state of the Dooz

Happy Monday, y'all!! I may or may not have a massive horse show hangover from spending the better part of a week commuting back and forth to the Maryland 5*.... But time keeps chugging along, and Mondeuse waits for no man. 

riding up to the ring with a friend!

I gotta get these updates off my phone and recorded here in Ye Olde Blogge before they start stacking up and I forget things, ya know? So, as promised, here's a pictorial recap of our ride last week wherein a friend was able to nab footage. 

"i am the goodest girl" -- doozy, probably

It was the last day of the Beval saddle's extended trial period, and I was already pretty sure I'd buy it --- but just wanted to see more footage, especially in the canter. Plus, obvi, wanted footage of Doozy's current state as well. 

"trit trot, trit trot, look at me go!"

As such, it was a fairly abbreviated ride. My buddy wanted to get out for some fitness work in the fields with her mare before it got dark out, but was willing to stick around long enough for me to put Mondeuse thru her paces.

i need to aim for a trot balance that makes this distance not feel long for her

Which naturally included basically repeating the same exact riding format we've been working on these past two weeks --- walking, trotting and cantering basic figures in the indoor ring, plus plenty of passes up and down the ground pole exercise I set up. 

"am also snek" -- doozy, definitely

I like to change things slowly and incrementally in Doozy's riding life. So in this ride, everything we did under saddle was basically identical to past rides --- but the big different "new" thing was having another horse in the ring with us. 

"Snek says Sssssss!!"

I guess it's not technically "new," we did it once before in ride #10, but Mondeuse was still too fresh into recovery from her abscess for us to do much, and it also preceded her really starting to understand the routine process of being a riding horse. 

ok, back to being a good girl again <3

She's learned so much in the last 2-3 weeks, but I was starting to feel like we might be hitting a bit of a plateau at least in terms of her relaxation. Namely: It felt like she was starting to not love being alone in the indoor all the time. So now that she's got the basic drill down, it's time to shift focus back to introducing other horses and such into the ring. 

feels good to be able to push for more in the trot, vs feeling like we might explode at any moment

This ride really validated that feeling, bc Doozy was able to carry on and do all the things we've been working on --- but on a quicker time frame since we were sorta on borrowed time before my friend had to move on. And it was all good, she was the most relaxed she's been.

this is me, focusing so hard on keeping my hands down and not clutching my pearls

We also spent more time working in the full ring, since the gravitational center of the arena shifted from the entry/exit doors to the other horse. Funny how that works, LOL!

short neck, don't care, i think she's cute

Anyway, the status of our training as of this ride is basically exactly where I left off last week: the next big breakthroughs are probably going to come more as a result of me riding better vs Doozy making any big changes. I need to focus more on my position and balance, need to be better about allowing more forward. 

i don't think she has a problem with the left lead, i think she has a problem with her rider's left lead cues LOL

I also need to be better about not being quite so delicate about sitting down on the horse, too. Like in my canter transitions, I'm kinda all over the map. We get there eventually, but it almost feels a little bit like luck haha, if you know what I mean. 

trots nicely even after canters

So hopefully by the time you are reading this, we will have actually logged our first riding lesson with an actual instructor. Hopefully, LOL. 

no rushing here!

And maybe if we can establish some sort of lesson routine, we can use that structure to continue expanding Doozy's 'comfort zone' re: riding locations. For example, I'd like to start introducing her to the jump ring, at least on weekends. It's just so dusty in the indoor, plus there isn't a lot of equipment in there to set up much beyond what I've already done. We'll see, tho. 

"maybe staring directly at her neck with make it lengthen?" -- emma, probably

I want to be able to add more little jumps and stuff to start working on more 'mini courses,' letting Dooz travel more freely from one little obstacle to the next (sorta like we did in some of Charlie's earliest jump lessons), so that she can get the hang of landing in canter, and maybe even start thinking about jumping from canter too. 

d'awww <3 <3 <3

All in good time, tho, I suppose. There are obvi so many little things that need work, beyond what we actually do under saddle. And it's all important. So we'll just have to take each day as it comes.

you already saw this video but posting again for completeness

For now, tho, it feels really good to at least have a somewhat consistent 'baseline ride' established. And I'm excited at feeling like we can not be so worried about having to avoid arena traffic (tho, obvi, we'll still have to be careful bc I don't want to scare the crap out of some poor kiddo on a lesson pony, or wreck somebody else's ride bc my mare forgot to take her #copium!). 

hand walking back to the barn alone feeling happy and relaxed!

But who knows, maybe I need to give Mondeuse more credit lol. She's really figuring it out! Stay tuned for more soon, hopefully to include a lesson recap, and a little more Maryland 5* spam ;)