico thought I'd just invited him along and was going to turn him loose or something. He dragged TC and I down the road and I have to hand it to TC, he was SO GOOD after I told him not to bite Rico's butt as he charged past us. 

I managed to get them to stop and then turned TC around and dragged Rico with me. He wanted to stop and stare at something so I got TC out in front of him like normal ponying should go. But then Rico inserted his nose into TC's tail and decided that's what we were going to do now. Again, TC is just the most wonderful creature because he just accepted that without even hesitating. No kicking, slowing down, squealing, whatever, just put his ears back on me as if to be like "is this fine? yes? okay" and we continued. Then Rico decided to trot up alongside us and try to cut us off again, pinning TC and I under a tree near a fence. TC, again, just ignored this and kind of pushed Rico away from him with his shoulder when I steered TC into him. Add herding feral Grand Prix horses to his list of accomplishments. 

Rico charging ahead and TC
checking in with me lol

I took them back to the ranch and we walked around the pasture (not up into the hills, those are too steep for Rico and the trails are a bit narrow for two horses). Rico alternated between ponying normally, getting ahead of us and trying to bushwhack his way through the pasture, and yanking my arm to graze. 

We did end up kind of getting the hang of it after a while! It's just the first time and Rico had his leather halter on, we'll definitely use the rope halter next time. 

Even so, I had a blast despite the chaos. TC was amazing and I absolutely can see him being the perfect horse to pony my next horse off of so they can get out together. I can even see him being good enough to pony my new horse while my niece rides with me (either double on TC or on my new horse depending on how new horse is with her!). What a good boy, I am so lucky to have him in my life. 

Rico obviously had SO MUCH FUN! He was grinning the whole time and seemed to love being a troublemaker. With Rico's driving background and TC's pure soul (I've never seen him kick at another horse), I never once was worried about the situation. Hopefully Rico gets a little more... compliant... as we do this more, but I don't honestly care. He deserves to be a pest! 

WW: Wild Child(ren)

Rico has gotten a bit... jealous... of TC. I feel bad for him because he doesn't get out nearly as much as TC does (because he's got pretty serious neck arthritis and the only thing he wants to do is go in the trailer to a new trail), so I've been sneaking him special cookies whenever I can. 

That hadn't stopped him from disliking TC, especially when they started living next to one another. 

But TC is not one to give up on friendship. He is relentless in his desire to be best friends with everyone and I think interpreted Rico's harassing of him to be playing. So Rico would harass TC and TC would play with him in turn. TC thought that was great and decided to just follow Rico around. Rico would go out to pasture and there was TC, following him out. Rico would come in for a drink and TC would come in too.

After a while, Rico finally gave up and it actually seems like the two of them enjoy each others company now! 

My mom caught some video the other day that I compiled into a short video, skip toward the end to see some theatrics from Rico, the old man still has plenty of spunk left in him (even if he refuses to do anything in the arena these days). 

Less Restricted

TC saw his acupuncturist for the first time in a couple of months and I'm still bummed that I wasn't able to be there. Unfortunately (well, they weren't unfortunate) the SO and I had made plans for the afternoon and so instead, my mom offered to meet the acupuncturist because I was giving one of the slots to her to use on Riot. 

I got an update by text and then got his sheet a few days later. It was a really good update!

First, she said that TC was the most relaxed she's ever seen him (she has only seen him at my old barn, this was the first time seeing him at the ranch), which is really exciting for me! I love that he's relaxed at the barn and I feel like he's getting a little bit better about bodywork these days. 

There's so much to do to take this and turn it back
into a Third level horse but I like where we are!

The other exciting thing was that his right shoulder had the least restriction, even less restriction than his left shoulder! I'm not sure what is causing that, there are a lot of variables at play here. First, he's in pasture, so he is moving around a lot more (he walks back and forth from his pasture to his stall at least 5x/day if not many more than that). Second, he's not being ridden in my saddle anymore, which I'm fairly positive was causing some of the shoulder issues in the past. And third, I've been doing those exercises that the new bodyworker gave me! One of his exercises specifically gets the right shoulder more up and mobile. 

TC had a little bit more tension and a trigger point in his deltoids, which are in front of his shoulder at his mid neck. I think that's just him using them for the first time in like, years right now. He's packing on muscle in that area so I bet he's just a bit body sore there. 

He also had some right side SI/LS issues, which again is interesting as the left side (if I'm remembering correctly) has been an issue in the past. I'm wondering now if he's just using his body more symmetrically and so that LF/RH diagonal pair is struggling a bit with that? Who really knows. None of it was serious or anything. 

The final exciting thing was that he apparently let her do his stifle points without freaking out. The first time she tried getting his left stifle done, he wouldn't let her do it. The second time he was uncomfortable at first. This time he was apparently fine! We've been climbing hills more regularly now and he has a small hill in his paddock that he has to climb every time he comes in from the pasture, so maybe that's helping! He definitely feels super sound to me. 

Can't wait to see him gain strength for the collected
work again! 

I'm so glad I have these amazing professionals to help me get TC back to where he was (or, let's be honest, better than where he was before). I'm excited that it seems like we're on the right track right now. Between the move to the ranch, more hill work, not using my saddle anymore, the new bodyworker, and my wonderful acupuncturist, I think we are on a roll here. 

Looking back over the last year of confusion, treating for ulcers, changing supplements several times (I didn't put this in the list but the Platinum CJ has been amazing for him, his coat has never looked better), seeing multiple vets, multiple trainers... I've felt crazy a lot of the time. It's not totally obvious and it took me a while to see what the problem was and took me a lot longer to figure out what was causing it (still not totally sure lol). I feel really grateful to have all these people (and my friends and family) who believed me and are willing to work with me to help TC feel his best. 

Can't wait for another acupuncture session and to get a saddle so I can feel this amazingness for real! 

Well Lifted

TC and I are still in a bit of a holding pattern. Getting the tracings for the EQ Saddle Science people has proven to be a really tough thing to do for a variety of stupid reasons (mostly on my end). So that will eventually happen and then we'll try that saddle for two weeks and then hopefully all will be well and we'll be back to our regular programming and I'll just be a bit poor. 

In the meantime, I mentioned I've been long lining with the bands and riding him bareback. But this week I was feeling like I wouldn't be a crazy person if I rode him for "real" so I did! I used Rico's awful trail saddle, which is not much more than a bareback pad with stirrups. It makes my back sore and I'm sure does nothing for TC, so I don't like riding in it regularly. But it was fun to just hop on and kind of pretend that things were normal again. 

Lifting through his chest for sure!

Whenever I take a break from clicker training, I always forget how effective it is. So getting on him after really just long lining and clicking for good posture was a TRIP. I've essentially clicker trained myself out of having a rideable horse gaits-wise while simultaneously clicker trained myself out of needing to have a rideable horse because he just knows where to put himself and doesn't need my input to do it. 

I took videos for the first time in a while and it was surprisingly great. Previously, I'd been evaluating them to the point of making myself crazy, so I stopped videoing for a while. I told myself I wouldn't be disappointed if he looked terrible because he's out of shape and I'm out of shape and who even cares anymore. 

Turns out I was actually really pleased with how he both felt and looked! 

Getting a bit of fancy shoulder going on

He just feels... great! He feels confident reaching for the connection, he feels loose through his back, he feels up through his withers, there's not enough good words out there to describe it. The canter to the left was the only time where I felt some of his weird sucking back, but that's fine, it wasn't like the posture was bad, it was just tricky to ride. 

Obviously we are still very much at a Training or First level frame and we are still just trotting and cantering around a bit. I'm not quite sure how to structure the move back toward Third level. I mean, there's absolutely no rush. I put all my goals away this year and am focusing on making progress on some personal goals instead (and also just continuing to recover from the pandemic). 

The left is tough but that's okay

My thoughts are to stick with this work for a month after we get the new saddle to just make sure that nothing is going wrong with the saddle and pack some muscle on him. Some basic lateral and longitudinal suppleness work and transitions. The idea is to not let him go back to his old posture no matter what, so the work needs to be easy for him for a while so that I can reward the crap out of him for holding himself in the correct positioning. 

Then after that month, start to work back in the lateral work, especially the shoulder-in, which should help with the collection. 

At some point I'll do some lessons with... someone. Not sure if I'll try to find someone remotely or locally. I might go ride with some of the trainers I've ridden with who are local and see if me fixing TC's connection will allow them to help me more effectively. Or I might just try to find someone who can catch the connection issue early on. It may end up being a combination, have someone to work on the basics with and then someone who can push us along who may not notice a subtle connection issue starting (which is what I think happened previously). 

This kind of air time is plenty for good changes!

I'm trying not to get too ahead of myself. The EQ Saddle Science saddle is going to be the first one (I guess second if you count the butterfly saddle) on what could potentially be a long, painful saddle finding process. Then it's a long process to bring him back. Even with the right saddle, there's a lot of muscle that needs to be rebuilt and a lot of bad patterns in his body from the last year and a bit. 

At the end of the day, where we are at right now is really exciting and I'm hopeful that we will have a saddle soon(ish) that will allow us to continue the rebuilding process!

Old Habits Die Hard

 So I took a couple weeks off from jumping (due to burn out for the most part) but then got back to it last week!

I was excited to ride Flounder because while I hadn’t practiced at all, I had been watching more jumping videos (there was an event last weekend so lots of my IG people were schooling the last few weeks) and felt like I was ready to really push myself a bit more. All the residual fear from the last few lessons was gone now that I was more secure in my position and I was ready for a good challenge. 

It’s like Kate could tell because she hiked up the fences on me last week! 

We began with working over some small fences, focusing on a few bad habits of mine. First, my inability to get my weight out of my stirrups and second, my inability to not arch my back if she asks me to do anything with my position. Both are previous patterns I was told to do over and over and over again as a kid. 

Such a good fish

The arched back is REALLY interesting to me because in the last three or so years, I've went from a hollow backed rider to a round backed rider in the dressage. TC requires a lot of front line activation and he's my primary horse so I have slowly let that influence me. But suddenly, even after strengthening that front line SO MUCH on him and letting my back line lengthen and weaken, you put me into a jumping position and I arch my back again. 

Every single thing that Kate says to me throughout the ride somehow makes my back more hollow except when she tells me to flatten it. She put me in my jumping position and asked me to lengthen my thigh (for the slingshot) and I arched my back. She asked me to close my armpit at the back and I arched my back. She asked me to push my hips back in the air and I arched my back. Everything that isn't telling me to not arch my back arches my back. So I'm doing a lot of exercises at home and on TC dealing with that.

Go Flounder! 

The weight in the stirrups thing is a bit more understandable. I've been told to get my heel down, my leg down, my knee off the saddle, and my toe out as long as I can remember jumping horses. It's amazing how insecure that position feels in comparison to the one Kate wants me to have, yet I still default to it like crazy! 

A lot of the time when the biomechanics work makes riders feel really secure, they have an easier time making that change in the long run. Kate's Mary inspired jumping position makes me feel like I'm NEVER coming off a horse, even if the horse were to stop in the dirtiest of manners, and yet I abandon it when I see a jump coming. 

Putting my weight into my thigh in jumping stirrups has been a mind trip, but wow I have so much influence over the horse over the fence. And Flounder is perfect for this. As the jumps went up (we topped out at 2'9 I think), I had complete control over how he jumped the fences. 

If I got my slingshot on, I could put him onto his haunches without touching his face and therefore it'd give him a bit more of a bascule and I could see my distances every time. If I kept my elbow loose and relaxed, he'd jump up through my hand better and have a neater front end (you can see this in those two pictures). If I kept my core engaged, I'd have a huge amount of influence on the back side and didn't feel like I needed to make crazy moves to get him to go straight afterward. All of this depended on me getting out of my stirrups because that raised my center of gravity, causing me to lock my elbow and drop my core. 

Don't worry, TC will always be my best friend and
dressage partner!

Jumping has been so fun! I'm excited to continue and am starting to make plans for what I want in the future because that's just who I am. I love Flounder, but he's one who can get around 3' without so much room to spare that you can ride like a monkey to the jumps (rude lol). He's perfect for now because he makes it so obvious when I make a mistake and I feel like by the time I can jump him around a 3' course without any mistakes, I'll be pretty much set for a variety of horses. But for my next horse, I want something that can take a lot of jokes at the meter level. 

Kate and I discussed that and she agreed that Flounder is perfect (in general) for this year and then next year we'll look for something a bit more talented (no offense to the most perfect Flounder!). Could I handle that horse now? Yes, I'd like the horse to be one that my niece can ride (or that would be an easy lease to a pony clubber) and that my mom can ride a bit on the trails with me. But Flounder is perfect for now and he's letting me get my sea legs back while I save all my dollars for the new horse and get myself situated (seeing as I need both horses at the same place and closer to me, so we'll have to go barn hunting sooner or later). 

Yay for jumping Flounder though! 

Long Lining in the Meantime

This last weekend I got the EQ Saddle Science measuring kit so I measured TC and sent the measurements to them. So now it's just the waiting game until they bring me a saddle to try for two weeks. It's fine to wait IMO, my burnout is getting better but I'm still trying to do a little less and take the pressure off myself and that includes with riding too. I feel bad because I think TC really misses being in full work. He had about a week where he was like "go away, I love my pasture" but now the pasture seems to be less interesting than I am. 

This is where I'd like him to be all the time

This is where he likes to be right now, which is
fine, he's still IFV and tracking up, it's just lower

I've been doing a lot of stuff with him though, but very limited dressage until the saddle comes. In the mean time though, we've been doing bareback rides with the equibands, bareback trail rides, and long lining! 

The long lining has been really cool because there's nothing restricting his shoulder AND I can see him. So I can encourage him to change his posture, know that he can do it, and reward him immediately for trying. 

My main goal is to get him lifting through the base of his neck, as that was the main issue last year. I figure if I reward him for doing it on the long lines, that he'll become strong enough where that's where he wants to be. I am also giving him a voice command ("up") and trying to pair the two so I can say that undersaddle too. 

Such a good boy

He went left first and then right so the right ended
up being better

I was pretty surprised by how quickly he caught on what I wanted him to do. Soon he was pleasantly in front of the vertical with his neck lifted and then I could send him into it to get him to flex his lumbosacral joint. I did a bunch of bending exercises too and the more supple he became, the easier it was for him to really lift through his back. 

He was able to get that in canter too and I could send him on without him coming against me (an issue we have in the canter undersaddle). This was cool because it unlocked a whole new canter! He looked SO good in it that the first time I saw it, I didn't even let him continue for a stride longer, I clicked on the first stride and he halted to get his treat. After that, he surged back into canter to try again and then I had him hold it for a few strides. 

By about 30 minutes in (15 mins each direction), he was so tired. He took a nap when I hosed him down. But I could SWEAR that three days later he had another layer of muscle on him. 

Look at that neck and reach with the inside hind!

Also teaching him to set back on his hind end with
a hand on his chest

I rode him yesterday in Rico's weird bareback pad with stirrups, which I know 1000% isn't the right thing to ride in because bareback pads with stirrups are bad for backs. But I was super curious to do a short ride and see how he felt. I stayed out of my stirrups and mostly supported myself with my thigh (like I'm supposed to lol). 

He felt absolutely fantastic! So much better in the contact and so easy to maneuver. I was chatting with my friends last week saying that TC used to feel like he was an extension of my own body and just like moving myself around, I could just think about moving him and he'd move. Over the last year and a bit though, he's become more foreign to me and I think this is because of the saddle fit issues (among other things). 

We still aren't 100% back yet by any means, but this was one of the first rides where I got glimpses of what used to be. I could get my suction on him well and make changes with intention rather than aids.