It's That Simple

This will be a rather dry lesson summary, but we had a few major AHA moments recently that I wanted to get down in writing. 

He's a buckskin these days, poor sunbleached coat...

Goggles and I had a lesson the Thursday before the show in which it became apparent I had not been putting my leg on him as we headed towards jumps. We started out over a small vertical and then did a crossrail oxer bending line to a vertical. Those things went well, but when we went to do the crossrail oxer the other direction with a bending line to a skinny, he ducked out. JT pointed out, rightly so, that I didn't fight for it at all. So we approached again and that time I fought for it, but he had it in his head that he was going to run out. Third try was the charm but JT still stopped us after the jump and told me I needed to add more leg. I told her that I was scared if I added like he was going to launch and buck. Obviously not a good reason to ride with your leg off, but I'm an honest person LOL. I closed my leg. He ate up the last two strides a bit flat but popped boldly over the jump and then landed porpoising and taking off. She shouted at me to stop him, which she later clarified was cheerleading for me to stop him, because I was trying so hard to stop the massive creature as he flailed around. 

We paused and she thought about it but concluded that if she gave me more bit he would be too backed off coming into the fence. I assessed and realized that I'd never truly closed my leg towards a fence with him, so perhaps he was also shocked and surprised by what I had done. This seemed to be the case because the next few times went much better. We put the whole course together which overall went quite well. The first time through he spooked at the dog oxer a little bit, but still went but then was sluggish to the next fence. JT told me to GO FORWARD, which I did, but it felt wildly fast to me. Proving she was right though, the last line, a two stride, went SO MUCH BETTER. We did the dog bending line to the vertical and two stride again and this time I put my leg on to all of it and it flowed much more smoothly. He did sort of barrel downwards in the two stride though and I managed a bit of a whoa in the middle which was much needed. We did the two stride line a couple more times, finally ending on a line through that had me wildly grinning. I closed my leg half halted a bit and holy s*** did the horse jump through the line GREAT. It felt amazing and like the potential we've thought he's been hiding in there.

Post the show, we had a very productive dressage lesson in which connection was explained to me (again). There should be a steady and even connection in both reins at all times. I've been accused, with both Ben and Goggles, of throwing away the inside rein completely when they soften. With Goggles in particular, this will not work. So, say it with me: STEADY AND EVEN CONNECTION IN BOTH REINS AT ALL TIMES. If he is hanging on one of them gentle jiggle with the fingers of that hand. It shouldn't even be visible from the ground. If he continues to hang shake a little bit more firmly, but then go back to steady and even contact. Inside leg on and he needs to move over with the amount of pressure that the leg applied. Otherwise he is holding the difference as tension in his side. He wants to stiffen in the caudal lumbar area, make sure he is moving through that area and then reward the try. At the canter steady contact in both reins, keep asking for him to move off the inside leg. For the transition, sit and ask, don't shove. If he doesn't respond then light tap as you ask. See? Easy peasy. 

Lengthy video if anyone wants to follow along. 

Two days later we had a very productive jump lesson again. He came out SPOOKY. I let his magnesium run out to see if it was doing anything. It was. More has since been ordered. But considering his general feelings about life, he was such a GOOD BOY. He was trying SO HARD. My upper body flinging seems to have improved so we worked a bit on  staying up and soft until he has fully landed. There were varying degrees of success with this because as usual that wasn't the only thing I had to think about. We focused some on straightness after the fences as well because he was starting to want to land leaning right. JT said we had JUST gotten him jumping really well and letting him get away with that would ruin his jumping style again. These are the insights that are so, so valuable. I had noticed the fairly rapid right hand turns, but knowing HOW important it was to address it ASAP is something I never would've known. Y'know? There are so many things to focus on that having the insight from the ground is invaluable. 

We ended up trotting into all the fences and then cantering the lines. Given his feelings of the day, the trot was reaaaalllly wanting to be tense and quick with a complete lack of push from behind, so I was doing a lot of bending and moving his barrel and trying to slow my own posting on the way into fences. We did a course with the same bending line as two weeks prior and it went really well. We had a miscommunication (or lack of attempt to communicate) headed down towards an oxer with square rails as the second fence in the line at one point. I didn't ride him like he was trained and so he buried himself deep to it and then smacked it. He bucked in protest and then the next time WOW did he jump it well. He then landed in a canter that again made me grin, it was round and had so much jump to it. The pieces are in there, we just have to bring them out and show him the way. For as rough and tumble of a horse as he is on the ground and on the flat, he really seems to dislike touching jumps which is pretty cool, because I could definitely see him going in the opposite direction and giving no shits about sending rails flying. 

There weren't as many earth shattering moments (ie ADD LEG) but it was a super productive lesson and one in which I was SO PROUD of him for trying so hard when he was clearly having feelings about the day. 

WW- POP Media

I got so excited to post about POP I didn't wait for the stadium video, so here it is! 

After the last fence where he threw out a lovely clean change

Photo by Lisa Madren. When the best dressage photo is the one where you're done with the test 😂

Photo by Lisa Madren. He was less impressed by the jumps since it was his second time over them, so I wasn't obligated to buy ALL the jumping pictures. My wallet is grateful. 

POP- Breaking 40!

Goggles and I tackled the starter three phase Partners of the Park (POP) schooling show at the Florida Horse Park yesterday. We schooled the XC course on Saturday and then went and competed on Sunday. 

Goggles started the day early Sunday morning in fine form. My brilliant plan to use Ben as bait on the trailer back fired when Ben loaded up politely like the good boy he is and then Goggles lost his marbles in the field and wouldn't let me catch him. I tried for a couple of minutes and then pulled Ben back off and used him as bait at the gate instead. I had an 8:25 dressage time and worked until midnight Saturday night, so I really hadn't left myself time for this kind of fuckery. Fortunately Goggles came galloping up as soon as Ben was on the outside of the gate. I caught Goggles, tied him up to the trailer while I reloaded Ben and then left Ben to eat his breakfast on the trailer while I hosed off the sweaty star of the show. Goggles did in fact think me removing Ben after he loaded was a pretty dirty trick. I don't plan to use this technique frequently, but see above with ride times and work times. I watched him in the cameras and he settled down to mostly face forwards by the time we left the neighborhood. 

Once we arrived, he hung out politely while I went and got my number. Then I brushed him off and tacked up and headed to dressage warm up. He felt kinda behind my leg, kinda tired. I do love that you can school the course the day before, especially because FHP is no joke for the levels, but it does make for a loooooong weekend. We kept it as short and sweet as possible on Saturday, but I think some of his good behavior in dressage was due to being a bit worn out. 

He was sight seeing some in warm up, but compared to the ping pong back feeling we had in warm up at Majestic both times, I'll take it! JT had me keep him on a smallish circle at the trot being gently insistent about bend. Then we did some walk trot transitions and then took a break. They let me know the two riders in front of me weren't there so if I wanted to go early I could. So we picked back up, did a quick canter in both directions that was shockingly civilized considering what our prior warm ups had been, and then headed in.

It was by far our best test to date! I was still having trouble keeping him on the rail tracking left without counter bending him, but overall it was obedient and pleasant. It was the FIRST test (of 3 now) that we did without bucking in the right lead canter, good boy!!! The free walk also remained focused for 2/3 of the diagonal. 

It's funny, the comments are a bit less encouraging now. It seemed like when we were incredibly chaotic and barely staying in the ring and performing the movements (see test one and test two) the judges were trying so hard to find anything positive. But this test just got a lot more of "needs..." which was all totally applicable, just an interesting change of tone. 

I hosed him off after the test, popped him back on the trailer relatively easily and turned the fan back on. 

Then I headed over to walk stadium. It was a nice, looping sort of course, in the arena that usually holds the dressage arenas. There was a LOT of space and it would be easy to bog down in the corners, but the jumps were strategically positioned so that if you looped just outside of other fences, you had a decent path to the next one. It was jump one, loop left to two, loop right to three then seven strides to four AB, a two stride. Then right hand loop to five, left hand turn to six, a skinny, another related distance to seven, then a left hand turn to eight, bending line to nine. 

I tacked him up and then tossed my XC vest over the pinny and attempted to get on holding a plastic bag containing his XC boots. I quickly aborted that and ended up grabbing them from the truck rail once I was on. That worked better and he only snorted at the bag a little bit, he's such a sensible creature as long as it doesn't involve things on the ground itself. As he skidded sideways during my first mounting attempt, I thought about how it would've been a super silly reason to fall and get hurt. I was mostly trying to avoid hiking over to the stadium warm up in my tall boots that feel fine while I'm riding but give me blisters within a quarter mile of walking. 

Nice shady parking spot, but a bit of a hike from the arenas

He warmed up super for stadium in spite of being in a new ring. We trotted the crossrail then the vertical. JT told me to land in two point if he was going to be soft in his back so that he stayed that way. It felt really lovely. We then trotted the oxer twice and headed in. He was a bit looky at the banners around the arena, but much better to do that during a stadium round than during a dressage test. Given how well he remembers things, I'm glad we got the chance to go jump in there before hopefully dressaging in there for a few recognized shows this fall/winter. 

Stadium can be summed up by We did thing! Video hopefully pending. We pleasantly trotted one, trotted after to change leads, then cantered two. JT had told us to trot three, so we did, but then cantered on down to four and did the two stride very pleasantly. I brought him back to the trot because he was pretty pleased with himself and rolling forward a bit after the two stride. We trotted five, landed cantering, but came down to the trot for six because it was the skinny. He flowed forward nicely to seven. Eight to nine flowed quite nicely, and I pretended we were still looping around to another fence afterwards, so it kept his focus and kept the last rail up. GOOD BOY! JT and I were both THRILLED. He was pleasant and responsive and just overall such a good boy. 

I put his boots and my vest on and then we headed over solo to XC warm up since JT had her working student headed to stadium warm up for her round. We had done the whole course in three to four jump sections on Saturday schooling, so I felt pretty confident. We popped over the roll top in warm up with a bit of an awkward distance, but he felt willing and happy, so we headed over to start. Like Saturday, we picked up a nice canter and cantered three quarters of the way to one before coming back to the trot. JT instructed me to "only go as fast as you can keep him straight" and that was our mantra for the whole course. 

Because we'd schooled it on Saturday, I didn't walk the whole course, so some of these pictures are a bit subpar. Which is kind of a shame because FHP really goes all out for starter. It is a BN course only 4" shorter. 

He popped right on over one like the good boy he is these days. He landed in a pleasant canter, so we cantered most of the way to two 

A mini triple step. Which gave him no problems at all 

See the resemblance? 

I was impressed by three when we schooled it the day before. He was not particularly and didn't give it a second thought Saturday or Sunday. 

Four was a ways away, so we cantered most of the way over before coming back to trot to pop on over. 

Then we turned left and came back to trot again to pleasantly hop over the ditch at five. He got distracted by the jumps and other stuff in the tree line to the left after the ditch as we headed to six, so I had to "get busy" to get his focus on the jump. This is what I didn't do at Majestic and JT used the phrase "get busy" when his feet slow down and that stuck really well in my head. Somehow it works better than just "add leg". If I squeeze and nothing happens, I kick. If I am kicking and his feet aren't moving any faster, I tap. He just needed a couple of kicks here to stop his sight seeing and remember he had a job and then he popped on over six, which was probably the smallest, least impressive fence on the course. 

Right hand turn to this split rail kind of thing for seven. 

Then through an unflagged water. We could've gone around but they were definitely setting you up to head through the water between seven and eight which I loved for the starter course. He had needed a quick lead in on Saturday, but with a few kicks Sunday never broke the trot, took a bit of a leap in, and then settled to a bouncy trot on through. 

Number eight, this brush roll, was 10+ strides out of the water. We did the left hand BN one while schooling on Saturday and it felt fantastic. Every once in a while I'm getting small feelings of his potential, and it's so exciting. 

I actually let him canter nine since it was all alone without distractions. 

Ten is a spooky fence and they love to put it in the tree line to add the light dynamic to it. While schooling Saturday I ended up having to "get busy" to the point that after multiple kicks I tapped him off the ground. It was interesting that unlike Ben who lands mortally offended and kind of running when he gets tapped for his favorite chip chip chip, Goggles actively responded off the ground, but then wasn't offended still on the back side. Sunday it was cloudy as we were going so the light-dark contrast wasn't as substantial. He popped gamely over with just a few kicks of encouragement. 

Another look at ten

I let him canter most of the way to eleven, this mulch table, then brought him back to the trot. He slipped back into the canter the last few strides and popped over smoothly. 

View from the back of twelve, the last fence. We cantered it on Saturday and got a really awkward spot the first time but fixed it the second time. I almost let him canter it Sunday, but I thought about how annoyed I'd be at myself if we had a run out at the last fence. He politely trotted it and landed in a canter, getting SO MUCH praise about what a good boy he was. 

We finished with one second of time from stadium added to our dressage score, good enough for 9th out of 13. I am SO PLEASED with him. He was professional and lovely in all three phases. He was FUN to ride AND, I think he had fun too!! I feel like I've spent the past nine months having more challenging rides than fun ones so to feel like it is finally all coming together and he's understanding his job and having a relaxed, fun time while doing it?!?!? It feels amazing. 

Some grass in the shade for the goodest boy

Pulling out by 11 AM, truck reading the shade temp of 81. It bumped up to 95 on our drive home. He got off the trailer an hour later just a tiny bit sweaty, not too bad.

Getting it right off the horse: 2024 Update

For reference: 2022 and 2023 posts detailing my fitness routine with small updates for the horse as well. 

The same pesky whiteboard of shame still exists to log the weekly workouts: 

 

But there are a few modifications to what is on it. For starters, I am less and less able to call myself a runner these days... my "long" run is down to four miles and my pace is slower. But I haven't noticed a decline in my overall fitness level. Even back in the fall when Ben and I were still galloping training level courses, it didn't seem to matter that I'm running at 9-9:30 pace most of the time vs. 8:30 pace. 

The new addition this year is weight training. I asked a friend what her routine is since she always is so strong and steady in her position, no matter what her horse is doing underneath of her. She recommended a few different youtube channels: Heather Robertson and Sydney Cummings. I think she does these three or four times a week (I've purged that information from my head) but I do them once a week. There are a few favorites that always light up my entire body, but sometimes I'll also let whatever the most recent suggested video is just roll. Sydney does much more cheerleading during the routine while Heather lets music play silently. Pick your poison. 

While Goggles is still sometimes exhausting to ride, I think the dedicated 30 minute strength training sessions each week have definitely helped. I still do a few of the workouts from the Ultimate Exercise Routines for Riders, but I've outgrown most of the exercises in there. I was able to modify a few (ie clamshells with a band vs. without), but often they don't give me the same satisfying burn that weights workouts do these days. I do need to circle back to the stretching routines because that is certainly an area of weakness. 

Also with Goggles specifically in mind, I do deep neck flexor strengthening once or twice a week. His propensity to do those giant spine wrenching trips that feel like an entire car crash worth of whiplash motivated me. He's doing those much less these days and my neck is stronger, so it's been quite a few months since I've woken up unable to turn my head ::furiously knock on wood::. 

As far as the horses go, both of them benefit from raised cavaletti, so I've been doing that multiple times a week with Ben and once a week with Goggles. Ben is limited to what he can/should do at the moment, so he's got more low impact ways of strengthening. I've also been doing acupuncture on Ben once a week to try to help with ulcers and now with foot pain. It certainly can't hurt and he seems to like it quite a bit. They also both do at least a minute of belly raises every time I see them. I do 6-10 seconds and then reward with a treat. 

May 2024 Wrap Up

 

 

	Ben	Goggles
Training rides	0	2
Lessons	0	1
Hacks	0	2
Ground work, lunge, long line	8 (1 Equiband, 7 lunge sessions)	2 - Equiband, 1 - trailer loading, 2 - liverpool from the ground
Flat rides	0	7
Conditioning rides	0	0
XC school	0	0
Shows	0	1 – Majestic Starter

Goggles: The big news this month was his first (recognized!) event that I would call a definite success! 

Beyond that show though, he had fewer rides this month than we'd managed in April. Partially because he developed cellulitis in his right front and was out for a few days because of that. Partially because I left for a conference at the end of this month. Partially because of life getting in the way. He had a total of 14 rides though, averaging an every other day schedule. Also he was a super patient for his cellulitis. He is 17.1 and could stick his head straight up in the air but kindly does not. He proved again that he's a LOT more stoic than Ben and it took a few minutes of grooming before I noticed how droopy he was and took his temp. He was lame for about two days on that leg and then got right back into it. He's a tough dude. Even though I don't enjoy having to treat him, it is always kinda neat to learn more things about how a horse handles stress, medications, pain, etc. etc. Filing notes away for the future, getting to know every part of him. 

We played with a decent amount of Warwick Schiller this month, ending the month with a few rides of his "Do the opposite." This really really helped us get a few straight lines here and there. It was amazing for the walk - turning a small circle the opposite direction of where he was falling in helped get him walking straight lines pretty quickly. The trot was a bit trickier and doing this on a loose rein revealed holes in his education as well. He's started to understand stretching really well, but if the reins are just loose but he's not actively stretching? He kinda wants to quicken the tempo and fall on his face. So we did a lot of walk trot transitions off of seat and voice to help every time he got quick, continuing the do the opposite principle. I think we're getting somewhere. The canter is hard. It's where he is most crooked, but I also haven't sorted out how to do the opposite when he falls in - we certainly can't counter canter a 20m circle and he does have flying changes in there that I don't want to screw up. 

Spoiled, I hang with the gate a little open so he can snag a few bites of long grass before I close it 

This month he also faced down his liver pool demons. I ordered a tarp and we've progressed to a liver pool sized tarp not along a fenceline that he is (mostly) casually popping over each time a see him. I'm hoping this will translate to liver pools out in the wild too. 

Ben: Oh Ben. May 2nd he got his shoes pulled. May 10th he moved to Goggles' farm. May 22nd a barefoot trimmer worked on him. He had not been sound before that, but was distinctly less sound after that trim. So he got put in wraps with pads by that trimmer. He was the same level of unsoundness as before his trim once the wraps were on. One of the wraps only lasted two days though before coming off, but fortunately the left front stayed on as that is definitely his more tender foot.

I'm carefully logging and documenting levels of soundness and what we're doing, maybe someday this will come together to help me find the magic formula to keep him sound and happy. Honestly I think we'll go back to his regular farrier next time he's due (another five weeks will put him on the same schedule as Goggles). We'll probably keep him out of shoes through the end of the summer and then try again, maybe with composites. 

A little chonk, but overall still looking pretty good

Prior to the trim I had been doing some lunging over raised poles and work with the equiband to try to keep him vaguely in shape. Post trim we knocked that off, but I'll probably pick it back up in the next few days. 

The final update: 

Their field is so grassy, but this is where they were choosing to hang and eat

The boys are now turned out together. They were ignoring the shelter (Ben) and tree line (Goggles) to stand along the shared fence line in the heat together. They also weren't eating much grass. And Ben was getting bit on his butt by putting his butt up to the fence to let Goggles maul him. So we tossed them out together. There was a lot of galloping around but only one moment where I held my breath when Goggles kinda aimed at Ben with both hind legs. Ben is pretty quick so he stayed out of the way, but his attempts to assert himself weren't very effective. They ended up with Goggles in charge, we'll see whether or not he's okay at that role. They have been so agreeable to one leaving to go do stuff other places on the property, so I'm also hoping that this doesn't make them insufferably bonded.