Nonlinear

In typical Opie fashion, we can't do things normally or easily. 

He was like, "I'm sound!"

But then, "I'm not sound!"

But also, "But not not sound enough to call a vet!"

While still being all, "You should definitely go home and cry after riding me lolol."

a perfect angel, has no idea what i'm talking about

Because really what else is there to do besides continuing to plug away--the whole fail forward thing--with my vet's blessing my plan was to just put it to him. Either break permanently already or let's fucking move on with our lives here, sir. 

Fortunately all his stupid body parts seem to finally have recalibrated and we're (for the moment at least) clocking along in regular work. 

With his return to First level at the end of the month, we've been working on all the things we have to hit in those tests. This includes coming back from a lengthened canter without flinging our head in the air or refusing to slow down in the slightest, shallow counter-canter loops without anticipating changes, leg yields without flinging ourselves sideways so fast that we've reached the other side of the ring in three strides, and most importantly all the speedy transitions that come from actual test riding.

i put him back in his fresh off the track opie setup.
he goes delightfully in a full cheek and figure 8
because apparently he's still a feral 4yo.

After the initial excitement over staring down the diagonal in the canter, the canter work has actually been the easiest to school. We've done a lot of the shallow serpentine work with MB over the years already, so he's familiar with doing that movement. He got told he was the smartest, bestest boy in the whole world a few times for quietly coming back to the trot at X instead of leaping through the air, and now he takes great pride in that transition. 

Where we're still getting a little spicy is moving out of the walk. We've been doing a lot of free walk to medium walk and back again to try to convince him that we don't always pick up the canter as soon as we're done with the free walk. But also at some point we do have to pick the canter back up again, grossly at First it's out of the trot so then we also have to sneak that transition in. There's lots to overthink when you're a tiny brained Opie Horse, and honestly First level has to be my least favorite to ride. 

The last couple of rides, I've really been working on the quality of the gaits themselves. Now that he's feeling stronger and sounder, I feel comfortable holding him to a little higher standard. Which is good because when he gets tense and distracted I can't even steer this thing let alone sit comfortably on him. 99% of the time the answer is renvers. So we do a lot of renvers. The other 1% of the time is just riding out his tantrum until he gets over it and magically remembers how to horse. 

how he looks when i insist my right seat bone
can be on his right back

I'm excited to have so much homework to do finally. While spending the winter walking my horse was great and all (it wasn't that great), I do selfishly actually enjoy riding and showing and fucking doing things. 

Now here's a little Opie story to leave you all with so you can appreciate his level of drama on a daily basis.

drama llama on alert

I brought Opie in for his PEMF appointment Tuesday afternoon. He met me at the gate like usual and I chucked him in his stall for a quick groom while we waited our turn. I started cleaning out my trunk when I was done with that, and as always his stall door was wide open because he's too dumb to leave it. He kept acting like he wanted to lie down and just like he was the sleepiest horse in the whole world. The bodyworker finally came over to our side of the barn and once he was in the crossties he used them to hold his head and neck up.

He was being sleepy but normal to start, and then he started shifting all over which eventually led to trying to throw himself on the ground. Now normally I would have been like, "Oh no this horse is colicking let me take care of that!" But it was Opie so I was like, you might be colicking.....but there's just as big of a chance that you're having a total toddler tantrum about wanting to take a nap and being inconvenienced by getting body work instead. 

He eventually got so insistent about wanting to lay down that we had to stop PEMF and put him in his stall where he cycled between throwing himself down and parking out. UGH OK FINE YOU MIGHT BE COLICY. I got on the phone with the vet while I brought the rest of the barn in (timed his drama perfectly to when I needed to do barn chores), and they said to give him some bananmine and if he hadn't improved in 45 minutes they'd send someone our way. 

By the time I got back over to his stall with drugs (absolutely not in a hurry because I'm sorry Opie but I was not convinced you were in dire straits) he was quietly laying down sleeping. I shoved banamine down his throat, skipped his dinner grain, and within ten minutes he was back on his feet being his usual ragey self.

"where is my dinner and the rest of my pemf sesh?!"

My guess is he had a little bout of gas that he thought he was dying from. However there is still the strong possibility that he really just wanted a nap. He can never be normal about anything.