2019 Year in Review

January kicked off a slow start to the year. Opie celebrated his sixth birthday and only got ridden a few times, but kept his #childgenius title by not losing any of his training. Right at the end of the month he got cast in his stall and ripped a giant gash in his ankle that required half a dozen stitches.

That meant February was even slower. He spent the first half of the month healing before going back to work with a lesson. I wanted to focus on our horrible canter transitions, but things ended up going in a different direction and it led to Opie getting even more sporadic work while I tried to mentally deal with The Suck of training a young horse by yourself.

In March we started doing concentrated dressage rides, and continued to struggle with the canter--both the transitions and the gait itself. I started introducing him to the concept of sitting trot and ran through our First level tests for the first time ever. He also got hitched and driven around the driveway for the first time since the previous year and was a total gem about the whole thing.

The Spring Stupids set in in April. He kicked off the year by having a random violent freak out while half attached to the cart which broke the shafts, parts of his harness, and scraped up all four legs. We spent the rest of the month working on some core basics: straightness, contact... not rearing on the ground or under saddle just because your BFF called to you. I introduced him to a dressage whip which helped considerably in keeping him from laying on my leg.

Our first show of the year was the first weekend in May, and it was also Dopie's First Level debut. He was a complete tool at the trailer, and a complete tool warming up for the first test, but he settled in by the end and finished second and first with a 64% and 67%. We had a big set back in attitude and rideability afterwards though that led to me start supplementing him with magnesium and UGard. That did the trick, and we started working hard on developing a real trot lengthening--although not with much success.

The first half of June was a big block of rated shows. Opie was back to his perfect show horse self and laid down three 66% tests and one clunker in the first weekend of showing. The following weekend was our first overnight show and he laid down three 60ish% tests which was still enough to win his last test of the day and a high point award. I dealt with rail birds that put a massive dent in my self confidence for the rest of the season and blew a trailer tire on the way home. We finished out the month with lots of trail rides and a hunter pace in between trying to fix the broken leg yields while also preparing for a move up to Second.

Opie made his Second Level "debut" in July in a Ride A Test clinic type thing. We scored a 62% and then a 60% on the re-ride after listening to our judge gush over all things Opie. Her takeaways were that it's all in there, it just needs to develop. We got ready for his rated debut at Second by doing a hunter show where he was obvi the cutest thing alive. In his first real go at Second he did his very Dopie best and came away with a 61%. We did well enough to place in all four tests despite, in ongoing fashion, a couple rider errors.

We did two schooling shows for my GMO in August. Opie showed his vast displeasure about getting rained on in the warm up at the first show, but he won all three tests (1-1, 1-3, 2-3) and was high point for the entire show. In between that show and the next, we worked hard on straightness (still) and I implemented the mandatory once a week stretch-only ride which is still in affect. The second show was in the coliseum at the state fair grounds where Opie was less tense than last year, but not relaxed enough. His lateral work was super locked up, but we managed well enough for second in both First tests and reserve champion at Second. I finished out the month by having a horse jump off my toe which left a giant wound and several breaks in the bone.

The broken toe meant No Stirrup September. While I had to miss out on the last GMO show of the year, a hunter pace, and a cross country schooling, we did an absolute shit ton of trail riding instead. Hubby also taught Opie to rope!

With my toe finally healed enough to fit in a boot, I got back from a trip to Oregon with my mom in October and the very next day BM and I took the boys cross country schooling. Opie lacked some confidence to start and took serious offense to one particular pile of logs, but he did his first water, banks, and ditches all without problems and finished the day like a good boy. The next weekend we went hunter pacing where we had a rider fall off her naughty mount towards the end which led Opie to carry her the rest of the way back like the #childgenius he is. We continued with our jumping fun and worked through some grids for the first time.

We officially wrapped up show season in November with a hunter show where there was some slightly questionable jumping going on, but we got 1st-6th in six classes. We finally found the sweet spot in relaxation in the lateral work and now solidly have SI, HI, leg yield, and half pass.

December moved the focus to longitudinal work, aka developing a real medium trot. We're still in trial and error over this, but it's starting to show promise. Halfway through the month, Opie started getting girthy and dropping nervous poop splats right before tacking up so I stopped everything and decided to give him the rest of the month off. Unfortunately for him, the work is going to just keep getting harder and the pressure is going to rise so I need to make sure I take care of him mentally as well as physically.