Dopie Does Jumping

Opie has been feeling really great in our work ever since we quit lessoning with DL. So. That is what it is, whatever it is. 

The flat work has been super productive and has made me super happy, but it's nothing too exciting to write about. The jumping has all the sudden been a blast. In total dressage nerd fashion, the best part about it for me is that forever and ever 2'3" was our happy place. Now that the dressage has gone to a new level, 3' is our happy place. There was no need for the in-between heights because he's so strong and sure of his body with the flat work, it carries over to fence height.

3' oxer easy peasy

His dressage sessions haven't been particularly long, but they've been intense so I only try to do a couple a week. A good warm up ride before jumping is another sneaky, easy flat work ride before he gets to do the fun of jumping. We've also been doing tons of hacking out after rides, so I feel like the mental aspect for both of us has become so much better.

3'3 also fun and easy

love a giant X

Yesterday--after breaking my tripod so being unable to set up my Pivo on Wednesday--I had Hubby come out to get some media. Because I'm me, the first few jumping attempts were a hot mess. Hubby was smart enough to be like, "Don't take this the wrong way, but you're pulling on him so bad before the fence." Which was a good reminder that his canter has been amazing lately, so get that canter and then just let it ride. Unsurprisingly, once I stopped pulling and just let him roll, everything was perfect from there on out.

An end to that chapter

Two weeks ago I parted ways with DL. There were many varied reasons.

Emotionally: Driving home from the last lesson I ended up taking with her, I was in tears because I felt like Opie is too complicated of a horse and I'm never going to be able to be a good enough rider to correctly figure him out. I was struggling with, "Do I sell him to find something easier? Do I change disciplines? Do I settle with the fact that we're never going to be successful at Third level? Because clearly I'm not fixable enough to get on a difficult horse's level."

I asked Opie's bodyworker AV (who is obviously also a friend) to come out and just get on him for me to give me her opinion. Does he really suck that much? Do I suck that much? Is it my fault, his, what's your read on the situation basically. She agreed, but had me come over and watch her lesson with another local trainer beforehand. 

A lot of what SG (her trainer) said during her lesson was similiar to what DL taught in mine. Leg yielding on a circle, palms up to bring the elbows in, sit in the saddle, etc. But the delivery was so much more positive and upbeat, like SG was riding along with you every stride. 

AV's take on Opie was that he's more trained than her own horse who she's had for 10+ years, has worked with a trainer with the majority of that time, and just finished out her Bronze on. Which, like, he really is. But her horse goes around on the contact as steady as they as they come and AV is a beautiful rider which is a big part of the picture, especially for showing. When she was done, she told me I needed to give myself a lot more credit because Opie is trained. He's super sensitive to the seat, and he does literally all the things he needs up to this level (minus sane changes...more on that later). She did think I should try out different bits because she felt like his mouth/jaw was the only area where she was feeling tension.

After watching her lesson, talking through her ride on Opie with her, and a lot of thinking for a few days, the big emotional conclusion I came to was: If my trainer makes me feel like I have to sell my horse to be able to ride--and even then....ehhh, you're a mess--that's probably not the right trainer for me. Especially when I have already taken him successfully through Second all by myself.

Professionally: Practically speaking, too, there was the issue of the earliest any lesson of mine ever started was twenty minutes late. DL would change my start time to accommodate things she needed to get done, which in theory was fine. I'm lucky enough to have a very flexible schedule so I could arrive whenever she told me, but we'd never actually start at that time. She taught a lesson before me that would drag into mine for sometimes 30+ minutes. Most of the time she'd give me the full 45 minutes to an hour once we did start, but the last lesson she left me hanging having accomplished absolutely nothing because she had a doctor's appointment to get to. 

Show Goals: Watching SG teach, everything was tying into what AV's goals were. You need these scores for this program? You want to try this test by the end of the year, and this one next season? Bam bam bam here's how we're going to accomplish that--with really good training and exercises, but they're aimed at test riding. That was never the case with DL, and it's something I went in really, really wanting. Of course I want to be a better rider, but I crave a tangible goal and I like showing. I also don't really care about scores aside from getting the coveted 60%. My idea of a successful show is a couple of those and rides I'm happy with. It felt like DL only wanted you in the ring if you were riding around like an Olympian. (Which, as an aside, is funny because I finally dug up her USDF lifetime score record. Dismal. Certainly shouldn't be discouraging people to get in the ring and try the thing.) Now I feel like I've blown an entire show season getting mind fucked by my trainer.

In the end, I do feel like I'm taking a lot away from my time with her. She did give me plenty of exercises to work through problems, and I feel like I needed that refresher kick in the ass of weekly eyes on me, but the past two weeks of not lessoning have been amazing. Both Opie and I are so much more relaxed in the work at our own pace. 

I've been riding in the double a little bit while waiting for some new snaffle bits to try, and I remembered how good he is in it. We've been working on the changes by asking for them down the long side out of the counter canter. Having the wall there kind of holding his proverbial hand has been super helpful and he's been so quiet with them. I'd call the R-L confirmed and the L-R a bit late behind, but unflustered while we work through it. I'm even able to canter him across the diagonal, give a half halt when he tenses anticipating a change, and have him actually half halt and carry on waiting for me to ask something. 

Mentally we're where we need to be right now. I don't think he's a lock for that 60% at 3-1 yet which pretty much erases what's left of the season unfortunately, but oh well. Live and learn. I'd like to lesson with SG myself but she's very expensive and not in the budget right now. So we'll go back to carrying on by ourselves for the foreseeable future, and hopefully by next year I'll have a better plan in place for our Bronze.

Sit down. Again.

I sent DL our test video so we could go over it at my lesson on Friday. She asked what I thought first. He was predictably distracted, the entirety of the canter work was a write-off, I feel we can do better, but overall it went about how I expected: meh.

Her leading thought was that I never stood a chance. He went in with his back hollowed out, and where most horses would have maybe halted like a fool once you put them to work they would go to work. Which Opie did not. Once. She also pointed out that I never really SAT in the saddle which is something that even when I feel like I'm sunk into him it's not enough. Watching the test again, agreed though. Really kind of frustrating I'm still such a bad rider, but what are you going to do except keep on trying, right?

The lesson turned out to be a "Fuck you, Opie, DO WORK" lesson which was amazing on my end lol. After not getting off my leg for shit, she put us on a circle and asked for leg yield out. Opie was deaf to all aids so DL went and got a pair of roweled spurs to swap out my swan neck spurs with. They were short shanks, but as she was swapping them out she held up my 2" shanks and waved them in front of Opie saying, "We can always put rowels on the end of these!" Might be time to sharpen up, good sir.

Back to the circle we went. First ask with the calf, and if when he didn't respond, stabby stabby with the rowels, and then hang the leg. Repeat, repeat, repeat because he's inherently lazy AF, but finally it clicked in his head that if he just moved off my calf he wouldn't get stabbed. He was much better tracking right than left because the LH does not like doing work ever. Meanwhile I got complimented on the best sitting trot I'd ever done, so at least someone was carrying the weight!

We finished up in the canter. I told her he was better super round and collected and letting him out from there so we worked on collection while she also drilled me on SITTING IN THE SADDLE. Ughhhhhh SO HARD to do without shutting him down.

We chatted at the end and I told her I felt like my hip flexors were again so tight and sore, and she said it was because I wasn't sitting broad across my seat bones so to balance myself I'm using my hips/inner thighs. Make my leg long, sit on my seat, use my core, and my hip flexors won't be screaming. Mind. Blown. Such a good visual for me.

Saturday he had off, and then Sunday we went for a trail ride with Farrier and puppies at a new to us place. Walk only because puppies, but lots of walking and a good mental break for the both of us.

Today I wanted to jump and there was a course set up in the outdoor. I put everything up a couple holes (from the elevated ground poles that they were) and made sure to get him super in front of my leg on the flat. That included a couple taps with the jumping bat which made his slightly pissed which led to him being rabid the first few attempts at jumping. We did every jump as singles doing: jump, land, pulley rein to halt, repeat. That go through to him that we don't just throw our head and blindly run at jumps with no plan and we were able to finish on a nice course.

Back to dressage land tomorrow!

GVRDC Twilight Dressage

Our prep for this "show" was less than satisfactory. I somehow broke the canter last week--I couldn't get him on the bit for the upward transitions, or get him to come round until the very end of the ride after a ton of work--and even in our lesson we didn't get far on fixing it. DL is trying to change my seat. She wants me to not be so tight in my hips which usually leads to inadvertently blocking, and she wants me to deepen my seat. My hips need to move for sure, but Opie it not feeling the sitting deep thing. It instantly shuts him down. So I'm trying to figure out a compromise there.

I worked hard at the canter over the weekend, really pushing him to use himself and sit down so the 10m circles were possible. It worked in that it made him feel better in the changes, but everything still just felt like it was coming up hot and fast and mildly out of control.

We took a barn mate with us to the show. They were scheduled to ride right around the same time as us, just in the other ring which was in a far away field partially hidden by a hedgerow. They kept on walking while we stayed to start warm up. This naturally upset Opie greatly, even though there were several other horses warming up with us.

I gave us thirty minutes of warm up, and all of it was spent getting him to relax. A lot of walking until he asked to pick up the trot on the own, and then lots of big circles and changes of direction until he could un-gumby his neck and take a breath. Some canter that wasn't great but at least under control, more walking while I tried to sneak in some SI, HI, and half pass--none with much success. I remembered to do a couple TOH right before we went in, and he did feel like he took a breath so I was hopeful.

Then we went around the ring, Opie caught sight of the other horses in the field next to our ring, and up came the periscope and away went any relaxation we'd achieved.

The test could have been worse. For the first outing of the season, at a very distracting venue, doing a level he's still super green to, it wasn't awful.

The judge was one of those judges that wants everyone to have a very positive schooling show experience and her scores are always way overinflated. So we got tons of 7s for things that should not have scored that well, but her comments were super and that's what I'm always here for. 

extended walk: "inconsistent contact"
LOL at least she didn't comment on the side eye

There were some good moments. Like his SI is miles above where it was at Second and it's even better with DL so that score can go up, and his medium and extended trots are getting really good for him.

It scored a 62% which on paper should make me think we're ready for Houghton, but nah. It's still too sloppy on both our ends for that much money. Instead we're going to stick with these shows and maybe get wild and do a couple of our GMO's shows. I do think mileage is going to be good for both us. We do better by doing.

This morning I was like, "Ughhh I don't really want to ride but we need to fix the canter and the half pass there's work to do!!" Fortunately a barn mate saved me by coming super early, helped me finish turnout, and then went on a trail ride with me.

opie converted another one to splashing. he loves
when he finally gets them to play with him.

The trail ride was super relaxing, he got to have a splash party, and then we went to the outdoor. Some long and low trot with poles thrown in, and then I got him low and super deep in the canter while in half seat and did the (simple) pole exercises a bunch of times. His canter was lovely and soft with his back up and a big step so that will probably be a good exercise to help us in the future. 

Overall a much more pleasant and productive ride than what I originally had planned!

Test Run

I decided to enter Twilight Dressage this upcoming Tuesday as a litmus test on whether or not I want to shell out the big bucks for Houghton. As such, I cleared the indoor of all obstacles this morning and did our first full run through of 3-1 in apporximately eight million years.

Yesterday he felt relaxed and supple, but I didn't do much real work....because the day before that we spent an hour and a half working solely on the flying changes. It was typical carnage. The simple changes held much promise, but I tapped him once with the whip when he continued to be lazy and either trot through them or be late behind which naturally set of the histrionics. Ironically I ended up asking him for the change from E to B and vice versa and got a clean one each direction back to back. Apparently they're powered by rage. 

This morning he was feeling a little lazy in the trot, but went bigger when I asked and I think I've got a good warm up figured out to save both of us enough for a test. The canter, however, required a lot of fixing. Even to the right which is generally his stronger direction was eight million c/w transitions and not a single one was on the bit. To the left we had to do a lot of counter canter because the left lead has been dreadful lately. Fortunately I know how to make the counter canter really good thanks to DL and it improved the gait some. A few half passes and shoulder in also got it where it needed to be. 

We did a couple turns on the haunches that--dare I say--are getting pretty good, and then picked up the sitting trot to start the test.

He's been kind of a wiggly dick about halting lately, but we came up center line and he immediately perked up. It was actually kind of adorbs. Halt at X was square, immobile, and never came off the bit. Sir was like, "It's been a year, lady, but I know this game!"

SI both ways was supple and easy--thank you for the never ending drilling, DL, lol. Half pass was a little sticky which I was thankful for because it ended up taking us the correct amount of time to get to the rail. Knock on wood for this as well, but the medium trot is so easy to sit lately. Again, DL's influence.

Then the halt at A was a mess. I had to haul him to a stop which made his head come up which made him mad, and then he wanted to sneak in the fifth step when we only need four. Extended walk good. We did the TOH twice because the first time was just a bit sloppy and I knew he could do better without getting pissed. 

Canter depart was YUCK. He went right into the medium canter and super easily came right back, but the 10m circle was sloppy and he broke to the trot at X for the change. Whatever, I just asked for the new lead and carried on. Extended canter good, 10m circle better, and I kept him bent left coming across the diagonal until we'd safely crossed X and asked for the change--WHICH HE THEN GAVE ME NO DRAMA CLEAN AS A WHISTLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was like, "OMG YAY GOOD BOY BIG PATS LOTS OF SCRATCHES YAYAYAYAY OOPS THERE'S C WE NEED TO TROT GOOD BOY!!!!!!!"

Extended trot fine, center line fine. He got tons of pats, a candy, and a stretch break after that. For my part it was just a sloppy, sloppy ride. Zero half halts to be seen, hands all over, zero mental prep, sloppy. 

So after his break I picked him back up to the sitting trot and just went around until we were both steadier in the contact. Then we did a bunch of halts and rein backs at A--four steps, not five, I know you can count so get the count right, sir. 

Overall, in the next couple of rides we need to work on the halt rein back, the canter departs, and HALF HALTING EVERYWHERE. But in general I don't feel as dismal about showing in front of the public as I thought I was going be.

He gets tomorrow off, and our lesson is Friday.

Ride Notes: Lesson 6/3

We missed last week's lesson because I was throwing up, but it was probably good to have that extra week to bring Opie back down to earth and off of Planet Rage Monster. He's been feeling really good when he gets it, it just kind of takes thirty minutes to get to that point. 

He was feeling stiff at the start of our lesson. As always we were working on SI and as always his first instinct was to lock his under neck, throw up his head, and lose the forward. DL asked what was different here than at home and I said when he gets like this I usually just go around in sitting trot doing nothing until he realizes I'm doing nothing and he comes over his back and gets to work. 

We agreed that I'm horrible at wanting to pull (no new news there) because I think it's going to fix my problem. And while mechanically he might go and do the thing, he's not through over his topline and therefore it's not really all that correct. Which is exactly why I came to her, because I want to be better!

She wants me to get better and sitting there, correcting myself, and letting him come to me. When I get it right, he'll get it right. Ugh, patience is not my strong suit lol. 

After about thirty minutes he did start moving out and soften up like he does at home, and she was like, "YAS KWEEN NOW WE'RE COOKING!" (...maybe not in those exact words) so at least I was able to show her a little bit of competency. 

We finished with half pass--at the trot and canter. Trot was primo, she gave us an exercise to clean it up a bit--half pass, and then while holding that bend push him back to the rail a few steps with the inside leg.

Canter half pass left was a bit lackluster as he's been feeling meh to the left in all three gaits lately (going to have PEMF focus on his LH on Monday). He did it, it was just significantly lacking in bend. To the right however was super balanced and lovely and we wrapped up with half pass to SI in the canter. 

I brought up showing at Houghton at the end of July and she told me scores weren't going to be great. I didn't ask her to clarify what she thought "great" was because 60% is fan-fucking-tastic in my world. She did say that she thinks by show season next year he is going to be a really great Third horse. 

So we'll see. It's an expensive proposition when we still don't have reliable changes, but mentally for me taking another entire year out of the ring makes it that much harder to reboot the horse show riding brain. 

Media Round Up: Dressage ride 6/1

Warm up trot:

Warm up canter right:

After I got off to get the dressage whip because he was being so lazy:

Taking great offense to switching whip hands:

An attempt at a change, which he's being skip trotting through lately:

He had a couple of tantrums, but I was able to channel some of his rage into a bigger trot, and we did accomplish some real work throughout. 

Media Round Up: Grid work 5/29

Blogger put these in reverse order so that was helpful. 

The grid was bounce to one stride to vertical one stride to oxer two strides to oxer. I wanted him slowing down and jumping up instead of launching out, but the distances were too long (set correctly, just longer than what I wanted to work on) and Hubby kept pushing the standards together when he raised the oxers. 

So basically all we accomplished was Opie running and bigger fences down a line. Which he found very easy, but zero improvement from running at smaller single fences.

Videos in order:

Sidesaddle Clinic

Over the weekend a barn mate and I went to a sidesaddle clinic an hour south of us. Opie and Daisy spent all morning hanging out on the trailer like complete rock stars, snacking on their hay nets and getting on and off for water breaks, grazing breaks, and saddle fitting with zero fuss.

The morning we learned about the saddles while we got all the horses in the clinic fitted for their own. Opie of course got the unicorn saddle that fit him perfectly, which of course also had to be the jankiest saddle out of all of them. It was missing a bunch of pieces and literally falling apart.

We had lunch, got a talk about the history of sidesaddle, and then got all the horses tacked up to ride.

Their mounting block was shoved in the corner against their white tape fence so it was like going into a chute. Opie was not here for it and was getting light in the front end. Since he'd been absolute Satan the previous two days and I know how nutty he can get, it did not inspire me with confidence. I had one of the lady's walk us around a couple laps while I sat astride until I felt like he going to be sane.

We then walked a couple more laps by ourselves before I stopped and swung my leg over. It was dreadful. The saddle didn't fit me at all, even after they shimmed my body left right and sideways. Plus the girth never really got all the way tight so any time we did more than walk a straight line it started sliding left and I'd have to beast it back over to center.

We did some trotting, but it sent us so far left that I couldn't hold it long. My barn mate turned out to be a sidesaddle savant though and was doing w/t/c with zero issues. Her saddle was also way more legit lol.

While it was way harder than I thought it was going to be, and I was kind of frustrated with how horribly the saddle worked for me, it was definitely a really cool clinic. And now I can cross that off my list, say I did it, and move on.

Magic Mask

After two days of unnecessary dramatics, we headed out to our lesson last week. It was further unnecessary dramatics. We could not ask for one single thing without him losing his shit so he finally got stuffed on a circle in the canter where he went around with zero contact and zero input for thirty minutes straight which is where we quit. Frustrating to say the least. 

We did a sidesaddle clinic Saturday, he had Sunday off, and then Monday we went back to work...with the Fenwick Equestrian LT mask back in place. The thing really is voodoo magic. He still gets tense, and he can still throw some dramatics, but he lets me into his brain so we can work through it. 

He still has this hang up about halting on the bit and standing still without wanting to fling himself around which I have zero idea how to address because there's literally no reason for it. But whatever, other things to work on. 

On Tuesday he also thought about not bending right whatsoever and started getting worked up about it until I realized when he bent right he could see the whip in my right hand which wigged him out. As soon as I put it in my outside hand, we had bend again. Whatever, I can work with that.

On Wednesday we were supposed to have a rescheduled lesson where I was excited about the prospect of doing test riding because I think we're going to aim for Houghton's second recognized show to get back in the ring. Instead I came down with a horrible stomach bug that had me puking my guts up so I obviously cancelled. 

Today we shifted focus to jumps to prepare for Saturday's hunter show. I put everything up to 2'6" and he was not at all impressed. He ran at them with his head in the air until I switched his eggbutt to the waterford. He did put his head down then, but he was either steeplechasing them or jumping over his shoulder, no in between. The plus side is I don't move an inch in the saddle because he's not lifting his body over them whatsoever. The downside is, that's not the way we're going to jump, sir. No fucking thank you. So I scratched the hunter show and this weekend we're going to do some big oxer grid work.

Unhinged

 I dutifully picked up my dressage whip on Tuesday when I got back in the saddle. 

And I also added draw reins because I value my safety. 

He was predictably tense and squirrelly, but better than I thought he was going to be. He actually saved his porpoise bolt for a spot where I had accidentally brushed him fifteen minutes ago which is completely flawless horse logic. But overall Tuesday went well.

Wednesday I still had the draw reins on for moral support. We rode in the outdoor and I was very proud of myself for working through his evasions logically and with our lesson homework.

Weird gumby neck going a hundred different directions? Counter flex to straight to real bend.

Shoulders absofuckinglutely refusing to move? SI on a 15m circle.

HI looking like a wild ass leg yield? SI, hold that bend, put the haunches over. Best HI to date!

We did the half pass to leg yield to half pass to SI across the ring a bunch with variations super well. 

I'm working on holding my reins about 6 inches shorter at all times which makes it easier to push my hands forward and hold them up and not pull back...so, real riding and all that.

Things then came unglued today. I took the draw reins off. W/t warm up went well. I was ready to move on to canter when I decided to do a few turns on the haunches first. He wanted to run through them like a reining horse so I tried to slow them down. That VASTLY offended him.

I tried to switch tactics by asking for turn on the forehand instead because that's one step, pause/stop, carry on. That's how I taught him. That's how he knows how to do it. Apparently that was also HORRIBLY INSULTING.

So like maybe we can just stand and chill and take a breath.

OMFG THE DRAMA OF SUCH AN AUDACIOUS REQUEST.

I ended up getting off to work him in hand because it became unsafe. He was going to flip over or fall down or knock me out with his head...or all of the above.

I started off just laying the whip against his haunches until he let me do so without double barrel kicking to the point where he was flinging dirt up the walls while almost falling over. IN HAND. 

Then we did turn on the forehand eight thousand times each way until that was sane.

Then turn on the haunches eight thousand times.

Then I got back on and we attempted both under saddle. TOH was better, TOF was...something else and still involved running backwards and spinning like a lunatic. I get so frustrated when he gets in this head space because I don't know how to fix it. There's literally no legitimate trigger to the insane level of insanity so how do I take the trigger away? 

I finally just called it and asked for some canter. That wasn't too bad. We even did some shallow half passes each direction. We finished by going on a 20m circle in sitting trot and going around and around forever and ever each way until he could do so with his back up and his face soft at over .5mph. It got there, but it was mind numbing.

When I got off, I put him on the longe and he cantered around me without me even turning with him for a good twenty minutes. I let him come down to walk or trot or even halt if he wanted to, but as soon as I started wrapping up the longe to call it quits he would take off again. Clearly he was having a bad mental health day. Why? Who fucking knows. 

Who. Fucking. Knows.

Ride Notes: Catching Up

• We did the jump course once more last week because it was hot and I did not want to dressage. He started off sluggish which made everything meh. Then I made him take a gappy distance where he pulled a rail which made him pissed and he took the next one too. Once I got the rage reeled back in, he was absolutely lovely. We finished with a splashies in the pond and a bath.

• Our lesson was in 80* and full sun by 10am which was dreadful. Opie was lazy AF warming up, and then I had to pony club kick the shit out of him to get him trotting again when DL got there. At that point, DL was like, "Time to buck up and make him go with a whip because he has got to be sharp off the aids." 
• We tried to start with SI and/or HI. Whichever he would do. He would do neither, and told us so loudly and rudely.
• She put us on a circle (of course) and did haunches out/leg yield out on the circle to SI on the circle. It was obscenely hard because he's so gumby in his neck and so squirrely with his shoulders and the tiniest touch of the leg sent his haunches wheeling wherever the fuck they wanted. The homework there was that he has to learn to move the shoulders and the neck independently. 
• She tried to send us back down the long side for a SI to HI and he said, go fuck yourself I will use my energy to stand up on my hind legs instead. At that point she told me to go do whatever I thought he could do well so he would take a breath and get over himself (she did ask if I thought he was being sore, but no, this was very much an Opie tantrum). I picked up the sitting trot and made him half pass across the entire length of the ring which he did just lovely. DL was like, ".......so he can half pass. But he can't do SI or HI. THE TWO THINGS WHICH MAKE UP A HALF PASS."
• Our new exercise was: half pass to leg yield back to half pass, and then half pass to SI to leg yield back to half pass.
• DL said in the end it was a useful lesson on her end because for Opie we'll probably do better starting at the very top and then just patching the holes instead of trying to build from the bottom. Whatever, Opie.

• Both weekend days we did Mendon, taking 4 riders from the barn with BM around the park. Trail riding and splash parties with his bestie wasn't the worst thing in Opie's world, and it earned him today off.

This week we need to do some serious dressage work though. With Mr Tappy.

Good Boi

Opie got the Ryder checked in between getting his feet done yesterday morning. The fitter agreed she didn't hate me in it and adjusted the flocking some for him (not that either of those mean much at this point) so we could keep it to take to DL on Friday.

I've been putting off the temptation of the freshly painted and decorated jumps too long though, so this morning we changed course.

I set everything to 2'6" (although I think the panels were only 2'3") and did a short w/t warm up on the open end of the ring. Then I brought him up the rail at the trot to the panels because I needed to activate my very tiny lady balls. 

He hopped right over and carried on like it was nothing so I picked up the canter and off we went.

Green jungle, rollback to the panels, over the blue, down the two stride line which he jumped in big to so getting out was a little tight, and then over the astroturf.

He didn't peek at anything, jumped it all out of stride, was eager to go forward to every jump without once getting rude, yada yada. From there we went out back. I was going to jump some things out in the fields, but there was a random roaming Pyrenees by the pond so we aborted that plan and just hopped over the tires and the log pile and went back.

Overall it was such a short, boring ride that made me feel so good about him. Point and shoot jumper? Yes, please. Exactly what my confidence needs, especially with a hunter show in a couple weeks and provisionally signing up for an intro HT in June.

That's a no

Unsurprisingly the twice custom built saddle was returned. The more I rode in it the more I hated it. Then I did my lesson on Friday and DL was like, "Nah. Not one single yah."

bye.

The lesson itself was spent either in the canter because every time we got him pushing in the trot his head popped up and he shut down (we dug around the saddle and found that the shims the fitter had me add to the front of my Mattes were pinching his shoulders), or without stirrups because it felt terrible to use them.

So I called the fitter on the way back to the barn. Unfortunately my County value was trade-in only so I'm stuck with her until she gets me a rideable saddle. No more custom builds, used is fine. She said she'd bring me Ryder and Albion to try on Tuesday. In the meantime she had a Fairfax World Class she wanted me to pick up and try over the weekend.

Immediately my thought was: take the $$$$$$ Fairfax which is worth way more than the Hastilow (she said she would eat the cost difference because of the PITA this has been--ya think?!), act like it fit well enough, and then find another fitter that could get me a correct saddle with this fancy one I now have as equity. Shady, maybe, but the shit this has spiraled into is absurd.

However.

nope.

It didn't fit me or Opie at all. I rode it in for maybe five minutes before having to get out of it. I ended up grabbing a Ryder Legacy at the same time as the Fairfax so that was up next.

I ended up dropping my stirrups another hole on this one--like, voluntarily! And I didn't remotely feel like I was reaching for them or going to lose them. I also really didn't mind riding in it. It has a narrow twist which was a different feel, but otherwise rode a lot like my County which I'm finding is my preferred style. 

I rode in it again this morning to make sure I didn't fucking hate it after all. Again, the narrow twist is different but not horrible. 

I think I could live with it if I had to. I still want to get DL's eyes on it so unless the fitter brings something much better tomorrow I'll keep this one on trial until then.

The saddle has landed

...and might be going back from whence it came.

Again.

I ordered this fucking thing on April 17th of last year which made it one year and twelve days for it to be delivered to my ass. With the weight of that sitting on it, I was expecting to swing my leg over and have angels sing. Or at the very least be instantly turned into a Grand Prix rider.

Instead I was decidedly underwhelmed.

It's a pretty saddle. For $4k it better be. Right off the bat though, you can see that the "forward flap" is essentially straight and the front end sits low. She ended up shimming the front of my Mattes to lift the front....while saying that, "Sometimes we shim for the rider and not the horse!" Yeah, okay. 

I had to drop my stirrups a hole to not have my knee shooting over the flap. This left me reaching for the stirrups and in subsequent rides feeling like I was losing especially the right one outright. Needless to say I was in full meltdown mode trying to figure out WTF I was going to do when I returned this saddle as wildly unsatisfactory. I absolutely cannot dick around for another year finding something. 

So do I go to another fitter? Because the trust level is lowwww with this one now. But she took my County in on $2k trade. Does that only count as store credit? Or is she going to completely refund me the $4k this saddle cost? WHY DO THESE EVEN NEED TO BE QUESTIONS?!

I had Opie's PEMF lady take some pics for me in the saddle so I could see if I was being completely overdramatic and just needed to adjust to a longer dressage leg etc etc. 

As soon as I got on she was like, "Your stirrups don't look too long at all. If anything they still look to short."

OMG STFU THEY ARE NEVER GETTING LONGER.

It actually ended up being a more informative, helpful five minutes with her than it was in alllll the time I spent with the fitter. She took some video, made a bunch of observations, and then brought me over and yanked the tiny jumper blocks the fitter had put in out and repositioned them a couple inches lower. That instantly made my leg feel more stable and pushed it back out of a chair seat. We then repositioned them from their lower point further back. That helped even more. This took all of two seconds and made me go from "This saddle is gone" to "Maybe we can work with this". 

I'm still going to get DL's opinion on it on Friday for my lesson. That will be my seven days to return it no strings attached and I already told the fitter it was contingent upon my trainer's approval. 

Still. That is A LOT of money to feel meh about something that's theoretically going to last me for my young horse's entire career.