giving it another Gogo

Short and sweet post today, with more pictures than words. And this first photo is actually unfortunately the only relevant one, sorry. Idk why it's been so difficult to get media from these lessons at OF lately... but then again I haven't really been hounding people to take video for me since the likelihood for the ride to be ugly is.... high haha.

handsome Gogo

So backing up a couple steps, I felt really kinda blah going into our weekly OF lesson with trainer P. In some ways I'm a little burnt out on hustling up interesting horses to ride.

Schoolies are great for an easy mindless romp, but they're often not very tuned up or are very set in their own lesson horse ways. Plus I don't necessarily feel great about taking a pony who works hard for his oats and making it work that much harder...

husky alert!!! what i only briefly noted about the stephen birchall clinic was that it actually served as a bit of a blogger meet up!! 

So I was kinda vague about whether I'd be bringing a horse from our farm (maybe Krimpet?) or whether I'd need an OF horse to use. It's just frustrating bc I want to ride, and I enjoy riding all these horses. But often, the non-schoolie horses that are available for me to ride are available for a reason, ya know?

maybe the only actual group shot of the day haha - that would be Liz and Griffin!! and then Nicole and Austen watching and taking pictures!!!

Ultimately I ended up not confirming with trainer P about using one of her horses, and just hauled Brita and Wick over but without a horse for myself. Yes I wanted to ride.... but I also was just kinda worn out. And wasn't sure I wanted to ride Noel again (sweet thing tho she is!), or ride Gogo since he's still really not working at all between my rides. So I figured with my mood I would just spectate and take pictures or something.

these two were so fun to watch!! can't wait to read Liz's post about it! 

My sour little plan was foiled tho when an OF barn rat pointed out that she had already brought Gogo in for me and that he was ready and waiting. This led to a few more mental acrobatics and contortions trying to figure out what I really want here. The decision? I'll get on and flat him around seriously and with purpose, and then go from there.

lyra is skeptical of kenai haha

And that's exactly how the lesson went. As I texted Austen and Allison later on, I "flatted that fucker until he felt like one Gogo instead of two," with the added assistance of a dressage whip (snagged last minute from my trailer in a moment of clarity) applied early and firmly.

kenai and sonka got along just fine tho!

And the horse was fine. Quite nice, actually. He wasn't necessarily thrilled with being made to work, but went to work all the same. Whereas last week I could only get fleeting moments of him softening and lifting his back, this week he eventually got to a place where he would more or less hold his own self in line. MUCH better, big guy! And much more like my first ride on him.

fat cat at austen's barn!!

So I did end up jumping him around a little. Nothing crazy, tho we did tackle a couple lines, including the one that caused all the problems last week. And I'm happy to say that I didn't get jumped out of the tack once. Which was maybe a good thing bc Gogo's freer softer back meant that he was happy to throw in his little bolts. Fix one problem, uncover another, isn't that always the way?

so chubby!!

So I'm glad I rode Gogo after all. It's reassuring on a couple levels - most obviously being that yea I can actually jump this horse without getting tossed around. But also that I could make the flatwork happen and that it would in fact improve the jumping.

Small wins for sure, but that's basically all I'm working with right now. And we'll take redemption where we can find it, right?

Have you ever had to get back on a horse after some problems, when you weren't sure you could fix it? Or is that a situation where you're more likely to say 'thanks but no thanks'? Or is it shit like this that makes you happy to stick to just your well known and familiar equine partners?