leave it to an ottb

The trend continues of me catching a ride on basically whatever's available for my lessons. To date, this has been exclusively ponies. Until this weekend, that is.

this is more my style of ride!

Brita was out of town for the weekend and encouraged me to take Wick out for a spin at OF. How freakin generous. Of course I said yes and showered her profusely with thanks and gratitude!

wick was marginally confused about what i had done with his mother. but was a good sport anyway

Longtime readers may recall I've gotten on Wick once before, in February of last year. Brita had pretty much just started with him (as the greenest of green beans) and Wick was all aboard the struggle bus: no left lead, super one sided, faulty steering, and no go button.

I had been ringside coaching them (potentially unsolicited) through some left lead attempts and kept telling Brita to "just put him together!" After she heard that one too many times, she simply hopped off and told me to give it a try myself. And. Well. Long story short, I had zero success. Could actually not even really get the horse to WALK, let alone pick up that damn lead.

extremely handsome

I, er, learned an important lesson that day lol. Maybe a few, actually. One of which was that Wick is not as easy to ride as Brita makes him look lol.

But she's been putting in some serious hard work over the last year and a half, and you can really tell in watching them. So I was really eager to see how it felt under saddle!

werk it wick!

Verdict? HOLY HELL am I impressed! The horse I rode this weekend is an entirely different creature from two winters ago. Completely.

thinking cap firmly on
(meanwhile i'm leaving thoughts on my position for another day. glaring issues are pervasive. le sigh)

This horse is sensitive, soft, and looks for connection. Oh. And he GOES. Not only was he good off the legs - he was actually borderline hot to the touch. He's still slightly one-sided, but only if you're looking for it. He's learning to go straighter tho and it's CRAZY when he does finally get his butt directly under him bc there is a huge surge of power that just flows forward.

a million trotting pictures bc this is my blog and i do what i want

Tho he's still learning how to really harness that power. And is maybe a little cocky haha - esp given some of the crazy big stuff he and Brita school together.

loving the light in this pic

He was just fantastic on the flat to trot, tho I had a little trouble in the canter. Just tried to get him to rock back and sit a little more without just hurtling forward. We maybe kinda figured it out.

classic wick face

And kept on working on it through the jumps. It was balls hot out, even so early in the morning, so we kept the jumping short and sweet. And the jumps were all on the smaller side - esp for Wick man who is used to much bigger fences with Brita.

tidy tidy!

He was super good tho. I just LOVE the way TBs go. Love. We warmed up over a coupe fences where I got a taste for what it takes to actually get a half halt through to this guy, then went on directly to a course.

not much effort over these fences but who cares, i was in heaven all the same

He's got a big stride and carries you right up to the fence. He's a bit strong tho and will try to take over if you're not careful.

advance mid-air planning for the tricky left lead roll back

Really tho, I just had such a blast with him. He finds his spots, jumps and lands on both leads, will stay straight with minimal encouragement, and steers way better than I expected.

easy peasy end vertical

We had to have a couple discussions about pace in a few places (like down the looooong straightaway between end jumps) but once I got a feel for him, I could figure out how to sit him down a bit then soften and still ride forward to the fence.

such a good guy

Really Wick was right up my alley. I just LOVE a ride like this - would prefer a horse who's a little strong and cocky, and just love that TB way of going. He basically rode like a more schooled version of Bali, which obvi set my little heart strings ablaze.

It was maybe useful for trainer P to see me go with him too, as I think it gave her a little more insight into my kind of ride. Sure, she saw me on Bali that one time... but that was also the day I broke my leg so it ended up not being a source for much discussion.

So this ride ended up sparking a couple ideas in her mind, a few of which sounded mighty exciting. We will see what happens. In the meantime, tho, I'm just so grateful to have had this ride on Wick. It was honestly legitimately the most fun jumping I've had in a LONG time. Thank god for friends and their cool ottbs!