shake it off!

Phew, thank god for the weekend! I hope those of you who spent the Thanksgiving holiday with friends or family had a nice time! And that the rest of you got to enjoy some black friday shopping craziness!

so cute. so dusty.

I didn't do any shopping personally -- rather I took advantage of PTO from work and the fact that my family is all local to Maryland (so no insane travel necessary!) by logging some solid day time pony fun. A rare treat outside of weekends!

Tho.... I recently discovered during our schooling rides this week that.... While physically Charlie is getting back aboard the "in work" train.... Emotionally maybe he needs me to take it a little slower. He's been a very, very good boy for the past few weeks - and notably happy in his work.

i just <3 this sweet guy. he's always eager to hang out!

But with dark week night evening rides limiting us in where we can ride (meaning: only the lit areas), and his rehab limiting us to flat work, I've come to discover that we've been too focused on dressage alone for Charlie's tastes. This presents in a horse who has been suddenly growing increasingly sour after being so good for so long.

no idea how i used to be able to get his entire body on camera while lunging. this lovely and flattering shot was the only time i got his face on screen lol

So.... That's cool, big guy. I hear ya. Maybe I need to remember that there's no rush and nothing matters if it's not any fun. So I went ahead and scratched from tomorrow's dressage schooling show and decided we'd just focus on playing and having a little fun throughout the long weekend.

headless horse + distracted, camera-wielding pilot who can't steer = missed the poles, whoops

So yesterday I got there mid afternoon to grab Charlie from his field (he was right at the gate too, score!), dust him off and toss on his jump saddle and hackamore to stroll up to the indoor for some play time. No real agenda, just maybe revisiting some of the ground work we did so often when I first brought him home.

there we go with the poles! still no pony head tho lol

First I pulled all his tack and let him wander loose around the arena while I set up some trot poles. He happily followed along with me before getting distracted by a particularly fluffy spot of footing - perfect for a quick roll!

dirty mirror selfies beat no mirror selfies, right?

Then I tossed on his rope halter and went through the exercises we used to practice all the time - that whole "hip-hip-shoulder-shoulder-back-forward" routine I wrote about here. And parlayed it in with a little practice on lunging over the ground poles.

aww, snuffles from charlie

The purpose here wasn't really the exercise or physical exertion -- rather it was just reestablishing various cues and open lines of communication, and seeking to make each cue lighter and lighter while still getting the reaction from Charlie.

So lots of transitions, never really doing any one thing for very long if he was getting the answers correct. Just asking a question then either praising or asking again. Asking for a yield of a fore- or hind-quarter here, getting a step and praising. Asking for a trot transition there, getting a circle then stopping and praising. Rinse repeat.

on week nights we walk up a long very dark driveway from the barn to the arena. it's a big farm so there's a lot of traffic in and out. so i picked up some hi viz reflective tape to try to DIY some road safety stuff. hoping these loops on splint boots might help?

Charlie continues to be a somewhat pressure-averse horse -- that's where the sourness crops up in our schooling. So it's really really useful to spend this time with him, asking him a lot of different questions and praising the bejesus out of him when he answers.

And he honestly kinda likes these games - he likes knowing that if he picks up his trot and pings on through the ground poles, I'll ask him to walk and tell him how clever and amazing he is. Which he naturally just soaks up like a sponge, with head low and licking and chewing. He just... wow he just LOVES being a good boy haha, even if sometimes that means being pushed forward and exerting himself a little bit first.

the tape works, but not sure it's really big enough to make a difference to drivers. 

I was pleased to see that he's remembered basically all the exercises and games despite not having practiced at all in months and months. He's also gotten a lot more even from side to side, whereas it used to be a lot more challenging to apply any pressure to his right side (he MUCH prefers me staying on his left, thankyouverymuch).

Tho honestly he's still kinda dull haha. He might always be. Charlie's work ethic is.... low. He's a lazy kinda guy, ya know? Not inclined toward exertion. But he does like to play a little bit. He likes being asked questions when he knows the answers already. And maybe it's useful to remind him (and me, let's be real) that all of our riding and training boils down to exactly this kinda game play: answering questions and solving puzzles. And there's always a correct answer. Always.

So for this weekend, my main objective is to get out and enjoy each other's company and find ways to keep us working together so that we can carry some of that attitude of play and fun and games back into our schooling too. We'll see how that works lol. It's always a balance, right?