Baby's First Pro Pics

A dear friend came out last week and snagged some Charlie pictures. 

The golden light <3 

I am Flamingo! 

Family photo with Teddy 

Maddy wasn't sure why she wasn't the stare of the show

She's the same friend who took pics of Yoshi and I, way back when. I did a much better job of making myself look presentable for those pictures. But honestly, the shorts/tank vibe is pretty appropriate for baby in field pics. 

Dressage Lesson #3 - I coulda been a trail horse!

Dressage lesson number three happened yesterday morning. This time the Pivo fail was not having enough space on my phone to record the video. Some time soon we will get this right... 

It was just Yoshi and I today, so we got right to it. Today he did start out much brighter and with more push from behind, and dressage trainer was really complementary of that energy. I think that is thanks to our jump lesson and REALLY moving forward in the gaits. In continuing the parallel lessons, we worked on... transitions! Yoshi is pretty sure this is horse torture. 

She had us getting really round and even a bit deep before asking for the upwards transitions. I was instructed to "keep riding and bending" through the transition, the parallel to jump trainer's "don't throw away your hands as you ask". We also worked on the small trot, big trot exercise again, although this time she called it collected trot, which is so much of a stretch it's kinda funny. But that was the idea she was going towards, which makes sense. 

She had us start working on this in the canter too. First, she addressed my position and told me to put my butt down in the saddle and not let it leave. Shoulders back, lift up, sit bones down, drop femur straight down from there. Then we started working on collecting. Just a continuation of horsey torture. He was pretty sure that collecting a bit meant trot. Which gave us some very nice canter-trot transitions. I need to be more clear in my seat that we are still cantering. She said this should be an easier gait to work at, but that this was all going to be hard for him because he was a big, long horse, more rectangle than square. So the lateral work will come easier but the collection will be harder. Again, collection is used very loosely, we were basically asking him to go from his normal canter stride, which is around 13 feet I think, based on the pole exercises I've been working on with him, to maybe a 12 foot stride. Holy hell though, baby horse and I struggled. I think we struggled just as much 2 weeks ago when she introduced the idea at the trot, but I've already suppressed that. She had us shortening the stride and then moving to a 15m circle. Then we were allowed to go back to his normal stride and then back to the 20m circle. She also started to introduce the idea of a stretchy trot at the very end. Just across a diagonal and then we walked and ended there. He actually looked less exhausted at the end of the lesson today, I think the muscles we're using are getting stronger! I may be anthropomorphizing, but he seems to be enjoying the work as well and is becoming much lighter and easier to ride. It's so much fun! 

Homework: 

- Collect and extend the trot and canter (again, still using those words VERY loosely) 

- ROUND in transitions. There shall be no popping up with his head and hollowing his back. The trot-canter are allowed a bit more leeway, she said not only is he not strong enough, its a habit now, so progress, not excellence, is our expectation. The walk-trot should be held to a higher standard. 

Screenshots from the jump lesson

At the end I tried to unpack this continual turning left with my body when going right. At the halt, dressage trainer stood in front of Yoshi's face, about 1-2 feet to the left and told me to turn my body towards her, then the same thing when she stood on the right. It felt much more natural and easy to turn left. Turning right was hard and something in my shoulders fought it. I've been using my husband's foam roller recently for an exercise he does for his neck/shoulders/elbows - lay flat on your back with the roller along your spine (it's broad enough that doesn't hurt), then extend arms out with humerus perpendicular to body and forearm up/parallel to body (so a 90 degree angle at the elbow). Palms are up. In this exercise, with him visually checking, I am less flexible in my left shoulder, at least in this way. When I do abs exercises that are supposed to be straight up midline, I have a tendency to want to twist my body to the left (ie lengthen right oblique muscles, shorten left oblique muscles). So the left turn in the shoulders is, I think, just the final culmination of unevenness lower down. The right seat bone is also failing to engage and the left leg is not doing much when tracking right. I was struggling with the "put more weight in your right seat bone" instruction. I want to do that by tipping/tilting, which is incorrect (obviously).  Speaking to my husband he said it sounds like the gluteus medius may need to be strengthened and engaged on that side. So that's what I'm looking into now. I'll probe dressage trainer more the next time I see her. She did note that the weakness/slowness of the left leg, which she attributed to people being right-side dominant mostly, will lead to late changes from right to left, when compared to the left to right. She said if I fixed it now, I would be ahead of the game. I don't feel like there's really a choice to fixing it now, he is so clearly uneven and stuck when it comes to bending right from my inability to actually turn my body to the right. 

"The piriformis muscle is part of the lateral rotators of the hip, along with the quadratus femoris, gemellus inferior, gemellus superior, obturator externus, and obturator internus. The piriformis laterally rotates the femur with hip extension and abducts the femur with hip flexion.^[1] Abduction of the flexed thigh is important in the action of walking because it shifts the body weight to the opposite side of the foot being lifted, which prevents falling. The action of the lateral rotators can be understood by crossing the legs to rest an ankle on the knee of the other leg. This causes the femur to rotate and point the knee laterally. The lateral rotators also oppose medial rotation by the gluteus medius and gluteus minimus. When the hip is flexed to 90 degrees, piriformis abducts the femur at the hip and reverses primary function, internally rotating the hip when the hip is flexed at 90 degrees or more. (Netter's Clinical Anatomy, 2010)" 

From this description from wikipedia it seems that the dropping the femur straight down with the toe forward, parallel to the horse, the piriformis will need to be relaxed and the gluteus medius engaged. I'm not positive that fixing that piece will fix everything above that, nor that it will engage the left leg, but I don't think anything above or below it can be right until I do that properly. 

Just a pig enjoying his kiddy pool

Jump Lesson #3

I tried to use the pivo to record this time, but it recorded our 25 minutes of flat work and then started filming the trees behind it. There were only two spots I could set it because it has to be in the shade or my phone overheats and shuts down. One was under a pavilion with thick support beams and it kept losing us and filming horses in the field behind us when we would go past a support beam. The other was in front of a clump of trees/bushes. It worked okay there until it decided that the trees were more interesting and in spite of being set on continue hunting, it failed. 

Lack of video aside, it was such a great lesson! I was a complete dumb at remembering courses, I'm going to blame still catching up on sleep from overnights and the fact that it was 90 degrees with who knows how much humidity. Other than that though, it went SO SO well. She said he looked even more connected and through than he had just a week ago. We worked on going forward into transitions. Walk-trot was pretty straight forward, if I maintained the connection he would step up nicely into the trot without hollowing. Trot-walk was more challenging for me, when trying to get the walk forward I was often chasing him back into the trot. She wanted the walk rhythm coming from my seat and scolded me for goosing him. Trot-canter was also more challenging, she didn't want me to build him up as much for the canter, she said that if I teach him that we have to "work up" to the canter then that is the way he will always need to be asked. 

(Apologies for the lack of horse/rider in half the video...)

We started out jumping with a one stride. Both jumps had some interesting filler that she said was actually the spookiest stuff she had. He didn't care about it walking up to it, so we started out by angling just to one side of the first jump and then going over the second. After doing that a few times we tackled the whole thing. He ran out at the second jump, I think a combo of the filler and the WTF do I do with my feet in here. I wasn't expecting it so didn't react appropriately. I did yank right hard enough that I knocked over the standard with my foot as he slid out though. The second time through he was wiggly but I was prepared and we got over it. 

We put a few courses together after that. The first jump was an oxer that we were supposed to be trotting into. Like our trot-walk transitions I struggled with getting a good forward energetic trot without letting him slip into the canter at an awkward half stride before the fence. It was asking for forward with leg, but keeping my shoulders up and maintaining trot rhythm with my body. She nailed me for letting him get heavy and flat before the fence. Shockingly this does not lead to a fantastic jump. After the first jump we actually got to canter all the others. I was doing much better at looking at the fences and actually making tiny adjustments to make it happen. I schooled over ground poles on Friday and struggled a good bit with striding then. However, the more I learn about HOW people learn, the more this makes sense - when an error is made it alerts the brain to pay attention to figure out how to fix it. So doing that Friday with lots of errors and then sleeping on it for a few nights was probably the best thing I could have done. Our canter fences felt very different from when we were cantering around little courses back in February. Then he was going because he's a good horse and that was what he was taught, but it was more so flinging legs around over the jumps. This has totally changed his jump over the fences. He is much rounder and uses his back rather than just his long legs. 

I am getting SO much out of these lessons. She's got such a system for teaching the horse and the rider, it really feels like each lesson builds on the last. First we established forward and bending within the gait, now our homework is to execute that in each transition (and she really does mean each... no finishing a course and falling into a heap of a walk). With the jumping, first we established forward after the fences, then we added moving around between the fences, and now we're up to actually cantering the fences which means moving in front of the fences some.

We're headed down next week for another lesson and then are going to go out cross country a week later! Ms. GY is going to come as well, and I'm excited to see her and her gelding ping around the novice and training questions. 

Even the best learners can only fix 2-3 things at one time

The really great part about the two trainers I'm now riding with regularly is they tell me the same things, in slightly different ways... 

Dressage trainer: Are you trying to hide your aids from a dressage judge? Make it happen! 

Jump trainer: Being soft and light but kinda nagging and not getting it done is much worse than REALLY making it happen with an aid that is very visible. THEN you soften. It doesn't have to be pretty, it has to be effective! 

Dressage trainer: Don't accept that trot until it is through and bending. 

Jump trainer: MOVE his shoulders, really make him move and bend and follow you, don't settle for pleasant. 

Dressage trainer: Sit on your pockets 

Jump trainer: Lift your shoulders up, be tall 

And so on. It really is fantastic though, their teaching styles seem incidentally very complimentary of each other. During my lesson with the jump trainer today she was very pleased with the progress in the quality of the trot and canter. Whereas last time she was commenting that she really liked Yoshi's attitude, this time she was saying that he was going to be a really nice horse. 

We worked on looking at the jumps, moving him and developing the quality of the gait between jumps, and moving my hands forward towards the jumps. 

1) Looking at the jumps - as soon as you start planning your turn towards it, look at the fence. Maybe a quick glance to make sure you're not going to crash into anything else, but that should also be done through your peripheral vision. Then keep your eye on the top rail as it disappears between his ears. Done with a lift of the chin, this definitely wasn't the bad staring at a jump that I can be guilty of. This was planning so that in the future I'll be able to adjust the striding to the jump. She said it was all a lie that if you had the quality canter the rest would come together. I think this is where my years with Zing spoiled me. If I got the quality canter and straightness, he knew enough to get the striding for us. Green horse? Different story. She also said staring at the trees way past the jump was not helpful to anyone. Fair point. 

2) Moving him around - last time it was just land and go forward from the jump. This time she wanted me to start actually riding him between the fences. Asking him to bend to the inside, lift his inside shoulder, move it out into the outside hand, and then bring him uphill with a half halt on the outside hand. When we got this right it was SO much better to jump from. 

3) Moving my hands towards the jumps - the boogey liverpool was the second jump we did this time. He'd been eyeing it as we flatted around it, so I rode pretty aggressively forward. He did it, but she wanted me to be able to soften more as I rode confidently appropriately forward (ie not rushing him off his feet). So shoulders back and up and hands forward. It felt a bit like a leap of faith moving my hands forward like that, but he went every time and went straighter and softer than when I was holding. She definitely knows green horses! That shorter reins but hands up and forward (less of a bend in my elbow) feeling should happen with every jump. 

We did 2-3 loopy courses again. This time we added in a bounce line with 3 jumps as a bounce. He did well through that, but on the same line we did last time of crossrail bounces 3 strides to cavaletti bounces, he about fell on his face through the cavaletti bounce. She had me fix the canter in between and actually ride the 3 strides instead of passively sitting there hoping he'd figure it out. And sure enough he managed it much better the second time. We also cantered a baby oxer a few times until she was happy with the quality of the canter and therefore the quality of the jump. Looking at the jump, I could tell our striding was going to be wrong the first time. I didn't want to rush him for the long spot though, so we both waited. It was definitely short and awkward, but I knew it was going to happen that way, which I think is an improvement. The next time the long spot was less long so we went for it there. She said he was almost toasted and done at that point, but really wanted us to get it, so we put together a good canter again and then finally got it right. It was a great feeling. 

I asked about fixing jumping ahead, which felt even more obvious when I did with the looking at the jumps method. I said it felt like I jumped ahead about 50% of the time. She said it wasn't that bad and there were other problems to fix first - the three listed above were what she wanted me focusing on for now. It was neat to know that she has a definite system to getting things done properly, something that I've felt is lacking in other trainers I have worked with. There was a plan that we are executing, step by step, rather than just yelling something different about my position or his canter or striding after each fence.

She wanted us to come out and have one more jump lesson there before she wanted us to take him out cross country schooling. I'm hoping to set one up next week and do a two lesson week again (dressage Wednesday, jump either Monday or Friday) and then take the next week off from dressage but go school cross country with her and my friend and her green horse. 

My friend didn't make it out this time, so no media at all :-/ I'm not sure if the pivo would work in her big field, but I may try it next time. Worst that happens is it films the trees for 45 minutes. 

Without video does it even count?

Dressage lesson take 2 - three lessons in 2 weeks! We're on a roll. After 4 hours of sleep (yay flipping from 2nd to 3rd shift mid-week) I hauled myself out of bed yesterday morning and we loaded up Yoshi and Ms. GY's horse. I went first this time, "driver rides first". I told the trainer the problems I'd been having - when I ask for the inside bend tracking left in the way I thought she had shown me, he was falling in more even with a lot of inside leg. When I asked for inside bend tracking right, we're getting the weird head tilt. I asked what unevenness I had that was contributing and she said that it was probably just him being green and uneven. Hrm, but J mare would occasionally do that same weird right head tilt. 

Once we actually started working, she noted that I was asking him to bend right with my inside rein, but going left with my body when we were tracking right; the same turn my right shoulder more to the inside that I was told the week before. Retention ya'll, I've got it. To the left, I was dropping my hand down rather than bringing my elbow back when asking for bend. Fix that, and magically, he wasn't ignoring the inside leg and pushing through it to make the circle smaller when I asked for bend. 

She has a pretty rapid fire way of teaching, and I think I love it. For us it was just change of direction after change of direction. No drilling a circle till it was perfect, but usually just one or two 20m circles then change direction and get it the other way, change back, and again, and again. For Ms. GY who was starting flying changes with her horse (side note, I've never seen those be taught, it was SO COOL), it was walk-canter right-walk-canter left-walk-canter right and so on (probably 15 walk-canter transitions in one lap around the arena) with an ever decreasing number of canter strides and walk strides. She matches it with her voice and her own energy level as well. 

She discussed the piriformis muscle as well and had me consciously feel mine and then feel tension and then attempt to feel relaxation. She said they are the flight muscle that is tensed before animals take off, so if I tense mine, Yoshi goes looking for what is about to happen. When I focused on dropping my femur straight down the change was instantaneous. Very cool. 

We did fewer trot-canter transitions this time and instead stayed in the gait for about four 20m circles and a total of a full lap around (circle at A/C, canter large to E/B, circle, canter large to A/C). I was NOT to nag him into staying in the canter by getting suckered into driving every stride with my leg clamped on "if you have to use that much leg to canter at all, how are you going to do half-pass or collected or extended canter?" If he faltered, calf on, then tap with whip. He got quite offended in his ears and his tempo the first two times with the whip, but he's a clever pony and quickly learned to maintain his own pace. To the left I was much too stiff in my right elbow. Consciously moving it with the strides helped to allow him to actually go forward.

After the canter we practiced slowing the trot and making it bigger. She described the slowing as a tin man with creaky joints that don't open well. He was VERY responsive to this and would break to the walk as soon as I did this. So we did it much more subtly and over 5-6 strides. This worked, but he definitely found it very challenging to do. Making it bigger was easier "now you've got really well lubricated joints, open your hips and release your thighs". Back and forth, each for about half a 20m circle. Introducing longitudinal suppleness. 

We're taking next week off from a lesson, but are going again the week after that. Lots to work on and think about in the mean time! 

Hopefully have something good to compare to in a few months with all this dressage!

He LOVES these balance pads. So much licking and chewing.

Or two!

Last week before Ms. GY and I coordinated a lesson with her dressage trainer, I reached out to a local upper level eventer that I'd taken two lessons with while at my old barn. I'm not sure if she remembered who I was, but she was very welcoming regardless, and we scheduled a lesson pretty easily. I did let her know we were only doing poles at this point, but I wanted to get him going properly when we did start over fences. She said she might be able to come out to the farm, but it was easier if I hauled to her. Off farm practice is always useful too, so it wasn't a tough decision. This morning I loaded up Yoshi for the second day in a row, and we headed on the 30 minute drive to her beautiful farm. 

He hauled really well and was very relaxed tacking up there. He waited about 0.5 seconds after getting off the trailer before parking out and peeing - thank goodness he has not made peeing on the trailer into a habit. We meandered out to the jump field and stared around at things. There was a lot to look at: a tall rack with stacked jump poles, woods bordering the fields, someone hand walking a filly by those woods, a liverpool, and tons of interesting colored and shaped jump fillers. Once the lesson before finished up, she put us to work. She had us working on a LOT of the same flatwork as we had just done the day before, with a bit more of an emphasis of moving the inside shoulder over after getting the bend. She wanted the leg AT the girth for this to emphasize it was shoulder moving over with the caution that if the leg is too far back you get haunches swinging out on turns. In the canter, first it was FORWARD with both legs channeling into both hands. Then we started doing the same inside bend, move inside shoulder over, accept with the outside hand. She also emphasized the benefit of being QUIET at the correct spot. Make it comfortable there. 

We started out jumping over a cross rail. He was a good boy in spite of the fillers (half lime slices) being moved to either side to flank the jump. We then looped a few crossrails/crossrail oxers together. She wanted to trot in to build strength and straightness and then canter away from the jump going FORWARD before bringing back to a nice trot. If we were supposed to go left after but he landed on the right lead, we would trot, pick up the left lead, canter on for a few strides, and then trot again. After a few loops of 2-3 jumps, we added in the liverpool. He's hopped over the liverpool at home, but this one was real, not just a tarp between poles, and had shiny water in it from the rain the night before. He stopped and tried sideways and backwards, but acquiesced eventually and let her lead him over it with a huge leap. We went back and forth and back and forth until it was NBD. Trot in, canter out, circle left one time, right the next. 

Next she added baby bounces. The whole line was a bounce - 3 strides to a bounce - 3 strides to a bounce (total of 6 jumps). The end bounces were cavaletti, the middle were crossrails. We only did 2/3 of it at one time. First over the cavalleti bounces. He trotted the whole thing the first time, kinda fumbling over the striding of it, but he didn't try to exit. She was very pleased with his honesty, but wanted him actually doing a bounce, so she had me add a canter aid at the base of each. This helped and he got the hang of it. Then we added in the crossrails to the cavaletti. The first time he fumbled over the cavaletti because he saw them from the crossrails and got a little quick, but he figured it out the next time. Each time this was in a loop of a few other jumps too, including the liverpool. He got more and more brave over that and gave it less of a look each time. Even when he was looking though, after the first few times it was a "look while I jump" not "look while I stop". He's really, really a very honest trier of a horse, I could not ask for a more amateur friendly horse. Throughout the whole lesson she kept calling out position reminders too, stretch up tall, eyes up, look, wait for him, etc etc. Things that I know but that are so useful to hear while piloting the green horse around. 

We finished by adding back in a half lime slice to the crossrail. She had us trot it at first by itself and then come around at it in the canter after the pair of bounces. Both times he was just super, no hesitation just a little extra space. On that positive note, we were DONE. She was very pleased with him, as was I. I untacked him and hosed him off. He was very clearly communicating that he needed water immediately as soon as I turned the hose on. I started on his legs, but he was turning himself into a pretzel in the wash rack trying to get his face on the hose. He sucked down water straight out of my hand/the hose until I filled a bucket for him. He drained that multiple times and then decided he was satisfied. He loaded up super easily too, and we headed home with the trailer fan on to try to cool him off. It must've worked because he walked off the trailer only a little sweaty. He went straight out into the field with his friends, so hopefully he moves around enough he doesn't get too sore after all that work. He'll get a light hack and some stretching and massage tomorrow. When I got out of the truck, I definitely felt the work we'd done in my abs, butt, and back! Some of the back may have been the launching jumps he took over the liverpool, but the butt and abs are genuine, hard earned soreness. 

It was SUCH an amazing lesson, I am so excited to go back there in 1.5 weeks. In the mean time she wanted us working on the flat work and trotting crossrails a few times a week. Thinking forward after the jump and continuing to string things together in a looping fashion. 

We've got a dressage lesson next Wednesday and then another jump lesson on Saturday. I'm so happy to be out and doing things with him. 

A lesson!

Yoshi and I took a dressage lesson this morning. Not with my beloved dressage trainer who has unfortunately been harder and harder to get scheduled with, but with a new dressage trainer who Ms. GY rides with regularly. We hauled down there in her trailer, a two horse slant with a rear tack. Yoshi loaded fine on the way there, but was confused about backing out in a L shape. He hesitated getting in it on the way home, but it only took a light tap tap with the dressage whip to encourage him. 

Ms. GY rode first so Yoshi got the chance to look around some. There's a track on the next property, but he didn't really seem to care much. When it was our turn, I fumbled through our introductions. It's hard to figure out what's relevant. I rode second level... 14 years ago at this point. Is that useful information when that's definitely not the level I could ride at today? I think Yoshi is wonderful, but do you need to know that? We go in the shape and gait I planned on about 90% of the time, but you'll see that for yourself in the next few minutes, so do I need to say it now? We've only really been working together for 2 months, does that matter? 

Awkward introductions aside, we got right to work with bending to the inside. Inside hand back towards my inside hip. NOT in the timing of the stride, that will shorten the stride and make him rein lame. Inside leg and seat push over to maintain the direction of travel and keep him from following his nose in. To the right I was definitely wanting to use an indirect rein. When I did it her way he bent instead of tilting. Once he gave to the inside rein then the outside aids can come in to play to keep him there, holding the frame with the outside hand that my inside leg is now pushing into. The second he stiffens, hollows, leans, or examines the world outside the ring, then the inside rein again activates to get the bend back, gently over 3 strides, not pulling over 1. She said she wants the right spot to be comfortable and quiet. Like walking down a path with pricker bushes on all sides. You fall off the path and get pricked and it's uncomfortable until you're back on the path. The right choice is soft and comfortable, it is easy to be there. 

When asking for the upwards transitions if he doesn't do it just repeat the aid. If you're teaching someone a foreign language and you say a word they don't understand then you don't say it differently the next time, you just repeat it. He MUST stay soft and bent during the transitions. She was impressed with him overall, especially his willingness and balance when working through the soupier parts of the ring. She also got onto me about rounding my shoulders and tipping my head forward, it was wonderful. 

We did a LOT in 30 minutes. Trot to canter to trot to canter to trot. Frequent direction changes. Poor kid looked exhausted afterwards. She remarked that he wasn't very fit. Well, no, not at all in the way you mean. Could he go out and trot for 20 minutes and recover HR and RR quickly? Yes, but is he fit in terms of carrying himself and lifting his back? Nope! He looked relaxed though, that nice sleepy look in his eye as he stood tied at the trailer with Ms. GY's horse. 

We have another lesson scheduled next week, Ms. GY and I are just going to take turns hauling, it works out well! She filmed some of my ride this morning, but her phone won't send the videos so they will likely never appear here. I brought the pivo but stupidly forgot to set it up. 

May - June Comparison

This morning. I could not get a more interested facial expression... 

May 

May 10th

I can see a bit more weight and muscle over the hindquarters and back. He's still got plenty of ribs showing, but he looks overall more healthy to me in the picture from today. That's also the way he looks in person - or I'm just acclimating to a TB vs. a roly-poly andalusian mare. 

The bit was not as magical today. Talking to the GYs, I realized that Tuesday we went out and did pole courses and cantered and trotted a good bit in the giant field. That typically has translated to better work in the ring, so perhaps it wasn't the bit after all yesterday. We went out for a walk around the neighborhood after about 20 minutes of dressage work today. I asked him for a little trot and got a canter and then a few little tiny hopping "bucks" if you could even call them that. I let him roll with it because he seemed to be enjoying himself. We had also just been discussing doing what the horse needs when you ride rather than doing what you had planned - a checking in with them at the start of grooming and the ride. He was fairly cranky this morning tacking up, and this was day 5 in a row, so perhaps I should have just nixed the dressage from the beginning. He wasn't bad at all, just not as there as he had been on Monday and Wednesday. Tomorrow we may go trail ride with friends, but more likely he'll have the day off. I'll do some massage and stretches with him in the evening since I'm feeding. 

An essential part, forgotten

Monday I was supposed to have a dressage lesson. First one in a month and I was so excited. Florida had other plans though. We got through 2 of 4 lessons and then the skies opened up with lots of thunder. We're all willing to brave the rain, but the thunder and lightning was a big no. Le sigh. Dressage trainer is harder and harder to schedule with these days. I didn't realize it, but he was so easy to schedule with in the fall because he wasn't travelling because of the pandemic. Now... ugh. I'm bugging him like crazy to let me know dates he could make work during the next month. We managed to have a decent ride in the evening ourselves though. 

Yesterday I dropped all of the novice sized jumps to poles on the ground by them and we worked on cantering poles. We did a tiny cross rail too, I was hoping to just hop it once or twice, but he rushed through it twice, so I got off, added a 9' placing pole before and after, and then tried again. The first time he about stopped at the cross rail because he was staring at the pole on the ground after, but it definitely had the desired effect. No rushing and no pulling to prevent rushing. 

Today I rode him in Mr. GY's TBs Mullen Mouth loose ring. He suggested I try it after watching the dressage test I recorded last week. I half expected him to lean on my hands more in it. Given my rudimentary understanding of bits, having a solid piece would mean more leaning. It was the exact opposite though. He was pretty light overall and felt more consistent and happy in the contact. I'm going to ride in it a few more times, but I was pretty impressed with the feeling he was giving me. He has been in a french link eggbutt snaffle since I got him, and I would not have thought to change his bit without the suggestion. I was chalking any inconsistency and heaviness up to greenness and my incorrect riding. Which is not to say that's not a huge part of it, but this may be another tool we can use to help.

Leila went in the same bit. I never was happy with her feel of the contact. She went just as well in a sidepull hackamore as she did in the bit. Zing went in a full cheek single jointed snaffle for jumping and a KK loose ring french link for dressage. I played around the most with his bits for jumping. Dressage trainer set us up with the KK loose ring for dressage after I was a working student for him and Zing was always so consistent and soft in the contact I never messed with it. Jumping we tried a few different things - single jointed, double jointed, snaffle and elevator. In the end, if I didn't ride properly he'd run through whatever bit we used, so we settled on the single jointed full cheek. 

I really don't know what I am doing when it comes to picking a bit for a horse - I have seen people have bit fitters come out to assess, and maybe I will eventually go that route. In the mean time, the GYs have roughly 30 bits I can work my way through to see if one is better than another! 

What bit does your horse go in? What thought process went into picking and then assessing the effects of different bits? Do you have a go to bit that you start horses out with? 

An attempt at a dressage test

Yoshi got new shoes Wednesday along with a very positive report from the farrier. He actually had a bit of heel to take off on the left foot! Woohoo!!! He was very good for the whole thing until the last 5 minutes. Then he started putting anything within reach into his mouth... the farrier, me, a halter hanging on a hook. Just like a toddler that was just DONE. So I slowly fed treats and we got through it. Funny horse. 

Yesterday

Yesterday

6 weeks ago

6 weeks ago 

Overall, his feet are looking MUCH healthier and I can see the hint of a heel. Hooray!

Today we rode through Training level test 1. 

Definitely rough in places - in particular the halts and obviously the left lead canter that wasn't, but y'know. First attempt. 

When this is my position two strides before a down transition... Yeah no wonder the halts sucked! 

I do not like how much bracing in the stirrups I'm seeing in the video though. This was the first time I'd set up the pivo in a few weeks, so I'm going to work on fixing the bracing and then see how we look in a few days.

Bracey bracey

I finally brought out the tripod which made the pivo much happier. It had been wandering off in the middle of rides and then sticking in the woods for the rest of the ride. I apparently still set it a bit too close to the edge of the ring though - it loses us at the canter a couple of times. 

May have something to do with our racehorse canter still

Overall, I'm so happy with how he's going. We're playing in and out of the dressage ring and he's just getting more and more consistent. We have another dressage lesson on Monday. I'm going to try to nail down weekly or every other week lessons ASAP. 

I cheated, and we jumped a log, barrels, and the liverpool the other day. He's perfect. The solid jumps made much more sense to him than poles, he set himself up really nicely for them. 

About to sell him down the river

As was pointed out to me during my trial (yep, failed to see this one on my own...), Yoshi has a "dropped hip" on the left side. What I was told by the vet who did his PPE and by my friend in Delaware, is that this is a fracture of the tuber coxae. 

Image from Nikki Hall Equine Sports and Rehabilitation Massage Therapist

Usually this injury happens when they run through a stall door/pasture gate or hit a barrel in the case of barrel racers/starting gate in the case of OTTBs. Looking at his race record, his seller and I both assumed it must have happened when he was quite young. He raced first as a 3 year old in April 2017 and raced once a month until November of that year. He then had a 6 month break until May 2018. From that point on he ran at least once every 6 weeks until he retired in October 2020. When his seller got him in November, 1 month after his last race, there was no evidence of trauma to that hip in terms of healing skin wounds. Generally, tuber coxae fractures take 3-6 months to heal, so it either happened before his first race or in the 6 month break between Nov 2017 and May 2018. 

When the fracture happens, the internal abdominal oblique muscle usually pulls the fractured piece ventrally (down). There is unilateral lameness, typically more lame at the walk than the trot, and soft tissue swelling and pain over the fracture site. 

Image from rodnikkel.com

This is a hard area to take x-rays of because there is just SO MUCH muscle there, it is a lot to shoot a through. If you use an oblique angle though, you can get a view of it. I suspect rads are most commonly used to diagnose, but there's also scintigraphy, ultrasound, and standing CT. 

Image from JAVMA 
https://avmajournals.avma.org/doi/pdf/10.2460/javma.234.10.1303

The prognosis is good for this type of fracture. There is a retrospective study that included 29 horses with tuber coxae fractures. Of those 29, 27 returned to their previous intended use. A book chapter describes healing of tuber coxae and tuber ischii fractures as "generally inevitable, with a full return to function".

So after basically being told it was not a problem by two vets that I trust and respect, Tuesday I was shocked to be told it was a major problem, and he should be sold as a trail horse. Apropos of nothing other than my feeling he should get all the things to feel as good as possible, I had a chiropractor out to work on him. Honestly, he's been feeling better and better each ride. He's really benefited from some time out of the ring allowing us both to remember how to go forward and then bringing that forward back into the dressage ring to attempt 20m circles and corners again. I'm no longer panicking each time we turn. No panicking and remembering I do have a right leg to use as an inside leg has led to him feeling pretty damn even. Shoulders are not always straight tracking right, but we're working on that too, and if I ride him correctly then I can get him straight.

Anyways, back to the visit. After a brief, mostly visual, assessment, I was told he would never be able to engage his hindquarters properly and was compensating for both the dropped hip. I don't pretend to know enough about anatomy and gait mechanics to tell whether this will be an issue or not. The literature I've pulled up on it does not seem to indicate it will be, but I haven't found anything that really delves into it on a biomechanical level. Honestly, although I have aspirations of FEI level dressage, the chances of me truly lining up everything in my life to make it there are fairly slim. So if he doesn't have the ability to make it to those levels, that's fine, most horses don't. Some because of physical things, some because of mental things. And, according to my dressage trainer who has taken a lot of horse/rider pairs to those levels, Yoshi has the mind for it, so that's half the battle right there. Only time will tell on the physical, as with all horses. And even if it turns out that's not for him, he's got the mind that would make him a lovely lower level teacher. 

In addition to his hip, I was told he has cervical arthritis and was sore over his right suspensory ligament. Now... Euthanizing a barely 8 yo horse for cervical arthritis before I got Yoshi made that particular subject a little touchy... I made sure we flexed and palpated his neck thoroughly both during my trial and during his PPE. And neither myself nor his vet, who knows my history with my mare, saw or felt a problem there. The chiro then adjusted his neck and seemed surprised when he was able to be adjusted, actually quite well, in the neck. My friend in Delaware does chiro as well and said that nearly every OTTB she works on is locked in their neck and needs to be adjusted. Because, guess what, working mostly in one direction at fairly fast paces, isn't super easy on the neck. But she said if he could be adjusted and didn't lose his mind when she did (which he didn't) then his neck didn't hurt any more than the average OTTB in her long distance opinion. 

The chiro also palpated ONLY his right front suspensory. And pronounced it very sore, which "wasn't a good sign since he's only in light work at this point". If you'll remember, when I palpate the proximal suspensory on all 4 legs he reacts... so I immediately called BS on that one (in my head). I still did go back later and check, and yep, he palpates sore in exactly the same way he did at the end of April when he was doing zero work. 

Mr. GY was out there for all of it. He has a passion for learning and never misses the chance to watch and soak up information from various professionals. He didn't say much during the whole thing, just quietly observed. The next day, after a call to my BFF and some mulling and internet research, I rode Yosh and worked on a ground pole exercise - 4 poles evenly spaced on a 20 m circle. He trotted around the circle really quite beautifully in both directions and could string together 3 of 4 at the canter. We did a good number of transitions as well in between working on the poles, balancing my desire to use transitions to help rock him back and dressage trainer's desire that every transition be beautiful and round or else it shouldn't happen. We popped over the "liverpool" (tarp between two poles on the ground) they have out in the big field, and then called it a day. I was letting him graze in the barnyard while cleaning tack when Mr. GY appeared. He's got many, many years of experience with eventing and horses in general. He cautiously asked me what I thought about the day before. I explained, in brief, my thought process from above. He looked relieved. I asked him what he thought and got a flood, ending with "I just came out to make sure you weren't about to sell him down the river." 

Might as well enjoy the process

I just finished up saddle hunting. Given the number of other speed bumps Yoshi and I have encountered on our journey to greatness (ahem, w/t/c under saddle), this one was actually small. He got a massage a week ago Tuesday and I was told, under no uncertain terms, that my saddle doesn't fit. Okay, this was not a huge surprise. I bought it for Leila who was WIDE. But I thought with the thinline pad with front shims it was passable. Apparently not. It's not the end of the world, it is an old Black Country (MW, 17") that I got for $800 at a local tack shop. I do not have strong feelings about it. Zing's last 4 years of life I rode him in an M. Toulouse that my friend sold me super cheap. I HATED that saddle. But he loved it. He definitely had strong opinions about saddles, so combine him loving it with me having exactly zero extra dollars, and I made do. It's not like we were doing anything particularly challenging under saddle anyways, but boy was I glad to sell that saddle after he passed. The just replaced black country allowed me to be in the correct position, but it did not in any way aid me in being in that position. So I was not too sad to be told that it is not the right one for Yoshi. 

I took the saddle down to Good Apple consignment in Ocala (not to consign, their saddles are much too nice for me to think they'd want to take this one...) as a comparison. The owner there was incredibly helpful, and I left with 3 saddles to try. She definitely pushed the wool because she was concerned, as am I, that as he muscles up his back will change substantially. Then I'll be saddle hunting again in 6-12 months. And while buying used and selling used means not as much of a loss, I feel like it is generally not a game I win. Other people who are more patient or better at selling and buying may, but those are not my strengths.

I ended up with a total of four saddles to try; three saddles from Good Apple and one from Highline Tack.

1. County Perfection, 17.5, labeled W, but measures M. Apparently this was a screw up from the County rep; ordered to fit a horse that it could never be made to fit. And it was originally the W, but was modified to be a M in an attempt to make it fit. This saddle is basically brand new with a nicely used price tag. It never made it onto his back, with the higher price tag I started with #2, #3, and #4 first and never circled back to this one. 
   
   
   
2. County Perfection, 17.5, labeled M with SR panels. I ended up buying this one. When I sat in it I felt very connected to his back and like it was much easier to have a still and correct leg. The fitter/masseuse came out Monday morning and gave it the okay. He did add a bit of flocking on either side of the withers so that it wouldn't rock down as much in the front. He said to reassess in maximum 6 months and make sure that the flocking doesn't need to come out.                                                                                                                         
   
   
   
   
   
   

   

   
   
   

   
   
   
   

   

   Definitely looks like I could/should lengthen my stirrups a hole. And I still need to bring my head back and shoulders square. I hate looking at photos of my riding right now. I find plenty to be happy with looking just at him, but not much looking at me. He's definitely traveling on the forehand right now, but we're getting more consistently soft and round with a correct bend. 

   
   
3. Frank Baines Pirouette, 17.5, M with serge panels. This is a monoflap in an interesting way. The only monoflap I'd seen in person was a friend's Devocoux. On that saddle the billets came straight off the flap. The front billet for this saddle came off a shoulder panel that she said gives the horse the same "support" through the shoulder as a dual flap saddle would. 
   

   
   
   

   

   

   
   
   
   

   My first impression riding in this saddle was comfort without particularly aiding position. The monoflap did help me wrap my leg around him a bit more, and it was easy to lighten my seat as needed, but I did fight the tendency to let my leg get too far out in front of me. There were no keepers for the stirrup leathers. Easy enough to fix if I had bought it, but while I was trying it the left leather kept getting bunched up under my leg. Definitely says something about my asymmetry, but also was annoying to try to deal with while riding. 
   
   
4. Stackhouse Monoflap 17, measures M. This saddle was GORGEOUS. The leather was butter soft and overall the quality was beautiful. But sadly it was too short in the flap. It was on the website with a short flap and I should have paid more attention, but I do have fairly short legs so I thought it might work. Based on this whole saddle trying expedition, I also think that I am a 17.5 in dressage saddles. I'd probably been getting away with my 17 because it is a very open saddle. Yoshi actually went best in this saddle, but it was also day 4 of consistent riding, so that may have been more about consistency than the actual saddle. 

Overall the whole experience was not too painful. Good Apple was fantastic to work with and soooo helpful in picking out saddles that might work for us. She also told me to take pictures of him in the saddle as well as me in the saddle and if none of the initial three worked, she could use those pictures to help us figure out one that would. They technically have a 5 day trial period, but she said if there was one I needed more time with to just let her know and I could keep it for longer. 

The fitter also checked out my jump saddle when he came back Monday morning since I didn't have it out at the barn with me the week before. Fortunately he gave it the okay with a fluffy fleece half pad. Thank goodness. Saddle hunting for two would have definitely been more than I could handle in one month! 

Solo Trail Ride

I was planning on taking Yoshi over to my friend's house this morning to trail ride from there. She wasn't feeling well though, but I was already awake and fully loaded at 6:15 AM, so we diverted to a state park about 20 minutes away. I wasn't quite sure how solo trail riding would go; we've gone around trails from both barns he has been at, but never hauled someplace to trail ride alone. Given that this is the biggest spook he's ever done (glad the pivo captured this before it wandered off to film the woods for the entire second half of my ride yesterday). I felt pretty confident at least giving the trails a try. 

He unloaded well at the trail head and immediately started eating grass. Not one of my favorite habits, but taking a green horse out on trails by themselves for the first time? Yeah, we'll finesse those things later. I tied him long to let him keep eating until I had to get his head up so I could do up the girth. Turns out whether or not I can tell from photos, he has definitely gained some weight. My dressage saddle has been relegated to "Does not fit at all, do not use" status (more on that in a later post) so jump saddle with fluffy half pad it is. It hasn't been on him since mid-February, and my 50" girth was really hard to do up. To the point I thought I might end up taking a very short bareback trail ride since the bareback pad was the only other option I had in the trailer. But we finally managed it, and I bridled him and we headed through the gate. The state park has shared bicycle trails as well as horse only and bike only trails. Last time I came here with friends (not with Yoshi), we got really quite lost and ended up going almost 8 miles. The map... meh... kinda shows what is what? Yoshi was not interested in standing still while I examined it, so I just made a mental note to pay attention to where we came from so that I could retrace if a loop was not becoming apparent. I turned on my garmin watch as well to track time and distance.

He stood about as well as he stands at home while I got on from a wooden block and then we set off. The first part of the trail was pretty narrow and wound through shaded woods. He dealt with the woods and scenery just fine but did stop a lot to sniff all the manure on the trail. Another deal I made with him was that he could stop and sniff as much poop as he wanted as long as he stayed sane. Not sure he was aware of our deal, but regardless, he held up his end of the bargain really well. 

We saw a couple of deer in the woods and at the edge of a large open field. He was mildly interested/excited and took a few sideways steps when one took off, but after that was completely not bothered. We were about to emerge from the woods onto the powerline cut when we encountered three loose cows about 30 meters away from us. We all froze for a solid 10 seconds. I was trying to figure out the likelihood of the cows running at us rather than away, the cows were trying to figure out how panicked to be, and Yoshi was... staying pretty damn sane. His head was pretty high up and I could feel his heart pounding, but he didn't give that feeling like he was about to spin and bolt. The cows decided to high tail it outta there, away from us, which made him want to turn around and leave at a walk, but I stopped him from turning. After a minute or two, I could actually feel his heart rate slow down under my leg and I asked him to walk forward. He took a few tentative steps and then stopped again. We waited a bit longer and then I asked again. This time he settled into his nice forward walk and we headed out onto the power line cut. 

We mostly walked the power line cut, but did trot up the hill once. We saw a lot more deer and one mountain biker. The biker caused only a small pause in Yoshi's stride as we headed down the hill towards him. Eventually I found the second part of the loop back off the power line cut and we headed back into the woods towards the parking lot. 

On the way back home we passed over a couple of culverts and by a large pond/wetland that had ibis, a great blue heron, and several egret. The ibis all took off when we rode by, which barely registered in his pace. Once we arrived back to the trailer, he seemed much more relaxed than he had been before. I let him eat the delicious parking lot grass for a few minutes before loading back up and heading home. 

I am SO SO happy with him. What a sane, lovely trail horse. It is really fun and exciting getting to know him. I had Zing for so long I could pretty much predict exactly what he would and wouldn't spook at and how he would spook. He was absolutely against cows and goats. It took until he was almost 20 before we could even pass near cows without passaging and snorting the whole way. If the road was too narrow he would get light in front and try to spin. Other than farm animals, not much got to him, especially once he learned what I meant by "Look over there" when I pointed out dogs that might rush fences as we went by. Leila only occasionally spooked at things, she was in general a much lower energy horse than Zing. But when she did, she had a very tidy rock back and spin that nearly unseated me a couple of times and actually did land me on the ground once. When that happened, she trotted a few more strides to make sure the cows she spooked at weren't after her, but then stood patiently while I caught her. Yoshi? Well, given all that we saw today, I feel fairly safe in saying that stop and stare is his go to spook. There may yet be a spin or bolt in there, but he did not give me that feeling AT ALL today, which is really cool. Even when he tried to turn away from the cows, he basically turned in a small circle, he didn't spin. 

He really was absolutely amazing from start to finish. He had a brief hesitation loading in the dark, but once I let him pause and look at the inside of the trailer he walked right on. He hauled beautifully and patiently stood in the trailer eating hay while I used the bathroom at the park entrance. He didn't hesitate at all loading up to come home. During the ride, we went over some varied terrain and saw deer, cows, mountain bikers, and birds, all NBD. He also felt super sane when we trotted, never gave me the feeling that I didn't have working brakes or steering. We ended up going 5 miles in about 80 minutes with 172 feet of elevation gain (that's a lot for FL!). I would have loved to stay out longer, and we will in the future, but this was an excellent first solo off-property ride. Since we had such an early start, he was back and settled into his field with hay by 10 AM.