Deep Breaths

i need this burned into my tack trunk lid where i can see it every day

After Monday's horrible, horrible fucking ride--which I didn't even write about until the next day because I knew I needed to step back and take a breath over it--I had guarded expectations for the rest of the week's work.

To say the fucking least.

But turns out I was able to be pleasantly surprised! Wednesday was freezing, but I wanted to get on and see what I had. Did I need to do a long stretch ride to work out tightness? Was I going to have to defuse another bolting situation? Could I maybe kind of sort of do some real dressage work?

I got on and he was completely relaxed and ready to go to work. I put him on a long rein and we worked exclusively on the quarter lines to focus on straightness. Every now and then we'd do a 15m circle at C to make sure circles are...you know, circular. He did everything I asked, no fuss, and I called it quits after fifteen minutes of solid drama free work. Mostly because I was dying of frostbite, but also because he was so good I wanted to reward him for it.

Thursday he got off, and then today I went out without a real plan. I peeked in the ring when I got there and saw there were two jumps out so I adjusted the height on those (a 2'6" vertical and a 2'3" oxer). I put my dressage tack back on the rack and pulled out my jumping gear.

He warmed up quiet and lovely despite there being two other horses in the ring, neither of which had steering. When there was a gap in activity, I took him over the vertical on the diagonal. A single half halt as we turned in to get his attention and he coasted over it right out of stride. He's finally starting to be not as excited about 2'6 where he wants to jump me out of the tack to clear it. This jump was smooth as butter.

We spent a little more time w/t until there was another gap and then came around to the oxer on the quarter line. It was a long approach so he lost the rhythm a bit, but I managed to not pull the whole way there so he got in to is just fine. He did overjump this one a little because we do so few oxers, but nothing naughty or anything to jar me loose.

We finished up by pushing for the biggest trot he could give me and some no stirrup work.

The chiro should be out Monday which I felt like was the priority of my three to-do's (chiro, dentist, and massage lady). Getting his opinion on the LH and how much of it is actually a physical issue will help me decided how much I can push through Opie's evasions when it comes to really using that leg, and how much I need to work around it.

Ride Notes: Child Satan

Things that went wrong:

• The last couple weeks he hasn't been wanting to drop his head into the bridle to get bitted. I was finally over it and made it into A Thing before we even got started. It was a brief battle, but still more than it needed to be. Should he put his head down to accept the bit? Yes. Did he do it by the end? Yes. Did I make it a much bigger and more dramatic thing than it needed to be? Also, unfortunately, yes. 
• I know the LH is the weaker, stickier leg. Asking for the HI going right is hard for him because it has to come under. I started to make it A Thing before, fortunately, calling it quits and moving on. 
• I got greedy testing the flying changes. Good, clean from L to R. R to L was a complete and utter shit show that instantly spiraled out of control.
• Never even got the change for one so not worth one single part of the drama party.
• Took off bolting. Couldn't get him to stop on a circle so ran him into the wall. Started rearing until I let go of his face and then took off again. Only thing that finally stopped him, after almost five minutes of uncontrolled antics around the ring, was he got so stuck rearing that he forgot about bolting. 
• After that debacle, made him go into a super slow sitting trot which he still occasionally tried to bolt from.
• Stayed in that for almost half an hour working on being straight (which is broken) and making a round circle (completely fucking broken). 
• When I finally got off, I reached out to run up my stirrup and he ripped the reins out of my hands while shooting sideways away from me. Took me several minutes to get close enough to him to run them up, and his back was a giant U.
• He got so wound up he made himself back sore. 

What can be fixed:

• I gave him a gram of Bute after the ride because I knew both of us were going to come out of this feeling sore AF. I was able to rub the sore spots out on his back to the point where he was nonreactive to palpation again. 
• Usually get his teeth done in March, but might be time already. 
• He needs that LH worked on, probably by both the chiro and our massage lady. 
• That's a few hundred bucks between the three, but I'll make it work by the end of February.
• And, most obviously, leave the changes alone. If Second really gets that boring this summer, BM can get on him and see what we're working with. Perks of having a hunter trainer that can put a change on anything.

What went right:

• I was in a grumpy mood after the bitting fiasco, but I was smart enough to spend a long time at the walk working on easy things until I was in a better mindset instead of rushing things and getting pissy. 
• After aborting the HI to the right, we were at the walk and I figured I would check and see if he could do a renvers--something I always mentally struggled with aiding on Bobby. He slipped right into it super easy. Good boy.
• The SI both ways is getting very good.
• The HI to the left is amazing. 
• While endlessly trotting trying to get him to be a normal horse and find a spot to end, I was able to focus a lot on my position and found some tweaks I'm eager to try to make permanent. 

This morning--the morning after--went into the ring while he was in there with his friends to play with the ball. Stuffed both my pockets with cookies and heavily rewarded him for every little thing to do with the ball. He seemed very relaxed with our interaction. Thankful for ever-forgiving animals.

Something is always broken

And, at the moment, we've cycled around to it being the canter.

After our really good ride on Wednesday, I went back out again Thursday for another dressage specific schooling. Vacation is over, time to get back to work.

He was a little tighter at the walk and took a bit longer to get going. He wanted to suck back in the lateral work while warming up, but he eventually got unstuck and we were able to step right in to a good trot. A little SI and HI there, and then I called it quits to move on to the canter.

Which was a mistake. He really needed more trotting time to get loosened up for the canter, but I wanted to work hard at that gait and make sure I had plenty left to do so.

The canter both ways was pretty awful. We tried a couple simple changes, but abandoned that quickly because of having to share the ring with a rider who doesn't know about sharing the ring. (Steering is a real weak point for some people, I've noticed. As is having a plan when moving about the arena.) Instead I just focused in on the quality of the canter itself.

It sucked. A lot.

I wouldn't even necessarily say four beat so much as eighteen beat. Are you actually cantering or are you still sort of trotting? Are you trying to take off with me? Ope, we're rearing. Why did you just break there? Why are you crooked? Why is your neck upside down? WHAT IS HAPPENING?

I kind of got it kind of okay to the left before giving up and going back to the trot. I wanted to end on a win, and my brain was not computing canter-fixing that day. I got the trot super revved up and we manged to end with a few steps of bounce in his step. I let him go over some ground poles to celebrate and called it a day.

tired pones after their walkathon

Friday the weather was so nice I couldn't miss a riding day. I didn't want to torture poor Dopie with another dressage day though, so I texted BM and we met up for a road hack instead. We did just under two hours of power walking down the road. Both boys were awfully fucking stupid to start, but they settled down by the end.

I had put Opie in the double because I thought he was going to be good (nope) and I could just ride on the buckle the whole time and get him some more mileage in the bits. Instead I ended up having to ride on contact on the snaffle the entire time. I kept a long rein, but it wasn't what I was going for. I made him do a couple of minutes with contact on both reins and he was a little gnashy--mostly because Momo was beating him, but also because he was just kind of wound.

struttin'

It was probably the hardest workout he's done all year and all at the walk. He'll get the whole weekend off, and then we return to see what the fuck we can do about the canter.

Sit in the saddle

"Sit in the saddle" has become my new mantra. It's done a ton to help with my goal of a better riding position--both in sitting the fuck up and in keeping my leg long. But, unsurprisingly, it makes an instant improvement in whatever I'm asking my horse to do as opposed to contracting my entire body up into the fetal position.

He got two days off after jumper night, and then yesterday we went back to work. It worked well that it was still fucking freezing because all I had planned was our stretchy ride in the double.

perfect lipstick.
perfect suspicion of farrier outside.

I actually got some good stretching out of him finally, especially at the walk. At the trot the circles still eluded us. He wants to throw his shoulders out so far the circle is a good 3-4' larger than I intend it. Neither of us are coordinated enough to fix it on a long rein, so I had to pick up my reins for a bit just to get him going on the intended track. I also picked up both reins to feel out the curb a little bit at the halt and a couple laps at the walk before going back into a stretch. He was completely unconcerned with it.

saves the mouthiness for his bestie

This morning I was excited to put in another real deal dressage school and Dopie totally showed up to play.

I started off picking him up at the walk right away. He could keep his neck long, but he needed to be in the contact and working. Once he felt soft and round, which took maybe a lap, we did an off the wall leg yield, SI, HI, and then half pass before changing direction and doing all of it again. He never got tight or worried, just moved over and did the thing easy peasy.

I went right into the sitting trot because he'd had turnout time in the ring to romp around with his friends before I got on so he was warm and I was freezing. He never locked up his back and I worked hard to make sure I let him keep moving forward instead of trying to shorten his stride to make it easier for me to sit. Another unsurprising fact: if I let him move forward and don't pull, he stays soft and the trot is easy to sit anyway.

"maybe some day this lady will figure out the basics."

We went through the SI and HI again with the 10m circle thrown in in between them and he was perfect--especially when I out-loud told myself to "SIT IN THE SADDLE." Pull it together, self. I want to muscle and shove him around into the lateral work like he doesn't know what I'm asking still, but he does so when I sit quietly and put my leg on to just ask him like a trained horse, he goes and does the thing like a trained horse.

Tracking right is harder for him so he wants to suck back a bit, but to the left was next level. He got praised up the wazoo, attempted a little medium trot across the diagonal (meh, but at least not fast and spastic), and then had a quick stretch-it-to-the-ground walk break.

I didn't do too much in trot because I wanted to hit on several things in the canter: simple changes, counter canter, and finish by seeing where the flying changes are.

His departs were good, the simples could have been softer but they're still there, counter canter was a breeze, and then the changes.

He jumps right over to the new lead when asked, but without any real prep he was late behind by a couple strides. When he switched over behind the bolting activated. I gave him a ton of praise each time anyway because he gets what I'm asking when I'm asking, they just need work. I know there's a perfectly sane clean change in there because he'll give them to me while jumping. That's where I'm hoping the double will come in, and I think maybe the dressage whip as well to tap his butt when I ask to remind him that has to come along, too.

But that's not something I'm dying to dig into just yet. I really want to find a real medium trot, and just overall make every part of 2-2 and 2-3 smooth as butter. Which, at this point in the year with how little focused work we've done so far since coming back from vacation, I am beyond happy with.

Jumper Night

Saturday was the barn's jumper night which all five hundred of us (it was actually around thirty total, but it felt like that many) bravely showed up for despite the massive winter storm blowing outside. I'd signed us up for the 18" and 2'--dependent upon success at the lower level. 

What I didn't realized was how small 18" is and how much bigger we've actually been jumping. While I notice when there's a bigger outlier of a jump--when I've got a course set up at 2'3" and pop something up to 2'6" or 2'9"--I don't notice the height so much anymore when they're all set the same. The 2'6" division looked downright normal, and had I not already been on poor Dopie for close to three hours at that point and he was telling me he was done, we would have finished over those jumps instead. 

"2' is too easy, lady"

Our first round at 18" he started off so slow and lazy. He came around to the oxer for the first time and slammed to a halt completely from being in la la land and not paying attention. I gave him a couple spanks behind my leg and he turned on the crazy instead. 

BM let all of us do the jump off courses even if we didn't go clear, and that was a bit of a rodeo. Fortunately by round two he had settled into a happy medium.

I was happy with how well he was starting to land his leads and try the flying changes as an answer for the wrong lead. I didn't get after him too much as I do a lot of circling and schooling to work on the leads when I'm by myself and this wasn't the place or time for that. 

He got a sixth and a third for two out of the three 18" classes. 

We went first in all the classes we did so after a quick w/t to warm back up at the end of the 18" division he got to go right out and jump again. The added height was still a snooze fest so he was pretty lazy with his legs and had one down, but was overall a good boy.

He then had to wait for ten rounds to go before going back out for the jump off. When I asked him to step out of the line up, he threw a bit of a tantrum so despite planning on doing the whole division I decided he could finish on this round. It was 9:30 at that point and I had been on since around six. 

He ended up with a fifth for that class and got to go back to the rest of his dinner and a bunch of carrots. 

The last jumper night we did, I bowed out at this height because there were a few 2'6" fences mixed in and I left like Opie was way too overfaced. This time I wanted more height by the end. With his dressage getting stronger and stronger, jumping him just gets easier and easier. Plus we've been playing over fences more in the off season now than ever before, and he's really starting to figure out legs and listening. 

I'm kind of thinking of doing a little BN event at some point this year if we can find one to fit in, and can find the time to keep up with the jumping between aiming for dressage domination!

Ride Notes: Intro to the double

Tuesday:

single on the diagonal, and then you could jump coming from
blue or coming from black

• Warming up, I focused on me and made sure I was sitting upright and not pulling my leg up. Apparently this has become A Thing in not just my dressage saddle now.
• Came around to the jump on the rail by itself off the short approach first. Was able to stay in half seat and take a soft tug right before and he loped over without changing his rhythm whatsoever. He was kiiiind of lazy to it though and tipped the top rail out which was unsurprising because the jump cup was bent and it was barely in there.
• Came around again once I set it back up with the plan that if he jumped it as well as the first time I'd angle in the second jump. He was perfect again and jumped out over the second fence easily.
• Made a circle and came around to the single which he got right up to the base on in the best way and cracked his back over. Gave him a cookie and then came around to the two jumps from the blue direction. 
• I had him a little underpowered jumping into the line so saw a long spot to the out jump, but I asked for it and he made a huge effort over it, but landed quietly and loped away again.
• Probably a little tired from his first real dressage school the day before, but it worked well for me! Soft between and to the fences while pushing off and making awesome efforts over the jumps themselves. I let him be done with that since he was so good.

Wednesday:

i love how much it breaks up his giant fucking jug head

• My long term plan--this summer probably--is to use the double to help with the flying changes. When I ask and he delivers, I'm hoping this will keep him in the canter we left in instead of morphing into out of control Dopie the Racehorse SO FAST WOW SEE YOU LATER. 
• He's worn it a few times now for pictures, but I've never even sat on him with it. Introduced it in our weekly stretch ride. 
• He was completely quiet in the mouth with it once he got done being distracted about how to finish his candy with two bits. I was definitely more spastic about it than he was. I didn't want to make it a bad experience for him which led to me to not wanting to touch the reins at all which in turn led to him not even being to trot a circle with less than eighteen sides.
• I finally picked up the fucking reins and asked him to do a little work. He kept his head poked out for a couple laps until we both settled on where the contact should be for now, and then he was happy to soften and eventually stretch down like I wanted.
• Still not the stretch workout I'm looking for on these days, but for the few brief spurts where we were both focused on the ask, he did go down. Hopefully by next week's ride I won't be as afraid of it and we'll get more done.

we're now able to walk up and touch the ball without freaking.
maybe it will be able to move while i'm mounted one of these days.

Ride Notes: Birthday Ride

Today was Dopie's 7th birthday!

He got to celebrate it by doing his first real dressage school since his vacation. Womp womp. 

• Was feeling lit so only did a lap of walk each direction (while trying to keep him from breaking into the trot) before trotting.
• At the trot, I usually let him stretch down to whatever degree he wants, but I wanted him to get to work today. He knows I almost never say no to a stretch so he can definitely use that against me, and the second I start to pick my reins back up he'll be like, "Nooo, nope, not done stretching tho!" and yank the reins back out to drop his head to the ground. Sorry, bro. Sometimes you have to do other work, too. This time, each time he'd start to tug at the reins to say he wanted a stretch, I'd half halt and then lift him up with my legs. He finally got it and went around big and bold and up.
• Then we had our stretch break.
• Finally got back to the canter after vacation! Again, he wanted to just go but I made him focus instead on being super round and bent slightly to the inside. We don't pick up the canter with our head in the air anymore. Ever. That is no longer allowed for even one stride. He was actually really good for that, and both canters I felt like my position was super locked in.
• To the right, he needs to start out big and then be packaged up to the canter I'm looking for.
• To the left, he has to start out curled into a little tiny collected ball with a two inch canter and then let out. Otherwise he wants to activate that ugly under neck and flop around hollow and flat like a broken gaited horse. 
• Finished with some sitting trot. One of my goals is to work on keeping my leg long instead of drawing it up every time I do anything. Amazing how easy it is to stretch into position when your horse is relaxed and doing his job happy and forward. My position came to me so easily and Dopie trucked along with little input. 
• He did start to chomp a bit when I asked for the shoulder-in and haunches-in, but he stayed soft in his back and forward.
• Got to eat a bucket of carrots and candies when he was done.

Mendon Trail Ride

Took advantage of 60* day in January to load up and go to Mendon for a solo trail ride. He didn't want to get into the trailer at first, but once I got the long whip out and moved his haunches around with it he got on. Took all of three minutes total, if that. Once at the park, he hung out quietly at the trailer eating from his hay bag and stood like a statue while I got on.

there was, of course, still side eye to be had

Started off across the road in the woods. Wasn't planning on a long ride since there was a limited window to get on and get back before it started raining. He was super spooky and stupid about every singe person we ran into on the trail, even though to a person everyone had great trail manners--doggos with perfect recall (which never happens here) and runners taking a break to step aside on narrow trails. He finally settled down when we passed a couple with a tiny child strapped to the guy's back. Dopie loves children because they without fail shovel candy into his face, so despite thinking he was going to be extra spooky about the double headed person, that was what calmed him down.

Once past them we got to do some trotting. Came back down to a walk every time we passed a dog so we didn't get them excited about running prey, and he quickly learned the program of: trot, see dog, walk, pass dog, pick the trot back up--all on his own.

the woods were surprisingly dry for how much rain we've gotten

Out of the woods, we crossed the road again and immediately saw another horse come into the field we'd just entered. Turns out it was Farrier! Opie was greatly relieved he got to join up with a horse he'd never met in his life his soulmate. We didn't do any solo trail rides at the park last year because BM was able to go with us so often. While it was good for Dopie to get out and about on his own, and he was being a good boy about it, he was much happier with a friend.

Farrier doubled back to go to the boat launch with us which unfortunately had just enough ice on it that neither pony was able to play in the water much to their mutual disappointment. We started to keep going in the opposite direction of the trailers, but the skies finally opened up and started raining on us. Dopie picked up a floppy reined trot while Farrier's 20yo started porpoising about. That's hands down my favorite thing about this horse on trail rides. He never, ever feeds off of someone else's stupidity. He's capable of getting stupid himself, but a friend's antics don't faze him.

While Farrier's horse avoided any large puddles on the way back, Dopie kept stopping and trying to play in them because he gets so sad when he can't do swimmies. His desire to keep up with his newfound bestie prohibited him from getting a full splash party on though.

Of course the sky was clear over the trailers by the time we got back, but we called it quits anyway. It was getting close to the predicted time of the heavy rain and I still had to drive back to the barn. Farrier and I let the horses graze for a bit while we talked new places to go trail riding this summer s hopefully between the two of us and BM we get in some fun adventures this year.

Ride Notes: Stretch ride

First mandated stretch-only ride of the year.

• After the bad last ride, he had two days off. On Wednesday I gave him a ton of candy in the paddock and he tried to follow me out of the gate. Thursday no barn. Friday he left his friends and came over to the gate when I called him, and then quietly hung out beside me in the parking lot while I talked to friends.
• When I led him into the ring and went to stretch his front legs while doing his girth he went running backwards and scuttling sideways twice before he let me pick his leg up to stretch it. Not sure if the girth had pinched him or he spooked at B's kid in the doorway or was just being an idiot. 
• Girthing is a multistep process because Bobby was the biggest Sensitive Sally and girthing him was about a thirty step operation. I've done it one way for so long, it's habit and I still do it with Opie. 
• Took awhile to get into the stretch work which usually happens after not doing it for awhile--which is why once a week is so important!
• After not getting the stretch in the walk or trot, I got into sitting trot and he finally relaxed to where I could start posting again and really let his back come up. Finished with a good stretch both ways w/t, but I know he can do even better. I expect next week to be much easier.
• Finished with him chilling completely relaxed for half an hour in the wash stall while I scrubbed his legs and cleaned and conditioned his tail. Happy to see him so relaxed again.

Self defeating

Made today our first real dressage school of the year and it immediately went off the rails. Pulled the ball out to see if we could bop it around from the ground and under saddle to break up real work. He was okay with it from the ground while I fed him cookies, and he was okay with standing next to it once I was mounted and feeding him cookies, but I needed to move it back between jumps to get it off the rail so we could ride and he had a complete anxiety induced meltdown--running backwards, thinking about going up, launching sideways, flipping his head, etc etc. He never did go all the way up which was a win because that's a big thing with him so small wins.

Once the ball was out of the way, we just stood there next to it with my reins on the buckle until he took a breath and dropped his head, and then walked off on his own more relaxed. It took a lot of walking around with changes of direction before I felt his back soften enough to move on to the trot.

The trot was fine, but I already felt defeated at this point so when I started asking for smaller (like 15m) circles and his shoulder went flying off into the hinterlands, I was kind of like, "What do I do now? I already fucked this up, now I need to ask him to actually work and I feel like it's going to bring the anxiety back which is EXACTLY WHAT I'M TRYING TO AVOID AND ALREADY FAILED AT."

Decided a timeout was in order and focused on square on the bit halts instead. Did lots of those both directions with tons of candy doled out.

Moved on to the sitting trot and constantly vacillated between "Does this feel sloppy because I haven't ridden in awhile or because it sucks?"

Worked on more halts. When in doubt, just don't move.

Finished with a couple SI to HI both directions because he was FUCKING SUPER about them. More candy doled out and I was able to get off not feeling like I completely 100% ruined him. Maybe only like 75%. But he was chill and cocked a leg in the aisle after the ride so hopefully the obscene amount of cookies I kept pumping into him helped out.

It wasn't a great mental ride for me, and I feel like I took it worse than Opie did which isn't a bad thing I guess. The ball is going to be in the ring from now on though because it's a silly thing to get worked up over, and since I bought it I want to actually play with it eventually.

Burnout

I stopped riding and working Opie early to mid-December when he very clearly started to tell me that he was burnt out. He was having loose nervous poops when I'd walk up to his stall with tack and just generally seemed anxious during our interactions. Under saddle he continued to do his job without fuss, but I could tell he wasn't enjoying himself. That was enough for me and vacation time it was.

In the three weeks that followed, I slowly realized I wasn't missing riding at all. I had become just as burned out as Dopie had. I groomed him a few times, washed his tail out, fed him snacks galore, and that was enough for the both of us.

Last week I embraced the new year vibe and decided that we were both ready to get back to it with an emphasis on whatever felt fun and easy that day.

always have candy on hand

We've done two flat rides and one jump school with a couple of teensy jumps thrown into the flat schools as well. Most of the rides are spent stretching because that's Dopie's favorite. He's happy to carry the forward on his own, so my main focus has been on keeping him straight since that LH still wants to stray.

The jump school this morning was so fun.

"are we going to actually jump things or are you just going to
take my picture forever?"

There were two verticals (2'3" and 2'9") set as a zig zag to each other on opposite diagonals and another vertical (2'3") set parallel to the long side.

After warming up, we started off with the smaller vertical on the diagonal. He popped right over out of stride--stop, give candy, carry on.

He's jumped 2'9" a few times out on cross country and a couple times as a stadium type jump, but his experience at anything over 2'3" is pretty limited. His form is questionable over bigger jumps as he tends to throw his shoulders to the side to get his front end out of the way instead of just jumping bigger. My goal was to let him do what he felt confident with and focus on my own position. As expected, he twisted up front, but my leg didn't move an inch and I felt super tight and solid the whole ride. Such a relief my body remembers what a jump saddle is!

We looped back and forth over the two diagonal jumps probably three or four times without any trouble at all besides having to put him in a bit of a choke hold because SO EXCITED FOR JOMPIES OMG.

We finished with the other vertical, jumping from the left and landing right, and then jumping off the right on a circle in which he stepped right over out of stride and cantered off without even a tick of change in his rhythm. I got off right there and shoved what candies I had left down his throat.

Both before and after he was relaxed and engaged in the aisle which is exactly how I want him to be. If he's not enjoying his job, neither am I.