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?!?!?