Canter work

We left off with good vibes/good rides only. Immediately after that we had a couple rides that were not good vibes.

But we're all about turning losses into wins, and the good thing about both those rides is that I was able to use the tools in my toolbox to deescalate the situation and get him back on track. Me being a thinking rider during my ride is still a bit of a novelty, not gonna lie. What worked for him was quietly but insistently working the inside rein until he released his braced underneck, and then asking him to get super deep and low. That's not going to work for every horse, but for Opie it gets him to soften his whole topline and give me his back. And from there we can go about our business!

was being so naughty he got his dunce cap and
was made to stand in the crossties instead of being
ground tied. he couldn't believe the injustice.

He also felt like he was getting jammed up in his left shoulder while cantering, but a perfectly timed PEMF appointment fixed that and we were full send for our lesson over the weekend.

barn cat june supervising from the hay.

It's been so ungodly hot and humid we haven't actually done a whole lot of riding. I am not a hot weather person, and when you add 97% humidity to the mix I am out. But one of the times I did ride, I was playing around with changes and unlocked some new things. 

Instead of doing his whacky karate chop with the RF during the R-L change wherein the mechanics of the whole thing are completely wrong and I don't know how we even end up on the new lead, he was instead just changing late behind. Which is a totally normal horse problem! That actually felt like a BIG step forward in the right direction because while still obviously incorrect, there are a million and a half exercises to fix that issue. 

And then, when asking for the hind leg to change, he responded immediately when I put my left leg on instead of my right. That's the opposite leg I use to ask for the change in this direction, but it's the LH that's not jumping over so I guess it makes sense. I tried switching Mr Tappy to that side, but that was too much for his tiny brain. He's just getting comfortable with Mr Tappy's existence hanging out in my right hand, apparently we're not quite ready to try it in the left yet. 

telling his wife about all his abuses

I took this new information to MB for our lesson so I could get her eyes on the timing of everything. I thought I got our canter going pretty well for warmup, but in true trainer fashion MB said not good enough. She wanted him way more elevated in his shoulders and forever straighter--both things I think I've got under control until she gives us exercises to improve them and yep. Can still do better. Dang it. Opie's got such a good counter canter (to make up for how shitty his changes are lolz) that we went hard on that to get him unlocked and lifting. Waaaay better afterwards, and we were given the "Now just sit there and enjoy it" trainer seal of approval. 

From there we hit the changes. First his "easy" way, L-R. Of course I screwed up the first ask letting him get too long so it was late behind. I let myself get caught up in riding forward that I forgot to ask for the collection before the change. He needs to be packaged right up to jump cleanly over, but as MB reminded me, ride forward into collection--don't shut down the energy. Y'all, that's two aids simultaneously before the aids for the change even come into play. RIDING IS SO HARD. 

But we got there, got the L-R change with a "That's fine" seal of approval from MB (which is a solid 8.5 on the praise scale from her lol), and moved on to see what we had with the R-L. 

We were working them coming up the CL so I could really focus on riding him straight. Except MB immediately called me out on leaning into it instead of riding my H. I needed to stretch down into my left stirrup and keep a strong rib cage, not just fall off the left side and hope Opie's LH would follow me over. We only played around with a few changes this way because you could tell he was really trying to think through the ask. He never got anxious about it, but we didn't want to drill him on the chance we got a clean one. Even though it's still a problem, it's a new problem--frankly a better problem--and he's not going to figure it out in one or two rides. So I'm kind of approaching it as if we're starting to teach him the R-L change from step one. 

We finished the lesson off with some trot work that took less than a minute to settle into. Big, beautiful, and bouncy and proof we do our homework.

alfalfa mash goes hard

For our ride this morning, we got our next level canter from the counter canter work again, and then I played with riding the L-R change correctly. Predictably I messed it up the first time, got it fine the second time, and the third time I completely bungled my half-halt so badly Opie broke to the trot with his legs going everywhere. I reached back and tapped him with the whip which made him pick the left lead back up, go forward, and when I put my aids on for the change he gave me the best one he's ever done. Even MB, who was riding with us, was like, okkkurrrrr!!

So I didn't bother fucking with the R-L one for this ride since that was such a good boi.

Instead we finished with the trot HP zig-zag from 4-1 which he crushed. I'd feel so good about trying that test in public if I could just finish unlocking the right ride for the changes.

most of the barn is on hay strike because the hay got baled super late
this spring with how wet it was so it's not soft candy (but it's perfectly
lovely hay, they're all spoiled brats) so sir is looking leaner than we like.
upped his alfalfa, upped his grain, hopefully that ups his rib coverage.
fucking thoroughbreds. 

Level Up

We've miraculously continued our upward trending, magical breakthrough, good vibes only, etc etc since our show. Which was also the last time I'd ridden him before our lesson on Friday. Opie says, work smarter not harder. 

powered by candies

For our lesson, I asked MB if she could give me some exercises I could do in warm up at shows that would help me activate Opie's collected trot. All the tools she's given me to fix his canter when it turns to shit have finally sunk in, so on to the next! How do I get him from framing up and trotting around doing the movements, to actually softening his topline and sitting? We can do this at home, but it's usually at the end of a 30-40 ride, and that's just not going to work when I have to save energy for two tests. 

MB was immediately like, "Do transitions." And I was all, "That sounds too hard, what else do you have for me?" Poor MB. And all trainers. How do they cope with the ammy brain on a daily basis?

"you're dumb. learn to ride."
--opie, always.

So instead she told me to start our warm up with the feeling I had in our extended trot at the show--push the rein forward and allow. Whatever he gives me is what we start with. For a 16hh OTTB, it's probably not going to be a lot to start. And that's okay. He'll start offering more as he naturally loosens up. From there, incorporate some leg yields or SI (I opted for LY because our SI are still homework) because lateral work isn't just for looking pretty as you go sideways--it's actually a suppling exercise. Durrrhhhh.

Shockingly (as in, not at all), some leg yield zig zags in the trot, a little back and forth within the gait, and suddenly sir was cooking along. I could feel his little toes big old clodhoppers flicking along and best of all, his shoulders swinging. What a rare, magical occurrence! Totally notable! I was shooketh!

speaking of feet, his hoof is growing out well from
where he tried to separate it from his leg by kicking
the wall earlier this year. 

From there we moved on to the canter. MB was like, "You want Fourth, you've got to get these canter transitions cleaner." And then was mean and made us do many of them. So many. No more half a trot step into the upward, and no more quitting riding and dumping him onto his head in the downward. But we got the canter itself banging AF, we just had to add the transitions onto the homework pile.

After cantering, we picked up the sitting trot. Tah-dah, instantly had this huge, powerful, collected trot. Which I immediately did not know how to ride lol. MB said, "Opie is ready to give it to you, he just needs to know what to do with it." To which I replied, "I DON'T KNOW, PANIC?!"

I'm a real good rider, guys. MB told me to lengthen my right curb rein half an inch as we were blasting around like someone has trained this horse and I just went ahead and dropped the whole fucking rein.

So good. 

It was perhaps not the most productive end to the lesson because it was mostly MB calling out movements while I sat there and sort of pointed Opie in the right direction while giving a running commentary that mostly consisted of, "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."

Honestly, trainers should be paid more.

gets so many snacks for putting up with me

The next day I rode again, repeated our ride from the lesson essentially step by step, and produced the same results. But this time I was more prepared for the POWAH and actually belted my ass into the saddle and rode much better. Much less panicking. Much more steering. 10/10.

He got Sunday off because it was so insanely hot, but I rode him first thing this morning with the goal of stretching at the trot and some canter transitions. I put the snaffle back on him because I wasn't planning on doing anything exciting, and while the trot work was exactly what I was going for, the canter was a mess. He really does do much better in the double, but for one I don't want a horse that's dependent on the double to do work. He also gets so heavy in it if he gets tired in the canter. But if he doesn't get tired, it's far and away the better tool for him. 

Anyway, canter was a mess, and then he started having a mini meltdown over a single fly. I finally whacked the fly out of existence and changed direction, and he gave me really good upward transitions and one single so-so downward so I called it quits. Turns out the single fly was eating the absolute shit out of him.

Hopefully we don't get too much rain tonight and I can set some jumpies up for him tomorrow. We can only do so much dressage work in a row, even if it is the best work he's done so far.

he thought the minis were devils when we moved
but now they're his besties