Spoiler alert, y’all — I’m having a LOT of fun getting out and about every other weekend for our little “bite-sized” adventures! Especially given that, as predicted, Doozy keeps getting better and more reliable with every outing. Whew!
steamy summer mornings!
This weekend’s ’little snack’ included just a couple classes at Tranquillity’s Mill Series schooling h/j show. Long timers will remember past entries at these shows, including my (and Isabel’s!) first time doing 3’ jumpers back in 2015, and one of Charlie’s 2022 jumper outings.
It’s basically just a fun, relaxed and locally popular schooling series that offers everything from lead line classes to 3’ jumpers, including hunter and equitation classes. With three rings running all day, there is plenty of atmosphere too, tho the vibes are generally pretty low key.
#civilized at the trailer, good girl <3
I was eager to bring Doozy here to test out a few sneaking suspicions. Namely, especially after our trouble at St Augustine — which is run all three phases entirely on grass, and warm ups in open fields — I started to wonder if maybe the ‘limbo’ of being on uneven terrain in a slightly undefined space contributed to some of Doozy’s problems settling in to our rides.
It might just be my imagination, but after thinking about it for a little while, I decided that our next few outings would be at venues where we could be on footing, especially for the jumping. Like at Loch Moy last week — where Doozy was definitely better than she had been at SAPC!
#civilized meandering around the various rings too!! we did our hack class in that crowded ring in the background
Technically the warm up for jumpers at Tranquillity is also on grass — a tricky little hilltop that pitches downhill in a hurry. So I tried to be clever and show up early enough to ride in one of the little hunter hack classes first as our warm up (having apparently forgotten that in Hunterlandia, you can actually come early and school in the rings, tho not the jumper ring).
I figured it would also be good practice to do our paces “on demand,” as it were, but without it being an actual dressage pattern. Sorta like a CT-Lite lol.
The hack class proved to be slightly chaotic with no fewer than TEN OMG ponies and kiddos all at once, but Doozy held it together and made it through the whole thing without breaking gait or creating a scene. Good girl!
finally getting back to that FUN feeling!
From there, we meandered over to the jumper ring wherein I did actually try the little warm up fences on the grass hilltop. And Doozy was actually fine! Like, not super duper quiet, but not so wild that we went skittering ass over tea kettle down the off-camber hillside LOL.
PLUS she actually jumped the jumps quite nicely and straight! Go figure, working on the details in a lesson pays off, who woulda thunk haha.
she jumped everything super well
Anyway. After that, there was nothing to do but wait for our turn at the gate. Doozy was again super patient and relaxed, and did her best to make new friends with whomever happened to be standing nearby.
It was actually pretty cute — at one point she SWORE to her new BFF that her ears were so itchy bc I neglect her and she’s abused, so this benevolent stranger went to town itching and rubbing all over on Doozy’s ears. Never mind that I apparently require special invitation to be allowed to do the same haha. #mares….
found long and short distances but nothing awkward
Eventually it was our turn, tho, so off we went! The course looked good, some tricky turns and bending lines, but nothing very related. Plus all the jumps were super built up with flowers and boxes and all manner of filler — something I appreciate for a horse like Doozy who can sometimes be a little casual.
minor pilot error trying to find this jump but it was nbd
Whatever it was, tho, Doozy was jumping GREAT! Trotted up to the first jump super, did a patient simple change to the second, then was a little skippy through her auto change around the short end to 3, tho you can actually see the moment I remembered to put my hands down and let the bend do the work for us instead of pulling.
a shame her face is blocked in this pic bc look how good she looks!
The little loop around from 3 to 4 to 5 went well too, tho I lost her outside shoulder in the turn to 5 and we landed wayyy off the line for 6. Nbd, tho, Doozy was on the aids enough to execute a weird little serpentine move and then stayed straight and true to 6 anyway.
She rolled back to the in-gate oxer at 7 like a friggin champion, made the funny 90* L turn to 8 like nbd, and rolled back the other way to the **liverpool** omg at 9 without fuss. And from there, it was an easy cruise down to 10, and then finished!
and happy too <3
What a good girl! I’m so glad I got video too bc it’s really easy to see the moments where I remembered to try to put my hands down, and see how nicely Doozy responds to that. It’s also nice to see that her pace generally looks pretty good all the way around, even tho it felt a little fast to me at times.
omg we got proper video for once!
credit to the mare for her first time in this ring over a course i didn’t walk <3
I also really like seeing how positive Doozy was to all the jumps. Even when the distance came up a little close, it looks like she’s using herself well and staying organized on a steady stride (vs kinda skittering over the top). AND!! Another clear round, yay mare!!
everybody got cute treats and a sample salt supplement from a sponsor
The optimum time for the class was something like 1:49, with a set speed of 260mpm. I was pretty sure we were a bit faster than that (which is fine for our purposes, that’s a pretty slow speed) but apparently with our patient simple changes and slightly scenic route to jump 6, we were close enough to snag 3rd place — woo hoo!
3rd place in the optimum time class on clear jumping, not bad!!
And I opted to call it a day with that. Sure, we could have done more rounds… but it was already 85*F by 9am and Doozy had basically been a perfect princess all day morning. And isn’t that the whole point of the “bite-sized” outings anyway? Get in, get it done, have fun, go home. Check, check and check!
So. Another one in the books — and another one where we did better than ‘just survive,’ we actually had fun and put in a respectable performance. Woot woot, about damn time lol….
It’s always interesting to me when a relatable or timely training concept somehow serendipitously keeps surfacing through various channels.
At last week’s schooling show, my new coach spent some time discussing how and why pulling back on the reins can be so counterproductive on the flat — by basically shortening the horse’s neck and therefore shifting longitudinal balance in exactly the opposite way we want.
stuck riding indoors bc of rain… spying jealously on the horses outside
Then, not two hours later, I got a stark reminder of this during our show jumping round between fences 1 & 2, when I felt like I needed a strong “whoa!” and ended up with a face full of Dooz Ears and a scrubby distance to the jump.
It was a perfect demonstration to sorta reinforce what Woodge had said, that taking advantage of the lateral bend could have maybe worked better for us there vs shortening Doozy’s neck.
grateful to have the option tho for sure!
Almost as if by some unseen universal synergistic force, later that same day, Gwyneth McPherson expounded on “Why We Don’t Pull in Dressage” in her Horse Nation column:
The more the rider pulls, or pulls and lets go and pulls again, the more the horse goes on the forehand, pushes the hindlegs out behind, and leans into the bridle in an attempt to maintain his balance.
unrelated pic for posterity: photo of my furious cat after i had to give him medicine LOL
So. Naturally, this concept would be our inspiration and homework for integrating into this week’s solo schooling rides. Which, sadly, were almost all indoors bc of all the recent rain (and outdoor footing that transforms into bottomless quicksand in the wet…).
I also reached waaayyyyy back into the archives to pull out an exercise to help sorta work on this idea: the “ride your footprints” precision / direction exercise I learned from a David O’Connor clinic back in 2017. Funny enough — that post actually features an action shot of our new coach, when she was still on her way to becoming a 5* rider (tho, I guess at that point it was still 4*??).
pictured: me enabling bad habits bc “haha cute!”
There’s something strangely meditative about being so deeply focused on exactly *where* each footfall lands, and it’s a shockingly great exercise for getting the horse completely on the aids in a calibrated and almost harmonious way.
Theoretically, I should always ride like that. But ya know. Realistically I can’t always walk and chew gum at the same time… and it’s hard to sustain that level of focus on literal footfalls.
consequences: you can juusssst barely see the top of my brand new sunscreen bottle that she absolutely crunched beyond repair. womp.
But then again… This is sorta the core underlying missing piece in helping Doozy travel straightly and find her longitudinal balance. Which, not coincidentally, has been almost the entire focus of all these lessons on remedial trotting, more or less.
And the practice paid off when we showed up for our lesson yesterday with a cool calm collected Doozy, who was happy to prove that — actually — she CAN trot nicely and in balance!
moving on! look who graduated back to tying at the trailer in a flat halter!!!
Tho ya know, it probably didn’t hurt that we’d also had our now-quarterly saddle fitter appt earlier that day, in which the fitter removed a fair amount of wool now that Doozy is a bit more, er, plush from the spring grass. Mare appreciates the extra breathing room!
more unrelated pics: a giant storm blew thru and doozy insisted on investigating all the wind-swept detritus
It’s interesting bc in our last lesson, prior to the schooling show, we spent a LOT of time on transitions, particularly with respect to not letting Doozy spool out in a racing unbalanced trot.
But when I worked on that as homework leading up to the schooling show, I’m not sure it really did us any favors. It seems like sometimes Doozy really just needs room and space to move out, and to not always be constricted into starting and stopping.
bc some of it was scary omg
In this week’s lesson, it felt like we were able to take the same “idea” of frequent transitions to help control speed and balance, and transform it into this sort of “riding the bend” approach instead of actual gait transitions. And not like, whipping Doozy around tight turns or whatever. But just that deep focus on line of travel and equal application of full-body aids vs constantly feeling like I need to hold the mare back.
“who put that branch there?? and WHY??” — suspicious biscuit
And honestly I think we got better results! Doozy was more relaxed, and even in the moments when she wanted to spurt off or whatever, it felt like I was able to apply all my aids in a calibrated way that didn’t make her go bouncing off the walls. Yay!
Plus, the transitions we DID do seemed a lot more fluid and uphill (ish). That’s kinda been a recent tricky spot for us — it’s hard to get a soft upward transition when the horse is tense and short in the neck, ya know?
lol it apparently passed the taste test!
It was funny tho… A few times — especially in canter — I’d feel like I’d set us on the right track or line, and then soften… And Doozy would **instantly** wobble and drift off it. Like her shoulders have their own gravity, I swear. And a few times I was definitely a bit too late in preparing for our turns etc.
But it was all good practice, AND — good enough that we got to do some actual real (sort of) jumping in this lesson, yay!! Nothing crazy, and still just working on the same exact fundamentals of line of travel and positional balance to little jumps, one at a time and halting after.
Still good, tho. Still exciting lol. Exactly the sort of patient detail-oriented practice that I’m not always disciplined enough to see through without supervision. While simultaneously exactly the sort of good clean correct + confidence building repetition that Doozy benefits so much from.
released back into the dramatic wilds
It’s also exciting that this new coach is quick to adapt and evolve her approach to Doozy every session based on what’s working and where the horse is on that particular day — vs adhering to some sort of rigid textbook version of “how it should be.”
Doozy isn’t necessarily a complicated horse, but it’s maybe easy to overlook her best qualities (being a brave biscuit who wants to color inside the lines) when she’s unspooling on a chaotic rampage lol. So it’ll take somebody with a flexible and open minded approach to really help us dial it in.
And in the meantime, now that oppressive summer is starting to breathe down our necks, we’re likely to stick with the “bite sized” scale outings + adventures for the foreseeable future. Perfect time to really settle in on the detail work!
So! Last we heard, Doozy and I would be embarking on more “bite-sized” adventures, with the simple goals of:
1) Get out and do the things I love doing! But,
2) In such a way as to help Doozy be a little more successful.
At the end of the day, whether you view it as drawing the ‘short stick’ or a ‘winning ticket,’ Doozy’s lot in life is with me. So. We persist lol.
the weird semi-feral barn cats stalked around wondering what i was doing at the barn so early lol
I opted to somewhat impulsively sign up for another one of those “Pick Your Test / Blue Ribbon Jumpers” days at Loch Moy. Recall we went to one of these last September in advance of our little Fall season, wherein Doozy scored a 42% in dressage and had two rails in the 18” class. Well. Two rails and also remember those weird kinda stuck moments she had mid course?
Anyway, tho, that had been a great day for us to just get out and go through the motions at a big venue but without the BIG atmosphere. And this weekend proved to be more of the same! Sure, there were probably somewhere between 60-80 horses onsite by the time we left, but with our early times (by design!) we were just the third trailer to arrive and shared the giant warm up with maybe 3-4 horses.
my unsuspecting victim, enjoying the good grass from all the rain this spring!
AND! I asked new local 5* trainer to meet us there for basically a glorified lesson in warm up for dressage. A couple benefits from this:
- Coaching might realistically prevent me from sliding into survival mode, while also keeping me more effective and timely in my approach and application.
- Also, it’d be a good opportunity for her to see what changes vs what stays the same for us in a show environment.
finally replaced the little pop-in fender lights on my trailer! it felt so naked before lol
Realistically, Doozy is a funny horse to coach, I’m convinced of it. She’s hot and WILD, sparks fly, she whistles and sizzles throughout any given ride when pressure is applied. But — of critical importance — beneath all that is a very good girl who is trying to listen, trying to color inside the lines, and who has never yet pulled a single dirty or disingenuous move.
For as much as I call her a crazy pants psycho… She is NOT mean, and NOT disinclined to… do the things, per se. She just… wants to do everything as fast as possible lol, nbd.
waiting for woodge in the drizzle (i feel like that sounds like some sort of weird slang phrase my 13yo nephew would say LOL)
She’s a very smart horse, with a very amateur trainer. And as such, she’s maybe kinda learning the rules in a more disjointed manner than is ideal. In dressage, she doesn’t try to leave the ring, she lets me steer her. Goes through the pattern etc. Just ya know. Seems to want to canter the whole thing lol. Almost as if she thinks she can win by getting through it fastest lol.
dressage video: hilariously (and accurately) complete with real time coaching commentary for all of our reviewing pleasure
(and no, i wasn’t wearing ear buds, it was just for future study purposes lol)
This test was far from our best, and not quite as good as our warm up. Tho, the warm up itself wasn’t our best either. But also far from our worst. It’s all about perspective, y’all. Media is super limited, tho, so I’m plopping the video up first bc we got bare bones from show jumping.
So go ahead and watch, and draw your own conclusions, and also maybe have a giggle or two at the video commentary — which basically is exactly how the lessons go.
pictured: a rare shot of us *NOT* cantering during our test
Right off the bat in our warm up, I was relieved that the new trainer’s approach was basically that — this is NOT training at home. We ARE at a show, and there IS a clock ticking. So we need to help the horse be ready for that moment, vs taking however long we’d need to achieve the best results in training.
I think there’s still room to optimize the approach to prioritize relaxation… But let’s be real, that’s the holy grail today, tomorrow, next week, next year, forever with this mare. She was not relaxed in the warm up, but we did have a few really solid moments, it got better as we went, and the coaching helped me figure out some better techniques for physically guiding Doozy into balance vs just spooling out.
ok at least we are cantering on purpose here
For me, the most exciting bit was that there was not a *single* little explosion or dance move — the entire day. No running and leaping, no fireworks, and also none of those weird “stuck” moments. Just run of the mill… tension. Still gonna call that progress!
Doozy definitely got a bit away from me in the test itself, and slipped into unintentional canter at least 2-3 times. Then, somewhat hilariously, almost missed our first proper canter depart, on her good lead at that LOL. We got it tho, just in time.
Down transitions were, uh, slow to develop — at one point we literally went nearly from canter to free walk, tho natch in free walk I always try to make it a big point to chuck the reins at the mare like, “Look I swear! I can let go, she can walk” lol.
the real-time coaching voice over in the video is priceless, not gonna lie
But anyway. It was a test. We got it done. Doozy wasn’t relaxed, but was maybe better than at St Augustine? Idk. We actually talked about whether I should be doing multiple tests in a row on a day like this, but she wasn’t sure… This is kinda just how Doozy goes right now, it’s not going to be better inside the boards than out. Doing a bunch of tests in a row could be likelier to mentally blitz the horse than anything else. Instead, she agreed with the frequent ‘bite-sized’ outings approach for now.
cantering on purpose again! hilarious in the video when she’s like, “oh that was an ok transition! don’t get too excited tho!” lololololol
So. Anyway. The test was done. And for once I gave it the proper attention, preparation and coaching it deserved. Not that it made a difference necessarily in the day itself, but perhaps will serve us better in the future.
Next up: show jumping! We had about an hour’s wait before our height class went, so we just chilled out at the trailer — plus got to meet up with frequent volunteer and local reader Meredith, who has made various appearances over the years and had an absolutely ADORABLE palomino in the same jumping block. Spoiler for them — they had a great round and it was fun to watch!
mare goes from 60-0 in 3.2sec. just don’t try for like, 60 to 45 — that’s impossible
Y’all might remember last year when I went to this event, I didn’t feel like waiting around for the 2’3 class so we just sidled over to the 18”, got our round done (with two rails and those weird stuck moments) and went home.
The way this event works is that they schedule time blocks for each height, with a fixed number of entries for each block. Riders are expected to arrive during their jump times, and obvi the whole thing is pretty casual and flexible (as evidenced by me just jumping in the earlier block last time). This time, tho, I was determined to be more patient and see the plan through.
So we arrived just in time for the last few rounds of the earlier class before they reset the height. This was a nice opportunity for Doozy to just chill in the environment, even as the atmosphere increased around her with more horses arriving and beginning their warm ups.
“not the worst halt”
Then, when I felt like it was time to start moving and the ring traffic level was favorable, we set off for our warm up. It also wasn’t perfect — but wasn’t far from our ‘normal good,’ tbh. Sure we were fast and rushing at times, but there was none of the inverted bolting to a deer leap like we had at St Augustine. Each warm up jump came up decently. So off we went for our full course!
I had walked the course upon first arriving and decided it was favorable for Doozy. Long bending lines, interesting short turns that weren’t hard but would keep us occupied, and plenty of room to just get out of Doozy’s face and let her find her balance.
helmet cam of our sj round. wasn’t perfect… but WAS completely devoid of the psycho crazy pants deer leaping we experienced at both SAPC + Thornridge. woot woot!
And that’s basically how it rode! I made a couple oopsies along the way — kinda needed too strong of a “whoa!” to jump 2 and got a scrubby distance as a result, tho she jumped it fine. An improvement would have been to use more bend instead of pulling to avoid shortening the neck so much.
I was also too ambitious in the long straight line from 3-4 after watching Martin Douzant take some giant gorgeous floaty WB thing down in eight strides… We ended up with a flat puke-y 8.5, whoops, I should have just asked her to wait more.
But, after that, it more or less kinda flowed together. And we had an interesting feeling — esp to jump 7 — where in the last few strides to each fence I actually did feel like I could soften a bit without Doozy accelerating past her distance. Good girl, that’s the feeling we’re after!
“did i win????” — Ms Mondeuse
And holy mother of god — we JUMPED CLEAR!! And not for lack of trying, LOL, we rattled at least half the poles on our way around omg haha. But these are ‘blue ribbon rounds,’ so clear rounds get a blue ribbon. Something we only seem to get in this type class or when we are the only entrant… Ha, haha… But we’ll take it!
just kidding, don’t get too excited y’all — that 4th place ribbon is for our dressage test, scored using the Danish method, if that helps, uh, contextualize. and the blue ribbon was because i’m pretty sure they super-glued the poles into the cups for our jumping round, there is no other explanation for how we got a clear round LOL!
So, overall, a good day with what were hopefully more positive and additive experiences. And all wrapped up and ready to go home by 11am — who doesn’t love that?
Not gonna lie. I’m much happier to write about opportunities for improving overall performance in our outings, vs writing about only barely managing to get through it at all — as in our last couple events. And obvi, much MUCH happier to be at events at all, compared to this past winter of NQRness.
Here’s hoping for more (and better) to keep coming lol.
Learning to pull a truck and trailer was honestly revolutionary for me. Like, kinda blew my mind that… I was *even allowed* to do this thing. Keep in mind, I grew up as (and remain) a city dweller with efficient little sedans etc. that were easy to parallel park.
recent representative photo of “Mare At Trailer”
My first horse trailer experiences involved big 6 horse goose necks at the local hunter barn where I rode in college. Complete with saintly lesson ponies and side ramps, natch.
Everything changed, however, when it dawned on me that — actually — *I* could have a rig of my very own. On the strength of a sentimentally important, but long delayed, inheritance of a whopping $6K, I embarked on procuring the means with which to tow my (leased — hai Isabel!) pony around town!
Which, naturally, was followed up with the realization that… I knew absolute fuck all about aiding and abetting said pony’s transition *into* said rig.
And thus, my first lesson in trailer loading, courtesy of a local horsemanship pro that I’ve brought in time and time again with every horse since. His methods are simple, elegant and horse friendly, and I’ll forever be proud of that video above demonstrating two confident horses.
the current chariot itself, at the last barn
Because that’s the ideal, right? A horse that can be sent effortlessly into the trailer by somebody on the ground, without requiring said somebody to actually go with the horse into that vulnerably confined space. Isabel achieved self-loading prowess, and actually eventually so did Charlie too.
Charlie was a little funny at first, tho bc… Well. He was straight up too big (in every dimension but particularly nose to tail length) for my first trailer, a step-up bumper pull stock trailer. I ended up buying him this current chariot, specifically to fit his dimensions. And even then, he’d still get halfway up the ramp and kinda sputter out.
doozy’s first time aboard, circa 2023
Fun fact: I sorta sheepishly admitted to my chiro / acupuncturist that I’d been using feed buckets to assist with the trailer loading training for Charlie — but that our progress had stalled since he could reach the bucket without getting all the way on.
I expected her to chastise me for relying on food vs pure responsiveness to the aids… but instead, she just sorta gave me this dumbfounded look and said, “Emma, just hang the bucket farther back.”
still fine tuning the details with Early Charles
In other words, basically, if the method is working, make the method work for you. Which… was yet another iteration (one of MILLIONS for the average horse person) of learning that… there are so so so SO many “right” way to get a thing done, and honestly not all that many “wrong” ways.
another early ride, this time on the correct side for single horse transport
Thus, over time, I’ve slowly become a little bit less of a “purist” while still trying to hold true to those horsemanship principles first instilled with Isabel.
Doozy is a fairly straight forward horse to load — especially with two people. With one person, she had become (and is hopefully returning toward) reliable at just walking with me into the trailer, with me staying at her shoulder and then ducking under the chest barn to pop out the side to fix the butt bar and close the ramp.
preparations on the day of “Doozy’s first time,” with bonus Goose The Pig cameo
It’s not my ideal method, but it seemed to work. Since Thornridge, however, when the mare was in full meltdown mode, it’s been a little bumpier.
Truthfully, I didn’t even TRY to load the mare by myself that day to go home. There was a large and capable looking gentleman at the trailer next door, and I put my ego aside and enlisted his help. Natch, with that gentle but strong presence behind her, Doozy did what she always did and walked right on.
many months actual years now later, still #snackin
Since then, tho, well. I’ve been mostly alone. And have had to really be disciplined in sticking to the horsemanship principles lest I end up in a Battle Of The Wills with a red mare.
Rule #1: No eye contact, for the love of god.
Rule The Second: Be Thee Disciplined in The Timing of Thouest Release. Aka. Ask or do not ask. Accept a positive response, and accept not a negative.
Most Next Importantest: If the horse wants to sniff / investigate / otherwise interact with the interior of her chariot prior to embarking — cool! allow it! Attention straying toward externalities is cause for reinforcing the initial ask.
Fourth: Don’t be afraid to back up, reset, reapproach.
the tuna can and doozy’s future are uniquely intertwined, it turns out!
And ya know. Super secret Rule #5 — take advantage of extra help when available. Sure, it’s cool to be able to git‘r done solo… But in the long run, it’s so much better for the horse to just have easy drama-free streamlined experiences.
So ya know. That’s my personal gospel of loading horses. Subject to change at any time, obviously. And also recognizing that… Just bc my slice of horsey experiences has been somewhat reliable and consistent, doesn’t rule out that I’ve also just kinda been lucky. I KNOW some horses can… Just be challenging. Especially if they’ve been through strongly negative experiences.
Curious, with that in mind, if there are any other rules or ‘best practices’ you’d add to the list. Or maybe there are particular quirks you’ve had to learn to work around?
Ya know. There are a LOT of reasons why I still keep this blog active.
Number 1: it’s glorified storage for all my photos and videos, with easy-to-search index and archive.
Number 2: I’ve always been into journaling and documenting all the memories, adventures, and travels, however humble they may be.
and just like that, summer is HERE
But Number 3 is maybe the real unsung hero: it serves as a (relatively) accurate and faithful record of my general emotional state about all the above.
And that’s…. important…. bc to be totally honest with you, virtually ALL of my general anxieties, neuroses and various personality quirks charms have almost nothing to do with whatever horse I’m riding (successfully or otherwise) and **everything** to do with just…. Who I am as a person.
look who regained tying privileges at the trailer!!
So after a schooling outing like our trip to Shawan last week, when it might have been easy to feel anxious about an apparent lack of progress, or frustrated with myself for not being better or whatever… Well. It takes no time at all to look back at last year’s post about the same outing — reviewing the footage, objectively assessing the Doozy of then to the Doozy of today.
Or, to take it a step further, it’s just as easy to go back to outings with Charlie where we were quite easily bopping around N stuff with the occasional T jump thrown in. And. Go figure, my attitudes and anxieties and neuroses are almost always exactly the same lol.
good girl, Dooz. just behave pls!
Which I’m choosing to see as… a good thing LOL. At least when it comes to feeling satisfaction and fulfillment with this particular chapter in the journey with Ms. Mondeuse. It’s not that we actually suck, it’s just that I’m generally inclined to believe so!
Which, fortunately, is a mental habit I can sorta ‘name+shame’ and put out of mind while I go out and enjoy myself on more horsey adventures lol.
getting back aboard the cross tie train too…. i just wish the ceilings were a little lot higher in these grooming bays!
Like this week! When we went back to another lesson on remedial trotting (and sometimes remedial walking, and occasionally a little canter too!) with new local 5* coach.
As much as I wish we’d get around to doing some jumping in these lessons, and as firmly as I believe the coach might be a little more inclined to think Doozy CAN be civilized if she sees us doing more than just flat work.. Well. Let’s be real, there’s plenty of work to be done on the fundamentals. So we persist.
photos not from our lesson, but more or less maybe representative. a barn mate snagged some random footage from our ride the other night <3 <3
Right now we’re basically entirely focused on establishing key rules of the ride:
1) I have to get my legs onto the horse right away, and keep them on — even and especially when Doozy might have unfavorable opinions.
2) Shoulder control. Forever. Proactively, and responsive to Doozy’s tendencies to fall in or out relative to wherever the gate is.
3) True bend. Not just the neck. And not always to the inside, maybe a little counter bend here and there to spice things up. But bend. In response to the aids.
PROOF that she CAN trot poles haha
Woodge’s philosophy and approach to the training is, in some ways, very similar to my coach of a decade ago, Dan: She believes that establishing and maintaining these rules gets harder with increased speed, and that if we’re having trouble with any of it, to slow down and reorganize again at a lower gait.
nbd just trying to figure out how to walk and chew gum at the same time… (me, not the mare)
And in this manner, we essentially did a lesson of transitions. Which, frankly, is very different from my standard sort of ‘ride package,’ which any of you who watched any of those wall-mounted camera videos from this winter will know: I kinda tend to just get into gear and trot around continuously for 4-5 minutes at a time.
Woodge didn’t necessarily think that was a bad or wrong thing… But she’s not sure it’s really helping me achieve what I want in Doozy’s responsiveness to the aids. Especially if I’m letting her kinda just blow me off (aka ‘settle onto the aids’) for the first few minutes.
omg doozy it’s reeeeeeally not that exciting girlfriend!
She doesn’t think every single ride needs to be a military drill on precision and promptness or whatever… But, she also thinks that practicing these fundamentals is likelier to get us more bang for our buck at this moment in our journey.
The lesson was almost entirely focused on small circles — occasionally yielding in or out, not a true spiral but just little feelings of it here and there — with relatively frequent changes of direction. Sometimes by traveling over a line of trot poles in the center of our figure of 8, sometimes not. And when Doozy had trouble with rushing the poles, nbd, just walk before we get to them, pass through, then trot again.
this is why we get demerits in our actual lessons, whoops
In a way, the ride reminded me a fair amount of allllll those ground pole sessionswe did last summer. Remember the endless pictures of arrays of ground poles and little X’s with poles on takeoff and landing? And remember how we just rinsed and repeated again and again until it was boring?
Yea, this ride was in some ways a lot like that. Which was a maybe timely reminder that… Ya know. Maybe I should do more of that again in my rides at home LOL. Hey, it’s worked for us before, right??
houston, we have achieved full** cross ties!! (**post-ride (when tensions are lower) and still not in The Bay Where it Happened)
Anyway. Lessons like this can feel tedious and tiring and like we don’t have much to show for it… Except honestly I’m *HERE* for it. Doozy can be such a good girl, she WANTS to color inside the lines. The more clear and consistent and disciplined I can be with myself and my approach, the better she will go.
It’s like how lessons with Dan ten years ago were frequently tagged with my “fail” label lol bc they often felt messy and hard. But that was literally by design, literally the point: these training sessions are supposed to expose the weak spots so that we can work on them, ya know?
perks of frequent volunteerism: at least my ill-conceived plans don’t always have to cost a lot!
And anyway, Doozy proved (yet again) that she benefits from consistent clear direction when she finally just walked onto the trailer like her normal easy self after the lesson, for the first time since our meltdown at Thornridge.
Not that she’s been bad since then, per se. Obvi, if I’m still able to ship out on schedule and by myself lol… But she has recently required a little more convincing than previously, in a way I don’t love. But after this ride she was completely perfect and just walked right on, good girl!
So ya know. Cool. I can work with those parameters. Hopefully still with the context of getting out and about for fun adventures — of the more ‘bite sized’ variety. Next up: a suuuuuuuper low key trip to Loch Moy this weekend for another one of those “pick your test / clear rounds jumpers” days like we did last summer. This time maybe with some coaching, woohoo! And all for the bargain price of <$20 bc Loch Moy treats their volunteers like royalty. Yes Pls!
