friday foto finish

Happy Friday, folks! Anybody else feel like schedules are starting to get a little chaotic with the close of summer and impending fall? At least around here, esp with all our recent events and whatnot, we’ve kinda been running from one thing to the next, without much downtime.

the softest schnozz <3 <3

I like being busy, don’t get me wrong — but I also like being able to sit down and reflect on the totality of what all is up in the Land of Dooz erry now and again. So let’s take a quick trip thru all the various random photos that have accumulated on my phone in recent weeks without landing in any dedicated post.

such a pro at the trailer these days

For starters, a couple recent lessons have slipped a bit thru the cracks — but maybe deserve some attention. In the weeks leading up to Waredaca we rode with both longtime dressage trainer C, and new eventing trainer Woodge, and both lessons were excellent. And then we had yet another lesson with trainer C yesterday. So let’s get caught up, yes?

young bucks were racing around the cornfields outside of trainer C’s ring like they were running the daytona deertona 500 lol

I’m continuing to really enjoy intermingling these two trainers, and feel like Doozy benefits so much from the slightly different approaches. Idk if it’s just a dressage thing, or maybe just a trainer C thing, but we seem to be able to let Doozy travel along a bit more in these lessons while helping her find her balance in the forward — vs feeling constricted or held back.

we had a good lesson anyway <3 not that it made much difference for waredaca tho, womp

The focus has stayed on continuing to establish and sustain a fluid inside bend thru Doozy’s whole body — utilizing circles, serpentines, spirals, and leg yields to help achieve the right positioning and posture in the horse. 

In one lesson, Doozy was really getting it in one direction, and really locked up going the other way, so we used one-loop serpentines to slowly introduce the difficult bend in more ‘bite-sized’ steps when she was already traveling well in her stronger direction. 

and yet another pre-waredaca lesson, this time with new eventing trainer, and we jumped jomps!

For my purposes, I’m working on thinking more about ‘lifting my chest’ vs ‘shoulders back’ as that seems to be a more effective mental trigger to help me sit taller. Also thinking about ‘knee down’ vs ‘leg long’ as again this slight variation on the terms helps me arrive in an overall better posture. 

Other current inner mantras include reminding myself to feel the balls of both feet pushing equally into each stirrup footbed — to help me stay sitting centered and down on the horse. And trying to unlock my arms in canter while keeping my torso more still. Feels like rubbing my tummy while tapping my head, but y’all know how it is lol.

we changed farriers at the end of last summer and our experience this year has been so much better. note that little white squidge of some sort of epoxy-esque substance he’s started using under the clips to reduce chipping and damage 

Our recent lesson with Woodge was a good one too — and she moved us fairly briskly thru our warm up and into some jumping exercises — including multiple jumps in a row, and approaching jumps in canter omg. The whole focus seemed to be on utilizing shorter turns on landing to try to show Doozy the importance of not blasting away from every jump. 

another day, another ride. we practiced circles in this session lol, can you tell?

Doozy, for her part, has been an absolute princess for all of these lessons. Which again, can be hard to believe considering how we performed at Waredaca. But I swear, the mare is really getting it. 

And when the pieces come together and she finds her balance, it suddenly becomes so easy — for both of us! Suddenly I feel like I’m sitting up tall like the queen and all my body parts are where they belong. And Doozy feels like she’s floating along, continuing to unlock stride length and suspension. 

slicked with mtg… #pray4us

The trick, I think, will honestly come down to management. Doozy is so sensitive, she has such big reactions, I suspect even the littlest issue or discomfort or complaint can morph into a giant problem in the added pressure and atmosphere of a big show. 

clever biscuit knows how to customize her hay nets for a perfect fit

Her saddle fit situation, for example, has kinda been a nagging low grade issue for a couple months now. I don’t think anything is wrong with the saddle itself — it looks like it was made for the horse. But we think it sat unused for probably a couple years, and the flocking keeps doing weird things. 

My local rep has been super helpful with frequent visits for ‘micro adjustments,’ but we haven’t quite resolved a somewhat specific issue. So we’re gonna squeeze in to an appt at trainer C’s next week with a very established longtime fitting professional who travels the region, and see what he has to say. 

ta da!

Another management area I want to shore up revolves around gastric health. Doozy doesn’t have any indications you’d associate with a classically ulcery horse — except the extreme tension and reactivity (at times). And, obvi, her lifestyle of frequent travel and training. It’s not hard to believe she may have low grade inflammation at the very least, and probably maybe more than that — even if it’s not a raging case.

post-lesson, feeling like a princess <3

So we started another month long treatment of omeprazole, and will continue to supplement with the sucralfate — which I rely on heavily for routine management. Ooh and that Triple Crown Stress Free fortified forage — that’s just so so so useful to have on hand for keeping bellies full of forage even in stressful situations (like at a horse show or while trailering).

Personally, I *do* expect to see a positive difference from the treatment. And hopefully from there, a positive difference in her ability to cope with stress or tension, fingers crossed lol.

and so it goes, on and on!

Presumably a better rider than me would have more tools or abilities for getting Doozy unlocked when she’s as tight and explosive as she was for dressage warm up. IMO, tho, it’s a helluva a lot easier to not let her get that dialed up in the first place. 

And if that can be accomplished through management practices? All the better lol. We’re all happier when Doozy is happy!! Plus, there’s still so much more fun stuff ahead of us in the coming months, and maybe even this weekend! So we’ll do what it takes. Hope y’all have a good one too!