Borrowing Motivation

Call it horse show hangover or work related, but the past week, I just could not find any scrap of motivation. Fortunately there's a team around us to help. My goal is not to give pony random weeks off in April, we'll wait till the brutal heat of summer for a true break. That's two-fold. Presumably my motivation and desire that wandered off somewhere at the start of the week will wander back in, and it isn't fair to expect the pony to be a lot of fun if he has no fitness. And, while he is metabolically healthy, he is the upper end of where I like to see his weight right now, and he needs to keep his booty moving to stay that way. 

Monday he had his day off after the show. Tuesday we did a stretchy hack around the pasture that lasted all of 15 minutes. Wednesday he got his feet done, so I had a legit excuse for not actually working. His trimmer asked how he'd been doing after trims and since he hasn't had any soreness, she got a bit more aggressive about standing up his hind feet. He kinda looked like he was wanting to develop quarter cracks behind and he had some flaring, so she addressed both those things. I'm very glad he's on a four week schedule right now, it feels like he needs it as he grows quickly in the spring. 

Sneak preview of the left hind, the rest will follow in our monthly wrap up post. 

Compared to what we had back at the end of January just a couple of weeks after pulling his shoes. 

The next day, PW came up to the farm to teach me and Ms. GY and one other friend. 

This was Butterball's response to the first lesson going on in the ring right by his field. 
"No thank you, I'm busy now, can't." Perhaps he's also feeling the lack of motivation this week. 

Given the above feelings and a general tiredness (work is kicking my butt this week), I asked PW to get on him. I did warn him that he had gotten his feet done a bit more aggressively than in the past, so if there was any hind end funkiness we could call it and try again in a week or two. But he said he felt like his normal self. 

One of the things I very much appreciate about PW is that he took our discussion back in February seriously and has not put jumps one speck over 90 since then. We got a compliment in the warm up at the LCT show the weekend prior - another trainer had seen our disastrous warm up and then PW's challenging trip with him in December. She commented that he looked happy and confident now and we were doing a great job. 

So on Thursday, he handed me the measuring tape, essentially to make sure things stayed under that 90 cm mark we discussed back in February. Except after a discussion of exactly when we would want to increase the height, we both decided these were the exact circumstances where it might be a good idea: 

- Butterball feels HAPPY to do his job and take whatever distance is there, including in the show ring, and including when I loosen the reins at him at an oxer. 

- PW is riding

- It is in a grid

So we gradually built the three oxers up from 80 to 90 to a smidge over a meter with about a meter in width. And Butterball looked HAPPY to do his job through the grid. He also just looked freaking amazing over the fences. His style got better and better too, you can see it in the change from the first trip to the second trip in the video below, especially over the first fence in the grid. 

Oh to have that soft, following hand

Wheee

Unfortunately my phone chose the last fence to go out of focus, but y'know, you can still see him blurry and all jumping the snot out of that oxer. 

I sent the video to his trimmer and said "I think his feet feel fine!" She agreed. I was delighted by the whole thing. It's so much fun watching BB bounce merrily over fences, he's just a fun horse to ride and to watch. 

Today I fought my lack of motivation by pulling up an exercise from the 101 dressage exercises book. It was under straightness and was three trot-halt-trot transitions on a 15m circle. I haven't done a lot of sitting trot on BB, so it was interesting to play with that during the exercise. I am much more aware of my crookedness while sitting, I think. We did a few circles without transitions as I worked on even weight in my seat bones and turning my whole body to turn him. Then we added in the transitions. Initially he was a bit anxious and hot about things and offered a few different gaits and not gaits, but we smoothed them out some. I never did quite get keeping the curve of the circle through his body as we halted, but we got closer. Then we worked a little bit on walk-canter-walk and slowing the canter down without me having to hold him every stride. He was quite good for that and we got one truly quality canter-walk. 

It wasn't a long ride, but it was productive. And it stuck to JV's direction of only going for as long as I could keep my focus and therefore help him keep his focus. 

And that concludes the week. Wish me luck digging up my motivation and energy sometime this weekend! 

The Bare Minimum

I hope you all had a lovely, peaceful, warm Thanksgiving. 

Delicious pie. I slacked and did store bought crust and in spite of par baking it, it was still a bit underdone when the pie was definitely done. 

Butterball and I had another lesson with PW on Wednesday. Ms. GY came with and PW rode her OTTB. It was very cool to watch how he carefully guided but stayed completely out of the horse's way over fences. 

Butterball got a gymnastics session. It was carefully curated to shape his style over fences and fight the dying on landing that we would both like to do. He started out pretty lackadaisical over the fences, but by the time the oxer at the end got bigger, he was putting in some real effort. PW helped me out by telling me at what points to add leg and at what points to let the exercise itself do the work.

The exercise started with two bounce rails then two bounce cavaletti then one stride to a vertical. We built the vertical up a little bit while pony pants sorted out his feet over the bounces and I sorted out WAITING for the spot to come to me. Then we added a one stride to another vertical then two strides to an oxer. As the oxer got bigger his effort over the smaller earlier fences also improved interestingly enough. I have seen enough videos of myself cantering lately that I felt the need to put some thought into my lower leg as we cantered around. It seemed to help some, but there is still plenty of work to do. It was easier to work on my position over fences through the grid, so this was a nice tie in to the last lesson where I felt kinda loose and incorrect with my position a lot of the time.  

We ended with one run through at a slightly lower height to build his confidence and focus on straightness. This lesson was so good for both of us. The concepts we've been working on still applied: don't drop him between fences, create the canter you want way before you get to the first fence. We'll likely repeat the gymnastics in our lesson next week to solidify those concepts. 

Headless horseman!

Those little ears, those knees. Guys, how is he so perfect?? 

Pepé Le Pew

Butterball and I took another lesson this week with PW. My friend arranged it so that we could do back to back lessons and snag video for each other. But then she asked if I was okay doing a group lesson. "Uhm, yeah, but we don't jump things the size that you do."

Turns out we were doing almost exclusively gymnastics so it worked out okay to ride together. And multiple people have told me now that Butterball could jump 1.10 easily. Yes, guys, I KNOW. Again, hi, I'm the problem it's me. Although, really, there are worse things in the world than having people tell you how lovely and talented your horse is! 

We started with our usual trot jump. Man, the keeping the outside rein through the turn, just magic for his straightness over the fences. PW commented that Butterball is so clever, when he's deep to a fence, he still cranks his hind end up over it to make sure he clears it. Can confirm. Also not super easy to stay with, but I'm trying. Then we did canter poles up to the vertical that then became an oxer. Ride to the first pole, the rest will fall into place. 

After that we introduced Butterball's new fave exercise. A line of 7 bounces. He came in a teeny tiny bit backed off the first time, but really not bad at all. And then merrily bounced through it. The next time he was confident from the first and felt just delighted. My coworker compared him to Pepé  Le Pew happily bouncing along, which is exactly right. The two larger horses we were jumping with didn't look nearly as thrilled by the exercise. 

via GIPHY

Then we moved on to the last exercise, a line of four square oxers set at one stride apart. We built up to what was in the video. The first time through Butterball's eyes did bug out a bit and I had to tap him between the first and second. But after that, he merrily sproinged on through those as well. Ride to the first jump, keep him straight with your outside rein on, the rest just happens. 

Finally we put all three things together and did the one strides, left hand turn to the single oxer, left hand turn to go through the bounces. And I rode the canter while keeping my eye on the top rail of the single, and we hit it perfectly out of stride. GOOD BOY BUTTERBALL! 

Easier time with my equitation with the single fence as well 

I don't have a lot to say notes wise because this is coming together with me feeling like I'm doing two (simple) things: 

- Creating a bouncy canter by being PATIENT and holding my outside rein. Don't rush the canter transition, don't rush the canter itself. Make it quality. 

- Riding to the first pole or rail and then letting him do his thing

PW told me Butterball is too nice to event, but I told him we'll just clean up our show jumping and then he'll be a super event hony with a beautiful show jumping record. He's too fun out on XC and too nice in dressage to not event! 

He's Fancy, He's Sophisticated

And every little detail matters with this horse.

Backtracking a bit to last week, Butterball and I had our second lesson with PW. And in the way of all things, I had taken our sloowwwwww trot and canter a bit too far, and Butterball needed some jazzing up off the leg. Trainer said that Butterball is not strong enough to jump from that forward canter right now. HOWEVER, when I close my leg he needs to respond with forward. Huh, where have we heard that one. And, my supposition, is that we aren't going to get stronger in that canter if we never practice it. 

We landed and halted after the first two trot fences and then were instructed to CANTER FORWARD away from the fence instead. After we warmed up over the trot fence, we spent the entire lesson over the same vertical and then oxer with three canter poles in front of it. 

Screenshot from the first lesson because there's no new video from the second lesson, but we did get some from the third!

It reminded me of Carly's post on the single pole friend. Because ALL I had to do was ride to the first pole. I did a LOT of different things other than riding properly to the first pole though. I cut in to the left, drifted out to the right, (both leading to jumping the left side of the fence, funny enough...), met it on half-strides, lunged at it, etc etc. 

For whatever reason I had a more passive feeling that whole lesson. I think maybe due to other stuff in life I was feeling some decision fatigue. So I did more letting things happen to me than making them happen. PW got on Butterball and called him a super fun to ride pocket rocket, which is always fun to hear. And shockingly, with him in the irons, pony was super straight and just incredible over the fences. So then we planned a 100% gymnastics lesson for this week. 

Honestly, the most exciting takeaway of the lesson this week was how well my horse goes when I don't drop the outside rein all the time. This helped our canter transitions, helped our turning, and helped our jumping. In order to not drop the outside rein, I had to essentially press my outside knuckles into the fleeciness of the mattress pad that we use with the jump saddle. We started out the lesson mostly drifting left and so got ourselves a set of placing poles down the left hand side of the gymnastics. We also got nailed for lunging at the first pole. PW kindly told me not to let him do that, and I didn't confess that I was actually asking him to do that not just allowing him to do it. I had to go back to the feeling from the first lesson where my only focus was the single ground pole we were cantering. Then I had to keep my outside rein through the turn and stare down the first pole. A little leg between the fences and then we had some magic. He was jumping great and stopped twisting over the fence when I kept him straight with my outside aids (I know, I know, reader, this is serious ground breaking news). 

PW got onto me about two things. The first: I booted Butterball into the canter once when I felt like he was slow off my leg. He bucked, and we accidentally jumped a stack of three poles. He said "that was on you" (meaning me, the rider, again, shock and surprise that I'm the problem), and that Butterball wasn't balanced so couldn't lift into the canter. And again, once I slowed the trot down, half-halted, and then held onto my outside rein, he just lifted up and did some really lovey canter transitions.  The second: Don't drop him in front of the oxer. While negative directives aren't supposed to work as well as directing what should be done instead. That whole adage about not thinking about the purple elephant. But, uhm, I stared at the oxer and internally screamed and definitely shoved my hands at him, completely dropping the contact. So telling me not to do that was completely fair and very effective since I had consciously done just that. 

It is so exciting to feel the jump that we're creating with this work. I purposely included the line where I held too much to the first pole and he broke to the trot and then still jumped through the gymnastic so handily. This pony is scopey, ya'll. Ben felt great over fences this size, but the roundness of Butterball's jump is something I have not experienced before! 

Much media, much baby horse

Things have been very active in the baby horse department. AND! AND! I have a grand plan so baby horse will get to stay with JT in training until the end of December. Much excitement to be had. 

I also have media from two separate exciting things... 

First...

Goggles did his first grid! He had long lined the day before and walked through the cavaletti bounce on the lowest setting of the cavaletti. He tried to nope out of number two and got told what for. He apparently learned the lesson quite well because he did not even veer a tiny bit through the grid. It was three bounces, a one stride, and then another one stride followed by a placing pole. We walked through it as ground poles in hand first and then I went and tacked him up and then we walked through it, still as poles, under saddle several times. We did another few passes at the trot and then made the world's tiniest half cross rails out of the bounces and world's tiniest real cross rail of the first one stride. He was an absolute champion. He fumbled through the bounces the first couple of times but still didn't touch poles, just did a leg salad at the trot. 

The last time through, the wheels in his brain turned and he figured out cantering made things make the most sense. So even though we'd been encouraging him to trot in and pick up the canter over the first one, he decided to canter before and did it beautifully. 

Such a good, brave baby horse. JT and I were both delighted with him. 

Looking so enthused but also so grown up all of a sudden, pre-ride

Acquired his own bit and bridle and sparkly browband, hand me down from Yoshi, therefore not matching with the bridle 

Each time through the grid he figured it out more and more. He kept his brain engaged the whole time and listened to direction. I could not be happier. 

Second... 

He had his second training ride with JT! He's been in partial training with her since the end of July, but she correctly deduced he needed A LOT of long lining to have a few fights about connection with himself. And he has benefited so much from it. She rode him once a week or two ago, but I was out of town. This time I was around to watch and video. 

He was SO GOOD!!! He did baby baby leg yields and each time he gave more of the right answer. The first time he did a half step sideways and got a load of praise. The next time he offered 75% more. How cool! 

She was insistent that he hold himself and that he keep his shoulders in front of his haunches. She explained the ball of energy, the bit is the top of the trapezoid, rider's legs are the base, the energy ball is over the withers ideally because that's what you want to lift. And you use leg and to a lesser degree rein to keep the energy ball in line. If they're behind the leg, the energy ball has slipped back. If they're running, it is too far forward. Focus on keeping it in the right spot with leg, your own balance, and occasionally rein. 

She also helped with the timing of the halt aids. I had been struggling with being able to put leg on into the halt, but she was getting after me because without leg they will just drag down and get heavy and hard. Seeing her do it made it so much more clear. 

Then they worked on the canter. Again she emphasized that he's really pretty naturally balanced in the canter, so don't rush him forward and off that balance. They did work on the right lead transition with a bit of a conversation about shaking him off the left shoulder when he tried to yank down onto that and fall onto the left lead. 

He did quite a few 15m canter circles and even the long side of the arena. The lack of struggle I've had doing 20m canter circles on the 17h(+??) 4 year old has been amazing. I don't have a ton of experience with green beans, but he is hands down the easiest I've ever sat on in that regard. 

Look at that hind leg!

Weeeee!!!

Left lead too!

Pats for the goodest boy

Goes without saying we're not fussing with his head right now. His body parts have to be straight and he has to be going forward, he can put his head wherever he feels like it.

I'm still holding hostage the video I pulled all these screenshots from, perhaps for another post. It has JT's commentary of exactly what she's doing, and a lot of me irritatingly saying "yeah" very close to the microphone. But her commentary is incredibly helpful. 

Dressage (with media!) and Gymnastics (with media!)

Ben and I had a phenomenal dressage lesson on yesterday. We did a real leg yield left! I'm not sure I've ever in my life done a real leg yield in that direction. Probably because I've never gotten a horse really off my right leg because I never have used it actively enough AND let go of my right rein. We started with moving his barrel over at the trot, first on a three loop serpentine. Then once he was soft and bendy through his back we added a bit more power to it. Then we'd lose the soft back so we'd let the power fade a little bit to get the complete softness again on a 10m circle. Rinse and repeat. Tracking right I had to use my right leg SO MUCH more than I usually do. Probably about as active as my left leg is all the time, I'm that uneven. And then let go of the holding right rein. But once I did, WOW! A complete bend through his body. Then the leg yield just flowed naturally from that. So cool! 

We moved into the canter then. The canter we couldn't yet add any power to it, just focused on softness. But it was amazing how light and in front of me he felt. I could turn completely from my body and legs (or maybe because I was turning completely from my body and legs he was staying soft). 

A kind friend of Steph's filmed our left lead canter. It is a 4 minute video, not the usually pithy blog content, but Steph's commentary really makes it useful for me. 

He slipped behind twice still at the trot, so that hasn't magically disappeared with the hock injections. But overall he felt SO much better. Even and really willing to sit and push. 

We went back down today for a gymnastics lesson. It was three bounces to a one stride vertical to a one stride oxer, both one strides had placing poles in them. It was SO GOOD for both of us. I think part of Ben's problem in combinations is he fixates on the whole line, especially the end, and starts worrying about the last piece and therefore flubs the pieces in between. 

When suddenly the vertical grew limes and we jumped in a very special way

He was also pretty fixated on the placing poles and struggled with that. But he was trying the whole time and even when he jumped the vertical as above, he jumped out over the oxer like this: 

Overall a really good boy. JT wants us to go through it one more time before it is disassembled and removed from the ring as her dressage trainer moves in for the winter season. Hopefully we can make that happen! 

Making a much nicer shape over the vertical

Good boy!