Rainbow Farts

I feel like most of my riding posts lately have had a Negative Nancy feeling to them.

Boo hoo, my horse didn't come off the track ready to prance down center line and drop 10s left and right, how sad for me.

The truth is that young, green horses are hard work, and it's sometimes tedious bullshit that has to be put in on the daily just to inch forward. I keep ending up with these horses because they're what's in my budget. I also kind of hate getting on something that has another person's bad training so there's that. Only my bad training, thanks. Regardless, despite #childgenius status most rides aren't Opie shooting rainbows out of tush. Sadly.

BUT SOME RIDES HE DOES.

it was so cold the other morning so i decided to take opie
bareback and bridless. outside. by himself. two fucks were given.
mostly because he gets very offended by me sliding around on him
and constantly stops to shoot me side eye. 

I was in dire need of a win with him this week. I was feeling really frustrated and defeated after our last dressage school on Sunday where he couldn't do anything but fling his head rabidly into my face. I know some--if not all--of that has to be coming from his teeth, but instead of letting it roll off it was getting me more frustrated that I was having such a hard time contacting the dentist.

After dicking around the two previous days, yesterday I went in resolved to be zen with the lowest of expectations. I cleared the ring of jumps so we could run through parts of Training 1 if we got to that point.

Homie was straight pimpin'.

pimpin'.
my position not so much. next on my list of angsty things to bring to BM.

He felt so strong and relaxed that I was able to push for a bigger trot, and he opened right up and kept his balance without splatting onto his face literally or figuratively. I know I have the owner heart eyes My Horse Can Do No Wrong syndrome, but ughhhh you guys, he's going to be so fancy for a midget OTTB I cannot wait.

I skipped the first center line for our test and started with the left trot circle. He stayed completely chill through both trot circles instead of anxiously anticipating when the next canter was coming like he did the first time we ran through it. Got both leads, didn't fall down or even really do much wrong at all for both canters, and came strutting up center line ready to drop mic. Then he swung his haunches out. Boo.

We finished working up the center line a few times to reinforce that square is always good, but square and straight is even better.

not a believer.

This morning I managed to beat the doors to the arena open to let in some sunlight. It might still be below freezing as the high, but at least we missed this round of snow! Opie caught sight of his two amigos eating hay in their pasture and couldn't. even. I didn't bother getting after him about it. He's so easy to "work down" that it's not worth getting in a fight with him. I hopped off, popped him on the longe for all of two minutes to let him canter and trot, and when I got back on he was ready to go.

I broke down Training 3 for this ride which was basically five thousand weird fake loops to X. I mean they're everywhere. What a strange test.

Dopes was good until the right lead canter. This test has him picking up the right lead in his bugaboo corner and he exploded into it and never came back to me. He was so set on blasting around on the rail that the steering went bye-bye and he came about an inch from falling on his face as I bodily turned him. The downward transition was a disaster, but good kid--he checked his brain back in and while a real stretchy trot isn't in his repertoire yet, he did the circle at B on a loose rein without trying to book it.

It felt good to have two rides where hands down there are still a lot of things that need polish or plain introduction, but that the basics are there and accessible and not completely horrible.

BONUS: I finally got in touch with the dentist again and he should HOPEFULLY be coming back out Monday morning. He best.

Also bonus:

the blanket gets 'em every time.

Dopie Horse got his massage last night. He was initially very suspicious of what our new massage lady was up to, but she said she works almost exclusively with OTTBs (unsurprising given our proximity to the track and the fact that TBs are high maintenance assholes, let's be real) and wasn't worried about him at all.

He was very sore in his left hip, hitting several really tender points. Since that's what I brought her out for, no surprise there. No soreness in the right hip, some along his back, and a couple spots along the right side of his neck that made him release by rolling his tongue out of his mouth, curling it, and flopping it around. It was slightly alarming and Massage Lady and I were both like, "Uhhhhh....what is happening?!" She'd stop, he'd stop and stare at us expectantly, and when she started again he did too. It was only along his neck on that side. You do you, Opie.

Overall though, I thought she did a really thorough job and will definitely be having her back out the next time he needs it.

On to tomorrow's lesson with a positive attitude and a resolve to have BM address why I can't get my pelvis under me in the posting trot! Or whatever the fuck is going on there...