Let's Not

After Opie gave me his perfect, quiet, clean, non-anticipatory change the day after the Janet Foy clinic, we did a couple rides over fences to prepare for the weekend's show, and then got back to dressage work yesterday. I'd been working on the changes every single ride before then so it wouldn't become A Thing, and that did seem to be working. I didn't think taking a week off from that nonstop exposure would be a big deal. I mean, this horse KNOWS what a fucking change is. Despite his best attempts to convince the world otherwise, he KNOWS how to do them. 

Obviously I was very wrong though.

I've very rarely been scared on that back of a horse. I get show nerves, I get in my own head, but I'm not like, "Oh shit, that was fucking scary."

Wow, thanks, Opie. That changed yesterday when I literally yelled out loud, "Holy shit, you're going to KILL US."

Warm up was a little all over the place as he forgot he knew how to half pass and we had to reintroduce that for whatever reason. Fortunately all I had to do was keep patiently asking with the same kindergarten aids and he eventually realized he knew what to do. That out of the way, on to the canter.

The "changes" right away were complete nutter shit. Launching into the air or sucking back so I couldn't ask because I had to focus on getting him straight again or just going forward period. Then the launching turned completely excessive, to the point where he was jumping so high into the air he was losing his balance and landing in a giant heap with no care to where his body parts were.

At one point he flung himself into the air with no thought to a change, so I did what I always do and opened up my rein to pull him onto a circle to stay on the lead he didn't change from, but he ducked out and launched again which almost put us into the wall--well, my head into the wall/metal support beam and his front end behind the kickboard. I managed to yank him around at the last second and instead we both almost went down on our sides because he was so busy being in A RAGE that he didn't care what his body was doing or where it was landing. 

That's when I got scared, and I got off. Jumping through the changes--while extra and needs to be corrected--is not the same as flinging yourself blindly through the air.

I went and got the draw reins as those do seem to keep him earthbound. Then we proceeded to stay on a circle for the rest of the ride. True canter to walk to counter canter to change--that worked best, and I made sure to reward the shit out of him every time he changed (and they were clean, quiet, on the ground changes). But the second we deviated from the circle, no matter what the intent, he went feral again. 

We ended up spending almost an hour in the canter working through this bullshit while I doubted every single move I made. BM couldn't get a clean change on him, and she could barely walk me through them over multiple lessons. Maybe this horse just won't be able to do Third because this one movement is out of reach for him.

EXCEPT IT'S NOT.

GOD FUCKING DAMN IT, HE KNOWS THEM. HE CAN DO THEM. THEY'RE WITHIN HIS WHEELHOUSE.

I just don't know how to get it through his head that they're not a big deal. Do the change correctly, you get candies and stretchies and petties and told you're the best boy ever. Don't do them and we keep going until you do no matter how many insane evasions you try. 

Right now I guess I go back to the every single ride we do them. From now until eternity if that's what it takes to get them to stick in his head. 

Today was freezing rain/ice pellets and I was soaked to the bone after taking care of the barn, so I put him in the sliding reins for the first time and we had a really good w/t/c longe that he did a lot of stretching for which I'm sure felt good after yesterday's work out. 

Tomorrow we go back to work. 

TNEC and CP Barn Schooling Show

I forced Hubby to drag his ass out at dawn to come take pictures for everyone in the morning so there's actually Dopie Does Hunters media for once!

i do love hunters for getting to do whatever the fuck you
want in the ring and over the fences you're jumping before the
show even starts. such silliness. 

We pulled in with the trailer just in time to see one of Opie's bff's rear up on top of K and knock her to the ground. Have you ever had one of those moments where you were like, "Wow that's so awful.....told you so tho."? Because yeah. I kept Opie on the trailer while BFF ran around the ring tormenting the other horses walking in there until they caught him, and then brought him out to graze for a bit until everyone had their shit together again.

I'm never such which Opie I'm going to get off property especially when it comes with jumping--and with a bunch of horses in turnout next to the ring running around like idiots because it's 35* outside. Fortunately I got #childgenius and he went around easy peasy all morning long.

As per usual for me, I was hesitant to start jumping and was like, "Meh, maybe I won't even bother doing the 2'3" and just do the hack division." He was being so good though that we waited for BFF to be escorted back home and then got to work.

He did nothing wrong and loped around while I stayed in half seat with zero input. Okay, fine, I guess we might as well do the 2'3" lol.

Hack division first: a hunter class, equitation, then another hunter.

He was fine for the first and last hunter classes getting a 2nd in the first and a 4th in the other one:

For whatever reason the second flat class always turns him into a barely controllable rage monster that just wants to canter the entire time. I kept a lid on it, but he did gets antsy at the halt right in front of the judge from which she asked us to pick up the canter. He was too busy fidgeting to focus and struck off on the wrong lead and then got pissy when I asked him to stop and correct it.

The judge had apparently moved on from us by that point because we got a second in that class as well.

The 2'3 division started off with a hunter round:

Opie spooked hard at the half barrels at the first jump, but he did go over albeit with a mighty launch that threw me forward.

"da fuq are those things"

I came in with not enough pace to the first line which left getting out of it on the correct striding not super pretty, but I asked for the long spot needed and he delivered. Everything else was fine. 

The eq round was also fine. He had to trot the barrel jump which he scooted to a stop in front of, but jumped without going backwards or sideways.

And then the final jump was a diagonal that we were supposed to halt after. As we came around the corner I half halted when I didn't need to at all and he almost broke to the trot and then had a shit jump out because I wrecked the rhythm--and then I almost forgot to halt. 

He got a 3rd for the first round and a 4th for the second. The flat felt super, but honestly I'm not ever sure what this rando judge is looking for at this "show". Every single class seems to be placed kind of however she feels like and not based on any logic. We got a third for the flat. 

Overall it was a perfect off property trip on our end. 

Four Years of Dopie

Today marks four years since I bought Opie off the backside of Finger Lakes!

From his very first ride:

To his first Third Level test at the end of the show season:

Not too bad, sir. Not too bad at all.

Schooling Rides

Nearly every single ride lately has been along the same lines: w/t warm up with good stretch, focusing on staying forward with good bend and good push and plain old good basics....and then into the canter we go, mother fucker, because every day is changes day now!

answering the horse whinny from my phone while i tried to get 
his ears up

This has maybe unsurprisingly taken a large amount of the drama out of the whole process. Obviously that's what I was hoping for, but one never knows with Opie, and our track record with changes has been this: THE DRAMA NEVER STOPS.

We went from not being able to pick up the canter whatsoever without instantly locking up and revving up for all the ridiculousness that coming across the diagonal (or turning, or doing anything) brought to having a canter now. Is it the quality I want? No, of course not. But we can do a change, or flub a change, or whatever, and then come back to the walk before picking it up again sanely. That's a big deal.

Also a big deal is, though, that the changes themselves are coming quicker and they're fairly normal. His favorite evasion as become the big leap into the air with legs going everywhere, but when he lands he hasn't changed anything. I caught onto that quickly and just pull him around to the lead we stayed on to come back around again. 

When he does give me the change--and again, they're coming so much faster and more reliably now!--he gets mega praise and then has a good stretch walk break. 

He had the best one right after the Janet Foy clinic when I put him back in the double and he was just fucking nailing everything I asked for. (So much better in the double omg.) I kept in mind her walk through of the simple changes and asking for the walk as the front in came up. We did a few simple changes focusing on that, but honestly he's really good at them in the double so they we fine. I carried that over into the ask for the change. Quiet, quiet, quiet in the body for me, make sure I'm constantly half-halting so he doesn't anticipate and start flinging himself around, and as the front end lifted up switch legs and ask. He popped right over with a little jump but clean as could before cantering off like nothing had happened.

I poured the praise on him and quit there because he'd been super the whole ride and that felt like the perfect spot to quit. 

The next day we meandered around bareback and bridleless before doing a real ride yesterday to prepare for this weekend's hunter show.

spooking at the jump after having already jumped it

I set up a 4 stride down one side, a 5 stride down the other, and the 2 stride across the diagonal. All between 2'3-6". To the left he was fine doing the first jump in the line and then rolling back to the first jump on the other side. The first time we went straight down the line he went FULL SEND and launched basically into the second jump and then landed nearly on his head. My pulley rein barely got him slowed and I ended up having to run him into the wall to stop him. 

Fortunately that put an end to the drama going left. Start it all over to the right! He wanted to get super backed off to the first jump, but then land and gallop down the line like a lunatic. I finally had to have another CTJ and pulley rein him to a stop in front of the second jump to get through to his brain that bolting isn't the answer. 

I was kind of worried he'd be squirrely coming through again since he'd just been thoroughly told off and basically yanked to a halt in front of the fence, but he understood the correction and we were able to do the old rating thing after that. 

The two stride he jumped like a monster--in a good way. He was a little looky at the gate since it was the first time he'd jumped it with the rail on top, but I was a grown up for once and simply kept my leg on coming up and he jumped the shit out of it and then jumped the shit out of the wide oxer on the out. 

After taking a long walk break to catch my breath, we finished with a perfect line off the right lead. 

He'll get one more school tomorrow, his PEMF, and then show on Saturday!

Janet Foy Symposium

This weekend Houghton College--where we show all the time--hosted a Janet Foy symposium put on by WNYDA. You had to sign up for auditing way back in July and it was kind of expensive so I opted to do Saturday only. Of course the morning that I drove down there was a day of doom storms and was hands down some of the worst driving I've ever done in my life. 

But nevertheless I arrived safe and sound and we got to work starting at Training Level. The symposium was "Development of balance, collection, and self-carriage through the levels" so basically how one level built upon the next. 

first level rider

• The Training rider was on a young Arabian mare and Janet started off by saying that some breeds don't have great walks, mainly collected and extended, such as Arabians and Spanish horses.
• Know your horse's highlights, and know where to take a 6 and move on.
• If you try to push for a higher score on a weak movement you'll end up with a 4. 
• Example: If you don't have a difference between your medium and extended trot, just let it ride. 
• Geometry is key. Judges will take .5 off each movement for not riding the movement accurately.
• The Training and First riders couldn't ride an accurate 20m circle to save their lives.
• At Training, straightness should be your #1 priority.
• Always ride in slight shoulder-fore.
• Inside leg to outside rein means:
• If one side of the horse isn't shorter then they will pull you out of the saddle.
• The horse has four legs at four points creating a rectangle with its body. You want to use your inside leg to push their inside hind underneath them which knocks them off their four points and creates the bend/shoulder-fore.

janet explaining moving the rib cage over to the 
third level rider

• Keep your weight in the center of the saddle or they will follow your weight over. 
• It's not a multiple choice test. There's one aid, one answer. The horse must come to us. 
• The only time the hand and leg aids are on the same side are for the changes. Everything else is on a diagonal. (Inside leg, outside rein.)
• "They're the muscle, we're the brain."
• Horses have a book of evasions that they pass around the barn at night.
• Sally Swift says hold the baby bird in your hand, hard enough so it can't escape but loose enough so you don't crush it. Janet: "Kill the baby bird."
• Hand grip is more relevant to men. Women must keep the hand closed in a firm grip. Think soft wrists not hands.
• The serpentine:
• Will be taken out in the new Training tests.
• Think half circles connected by straight lines. (This is a really ambivalent statement, but she spent a long time making the Training rider go through it and it was a great visual. I finally learned how to ride these super correctly in 2-3 only this year lol.)
• Shoulder-Fore and Shoulder-In:
• Our hands and shoulders always stay together when asking.
• Outside rein stays pressed against the neck, inside rein doesn't touch the neck. If the inside rein is touching the neck then the inside leg isn't working. Half the riders couldn't do this and got their left stirrup taken away--they were right handed and bracing against that stirrup which left the right leg useless.
• Your boobs are your headlights. They light the way and point to where we want to go.
• Always shorten the inside rein first.
• Free walk: If horse curls behind the contact at all then just give them the reins to the buckle. Judges would rather see that if it keeps the nose out and the gait better.

had such a good ride on this dude the day after

• In Second Level the "shorten the steps" before the TOH will be taken out in new tests.
• You want the steps shorter and higher because of collection, not because they're being crammed into a chicken walk.
• Haunches-in: outside leg sets the angle, inside leg keeps the bend and engagement. Never both at once.
• Simple changes: Walk when the front end is coming off the ground. If you ask when the front end is going down, the transition will be croup high. This carries over to the changes as well.
• For the half pass, take the time to go through the steps to set it up so you don't get to the rail too early. 
• Shoulder-fore, inside bend, begin the half pass. Finish the half pass and move the rib cage to the new bend.
• Bend the neck to the inside on the long side (only in practice obvi) to make sure you can.

I stayed for Training through Third which got us up to the lunch break. I wanted to stay and watch the Fourth and PSG riders because I knew them, and of course it was a really good clinic, but my anxiety had reached its max level for the week at that point and I had to go home. It was well worth the horrendous drive down though, and I'm so glad we're good these opportunities more often up here!

Ride Share

Opie has apparently become a hot commodity. It started when I let a teen ride him for a faux-lesson, and then asked a barn mate to hack him around while I was on vacation for a week. 

Said barn mate ended up not having the time to do so after her initial ride which was fine, but when I got back she was like, "I can ride him for you any time!" I appreciate that, but you're not bringing any training to the table and I don't need an exercise rider since I'm here to do the exorcising exercising myself.

Then another barn mate, K, started begging to get on him because she's been stuck in the green/problem horse crash test dummy role for eternity and wanted to ride something already trained where she could work on herself. I finally caved and let her get on him this morning.

I got on him quickly first to talk her through my aids since I'm no instructor and have a hard time picking up on what a rider is doing wrong. I can see what the horse is doing wrong, and I'm sure if I was in the saddle I could fix it, but I'm not so good at communicating what I would do to another rider. Fortunately K has plenty of experience so she understood my vague, "Now I'm bringing this seat bone back and closing the outside leg and tah-dah we're doing this fancy thing." I showed her that the horse is very light and can go around with basically no reins while still bending and being round so long as you have him straight between your legs and are using your other aids correctly.

I let her go around and get a feel for him without much input besides the occasional "shorten your reins" and "turn your thigh in". She had a hard time getting him to keep the inside bend, and as he does with a new rider he wants to get fast to get out of using himself and they think, "Yay! He's going nicely forward!" Nah, reel that back in and make him work for real. 

reel him in and then let him out when he's actually using his booty
and then this is what you get!

The three of us were able to get on the same page by the end of her ride, and she finished up flatting with a super strutting trot that had her grinning and giggling. There was a two stride line set up across the diagonal so they did that three times with Opie being like, "NOW WE FLY, BITCHES" each time.

k was unfazed by the shenanigans

He got lots and lots of candy afterwards and then outside to enjoy the beautiful day with his dumb friends.

I'm not a big sharing person usually for a few reasons, the biggest being that I feel like I put in all the hard work/blood, sweat, and literal tears so I should be the only one that gets to reap the benefits. But I can relate to needing a win so in situations like I don't mind showing off what my horse is capable of--thanks to me and all my training that usually makes me want to rip my hair out lol. 

Opening that can of worms

The changes can that is.

I find it a bit demoralizing and quite frankly a little ridiculous that this horse won't just give me a clean change each way at this point.

also find this level of filth before a ride demoralizing

Sunday morning I jumped right in the deep end. W/T warm up, into the canter and off to the fucking races.

As always, he got going right away with the drama. Bolting, propping, leaping, bucking, yada yada. I got him wrangled back down to earth and then he tried the "Oh, you want me to be quiet? Then I'll quietly break to the trot." Which means I had to get after him over that and back to out of control theatrics we went.

I was getting my arms yanked out while he bronced around the ring like a dolphin injected with cocaine being chased by a large predator very much not changing leads. Completely fucking over it, I managed to pulley rein him to a stop and got off to put draw reins on him. Break my face with your head? I think not.

we've still been doing lots of hacking around

Fortunately the draw reins allowed me to regain control. No more bolting, instead he was now LEAPING into the air like there was a 4' oxer in our path. Clean? Yes. Sane? Eh, debatable. So carry fucking on we go!

Finally, finally he popped a clean change right to left (his harder way) that was quiet and on the aids and I let him be done there. 

I made it a point to be super chilly about my ask because god knows I am super bad about flinging myself to the side and up out of the saddle when he doesn't need any level of that ask. At this point he knows what I'm asking, so a shift in seat bones and touch of the leg is enough. Believe you me, it was enough to send him into the stratosphere when he didn't wanna. 

we had to put this sweet, ancient lesson pony down
this morning. opie and i took him along for a trail
ride and splash party on friday

My arms were aching from being ripped out of their sockets so Monday we had a long stretch ride to work things out for the both of us. I thought I'd be nice and let him pop over the 2'6" vertical in the ring to finish, but that ended up opening up its own can of worms. He tried bolting over that from ten strides out so I steered him into a circle off of it and came back to it from the trot. He stayed steady, but dropped the rail. That ended up working out well because we then got to play a fun game called "We can canter a ground pole without going a thousand miles an hour."

Once that game was conquered--which took much longer than it should have--we went out back to hack around. He was all about jumping a 2' hanging log so I let him go to it--and then he slammed on the brakes and spun out a stride away. Yeah, no. Now we're playing the game "You can walk over this jump eight hundred times for all I fucking care, we don't do those dirty moves."

I made him walk over a couple other little jumps out there before he got a quick splash and some grazing time while the puppies ran around.

I had a very clear picture in my head of how October would look for us. Lots of stretching, trail riding, and some fun jump days. That's not exactly how things have played out lol. However, I do think these rides have had their uses and broken down to the fundamentals they're still what I'm aiming for: good, obedient, correct basics. You need to bend. You need to be rhythmic and relaxed. You need to use your body correctly. You need to do your changes. You need to go over the jump out of a steady rhythm the first time every time.