Right Side Breakthrough

We had such a good lesson on Thursday!

There was a lot of MB yelling from her chair, "No, Carly! Carly! No!" She even got so inspired by how badly I was riding that she came and took the reins away--and I was holding the equicube so I was barely doing anything with them anyway.

Talent? Why, yes. I do have it. 

dubious of this claim

I was happy with Opie after our show, but I was annoyed with myself for my bad position. I knew at the time I was rolling my shoulders up to my ears, but I couldn't bring myself to do anything about it. And, of course, my hands were down in my lap being gross. So for our lesson I asked MB to focus on me instead of Opie and let's get some things sorted out.

We started with the equicube, my most favorite torture device. Opie loves it too in that it lets him stroll around like a llama acting like he has no idea what being a trained horse is, when in reality he has done a very good job at training me to do all the work for him. Once we got some good lateral bend going to the right, he gave in and went on the bit until we turned left and the real work began.

The problem is two-fold. He hates my right leg, and he hates moving his shoulders. So turning left where he has to turn his shoulders off my outside (right) leg without my hands there to guide him around is for sure impossible. MB wanted us to do a turn on the forehand to solve both of these things. For all the years I couldn't get this horse to do a respectable turn on the haunches, that was all I could get him to do. MB came and put both of our body parts where they were supposed to be going and I still couldn't figure it out. It's not like I've never done a TOF before, I just couldn't figure out the aids between the two without confusing myself.

Opie ended up getting sick of me, and while MB was standing in front of us trying to Show Me The Way, he gave me his "You're a fucking idiot" look over his shoulder and just went ahead and did one perfectly all by himself. With zero input or ask from me. MB and I were cracking up which I'm sure lowered his opinion of us even more. He's really embraced pulling the schoolmaster card on me lately. A couple weeks ago I was working on getting his canter rounder, and because it's me I just kept taking away and taking away. He finally calmly stopped in his tracks and gave me the same "You're a fucking idiot look" again like, "This is literally how fast you're asking me to canter. Zero mph. Do better."

I was finally allowed to give the equicube back so we could start trotting. To the right, bend the ribcage, bring the withers up, ask for a big boy trot. To the left, he has to accept the right leg. If he didn't, 10m circle to the right and then back to tracking left. Never take the right leg away. We finally got there after lots of repetition and moved on to the canter. 

he has complete disdain for my existence

For the left lead, lots of counter canter. The shallow counter canter loop from 1-3, and also lots of square turns. He was BIG MAD about the square turns, but they did the trick of getting him upright and off my outside leg. We went to come across the diagonal to carry on the counter canter and my bad riding made him do a bad change instead. We went back around to try for a good change because the ride before his canter felt so good I asked for one this way and he jumped cleanly over easy peasy. The second time around, he was late a stride, but otherwise boring. 

For the right lead, the canter was bang on right off the bat so we worked on collecting it way up and then oozing out of it. 10/10 nailed it so MB told us to see what our change looked like this way (his bad way). As soon as I turned in I went to straighten his neck and he fell through the change. 

MB was like, "No. Bad. Why." Because he needs to be straight to change, right?! "Stop pulling him into a straight neck. Just hold the right bend because the canter is so good and ask from that." He waited patiently for me to get all my own parts in order and then quietly did his little karate chop change and cantered off. So still not clean because he does the weird thing with his front leg, but at least on the aids and not upset?

We came around from the left again, got the haunches pushed to the right so the RH isn't ten miles under his mid-line, rode him forward, and quietly put the aids on. Nothing. Two strides later, still nothing. So I threw my body off the side of him and flung him into the change and made it late behind. MB said, "No. Bad. Just wait. If you had just waited he was set up perfectly and he would have given it to you. No flinging!"

all the grass and snacks for having to deal with me

He had two days off after that because I simply did not have the time for him, but this morning we worked in the canter on pushing the haunches out and bringing the shoulders in and all the drama of having a right leg. Which he was actually alright for! 

Also I don't know why blogger suddenly hates my phone pics. Fucking stupid platform.

WNYDA Summer Fest

We went to a show! 

And I finally have time to write about it!

Good grief, this past week has not slowed down for one second. Let's roll it back to last Friday and get kicked off with our in-hand work.

being a role model for his 2yo soul mate (that he'd
never met before) in the trailer next to him

Friday's Breed Show

Our GMO brought back a breed show last year after several years of not hosting one, and they thought it was such a success they added in an entire day for it instead of just an afternoon. It did end up running all day, and after another east coast show canceled, they added on a second day as well. This is good news because it was a complete cluster fuck to get organized and everyone was ready to kill each other by the end of it, but I do think they'll do it again next year. Which means another year for more ribbons!

Obviously Opie is practically ancient at this point and not eligible for any of the young horse or materiale classes, but there's no age limit for the amateur handler class or the breed specific classes. 

First up was the amateur handler class where you are being judged with the horse's score only being a tiny part of it. I knew I could do the running part just fine, it was standing this animal up properly I wasn't convinced of. They want an open stance, and Opie was like a dyslexic child with these fucking halts. In hand? Square! Under saddle? Open! Like, sir, bring that RF forward while I'm not on you.

would have taken this halt in our tests

I didn't fuss with him too much because I was too busy trying to get him to hold still for longer than two seconds. The judge was old and walked with a cane, and she started creeping around Opie in a very sus way according to him. I ended up getting the comment to not stand in front of him, but I couldn't stand off to the side or he would have left lol. The walk and trot triangles went as well as expected, and he was slightly better about standing when we came back around. We ended up with 8s down the board except for a 6.8 for his conformation (fair--he's built like a cow and a wiener dog had a baby). The low confo score knocked us out of what would have been first place into second. 

We went right into our Thoroughbred class where Opie was the only participant. He was better with the judge stalking him this time, but still defaulted to squaring up. She liked absolutely nothing about him and scored accordingly, but we still got our champion neck ribbon for showing up.

the pinned ears really help

we borrowed a bridle from MB to look the part

Saturday Performance Show

I got on with about thirty minutes for warmup for 1-1. This is more than I usually allot myself, but I am notoriously horrendous about warming up at shows. I forget every exercise and just end up loafing about with zero plan. Not this time, bitches! I was focused, and we did crazy things like multiple transitions and cleaning up our mistakes until they were better instead of just letting them slide. I got the canter feeling really good and through, and we went into the ring going forward instead of like we'd been standing around doing nothing for the past ten minutes like I usually do.

I did, however, heavily lean into the fetal position. For the entire show. I could even actively feel myself rolling my shoulders forward, but I couldn't convince myself to do anything about it. I got the horse sorted out, maybe next time I can get myself sorted out as well.

The test was a boring cake walk, as it should have been. We got 5s for our trot lengthenings which we're still (re)developing so there was no expectation there, and a 5.5 for the left lead canter depart which was (intentionally) early. Otherwise 7s down the board and a 6 for gaits because he did be looking a little wonky there at points. I don't know at this point. Legit do not know what else to do for this horse. Hopefully his doxy gets here this century and cleaning up the lyme helps him again. Just under a 66% for third place.

We nailed the warmup again for 1-3. More walk work this time around since he'd already been ridden once and it had gotten incredibly hot. He felt a little tighter this time, probably not helped by more horrible hands and rounded shoulders. 

We got a 5.5 for out sketchy attempt at a stretchy trot, which I was personally pleased ended up back at the letter we started at because we took a dang tour of the ring for the "circle". Geometry as a whole felt lacking in this test as I cheated where I could to keep him happy. I probably could have asked him for more, but that was not my goal for this show. I wanted a boring, pleasant experience for the both of us and that's what I ended up with. 

Everything else scored 6s and 6.5s with a handful of 7s thrown in--like for both canter lengthenings which we had been working really hard on.

He actually got a 7 for gaits on this test so who knows. This test was under the judge from the breed show the day before and everyone was complaining about how low she was scoring and how she hated thoroughbreds and on and on. I made my goal to break the 60s with her, but he cruised through with a 63 and change for another third place and the comment, "Good potentional!" 

There was nothing brilliant to write home about in either show, but again, not my goal. I will say I'm very pleased with the scoring from both judges. I felt like they were bang on for the directives of the level, and not looking for or rewarding the unnecessarily over-collected and chased around horses. It's first level. It's not supposed to be exciting!

Our score for 1-1 ended up getting us high point OTTB for first level and high point OTTB overall for Saturday's show, so well done Opie!

missing our 2nd place ribbon, but yay neck ribbons!

So overall we're calling this a success! The fact that we made it there for both days is a win in and of itself. That will be it for showing this year. I had originally planned on doing another recognized show at the end of this month, but show entries have increased so fucking much it's insane. Combine that with still shelling out money for his vet bills, and still trying to get him to 100%, it doesn't feel worth it. We'll hopefully start building up some consistency and come out next year ready to swing towards some bigger goals.