Which, shame on me. I'm incredibly lucky I was able to put together a complete show season with no major deviations or fuck ups. Knock on wood of course! But one can only do the same low lower level dressage tests so many times before wanting to tear one's fucking eyes out.
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| look at that giant white snoot showing off its true snoot outline |
We have a show this Sunday, a weekend off, and then an inaugural dressage show at the state fairgrounds which is kind of exciting. After that I have one other show on the schedule, but I'm not sure if I'll be riding in it or volunteering for it. My GMO requires a certain amount of volunteer hours for year end awards which is fine, but they have such limited opportunities I'm struggling to find a way to come up with my final three. I offered to help at the beginning of the week with set up the day before, but that position was filled. I'm glad I spent all day scoring at their last show and racked up a huge chunk of hours or I'd be fucked. So that's kind of annoying.
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| post bath time snackies |
Fortunately nothing helps battle the repetition of test riding quite like having a young, green horse. While he's pretty much always really easy and lovely to ride at shows, schooling at home is a different story. He likes to save our go-rounds for his home turf which I am one hundred percent okay with.
Monday and Tuesday I buckled down on the flail-a-saurus canter and it. was. tough.
Inspired by Megan I bought a Happy Mouth mullen mouth bit to try. He goes okay in the metal french link eggbutt, but I've been thinking of trying something different to see if I could get the contact a little steadier. Obviously riding better to train the horse better is a large part of that, but I wanted something he wouldn't have any reason to back off of. He loves to curl and fake a frame, and while that's gotten significantly better from where we started, I have this horrible fear of fucking up the basics like I did with past horses. They all looked like they were going around okay, but there's nothing like reaching the upper of the lower levels and running head first into some giant fucking holes to give you a reality check on future horses.
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| is dubious about said training. or just creeping on the cat behind him. |
Monday was the first day in the new bit and the timing worked out well in that BM finished her ride just as I was getting on so I headed out with her for a trail walk to let him get used to the feel of a very different mouth piece before asking him to go to work in it.
I really want him to build up the base of his neck more so all the walk and trot work this week (and for the foreseeable future as SADLY muscles do not grow in three days or I'd work out like a boss) has been done in a long and low frame. It's been fucking fabulous and really kept him soft and relaxed while still making him #werk.
Then we canter.
I think Jen had the post about shifting the weight back from the front of the saddle to allow the horse to have somewhere to come up. Sometimes it's just little reminders like that that help, and I had that firmly in my mind in the canter departs. Derp, what a difference! He's been much quieter about stepping into them now so I'm hoping that upward trend continues.
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| he hates anything and everything apple so he's taken to sucking on a peppermint as we warm up at the walk. i find it hysterical. |
The canter itself has not been a one and done fix. I mean, unless we're counting my inability to ever walk like a lady again because that fix is set in fucking stone. My thighs have been working overtime trying to keep this horse upright and straight and moving forward.
For the motorcylcing around turns/corners/any bend whatsoever, I've been making every turn super square. We start at the walk, move to the trot, and then make it happen at the canter. It's not pretty, but it's gotten loads better and he's actually getting pretty competent at it now. He has no problem being a bendy Gumby horse. It's a straight line that he finds challenging.
For the wanting to quit in the left lead, I was really struggling to keep him from breaking and then rocketing off when I corrected him which threw the whole canter into shambles. Again. I finally got annoyed Tuesday, grabbed a dressage whip, and spanked him once the second he started to think about making bad choices. That was all it took and suddenly listening to a subtler leg cue didn't seem like such a bad idea.
The steering though. God fucking damn. The first day in the new bit I thought for sure it was going to be a bust because I could not steer. Like, wow, we almost just peaced the fuck out of the open arena doors. Once alllllll the other pieces started to come together, the steering slowly returned. Historically it hasn't been a strong point for him since Day One, but I'll take shaky geometry over careening into outer space any day.
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| the sign i want for opie's canter |
I gave him yesterday off and then got on to see what I had to work with this morning.
Surprise! Or not because #childgenius, but he was excellent from the very first step. Really lifting his back way up at the walk and trot, and then quietly and correctly cantered around on both leads. I quit after ten minutes because it was exactly what I wanted, and I'm all about rewarding good ponies.
I don't even know what my game plan is for the next two days before the show. I'm still irrationally frustrated by the volunteering thing, but I plan on making sure my name is written in cement for the remaining hours I need while I'm there Sunday. I spent a lot of money planning my season around supporting my GMO and aiming for year end awards. Take my free time as well, too, please!
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