Happy Friday, everybody! It's promising to possibly be a busy weekend around these parts so I'm trying to clear the backlog off my phone while there's still time...
another day, another trial saddle. this is a county solution. wool flocked, stamped narrow, monoflap.
Plus, ya know, we're still in the thick of saddle trials. Basically the same day I put the Custom in a box to return to the seller, another possible candidate got ready for shipping -- this time a County Solution.
looks worthy of a proper test!
So naturally, I was eager to put the saddle immediately to work!! My barn mate and I headed up to the jump ring, wherein I actually set up a a slightly larger selection of jumps for us to play with --- 3 singles with one along the outside and the other two on diagonals, and a diagonal line measured for four strides that I figured we'd trot into for five.
actually set myself FIVE fences for this ride -- including a related distance!
And everything was set to verticals with some amount of fill, except for the related line of Xs. One of the jumps was even the set of random boxes that have been hanging out around the edge of the ring for the last few months!
learning patience, one step at a time!
I tried to channel our recent dressage lesson with C in our warm up, just focusing on slow and steady and never really letting Doozy get on much of a roll. It's hard to tell if it really worked or not, except that honestly the mare was generally quite good.
plenty of fill + panels and stuff too!
Like she still wants to make a bid for all the fences, but seems increasingly willing to resign herself to trotting into things. I think we can and will get back to consistently cantering fences soon enough, but she just needs to learn that speed isn't the solution to everything.
we introduced the boxes too!!
She's so brave, tho. It's honestly pretty wild. There's all sorts of clutter around the ring these days, plus various random poles strewn about on the floor... But she just doesn't care. Didn't even look at the boxes when I presented her to them --- just, ya know, proceeded!
tried to jump everything both ways, so every jump was 'new'
I think it actually kinda helped trying to string a few things together and build more toward 'course work,' too. Like, she didn't always know where we were going, but would tune in and balance up a lot more easily when she realized we might be making a turn into the unknown.
switched it up to a bending line!
Like when I was going to come back up the related distance the opposite direction, and Katie suggested to actually bend from the first jump over to the boxes to catch them from the other direction too. And it worked great!
was fine!
Like Doozy kinda made a bid at the first jump, to the point where Katie (who was videoing) actually just assumed I'd pull out of the line... Except that as soon as we made the turn, Doozy was like, "OH!" and settled into her stride to the boxes! Good mare!
starting to learn to work together a bit
I honestly didn't really spend all too much time jumping everything a million times either. Like, we got everything from both directions, tested out some skills... and then moved on. Bc I had another agenda item on the list --- catching a few xc jumps!
and ermagherd we snuck out to the fields for a couple quick efforts!
There are still loose horses turned out in all the xc fields, which is kinda a bummer... Normally the rough board horses get brought into sacrifice paddocks on round bales for the winter, leaving the xc fields open to easy hacking...
But for some reason they stayed out this year. And naturally one of the herds was right in the field I'd hoped to play around in -- the field that contains the entire loop course for the itsy bitsies, plus the first, second, and final jumps for all the rest of the courses. There would have been a lot for us to try, but, eh, not with the loose horses.
this line of fences is technically the warm up ring for our events, but there were two good fences for us so it was perfect
Luckily, tho, the warm up area was free and clear of distractions, and had a nice natural log, plus a hanging telephone pole type thing. Doozy hasn't ridden out in this field in months, and certainly not since she started jumping. So this was basically all brand new to her, and she just clocked around like a pro. Good girl!
Time will tell on the saddle, but I'm honestly feeling pretty optimistic about the big picture right now. Doozy is still pretty hard for me to ride... But at the same time, it feels like she grows up more and more after every off property trip we take.
mare managed to damn near scalp herself in turnout somehow... ugh poor thing, it looks super sore :( pls honey, just be pretty!
One step at a time, just making things a tiny bit better slowly, so slowly... but surely. And as they say, 'better' is good!!
TGIF, y'all. Hope everyone is looking forward to a great weekend!
At long last, Doozy met long time dressage trainer C!!!! Longtime readers will remember :D
virtual cookies to folks who immediately know where we are!
One of the hardest things about being basically a "privateer" (ie, a rider independent from any established program) is building up the team, developing the tribe necessary to be successful in any meaningful way.
And not just because it's hard to find coaching that "meshes," but bc of all the other details... The scheduling, the logistics, the reality that right now my horse is a two-person load job so I can only really ship out to lessons when ideally there are two of us going. Which obvi doubles the logistical challenges!
passive familiarization during punky's lesson was a 100% win
I dunno tho, maybe I also thought we should be 'farther along' before we were 'ready' for fancy pants dressage lessons. But eh, the months have continued ticking on, and we still can't really consistently trot circles.... so, eh, maybe actually this is exactly what we need!
another day, another new ring!
Tho, let's be real. Doozy from two or three months ago might not have been able to do this lesson. We ended up in the outdoor ring (no walls) bc the indoor was occupied already. And it was a non-issue!! Even tho they were bringing in horses from the paddocks during our ride! Good girl, Dooz!
doozy's hind legs are constantly considering their options lol
Trainer C is honestly such a favorite. There are so many ways to ride a horse, so many styles of teaching. But she is just so pragmatic. She just wants to see the horse move in the direction toward better. And wants the rider to be tactical and realistic.
every now and again, tho, we can just... trot
She has a very stream-of-consciousness style of teaching that honestly feels a bit like 'puppet mastery' when you're in the moment (or at least, in deeper moments of more exciting proper dressage stuff like both Charlie and Isabel did in their time with C...). But she also has a super plain spoken and accessible way of describing things that it's easy to keep her words in mind even long after a lesson.
"my people, they call to me!" --- doozy, 1,000%
This was honestly a very simple lesson. But it was wonderful. We are undoubtedly well into the 'plateau phase' of kinda sucking while reliably walk-trot-canter-jumping little things. Like, it might be like this for a long time. We might suck at trotting circles for a long time.
Except actually, there's pretty distinct, tangible improvements happening. Like, obvi not in the trotting circles. Except YES in the trotting circles --- we only accidentally broke to canter like 2 or 3 times in the entire lesson! And ya know. We didn't bolt or attempt to exit the ring despite there being no real actual proper 'boundaries.'
can walk past a gazebo, check!
Trainer C directed us in a fashion very similar in some ways to the Sprieser clinic we went to a few months ago, but perhaps in a bit more of a nuanced sort of way.
The gist was, as soon as you feel the tempo/pace getting away from you, down shift, Nbd, just bring it back. Don't let the horse get ahead of herself, too big for her britches. Just bring it back right away. Keep it so that the horse doesn't even have the chance to escalate and continue on in the 'wrong' way of going.
honestly walking is a win anyway! i swear we cantered too, but you'll have to watch the video
She quickly put us on a figure 8 of two 20m circles, with a pattern of walking portions of the figure, trotting portions of the figure, but focusing on softness and success.
And as we progressed, instead of walking every time the horse got over tempo, we worked on the same sort of approach I wrote about last week --- bringing the horse back to almost walk, relaxing into it, then carrying on. Rinse, repeat.
more civilized trotting, just to prove we can
Last part of the lesson was showing C our canter. Which went well enough. I got to sheepishly explain to her how... when Doozy breaks into canter on her own, she never misses a lead. But when I *ask* for canter, we misfire most of the time LOL. Horses will be humbling, amirite?
Overall, tho, honestly, it was a super refreshing ride. So much of it felt familiar with what I've already been doing... Which like, duh, C has been one of my most constant coaches over the last few years, hopefully I've absorbed at least some of it, right?
It was also useful, tho, in settling on specific exercises -- like that figure 8 with many many low-key transitions along the way. And getting the reminder to be more intentional about the squareness of Doozy's shoulders as we go.
atta girl, dooz!
Essentially, C's instruction was to "never give her the chance to not be good." Make it easy, ride her straight and square, transition as needed strategically. Rinse, repeat forever.
Except that C doesn't think it'll take that long, she was impressed with Doozy's general choices in life throughout this ride, and agreed that she's generally a well-to-do lady who 'colors inside the lines.'
It still feels like Doozy is sometimes waiting for.... something, for the other shoe to drop, or whatever. But she'll learn, right? And in the meantime, we'll give her every opportunity to realize, 'it really can be easy, hon!'
Days go by and I continue to dink around with various trial saddles. Tho, sadly, we've kinda exhausted the available stock within driving distance... and are now tiptoeing into the painful territory of paying shipping for each trial.
oh that innocent (but ultimately naïve) feeling when you first unbox a beautiful saddle!
It's pretty far from ideal, but... eh, so is the current selection of saddles in my tack locker. Charlie's fancy french monoflap helps me feel super secure and up for any dance move Doozy might be inclined to pull.... But it's just all wrong for her and she's making her feelings known.
My predicament is that... I don't really want to downgrade from Charlie's saddle, but finding the same quality in a fit for Doozy is proving challenging. Especially bc I'm trying to be a little more 'by the book' about the process these days. Meaning: using a fitter.
just your typical tb back
Long time readers might remember.... Ugh I am kinda a huge skeptic of that whole little cottage industry. Not bc I don't believe that there's a true art and science to fitting saddles to horses...
But rather bc there's so much subjectivity in the field (I've had two fitters confidently tell me basically exactly opposite things about the same horse), plus a fair amount of dogma. Not to mention how even conceivably 'independent' fitters tend to steer clients toward the same saddle makers. Like, I always think it's funny when a fitter will say, "Oh yea I'm brand agnostic. Here is the universal search criteria for your horse!" and yet somehow only one or two saddleries will pop up in the search results lol....
placement ain't perfect in this shot but, eh, onward!
So ya know. I find myself in an uncomfortable position of paying (out the nose) for counsel that doesn't always feel entirely disinterested.
But again. I have a good budget for the right saddle, and I want it to be a good fit for this sensitive special horse whose job is to carry me safely through various new life lessons and experiences, whatever may come. Thus, the enlistment of professional help.
My criteria? Monoflap pls!! Bc I like it and I want it, and ain't that enough??? Seat size not too particular, probably 17" to 17.5" -- mayyybe 18" but that might be pushing the boundaries for this shorter-coupled red rockette.
My fitter's criteria? Wool flocked, narrow tree.
the stupid faces i make when sitting in a saddle for the first time LOL
Turns out, it's shockingly difficult to find all those criteria in one saddle. I really hoped this lovely old Custom Monte Carlo would be 'close enough,' tho. It's a medium/med-narrow, with gigantic front gussets.
she's working on her sainthood application
In fact, I found myself quite willing to fall in love with it! Sure, it didn't quite have that "at home" feeling of Charlie's l'Apogee... But I actually quite liked it! And felt quite comfortable.
So I felt hopeful that any of the little imperfections in fit for Dooz could be resolved with adjusting the flocking. Alas, my fitter felt differently.
just trotting my bebe wild child around the barn yard in a halter. like one does...
And ya know. Cool. That's fine. If it's not going to work, it's not going to work. I'll send it back, eat the cost of shipping. Eat the (three-figure-wtf) cost of getting the fitter out to do nothing more than say, "No." And resign myself to another evening spent scouring the web for yet another contender to waste $150 and a week of my time on.... (do I sound bitter LOL??).
looks nice, tho, eh?
Tho, don't get me wrong. My fitter was definitely right on this one. I actually knew it before our appointment --- but was just willing myself into hoping for an easy end to the saddle shopping torture. I want to be like water haha -- show me the easiest path of least resistance, and I will happily agree!
But. Eh. My barn mate Amy and I managed to sneak in a quick jump school on a shockingly windy, but otherwise pleasant, Saturday morning --- with the explicit intention of getting as much footage of me in the saddle as possible.
next up: actual riding!
It was actually a good school too. Useful in a lot of ways. Our first time jumping since Windurra. I wanted to give Doozy a little more freedom to go forward after all the squirreling around on cross country --- but she quickly proved that, no no, she still doesn't know what she doesn't know.
So after we bolted a couple fences, and she experienced a few distances that were going to be either "dear lord jesus that's long! / or / eeesh that's a crispy chip!" -- including one unpleasantly pulled rail... I kinda got my shit together and tried to, ya know, ride the horse as if my input mattered and made a difference.
and jompies!!! sorry guys, we had a video malfunction so only my last little course was captured
And you'll never guess. The input *did* make a difference, and Doozy managed to (more or less) trot two fences, and then carried a decent canter to our final little vertical. Tho obvi keen eyed observers will still note that she made a bit of a bid for it in the last stride or two. Eh, one step at a time!
wherein we practice "simmering down now" after rushing a few
It's hard to really evaluate a saddle in these conditions --- a rusty rider who... maybe wasn't ever particularly sharp to begin with (lol, sigh..), a horse who kinda takes a fair amount of riding at the moment, and tiny jumps.
But even so, things didn't look super duper promising for this pretty little Custom. Turns out, there are some things even flocking can't fix!
So. Back in the box it went, with yet another already on the way in.... Remind me the definition of insanity again??? Lol.....
Happy Friday, guys! I gotta say.... Something has changed in me and my horsey habit over the last few years of Charlie's diminishing soundness and all my related anxieties....
she was a little sad about traveling solo after so many rides with buddies
I used to be such a planner, ya know? I used to obsess over constructing these lengthy imaginary chains of dominoes, where each individual ride was interrelated or interdependent with those that came before, and every step built logically into the next...
but stayed sensible while everybody got ready all the same!
On one hand, that type of framing suits my personal tendency toward imposing order on an inherently chaotic world... Otoh, tho... Well. All it takes is one little domino going askew for the whole plan to get blown apart... Horses will be horses, right?
And it turns out... I wasn't always super, uh, emotionally resilient in those moments.
squad assembled!
I came to believe that this sorta external forced 'structure' on my riding habit was a big contributor overall to my anxieties. If every step relied on the steps before, and every ride was critical for accomplishing some future plan, suddenly you're kinda in this inescapable pressure trap, right?
Especially in the last few years with Charlie, recognizing that he couldn't really hold up to the heavy lesson schedule anyway, I tried to shift my focus to only really doing things I *wanted* to do. Prioritizing the 'gut check,' if you will.
jumping little logs!
And I think that new perspective is kinda working well for Doozy!! Like, sure, I'm still a planner -- you sorta have to be when competition entries are due in advance and scheduling logistics are complicated when going places with friends and highly sought after coaches etc...
splish-splashing thru water!
But I dunno. Lately I feel a bit more... impulsive haha. And it's nice! When my friends mentioned they'd be going to a lesson at Windurra with Sally, and wondered if I was interested, my immediate response was, "um YES!"
more little logs! this time sideways!
And when Sally said she didn't have a group for me after 5pm, and asked if I'd be ok riding with my friends (who are doing N/T things), obvi that sounded great to me!
oooh little black pipe!
I figured it was not going to be the easiest ride basically no matter what, right? But at least if I rode with my barn mates, I could probably grab a couple videos for them, and they'd likely be more sympathetic if we needed somebody to stand with us while others took their turns.
learning to be civil while our buddies came and went for their courses
My hope was basically to practice *existing* out in an open field while other horses galloped around jumping. And maybe to jump a few little jompies ourselves. Splash thru the water... and perhaps play with some little banks!
teeny up bank!
And yay! We did all those things!!
ermagerd teeny down bank!
Doozy's attachment to Rosette has grown significantly in recent months -- partly bc they've spent so much trailer time together (Hunt Club, in particular, really sealed the deal). And also partly bc their herd diminished after we laid to rest to two lovely senior matriarchs this winter -- the bay OTTB + pony dynamic duo you might remember from this post.
what a good girl tho <3 her sassy side eye kills me lol
The attachment makes everything harder -- bc Doozy is so preoccupied with where she is in relation to Rosette that she's not always paying attention to the jumps. But, eh. No big deal.
not gonna lie, she was a tad unruly lol but so good
Sally's instruction was basically to... proceed. Eventually I'll be able to keep Doozy straight off my leg aids, but for now... The jumps are tiny, the horse is capable, proceed to the fences --- hold on and get there. Time and repetition will be the name of the game.
this fun little sequence from black pipe to up bank was too long for a gif but is in the video
Similarly, generally as soon as Doozy was presented to the fences she'd make a bid for it. And again, Sally said it's just kinda what it is for now.
and then more little logs!!
The horse is keen and interested in the job, was happy and eager to get into the water and go up and down the little banks. Was only really squirrelly about the jumps bc she was just... generally being squirrelly lol... Plus, omg why are the tiniest log jumps always so skinny omg?! lol...
probably spent about equal time practicing in and out of the water too
But honestly I was still so pleased with the mare. Windurra isn't exactly the place to go for your green as grass horse, right? It's an incredible training facility and wonderfully presented for introducing more technical combinations and terrain questions with forgiving fences...
There are better places for your sub-N horse + rider combinations, tho. Loch Moy, Fair Hill, Plantation... venues that actually have enough jumps for full elem and intro courses.
good girl, dooz
So ya know. I went into the lesson with fairly low expectations. Just get around, jump some jumps, have fun, be civilized. And we did it!!
rewarded with trailer #snax
Sally reminded me to use all my available riding tools at an appropriate volume for Doozy to understand -- meaning that she's still too green for me to be really subtle. She doesn't know what she doesn't know, right? But overall, Sally was pretty happy with her too.
all in a day's work!
She's a brave bold little mare, and underneath all the sass and drama and sound effects (omg the whistling lol), she really does want to be a good girl. So we'll take it haha. And hopefully have many more opportunities in the near future to keep chipping away at it!
