Mixed Bag

 Well our relaxing, brain cleansing weekend park rides were not to be. 

bye, truck!

On its first real maiden voyage hauling, with less than 500 miles on it (from us) which came over maybe a dozen trips total, my truck that we bought specifically so I would never get stranded on the side of the road with a loaded horse trailer shit the bed in the middle of the road with a loaded horse trailer. 

The 4wd system sensor went off when I pulled out of the driveway of my house even though we've never used the 4wd. I ran it over to Hubby's work and we gave it a quick lookover and rammed it around the block, but it seemed to be running fine so off I went since the park is close and it was the weekend so help shouldn't be hard to find if it came to that. 

I pulled on to the short stretch of the interstate and it started overheating. I got that under control (well...the alarm went off), but then I got off the exit and on flat road I was barely getting it up to 40mph. I figured I could nurse it into the park and we'd figure out a plan there. Except right before the park entrance the engine suddenly redlined itself and then sputtered to a halt and died, refusing to start again. Coolant line exploded, brakes seized, engine caput. 

Someone stopped to pull me off onto the shoulder, BM's boyfriend was quickly on scene to hook up to the trailer and get it into the park (and, bless him, wait around while we road to haul it home), and AAA had a tow truck out in fifteen minutes to make my truck go bye bye back to the dealer. 

dopie says hanging out in the road was worth it
for the splash party

So the dealer is putting a new engine in it because fuck them, and we'll go from there. They better have it back by next weekend for the first show of the year. 

I felt like a real asshole even though it wasn't my fault, but fortunately another girl from the barn was able to use her truck with my trailer and take Sunday's group out, and while BM was perfectly happy to pay me for Saturday I felt better about just exchanging my participation for a couple of lessons. 

Opie got Sunday and Monday off because I just did not want to, but we went back to work on Tuesday even though I was in a pretty bitchy mood then too and almost went home without riding. 

Both of us started out with a serious case of the lazy blahs, but it ended up working in my favor.

would like to nap forever thanks

I had the double on so that it's still a thing we can use, and he was fine with it. Lots and lots of circles to get some bend and using himself going, and then I made myself ride a little bit and do a bunch of transitions in and out of the canter to get him cruising at least halfway. Turns on the haunches and powering up the walk until he was finally offering up the extended walk I expect from him. Finally back into the canter to see about those changes.

I did the exercise from Karen that we finished on last week. Right to left first. He was quiet, double pumped when I first asked, and then jumped over and carried on sanely. Yay, good boy!

Left to right, he was lazier and kind of cheated and snuck through in sort of a change but also maybe was that sort of a walk for a second there, sir. Whatever, totally sane and done on cue I let it slide and quit there with a trail ride to end.

Today I made us do some real work the whole ride.

same feelings.

I got him cooking right off the bat which made him a little spicy in the walk when I tried to do some turns on the haunches. I got those settled and where they needed to be, and off to the canter for changes--across the diagonal!

I think we maybe killed his spirit some during flying change boot camp. Not even sorry. I started off with the ten meter circle which he found hard to the left which in turn made him get hoppy and the tongue get floppy. I took him off that and sorted things out before trying again. He waited to be cued for the change, and while it was big and a step late behind, it wasn't climbing the walls and I put a big half halt through right after that brought it back down to earth. 

The right to left was good, at this point if only because he's waiting and letting me ask and not bolting afterwards. I'll totally take it right now, and now I have two lessons in hand to get them sharper without going back to the cray cray. 

We didn't stop there this time though. More canter work on those 10m circles. Into the sitting trot with lateral work galore. SI to renvers to HI to half pass. Medium trots across the diagonal again and again. Lots of work overall on keeping him coming forward while staying soft in his back. 

Finally I wrapped things up and we hit the pond for a soak with the puppies.

Tomorrow off, jump and stretchies ride Friday to give him a mental break, and then next week I'll do those two lessons. Hopefully they'll clean up the changes good enough for now, and then one week to make sure all the Second work is where I want it before the show. 

If all goes to plan of course. Knock on wood!

Flying Change Boot Camp

I finally got around to scheduling Opie's flying change boot camp: cramming as many lessons in as possible, one right after the other, until we have a sane change when called upon. 

It got slightly waylaid by the vet, the chiro, and multiple saddle fittings, but we're in it now.

The first two days were complete clusterfucks. I was increasingly discouraged and frustrated. BM moved on from one exercise to another to try to get him to stop the anticipating, stop the bolting, stop the flailing, stop the vertical cantering. 

will faudree's 4* horse showing exactly how opie
does his changes when in a rage

#twinsies

The small win was that she was able to look past all the DRAMA and pinpoint what was actually going on to prevent the change from going smoothly through.

Aside from, you know, his inner Rage Monster.

Basically he doesn't want to load the hind leg that needs to jump over. Which is funny because he's perfectly willing to bend his hocks and sit on the ground to launch his front end into the air. 

I sent BM an exercise from Karen, and that's what we worked on today except instead of turning around and repeating it, if he gave us a clean change we came to the walk with big praise. If he didn't give it, he got turned into the wall so he couldn't bolt.

We started off on the right lead, changing left. The good news was that he didn't get that chance to bolt. However he definitely started off doing his go-to anticipate, flail, and then obviously don't get it behind. 

Since that was spiraling, we switched directions to repeat the exercise the other way and right off the bat he was calmer, let me rate him, ask him, and then he stepped right over clean and calm as can be. 

So back we went to the other direction again. BM walked me through what every single part of my body needed to be doing at all times, and then as I was riding she spelled it out like I have the mind of a three year old--which I do, and that is exactly what I need. 

In no particular order: make sure the inside rein is soft and that the half halt through it is an obvious change in weight; lighten my seat and sit on the front seat bones, using the lower abs so I'm letting his back come up; push over with the knee and calf; let the one hip swing, but not the other; ....I think that's it.

I finally, finally got him to settle, got the canter light and bouncing, and he WAITED which meant I was able to actually do all the things BM was talking me through so when I did cue he popped over nice and clean. 

Back to the other direction. We'd taken my spurs off when he was getting wound to the right, but now to the left he was letting me collect him, but he kept breaking after the "pirouette", and when he wasn't breaking he was straight up being too lazy to change behind. I asked BM to put my left spur back on, got him jazzed just a little, and then poked him in the gut and he cleanly changed. 

We ended there, sweating like a couple of fat old men, but relaxed and pleased with ourselves. 

This weekend we're taking groups to Mendon for trail riding which will be a good mental break for us both, and a little money for the credit card that just got hit with a custom saddle, new breeches, and soon to be ordered new tall boots. If we could both just stay the same shape forever from now on, that would be great. 

We'll see where things go from there. Lessons are not cheap, and with show season here, money is not free for the taking.

This Saddle Tho

 

boring to look at, magical to ride in

Well now I feel like a real asshole not investigating saddle fit sooner because hot damn, what a fucking change this new saddle instantly made. 

The fitter told me to take it easy the first week riding in it because he was going to move completely different, and he'd probably come up sore if I just put him right back into full work. 

Yeah, that is not going to be a problem. It's me that's going to need to be eased into riding this bouncy, forward new horse I own. 

I finally got a chance to ride in it for real yesterday. He started off by yanking the reins out of my hands to stretch to the ground at the walk. Into the trot he was launching me with each post, his back was so round and up and springy. The canter felt totally different. I finished by tacking on a short stint of sitting trot just out of curiosity, but it was a bit tight. That was fine--never tack on anything last minute to an Opie ride because it never works.

"i need advance notice on all things, thx"

Today I was dying to try the flying change circle exercise from the clinic on Sunday: 

• On a circle: walk - counter canter - walk - true canter - walk - counter canter - lead change.

Opie was a little tired this morning, but it was kind of muggy and gross so once I got him cooking in a forward trot, I let him have a long walk break before starting the real work. Sitting trot felt bouncy, forward, and relaxed this time even once I asked for SI and HI! A few mediums in posting trot, and then on to our canter circle.

First of all, counter canter on a circle is hard. Opie could do it for the half circle I asked him to hold it before doing a transition, and he stepped right into it from the walk every time, but damn. 

We started tracking left. I diligently ran through counter canter to true canter transitions several times, and then just quietly asked him to hold the counter canter, changed the bend, and asked. It was a complete nonevent. He stepped right over and carried on like nothing had happened. 

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I gave him huge praise, let him have a walk break, and then repeated to the left again. Same result!

To the right his counter canter wasn't as solid and it was causing me to twist my body all sorts of ways. Add that on to him getting a little tense and wanting to run through it, the hind end didn't follow the first time, and then the second time he changed clean but then changed back over to the wrong lead. Who knows. 

Finally we both got ourselves in order and on the third try he smoothly switched over. More mega praise, cookies shoved in his face, and out to the pond for a celebratory splash party.

the puppy was all about joining our splash party
until some very loud birds needed her attention

Tomorrow is a road hack with BM, and then Thursday I get my first vaccine so we'll see how the rest of the week plays out with that.

This afternoon the chiro surprised me with a call and we were able to meet up to get Opie cracked back into place.

willow felt strongly that chiro time was over and
it was snackie time now

He leveled out his hips as best as he could, did a couple of the usual spots in his back, and announced that over all he looked really good conditioning-wise. He agreed with the (second) vet that his hips are probably never going to be completely level, and that he's really tight back there. I've been stretching out his back legs before every ride and while still super tight, he's already got better range of motion. Chiro should have seen him when his "stretch" was about two inches, yikes.

mission accomplished. 

So everything is on track in Dopie's life at the moment, knock on serious fucking wood. Now to figure out what we're going to show....

Vincent Flores Clinic

My GMO hosted a (COVID-rescheduled) symposium with GP rider/trainer Vincent Flores over the weekend. I spent both mornings volunteering at the check-in table which was sadly quite a hike from the dressage court indoor (as opposed to the jump indoor--this barn was palatial and just down the road from the Maddens which I obviously had to drive by on my way home). It was super busy Saturday morning so I didn't catch any rides then, but it quieted down significantly Sunday and I was able to scamper over for a few minutes of each morning rider to listen in and grab some pictures. 

the barn's head trainer running through the GP test

After lunch both days, I did stick around to audit the next two riders so I was able to get a sense of what type of trainer he was. In short: forgiving and funny! It was never the horse's fault, but he never put down the rider. 

Most of the one liners are from the afternoon rides, while the stuff on the changes were what I was able to catch at the end of the Second/Third horse's ride. 

Make sure you go in your corner. We're in a dressage court, not on a racetrack.

Every time you miss a corner something dies in me.

Open your inside rein like you're opening a newspaper. You don't open a newspaper with your elbow, it's only your hand. Okay, I know we don't look at newspapers so think about opening your Dover catalog.

3 loop serpentine: I don't know who made up the lettering and spacing [in a dressage court] and made this so complicated. 

Horses don't wake up in the morning trying to sabotage our lives.

In the canter the outside rein has to allow the motion of the neck.

i've seen these two at our schooling shows a bunch of times and i
freaking love them. they took a break and when the rider went to ask
her to go back to work, she tried to leave. VF was like, "going back to
our conversation about her breeding yesterday, i think we can say for
certain she's part pony."

Lateral work he does every day, flying changes are also okay to do every day. You don't want to do extension and collection every day (pirouettes, piaf/pas, and extensions) because it's physically taxing on the horse and you'll end up with a suspensory.

You're not here to put on a demo. The point of a symposium is for you to watch other riders struggle and then they watch you struggle.

Half pass: Get your shape in the corner and then just move sideways across the arena. If you don't have the bend going in, the chances of being able to fix it are very slim.

HI: The rider and horse's shoulders are straight, pointing at the short side, only the haunches come in.

lusitano stallion doing HI

Flying change: That was not straight. That was about as straight as I am.

For every movement, understand what you need to do to get a 10.

Changes:

• On a circle: walk - counter canter - walk - true canter - walk - counter canter - lead change. 
• People go into the ride thinking, "Today I'm going to work on the changes!", and they're going to get them no matter what so they perpetuate sloppy just to get them. (Hi, it's me.) You have to be disciplined. If they don't change when you ask, immediately come back to the walk and do it again. 
• For a mare with a big change one way: I know we're in upstate NY, but they don't need to be exotic. Keep them classy.

One of the rides I watched on Saturday afternoon was a working student (I assume) on an older GP schoolmaster. He was a great big Canadian Warmblood that VF already knew. He pointed out for the auditors toward the end of the ride that he wanted us to see this horse because he was such a good teacher. 

He doesn't have the best canter, he and his parents were bred for carriage horses not dressage horses, but he's been very successful because he has the right mindset. Look at him. At any moment he can canter to walk. More important than breeding is the right brain, the right trainability, the heart to do it. 

And I think that quote perfectly sums up the vibe of the whole clinic! 

Saddle Fitting

(Interspersed with media from yesterday's slightly wild jump school.)

I'd originally tried to schedule an appointment with a fitter back in the beginning of March, but I was never able to nail her down to a specific date, so Opie's PEMF genie recommended a different fitter. She professionally got right back to me with a date and time that worked for me and one other boarder (which was such a cluster fuck dealing with that group text omfg). 

The fitter (we'll call her PS) did the other horse first which was a bit of a cluster fuck in and of itself, but I wandered off and let them sort that out themselves because not my job, not my problem, not wasting my mental capacity on it. 

Finally it was Opie's turn. She got the history on him, took tracings, and then set my County on his back. Immediately she was like, "Nope." Put the Mattes pad on to see if that might help. Nope. 

"Some horses the fit will look not right when you have it set on the back, but once the rider gets on it actually works out alright. This is not going to be one of those saddles."

(She did say the other rider's saddle wasn't a good match either, but she was perfectly willing to work with her to make it fit-ish while the mare continued changing shape, and then brought out a Wintec and discussed low budget options with her, so I don't feel like she went in being like, "Imma sell both these dummies brand new saddles.")

She knew the woman I bought the County from, and she agreed that it was probably a really good fit for him when he first came off the track and was still Thoroughbred shaped. He's got an entirely new body now, and she pointed out that we're at that precipice in Second/Third where they really figure out using their back so he's going to feel a bad fit even more now. 

I asked her if she thought bad saddle fit was playing into the changes problem and she instantly replied, "YES." She pointed out where the saddle was pinching--his shoulder/the gusset (bitch, please, like I know saddle parts), and that the panels were too big/wide for him, and bringing that already weak LH under and asking it to do the work of a flying change was just going to hit those pressure points and be even more uncomfortable. 

She reluctantly said she could flock it differently and fix that problem, but the adjustment would make it bridge and we've basically traded one problem for a new one. In short, this horse is shaped like a Cob/QH cross, not at all like a TB. 

We discussed budget and trade-in value for my County, and she went out to dig around in the saddles she'd brought with her. 

She came back with this gorgeous thing:

hastilow prism elite

She took it off several times to adjust it until she was happy--one time even getting me to climb aboard before we walked all of two strides and she pulled it off again--and then I took it for a real test ride. It was an 18" seat but I felt very crammed in there. It felt like it was tipping me forward a bit so she swapped my Mattes for a Prolite which helped my balance, but Opie wasn't about. I did feel like it wanted me to be in a very good, correct position and I liked the monoflap type feeling it gave. 

She brought in another one, but we both nixed it super quickly as neither Opie nor I liked it. 

The third one she said was more for me since he seemed to like the spring tree in the first saddle so much. As soon as I sat in it, I liked it. It felt a lot like my County, but with an even squishier seat which I didn't know was possible. 

It had relatively significant knee rolls which I'm very wary of because my femur is so long, but my knee and thigh stayed behind them. PS pointed out that this saddle is crafted so you're sitting back a bit more which gives a long femur more room to come forward without having to go to a bigger seat size. 

the best puppy keeping herself amused

Opie definitely didn't feel as good in this saddle as he did in the first one, but again, we went in knowing that. However, he didn't feel awful like he did in the second one. 

So back to budget.

She gave me a good price for my County, and said that brand new the saddle we were looking for--a combination of the tree of the first saddle with a different, shorter cut to the panels, and pretty much everything else from the third saddle for me--would run me between $1k-$1,700. Not great, but doable. She said that price was for if she had something in stock that just needed the panels changed or if Hastilow had to build me a brand new saddle. 

In the meantime, she let me keep the third saddle (a Hastilow Impression) since the County was definitely no good for him and I needed something to ride in in the meantime. 

It definitely wasn't the solution I was hoping for--that being a quick reflock and off we went--but hopefully this is the last piece in the puzzle to get Opie feeling A++ and unlock the secret to the elusive clean, sane change.

Maybe getting somewhere

Opie got last Thursday off, had a light twenty minute ride in jump tack before getting his back pulsed on Friday, and then also ended up with the weekend off. That Thursday and Friday he only got indoor turnout while his paddock was getting worked on. Reports have it that he and his friends made up for the inactivity by being absolutely feral once freed back into the wilds. 

Yeah, it showed in our ride on Monday.

waiting for the farrier is a lot of work

First he had to get new feets and was being weird about that fucking LH--not really wanting to hold it for Farrier, and then not wanting to stand square on it while she finished his fronts. I'm going to assume it was from being too wild over the weekend, because the general blah carried over big time under saddle. He was tight and sluggish and just meh, but he did eventually warm up out of it.

I had the double on hoping for a real ride that we could maybe run through a test with, but no cigar.

featuring his blingy new browband i'm still hoping we'll get to
show with this year. 

We did touch the flying changes for the first time in forever and a day though! Talking with Farrier beforehand, she asked if he did them on his own out in the field. You know what? No, he doesn't. He's perfectly happy to stay on the wrong lead or just cross canter around. So maybe some things just do not come naturally to #childgenius. Maybe that's why he was a sprinter--so he never had to change leads. Haha, poor Dopes. 

However, I was like, "At this point I would be okay with them being late behind for a stride or two as long as they're fucking relaxed." I know that's probably not the best mindset, but here we are. Put them on the list of things I've fucked up and had to go back to fix. Story of my riding life. 

That ended up being exactly what happened. He was late but nonchalant, and right now--after the fucking RODEO they have been--I'll take it. 

farrier day meant play day with farrier's 9mo puppy.
my 5mo puppy showing him who's the real boss around here. 

Today he was having one his neurotic meltdowns in his stall when I got there for barn chores. He literally spooked at himself peeing and then spent the entire time I was turning out running in circles in his stall. Fortunately his Chill The Fuck Out breakfast drugs must have finally kicked in and he finished his hay and was fine for our ride. I left out a dose for his dinner too though. 

i've been riding in the mattes half pad since the vet came out, and
that combined with his stretching and pulse treatments have really
loosened him up again. 

BM had set some jumps up in the outdoor since we're having such awesome weather and I used the opportunity to practice what the vet also told me to try: the changes with jumpies in my dressage saddle. 

He warmed up well, although thanks to Pivo working and actually recording this ride I was able to see that I still need to shorten my reins six inches and stop fucking with the inside rein.

i just love long reins and pulling on the inside rein tho. so much.

He was tight and not wanting to do the HI tracking right--so the LH stepping under. I think that probably needs to get pulsed on a regular basis too, but $25 a week is different than $55 a week that would entail. We'll see. Maybe bi-weekly can be doable. 

He was not so great with the c/w/c transitions. He kept wanting to cheat and not come all the way to the walk for them. So definitely more work on those, and then the 10m canter circles in 3-1 need a lot of work as well because he really falls in on his shoulder and can barely get out of his way enough to execute them. 

I started with asking for the changes across the short diagonal right off the bat. Nope. Suuuper late behind--like half the arena--then wild upon approach, and then not even trying.

I popped him over the straw bale jump on the long side which he did easily, landed on the correct lead before swapping to the wrong lead, and finally letting me change him back over but late behind a couple strides. 

From there we did the vertical on the diagonal, right lead to left. He landed the left lead every time. Coming back across to change the other way he was late but chill. The third and final time over the vertical, he landed the left lead and instead of going all the way around the ring to come across the diagonal for the change, I turned him after just the short side and he quietly popped over no fuss no muss only one stride late and carried on like it was no big deal. 

He got huge pats and we quit there.

thank you for not being rabid

please keep up the good work

Tomorrow we're going to do a real jumpies ride with counter canter in the warm up and sneak in those changes while doing the fun things. It low key kills me that THIS IS NOT HOW WE DO THEM IN A TEST, but patience, young padawan. If we can solidify them as fun, then they should just carry over into the not-as-fun job.

RIGHT?!?!?