Level Up

We've miraculously continued our upward trending, magical breakthrough, good vibes only, etc etc since our show. Which was also the last time I'd ridden him before our lesson on Friday. Opie says, work smarter not harder. 

powered by candies

For our lesson, I asked MB if she could give me some exercises I could do in warm up at shows that would help me activate Opie's collected trot. All the tools she's given me to fix his canter when it turns to shit have finally sunk in, so on to the next! How do I get him from framing up and trotting around doing the movements, to actually softening his topline and sitting? We can do this at home, but it's usually at the end of a 30-40 ride, and that's just not going to work when I have to save energy for two tests. 

MB was immediately like, "Do transitions." And I was all, "That sounds too hard, what else do you have for me?" Poor MB. And all trainers. How do they cope with the ammy brain on a daily basis?

"you're dumb. learn to ride."
--opie, always.

So instead she told me to start our warm up with the feeling I had in our extended trot at the show--push the rein forward and allow. Whatever he gives me is what we start with. For a 16hh OTTB, it's probably not going to be a lot to start. And that's okay. He'll start offering more as he naturally loosens up. From there, incorporate some leg yields or SI (I opted for LY because our SI are still homework) because lateral work isn't just for looking pretty as you go sideways--it's actually a suppling exercise. Durrrhhhh.

Shockingly (as in, not at all), some leg yield zig zags in the trot, a little back and forth within the gait, and suddenly sir was cooking along. I could feel his little toes big old clodhoppers flicking along and best of all, his shoulders swinging. What a rare, magical occurrence! Totally notable! I was shooketh!

speaking of feet, his hoof is growing out well from
where he tried to separate it from his leg by kicking
the wall earlier this year. 

From there we moved on to the canter. MB was like, "You want Fourth, you've got to get these canter transitions cleaner." And then was mean and made us do many of them. So many. No more half a trot step into the upward, and no more quitting riding and dumping him onto his head in the downward. But we got the canter itself banging AF, we just had to add the transitions onto the homework pile.

After cantering, we picked up the sitting trot. Tah-dah, instantly had this huge, powerful, collected trot. Which I immediately did not know how to ride lol. MB said, "Opie is ready to give it to you, he just needs to know what to do with it." To which I replied, "I DON'T KNOW, PANIC?!"

I'm a real good rider, guys. MB told me to lengthen my right curb rein half an inch as we were blasting around like someone has trained this horse and I just went ahead and dropped the whole fucking rein.

So good. 

It was perhaps not the most productive end to the lesson because it was mostly MB calling out movements while I sat there and sort of pointed Opie in the right direction while giving a running commentary that mostly consisted of, "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."

Honestly, trainers should be paid more.

gets so many snacks for putting up with me

The next day I rode again, repeated our ride from the lesson essentially step by step, and produced the same results. But this time I was more prepared for the POWAH and actually belted my ass into the saddle and rode much better. Much less panicking. Much more steering. 10/10.

He got Sunday off because it was so insanely hot, but I rode him first thing this morning with the goal of stretching at the trot and some canter transitions. I put the snaffle back on him because I wasn't planning on doing anything exciting, and while the trot work was exactly what I was going for, the canter was a mess. He really does do much better in the double, but for one I don't want a horse that's dependent on the double to do work. He also gets so heavy in it if he gets tired in the canter. But if he doesn't get tired, it's far and away the better tool for him. 

Anyway, canter was a mess, and then he started having a mini meltdown over a single fly. I finally whacked the fly out of existence and changed direction, and he gave me really good upward transitions and one single so-so downward so I called it quits. Turns out the single fly was eating the absolute shit out of him.

Hopefully we don't get too much rain tonight and I can set some jumpies up for him tomorrow. We can only do so much dressage work in a row, even if it is the best work he's done so far.

he thought the minis were devils when we moved
but now they're his besties