spring dun sprung

It’s kinda hilarious because I was in Minneapolis for most of last week, where it, ahem, SNOWED OMG. And then right back to 80*F here in Maryland… Well, ok, it’s 60*F again after a little spring showers, but still.

pictured: NEON GREEN OMG
(and also a fox that you can’t see but doozy sure as shit can!)

We’ve had enough warmth and strong sun that it’s officially green around these parts! Sorry if you have tree pollen allergies lol bc even just these pictures might be enough to make you sneeze!

the big trees are still mostly bare but all the smaller blossoming types are in full bloom!
from here we’ll travel down the central valley crease all the way to the right before going into the woods to eventually emerge again by those top left trees

Obvi with the aforementioned spring showers, our outdoor ring closed again, but it would be a crime to ride indoors on a day like this, so Doozy and I snuck out for a little wander around the hillsides and neighboring woods <3

woods are not super green yet

I personally love capturing the changing of seasons through familiar photos of our favorite hacking haunts… Tho for those of you who feel like once you’ve seen one “between the ears” shot, you’ve seen them all… Well. Feel free to skip ahead to the cat gif at the end of the post — that one’s just for you!

ooooh but we made it all the way down to the stream bottom!! doozy was not as excited about it as i was LOL

Anyway, tho, obvi with my travel last week, Doozy got a bit of time off. Maybe not ideal, but also not really any sort of deal — let alone a ‘big’ one — these days either. Doozy’s first flat school after 5 days of no riding was… perfectly normal, no antics, just a nice little wtc ride! 

as you can see, this path is often blocked by fallen trees

Maybe the horse is finally growing up a bit that she can just be normal after a little time off? Or, maybe more realistically, I’m doing better about setting expectations for myself and riding proactively?? Like, Doozy probably isn’t going to be the type of horse that you can just say, ‘eh let’s just have an easy relaxed ride!’ Not that it can’t BE easy and relaxed, it just can’t in the absence of clear and proactive guidance.

climbing back up again

Doozy will fill whatever voids or vacuums you leave her, and usually not the way you would have chosen! 

verdant green fields are like a siren’s song

She’s been good, tho. Our last couple rides before my trip were solid too — including another lesson with Sally from which there is exactly zero media, sorry. It was at a new to us farm, too — one that was slightly more convenient driving traffic-wise for a week day.  

ooooh but first, doozy’s favorite sort of target LOL

And Doozy was good! Slightly wild, since it was our first time jumping since Loch Moy. Wanting to call the shots a bit. Tho we incorporated a lot of trotting cavaletti at the start of each exercise, and I tried to stay consistent and steady without getting totally in her face. 

i call this “reading the news” haha

I wouldn't say she really got ‘better’ tho until we finished with slightly larger jumps and more of them strung together in courses vs ‘one-at-a-time.’ The starting and stopping is the hardest part for Doozy, well. Especially the starting. She likes to try to turn herself inside out and get really inverted and hopping with anticipation. 

popping back out by those pretty blossoming trees again!

Sally mostly wasn’t worried about it, tho did advise that I do my best to keep us straight. It’s her experience that once a horse starts going sideways it can be a really difficult habit to resolve. This feels like a timely bit of feedback for us too, especially as I continue to experiment with ways to let Doozy travel more fluidly forward with less restriction in the bridle. 

it’s like an emergence metaphor or something <3

One approach has been to integrate more intentional lateral work into especially our canters — as you may recall we practiced with trainer C in our last lesson. The benefits are twofold with this exercise: 1) it keeps me focused on intentionally telling Doozy what to do, where to go, vs reactively just holding her back; and 2) it reinforces the leg aids as a balancing, organizing tool vs just noise and “omg it’s touching me!” 

back out in the big hay fields, next stop will be by that pink circle

My longer term hope is to get schooled enough with the intentional lateral work at all gaits that we can almost get the feeling of replicating the in and out spiral feelings, but even just from one step to the next. And that this lateral work, more rapidly (but also on more miniature scale) suppling from side to side, will make it easier to break up Doozy’s longitudinal nose-to-tail tension and tendency toward inversion so that we can actually stay straighter. 

as promised, heading back to the barn yard

It doesn’t sound like it should make sense — using lateral work to stay straighter vs risking running sideways as an evasion… But in practice it feels like it works — feels like it helps prevent Doozy from shortening so much in her neck? 

doozy! look pretty!! i want people to notice what’s different!

Idk lol, the trick is to remember the approach when we’re actually in the moment while jumping around a course! 

doozy, c’mon!! i want ‘Vanna White,’ not “living in a van”

Soon enough, soon enough. Well. Hopefully VERY soon lol… And in the meantime we’ll have another dressage lesson with trainer C, possibly right at the very moment you’re reading this! 

“what did you just say to me??” — doozy

And also hopefully soon another lesson with Dan… As is predictable, rallying the troops to schedule something at home is hard to do in the best of times, so we’ll see. It may be that we travel to him next time instead.

it’s cool, virtual cookies to anybody who notices what’s different in these pics

Basically just trying to get all the lessons all the time right now LOL, but gettin done what needs doing in the meantime as needed. 

and anyway. cats. 
it’s important to note that Ol Geezer is growling basically nonstop here LOL

That’s the nice thing about Doozy getting more grown up — it’s getting easier and easier to plan out predictable practice sessions to make the most of our time between lessons. I’m also experimenting with a few equipment changes too, tho more on that later. 

In the meantime, spring is here. It’s lovely, and we’re 100% getting into the swing of it! Hope y’all are enjoying it too!! Or at least not suffering too much from allergies!