summer fun

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 sessions we 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!

Whatever it takes, amirite?