Backfire

Friday night it was quite windy, so TC was feeling a bit up on our little trail ride around the back loop, and that was the beginning of the end for our ride that night- our first truly bad ride since... March? February? So I can't really complain. I can analyze though, since that's what I do.

The ride started normally in the dressage court even after being a little concerned about the back loop. We had some great trot and canter work, and then I started riding Training 2, wanting to get some practice in. I had been going through the rated show schedule and looking into All Breeds to see what was possible this year, and had been feeling quite motivated.

Quick, get super pumped full of adrenaline about showing and
then translate that into anxiety into your sensitive horse and then
take it personally when he starts acting badly when it's only
been a few months since you got him rideable again!

It started with a small bolt across the diagonal. We had it out about that (mistaaaaake- I turned him in a circle and made him back up, then got on his case about not backing up in a straight line, something I've never gotten on his case for about) and then continued the test with him more on edge resulting in some bucking in the canter. Immediately after the first test, I started Training 3. And into the first corner he got really spooky and went to bolt again. I told him NO we do not bolt and put him in halt, doing some turns on the forehand. He reared, which I kicked him out of and he immediately landed and took off with me in the worst kind of way. Like, he was going VERY fast. And I'm sitting there like oh, no wonder this scared me this winter, this is really scary. He took a huge jump over the dressage court wall, nearly hit the arena wall as he turned down the long side, and he got within a foot of taking me out the gate before I got him stopped.

I tried to put him back to work but he was just beyond tense, so I hopped off and we did some ground work with a lot of backing up. After that, I let him stand for a little bit and just petted him. Then got on and we finished our ride with zero problems, including walking around the ranch on a loose rein.

So why. Why has he been so good for so long and then  suddenly and out of the blue, he's reverted?

Saturday after riding we went up to the Lick Observatory!

Well, that's the first problem- this is not out of the blue.

We've had some minor bolts in each ride for the last couple of weeks. No big deal. So on Friday when it was cold and windy and he got nervous about the back trail and I was all pumped up about the possibility of showing him, no wonder the minor bolting turned into less mild bolting. Did not set him up for success.

Then the reason why he's been having these issues the last couple of weeks is my seat. One big reason why he started to chill undersaddle was that I cooled my seat down. I know I need to sit better in the tack- he feels so much better like that, but I have to find a way to do it without heating him up. Honestly, he just needs miles to understand how to be physically full of positive tension without having his mentality deteriorate. That's going to take years to develop. I won't have my uber fancy horse for a long time unless I want rides like this and ulcers for both of us all the fucking time.

Then there's the problem with how I handled it when he did get on edge and was bolting. I fought with him. Not in a yanking kicking spurring whipping kind of way. I think he would have murdered me. But Kate and I talked about it and she reminded me that my idea of a 7/10 punishment when a horse does something wrong is like a 200/10 for TC. So while I might have thought my reining back or turn on the forehand work was a good way to punish the bolting behavior, TC gets amped up if you trot too soon after a canter transition so completely changing what he's doing and having my energy get irritated... Rico's version of that is if I suddenly grew nine arms and each arm had a whip on it except for one arm which was carrying a pig.

So cool, like ridiculously cool

 I absolutely, under no circumstance, can have any sort of argument with this animal, however small it may be. Never have I ever gotten what I've wanted out of him by escalating. He just escalates right back, and that's what happened on Friday. He doesn't get intimidated or give up and acquiesce, he wants to get away and will do whatever it takes to do that. He knows that by rearing he can get me to let go. He knows that by bolting I can't do anything. If he disliked work and praise, he'd be unrideable.

When I bought him, I knew this, but I didn't know what it would mean undersaddle necessarily. I heard a story about how someone cornered him in a paddock getting after him for something, probably for biting or something, and he literally ran through a wooden fence. He does not give up or give in, he just escalates until he escapes whatever is bothering him.

The saving grace of this horse is that he wants to please so much it hurts. He wants to be a good boy and get many pets and cookies, which means that he tries so so hard. When you're trying your best and someone is telling you you're not doing it right, that's frustrating. And he's always trying.

The view was incredible

So, if I'm going to show this horse, I can't let it make me impatient about things. It doesn't fucking matter if his canter transitions are perfect or if his halts are wiggly. Sure, we should be working to fix this stuff and we are, but I need to not get hasty. There's no deadline on these things, they don't have to be fixed by our next show. Especially at this level, he's doing fine, we did fine at our last show, even with slightly off the bit canter transitions and him looking at his fan club during the free walk.

The more I ride this horse the more I just feel grateful for Rico. Rico was not a mental ride. I could put pressure on him. If we got into a fight, it would work and I would win. Always. He was just a very stoic horse who was a bit lazy. A typical warmblood type. And so good for me when I was younger and less capable.

TC isn't a difficult horse (I'm pretty convinced that I'm not a good enough rider to take on a truly difficult horse, I'll leave that for the Charlotte Dujardins of the world), but I'm just still getting used to this type of horse. He is not tolerant. Well, he is in some ways, like he let me dress him up for his birthday. But I mean a change in my seat sent him back into bolting, and I really think that I'm a relatively quiet and unobtrusive rider. I certainly sit still and get out of the horses' ways. And it seems like as he gets better trained, he gets more sensitive (duh) since he was a lot more tolerant this last summer, or maybe it was the heat or the lack of fitness.

The fire hydrant was adorable

It's not a bad thing though, it means he's so much more in tune with me than Rico, which has been super fun. You can change the way he goes just by shifting your weight, he learns things super fast, and I've accidentally accessed some stuff that shouldn't even be in there (pirouette canter, and I randomly got a trot that I could totally see turning into a passage)... but I can't have the good without the bad. I can change the way he goes, from relaxed to bolting, by sitting differently. I can make him rear with a few poor decisions if I'm not careful. Decisions that wouldn't have even registered on Rico's radar.

He doesn't need kid gloves and he's not a special little snowflake horse who needs a special type of riding, he just needs to be communicated to in a proper way. There's no getting away with fighting with him or honestly, punishing him. Ever. The problem more lies on me, and it's not to say that I'm incapable, just that I'm having to switch my mentality over and that's tough.

I'm sure there are people out there, maybe the ones at the barn Friday night, who think TC just needs more respect. But "respect" is a human thing. Horses are just horses, they respond to behavior. TC responds to behavior differently than Rico. And I KNOW how to get him to respond well, so I need to not let my impatience about showing or hot seat push him too far.

Could see for days

Saturday morning after talking to Kate, reading a lot, ordering a book, and talking to bf who may not know horses but has been on the receiving end of extremely-motivated-Megan and also think's it's a bit much, I headed out to the barn with the goal of just having a good ride without any sort of corrections or fighting. If he did something wrong, I just ask again. If he spooks or bolts, I just ignore it. If I can't ignore it, I get off.

And he was perfect. No problems. Just went and did his work and we had a great and fun ride. I gave him Sunday off because I had a long rough day myself and didn't want to give any of that to him. And this morning I'll be going out to the barn to have a nice ride before work.

Lesson learned. We have no agenda (well, none that TC needs to know about), we'll just enter whatever tests we're ready for when the time comes to sign up for a show. Because it's important to me to make it through the levels with this horse. But it's a thousand million times more important to have a horse who has fun doing his job and wants to work for me. Because the alternative is some really scary shit!

I got myself a snow cone after Saturday's ride
as a reward for cooling my ass down

Until You Can't Get It Wrong

The last couple of lessons I've had have been super awesome. I always felt like I was at odds with my trainers and the level I was at, and to an extent my horse, because I was pushing so hard up the levels to get my medals. It feels really good to feel like part of the team rather than feeling like the person looking at the clock and shoving everyone along.

Since my first lesson, I've taken a step back from my put-on-all-the-movements mentality from the early spring and stepped back into where I was this last summer. I don't at all regret throwing all of the lateral work and a bunch of other movements on him (like he already has started on his changes, which I hope to perfect this fall/winter, no complaints having those started). But I'm really digging into the nitty gritty of the basics and assuring that I set them up in such a way that I don't have to have these little things that seem to follow me through all the levels. I feel like I'm taking on the quote someone said about not working until you get something right, but working until you can't get it wrong.

That tail

There are some key things that I've been working on that I wanted to write a bit about. Mostly because I love going back to these sorts of posts later and smile when I realize that I haven't had that one issue in months.

Connection 
Continuing the great work in the connection that Tracey has us focusing on. This is paramount to First level and probably the number one reason I backed off. He's still uncomfortable out in front of me. I could be ignoring that if I wanted to, and he'd probably eventually be fine out there, but I want him to gain enough confidence where it's not as much of a theme. With Rico the energy and roundness was always a theme, it followed us through the levels and we still got comments on it at the upper levels. With TC I want to eliminate the "behind the vertical" and "curling" comments before we get too far.

This is going to be really important for so so so many movements to be good. He can't do a good counter canter if he's btv. He certainly can't have anything like a medium gait while btv. He is going to have ugly changes if he's btv. He is not going to stay up to the bridle in the pirouettes. And to hell with piaffe and passage if the horse can't get his neck out. So we're going to fix this and we're going to fix it now. 

Obviously this needs work too so we're working on it every day,
definitely related to connection!

Transitions
They are for sure our weak point at this moment. I don't want to have the problem that I've had in the past at First where I still have a horse that walks a step into or out of the halt or at Second and beyond when the horse comes up off the bit for the first step into canter. I love the feeling of a horse that stays completely through in transitions, where the transitions can be used properly to improve the horse. Right now, TC's transitions don't improve him. They've stopped making things worse, and we can recover right away from the transitions if he gets a little braced, but I want every transition we do to create more and more throughness. And that isn't happening yet.

Specifically, here are the transitions we're working on (um it's all of them):

- Walk to trot transition. Need to focus on getting it without retracting his neck and coming slightly hollow. Currently he's not throwing his head toward me anymore, so that's progress. At this point I'm just really insisting that he stay up to the bridle and step into it when we go into trot.

- Trot to walk transition. He tends to want to get dead on the contact in the downwards, which is due to him not bending his hocks. So we're working on doing them within a little leg yield feeling or spiral out to get him to step under more and support himself. He also wants to slow way down in the walk right after the trot, so he's learning how to march after the transition.

- Trot to halt transition, and just square halts in general. These are bad. Not terribly bad, but every problem we have in the trot to walk transition is magnified in the trot to halt. I also once again regret not focusing on trick training the square halt prior to now. So we're slowly starting that now.

- Halt to trot transition. He stays connected for the most part, but we get real drunk coming into the trot. Not only does he need to figure out how to get the trot from the HALT and not from the walk, he also needs to stay straight. And that's hard. We struggle a touch with throughness as well, and I'm sure will struggle more with it once the transition is clean.

- Trot to canter transition. He still wants to get braced/hollow into this, it's MUCH better and I'm drilling it every day and figuring out how to communicate to him that he needs to stay through. One thing that is for sure is that when I ride the sitting trot properly, he is more likely to do it right. Um, duh.

- Canter to trot transition. These can be good or they can be TERRIBLE. He sometimes randomly just walks out of canter, and I know I will regret it, but I kind of just let him. I'm also using the spiral out feeling coming into trot, which gets his hind legs under him better, and Tracey recommended bringing his canter smaller. Sometimes that backfires because he stalls out, but for the most part a good half halt helps him quite a lot.

So good, but so much to do

Straightness and Suppleness
These are going hand in hand right now, as TC is straight when he is supple. This is all so much better- I keep forgetting which way is the hard way. But we're really focusing on getting his right hind better under him and getting me to give a bit more on my outside rein tracking left. He used to pop his shoulder so so much when tracking left that I tend to want to have a death grip on my right rein to prevent it. He's fine now, so I can chill.

I'm also using the mirrors to do some transitions on the long side to work on straightness and doing a LOT of changes of direction/serpentines to work on suppleness. Just keep swimming.


Sitting Trot
Finally, for me, I just need to get some muscle on me to learn to sit his trot. My back was quite painful the other day when I did a lot of it, so I'm trying to take it slow. I've been teaching more so I haven't had time to go to the gym or fit in other rides, so slow is key at this point to avoid me getting injured and having to take time off. His trot is getting easier for me to sit, so there is definitely hope!

Overall I'm having a good time fixing all this stuff. I'm really looking forward to the summer when we're a bit further along, but Training level schooling First (and er Second and a bit of Third) is a good place to be. 

Throwback Thursday- Must Love Dogs

 I miss writing about Rico on the blog. I feel like my memories of him and our time together are fading, which isn't true, but sometimes I feel so wrapped up in work, my commute, and TC that I just don't have any mental space for him. So I wanted to write some short little stories about him and share pictures that everyone has seen before.

I had Rico at the barn I worked at for a summer before he got hurt
and had to go off to rehab for his suspensory which eventually turned
into his DDFT problem that he needed surgery on. We did a lot of beach
conditioning so the dressage horse was invited. It was... kind of scary. Rico
hates waves and was very spooky. But he's the best horse so once he chilled
out then it was fun!

I used to ride Rico in the dark all the time. Bareback, apparently.
He was boarded at my parents' barn because I couldn't afford anyplace
else, and so I had to manage the arena completely- redoing the footing
when it would get hard or uneven, dragging, watering, etc. This meant
that I had less time to ride, so my rides got pushed into the dark. No
lights, so most of the time we rode by moonlight. 

Rico LOVES dogs, and Cooper loves any attention
he can get. Rico is always trying to cuddle with the
dogs at the ranch. TC also loves animals and cuddles
with the cats at his barn. I love these cuddly horses!

Second level was a really hard level for us, made harder by my
stupidity where I decided not to use spurs at this show. We still
scored okay, but it was definitely the beginning of the end in terms
of my training situation. After this show I took some time off of
dressage with Rico. 

I taught Rico to piaffe myself right in front of the barn. It took a
long time, but he was such a freakishly willing horse. He was the
first one I put piaffe on and I think I did an okay job with it. He
eventually learned to sit and we earned 7s on the piaffe at GP in
our last test. 

In October 2012, I showed Rico for the first time in three years,
for the first time since his "career ending" injury. It was a terrible
test, I was putting myself through school and saving for grad school
so I didn't take any lessons coming up to it. But I was so proud of my
62% at Fourth 1. And then I started riding with Tracey and raised my
scores into the mid 60s at Fourth and Prix St George. Yeah. Training
is a good thing! You can see how on the forehand he is (look at how
much his right front is under his body).

Obviously gotta add a picture from our first Grand Prix test. I
can't believe he did this for me, I really hope he's enjoying his
retirement because he deserves it!

Distinct Beats

The lesson on Saturday was so in depth that we need two posts to go over it! Last we left off, TC the old pro was being ridden by his stupid rider who wouldn't ride him like he's trained.

After the trot work, we took a short break, then headed into the canter. Not before I didn't get a nice lecture on my sitting trot, and, you know, how I should be doing it. I guess the "he's so young" doesn't work when you have a six year old. I think I did the right thing not sitting his trot regularly until now, his back is strong and he's confident in his forwardness.

The sitting trot is tough for us, and it stems from the bolting problem. I used to have a pretty hot seat. It was necessary for riding Rico- the more energy I could generate from my fire butt, the less energy I had to generate from my leg. And I needed all the energy I could get. So I sat on a horse like I was trying to lower myself down onto a bed of nails without getting stabbed.

He's kind of looking like a grown up horse now

TC taught me to not sit like that because it made him much more likely to bolt. I switched how I sat real quick- I relaxed my hip flexors, sat on the back of my seat bones, and tried to flatten my butt down onto the saddle as much as possible. It lowered my center of gravity and it kept me relaxed in the tack so TC was less likely to bolt and if he did, I was more likely to feel secure.

It's now just become habit. So when I was asked to sit the trot, I sat way, way too down. Instead of sitting down like that, Tracey had me add a bit of tone to my core and seat. First, that really helped get him forward since he was a little lazy that day and I thought I was safe from the fire breathing dragon he normally is in new places by using my small spurs. Second, holy shit his trot changed completely. She told me to let him bounce me up, which is really helpful. I spent years smashing Rico's trot down into something I could sit by sitting against the bounce and therefore restricting the moment of suspension. The second I left room for TC to come up into my seat, his trot transformed.

When I could sit his trot properly, I was permitted to canter. I've been struggling with the canter a bit recently. It's actually getting much better, like it's improving, but I can tell I still struggle with it because I low avoid doing it. Like I do it, but given the choice, I'll work on the trot right now.

Boo for slow internet and only getting one gif to work, but here
is my adorable horse from last night. 

The right lead felt pretty good though. Tracey said that his canter is looking good, but the next step is to bring the canter to a place where I have more adjustability at the top of his step. Basically he needs to let me keep him up a bit longer in the upswing so that his canter remains uphill. Eventually this is going to give me more control in his counter canter loops, which he does, but they can get a little quick.

And that's the other issue with his canter. I've talked about it before, where he tends to do the baroque thing where he whirls his legs around too fast and keeps his back tight. He's got to slow himself down a bit and really let the three beats be distinct. Tracey said that it wasn't that he had a lateral canter, which was my fear for so long after seeing his canter as a baby, but that he just gets quick and the beats run together.

We carried that same work into the left and got some SUPER work from him. Tracey actually said the word excellent to me and I had to remind myself not to stop riding.

This canter got the most praise from Tracey! I love how much he
is keeping his right hind under him and how clear the three beats
are, good pony. 

We ended the lesson after the excellent canter work to the left. I was really happy with how the left lead felt- it's been really tricky for both of us in the past. And I was just beyond impressed with TC being a good boy in a new place.

Without even thinking about it, I rode him down to the covered ring and did a lap down there. He was a little nervous but stayed with me and eventually relaxed. Then we walked all the way down the back road to the overnight stables and parking lot (where I totally didn't park, woops). 

He was TOTALLY fine the whole time and actually seemed to enjoy himself. I think that the lady who did the bombproofing clinic was right, he's a really curious horse. But he's just not sure of himself. The more I'm sure of myself in new places, the better, and he showed me that tenfold this last weekend.

I'm just so freaking proud of this horse, and really really glad that I moved him to the big paddock and started riding him again. This winter was tough but Saturday and all of our rides this spring have really made up for it and then some. 

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.