Ride Notes: You Suck

Lately I've been swinging from "Everything is on track and going great!" to "There are so many holes and so many things that need to be worked on, improved upon, and just downright introduced that we're never, ever going to get to where we need to be."

In the same ride.

Sometimes within five minutes of each other.

Training horses is really hard and sucks a lot.

The deficiencies at the moment are these:

• The sitting trot is still not forward enough, powerful enough, relaxed enough, or round enough to even fake any of the other things.
• I tried to tell myself yesterday that lighter is always better with this horse, but it still wasn't a complete success. I reminded myself that going slow while being soft and building up his trust that I will be soft is going to take time, and it's the right path. But also I have a mental meltdown because we've had all winter to go this route and here I am with two (possible) months until the first show of the year and we're still basically at ground zero.
• The lateral work isn't forward enough because the sitting trot isn't forward enough and he still gets tense. 
• The steeper, better looking angle in the lateral work only comes the last few strides before we hit the corner--slow to develop. Maybe having more room in a dressage court will help here?
• The canter is a complete hit or miss.
• The counter canter is broken. Again.
• We still have no medium trot whatsoever and I never even get around to working on it because there are so many other problem areas to focus on.
• WHY CAN I NOT SIT IN THE FUCKING SADDLE AT THE CANTER?!

He's so good warming up/in the posting trot. He's round, he's forward, he's solid as a rock in the contact. Easy easy easy. Then I plunk my sorry ass down and start asking for something real and it starts to fall apart. So is it that he's not ready, or is it that I'm that horrible of a rider?

Maybe both.

Rage Monster: Activate

Saturday was game night at the barn which is always a hysterically awesome time. I went to give Opie a candy in between the young kids and the teen groups which apparently was designated sleepy time for Dopie horse. When I got to his stall, his lower lip was dangling, hind leg cocked, head to the floor, and he pinned his ears at me. But he took my candy, and by the time it was our turn to go he was awake and ready.

SO READY.

We started with musical stalls as our first game. I gave Opie one poke with my spur to send him into the melee and he was like, "Consider it done, lady! I AM HERE FOR THE WIN, EVERYONE." He was so aggressive getting into position, he didn't even need me up there. Being a bossy dick is basically Opie's natural state of being around other horses and he was more than happy to unleash it. Needless to say we won that game, and most of the rest of them.

He was happy to hang out with a hind leg resting between his turns, but his ears were pinned forward watching everyone else go the entire time. The second I picked up my reins, he was ready to launch into action. Give him a vague idea of what I wanted, and he was off to the actual races. When you're built like a foundation bred Quarter Horse, gaming is the most fun.

barn kids trying to help me get his ears forward.
opie was unimpressed with their efforts.

"okay fine just give me the candies."

There's a local barn that does a gymkhana series during the summer that's super low key, and we are absolutely going to try to make it to at least one of their shows.

I gave him Sunday off, and this morning I took my sweet time building a sweet course.

The only problem with this was Dopie loves jumping, and Dopie was still in Rage Monster mode from game night. The second I closed my leg to ask for a warm up trot, it was once again off to the actual races.

I'm usually pretty lax on the flat warming up before jumping. He goes around steadily enough with no input at this point in his life that's it's just getting his muscles warm and joints lubed up. Today I had to sit up and ride him every step of the way like a dressage school until his brain was back in his head.

Then we turned to the first jump and his brain fell out again.

Everything was SO EXCITING. The answer is GO FAST. Slow down? PRETTY SURE THAT MEANS GO FASTER. My half halts were ripping his face off for a stride because nothing else computed. We had to bail on lines several times because he was blowing right through me and I didn't trust him to get out of his own way over the next jump.

I had the heights ranging from 2'3" to 3' with fun things like the gate (3'), a narrow vertical off a bending line (3'), and an astroturf pole with no ground line that I thought might give him pause--or, you know, cause him to be careful and jump tidier. Instead he was being so wild he didn't blink at any of it, flinging himself at them and jumping over his shoulder. Gross, bro.

He finally settled enough that I was able to run through the full course without dying and only a couple awkward distances when we disagreed on pace.

BM and I finished with a long trail walk that he made sure to keep in front of Mo for because WINNING.

warm enough for naked horses. naked WINNING horses.

My intended schedule for the rest of this week was a hard dressage school tomorrow followed by a stretchy ride Wednesday, but he might need another jump school tomorrow to remember to slow the fuck down and listen instead. We'll see.

When he's good, he's so good

And when he's that good he makes dealing with his very Not Good moments much easier.

"me? i'm never not good."

Yesterday BM and I met up for some more jumping. I'd originally planned on doing a dressage school, but who am I to say no to that invite? She wanted to do a little grid work so I set up a bounce to a 18' one stride. We also put up a super wide oxer on the diagonal.

I didn't have my spurs on but I was carrying a whip. Dopie was pretty blah warming up. He went when I asked, but he wasn't as sharp as he can be. I made him do a couple of laps of hand gallop to try to light him up, but he pretty much was doing just enough to get the job done. Whatevs, good enough.

We started with the grid. The bounce was set at 2' and I'd dropped the oxer down on one side to start. We trotted in the first time which wasn't the brightest idea since he was already on the lazy side and I had to chase him into the canter the moment he landed into the bounce. He made it out fine and cracked his back even over the half jump. We cantered in the second time, easy peasy, and waited for BM to go through a couple times before I put the out jump up to a 2'6 oxer.

We ended up only going through it once because it was picture perfect. Picked up the canter on a soft rein, gave a half halt to get him up and lifting, nailed the bounces, stepped through the one stride distance no problem, and launched over the oxer like it was 3'6 for fun. Ugh, when he uses himself it is the best feeling.

We did the wide oxer twice: The first time I smacked him on the shoulder to ask him to take the long spot instead of trying for an extra stride and stuffing us under the jump. He did that, got a big pat, and then came around a little more collected and nailed it. We finished on that and put the jumps up a couple holes for BM to finish on.

such a tank

Today we got our dressage school in. Warming up w/t was a dream. He wanted to get a little crooked tracking right, but he was so steady and easy in the bridle and going forward. After Bobby and Red, easy is basically my dream ride. Does it have a brain? Does it make my job a breeze? Hello, hi, I love you so much.

The canter, though, was not as good.

A large part of it was my riding. Once I started out-loud telling myself to SIT IN THE SADDLE (Why do I find this concept so very, very hard??), the simple changes started coming much easier. The horse is so in-tune to my seat. Use my seat and he listens. Herp Derp.

But he also got a couple of reminders that we do not ever step into the canter with our head in the air, and if you try to lock your underneck and brace against my hand to go Llama, you're going to get sat on your ass.

When we finally met in the middle, we did a couple of the stupid counter canter serpentines with the simple change of lead on the center line from 2-2. We finished on a big circle working on collecting the canter way up and then sending it way out. To the right it took more work. Again, mostly because I kept leaning forward and taking my seat out of the saddle. To the left I got my shit together and it was a piece of cake.

Better than circles

I love dressage. I feel like that's the start of a bad joke, but I really do. It feeds into my crazy person, obsessive, Type A personality perfectly.

I didn't have a hard time shelving eventing for a few reasons, not the least of which was my severe distaste for jumping stadium jumps--or anything in an arena. Mental blocks, I have them. Of course so much of that was tied to how utterly horrible Bobby was at that phase. Once BM fixed all my bad training, put a real half halt on him, and he learned how to jump things like a respectable citizen, I was okay with popping over things now and then. But I still definitely harbored a bit of fear due to all our past rides.

Jumping Opie has never once caused me fear. Performance anxiety, certainly. I don't like riding in front of other people. It makes me too self conscious. Starting him from his very first jump in his entire life to where he is now, with all the knowledge I now possess thanks to BM's work with Bobby, I feel completely competent in what I'm doing.

Most of that revolves around how slowly I've built the jumping into his life. He's heading into his third year off the track and we just hit 3' today for the first time. And it was a nonevent.

easy peasy

All those circles can be tedious. Using oneself is hard work. Dressage can be mind numbing and frustrating and make you feel like you're never ever progressing. The proof is in the pudding jumping though. It's helped Opie figure out his body in a way repetitions over jumps never would have. He's strong and self aware and confident in himself.

And he thinks jumping is super fun and super easy because of it.

"i got this, mom!"

this height finally got him to bother doing
more than a canter stride over it.

long spot!

glad my eq is still solid even if i only jump
once a month

Jumping this horse has made me fall in love with jumping again. It's so fun, so easy. Bronze first, jumping career coming in hot for second.

Ride Notes: You need to...

...learn how to engage your hocks like this in the ring, you potato

• Slight SI in the corner and maybe even the entire short side coming into the medium trot. He unloads bigger and better coming out of the more collected trot of the SI.
• Heavily use the corners and the short side to put a big old half halt into the canter.
• A circle is a continuous shape. Just saying.
• Don't throw my shoulders forward/take my seat out of the saddle when asking for the simple change. SIT IN THE SADDLE. 
• Push forward into the halt or the hind legs won't come under once stopped.
• In sitting trot, ride in shoulder-fore when not actively doing something else. Otherwise he wants to get braced and crooked.
• In sitting trot, I need to exaggerate leaning back--and therefore probably becoming actually upright--and opening up my hips. I tighten my hips and seat trying to balance myself because I'm trying to curl into the fetal position at all times, and he's so in-tune to my seat that that makes him tighten his back and shorten like, "WTF are you asking up there, giant fat monkey lady?" and then he's tight so I'm bouncing and tightening even more myself and it's a vicious cycle. 

Finally the chiro

Chiro was unable to make it out on his originally scheduled date of Monday--which was always a possibility because he's so busy--but he was able to come on Thursday afternoon instead.

I didn't do anything with Opie on Monday because of my finger, nor on Wednesday because it was cold and I didn't wanna. But on Tuesday we got some bare bones basic work done that was much needed--mostly for me mentally.

At the trot, I made myself keep pushing pushing pushing for forward. Nothing else, just go big and open up. It never once even made it to "Is that a bit of a medium trot?!" .....which is actually pretty pathetic. I know this horse can push and open up a little bit now at least. I guess I just have to ask for even more. Even if my legs are falling off they feel like they're asking for so much already. Probably time to bring in Mr Tappy again.

The canter was much the same--to the left. I ended up getting in half seat and chasing him into a hand gallop for a few laps while still asking him to be round because he was quite locked up in his back. That worked though, and I was eventually able to sit and ride that bigger canter. I'm conflicted there because I know he needs that canter--it's a great jumping canter if nothing else--but I can't really do much out of it as far as simple changes or counter canter because it's not collected enough. But it's still definitely a good canter and one I need in the toolbox, so I need to make sure I give it some loving every now and then too.

The right was a hot mess pile of shit. I finally got him ultra collected, did a couple laps without falling over, and called that a win.

We finished with some turn on the haunches which I STILL think are perfectly good. I need to watch some videos on those because while I know he gets tense in them at shows, he's not getting 4 tense so I need to figure out what I did wrong to start last season off with them at a 7 and then drop into "you suck".

As far as the chiro! He was out in two spots in his lower back--the same area he had made himself a sore mess in a couple of weeks ago while performing his bolting, rearing coup de gras. He still wasn't sore to palpation as I've been rubbing that spot to keep him loose, but he had knocked himself out of alignment. No big deal, Chiro got him back in without trouble.

As predicted, the left hip was totally out of whack. So out of whack, Chiro had to keep taking breaks for himself and was out of breath by the time he got done shoving everything back where it belonged. We agreed it was probably a good idea for him to come back in a couple weeks to make sure everything sticks since it was such a big adjustment this time around.

Chiro always finishes with carrot stretches at the end, and Opie showed him the sad, sorry moves he's given me all week. "Oh no, my neck doesn't bend at all. Better just hand over those carrots with no work." Chiro rechecked his neck and poll, found absolutely nothing, and diagnosed it as, "It's not that he can't, he just doesn't want to." Story of poor old Dopie's life. After a little more insistence, Opie caved and magically was able to turn his neck.

He'll get the next two days off and then I'm excited to see what I have to work with on Sunday.

Ride Notes: Video 2/2/2020

• Had originally planned on jumping while Hubby was out to video, but decided it would be of more use to me to get dressage media instead so I could check in and see how things were going.
•  As always, after looking at the video my first thought was, "Why can't I just be a better rider already? Why am I working so hard and still not even that great of a rider? Why is all of this so hard?" But I sat on it a day. Pinpointed areas of weakness. Came up with a game plan. Smashed my fingers in a stall door and had to put that plan on pause to go to urgent care. LOL oh well. We'll get to that plan eventually. 
• We warmed up with the world's shittiest trot that all I could tell you about it was, "Wow, this feels so shitty." It felt better when I really got him going forward, but never where it should be. When I looked at the pictures it was obvious he was horribly on the forehand.
• I need to be more diligent about transitions warming up, both to get him off his forehand and to get him sharper off my leg. He can always be spicier. 

go go dopie go

• Started the lateral work in the walk before moving into the trot.

Haunches-in left:

SI to HI left from 2-3:

SI right:

• He is so stuck in that left hind in all the lateral work. I didn't even do much in whatever direction that would require that leg to come under. Fingers crossed the chiro is able to make it out this afternoon because he really needs it. 

Half pass left:

• Again, tried two steps of this to the right, Opie said, "No can do" so we scrapped it. 

yes, hello, i am physically incapable of sitting upright while posting.

• Then we cantered. Starting off in the left lead, I was actually pretty happy with how it felt. We did a few laps, a few big circles, then I got him collected to go across the ring to do some counter canter. We hit the rail and lead change. Ugh, annoying, but okay that's going to happen. Turned him back around and tried again. Cue Opie guessing at every canter trick he's ever learned in his whole life. 
• As Hubby said, it's not that he's not trying, it's that he's trying too much. Just be patient and wait and listen to see what I'm going to ask, brozilla. Stop trying them all ALL AT ONCE. 
• We finally managed one shitty counter canter serpentine:

• The right lead canter meanwhile was a whole other box of brainworms. 
• I'd assume it was something to do with the LH again. He was blowing out on all the outside aids and suddenly we couldn't do a circle again let alone canter straight down the rail. 
• I finally chased him forward enough that it wasn't terrible, but you can see the one spot where I had to yank him into the turn because he was just straight up falling:

• I did go back and make him do a real, round circle with his body underneath him at the w/t/c for a circle for each gait which he managed, but it was hard. 

40* and hard work

• He's basically just at that stage in his training where he's learning so much right now that it's probably a bit much for his brain to process. He needs to work on slowing things down in his head so he can focus on what I'm asking, and I need to make sure my aids are crystal fucking clear so there's no confusion.