Vet Visit

 Went to see Keelin....

cantering off inside hind tracking right

injected neck

Successful Dressage Ride

 Good ride! He gave up and played nice.

Actually got a good half pass to the left, the hard way. 

Kelli reminded me to sit very strong and upright... lift my sternum. She said that it changed him and got him to really rock back on his hocks

Also got our best ever simple change canter to walk to canter ever! One step of walk, but he was soft, supple, through and melted through it!!!

Inserting some happiness!

 So.... both Dan and I needed a happy fun good ride. Not one that we were both frustrated with. And I honestly felt like his body needed a break from dressaging. So.. I noticed that Laura was going to be XC schooling at Ashland this morning and I thought... let's do it! I almost went to Aiken to school Sporting Days with Ashley, but... that was too far and Mike wanted to hang out and... I haven't jumped at Ashland in a hot minute so.. the easy way won. 

It was so cold though when we got there! I had on fleece breeches, winter socks, winter boots, winter gloves, long underwear, a fleece and my safety vest. Plus my jacket, but that came off once I started riding. I got there before them and tacked up quicker. Since Dan felt slightly short at the walk yesterday I wanted to make darn sure that he was sound before we jumped. And I was cold and knew if we got moving we'd warm up. So we headed out and did some walking and trotting up the hills. We did two little canters. And there was some excitement. The canine search and rescue teams were practicing so three separate times cars came driving up, one with a four wheeler on a flat bed behind it. Dan stopped and stared but didn't react more than that. Then I'm not sure if the dogs spooked the deer or it was just a random event but about 30 deer exploded out of the woods and came pinging towards the center of the cross country field! They split into 3 groups and scattered and then panicked. Hee hee. Dan was just watching. Then Laura, Audrey and Jennifer showed up and Jennifer's horse is a bucker, so there was a little excitement there. But no one else got riled up so yay. 

We all warmed up again and then off we went. I was feeling a little apprehensive as I haven't jumped XC in awhile and was feeling a bit weenyish. But when we started jumping Dan was so bold and brave that... I got brave! We jumped a few big prelim fences even! And yes, we stopped at most of them once. Well, skirted half over the right side of them. But I knew exactly why and when I came back, we sailed over them. Dan was so game and brave I thought he was a little too strung out. But instead of gathering him with my leg on... I just gathered him and didn't add leg, so he squirted around. But we did the sharks tooth, the big prelim roll top, a prelim coop, and even the prelim doghouse in and out of the water. And he was so splashy in the water! Like... I got drenched! Audrey and Tom went through and weren't nearly as splashy as us. Ha ha. Oh, and we did the cabin to three stride to the drop/jump into water...  

Yay!!! Good boy! I'm feeling better now about Stableview! Although I still don't know which one I should sign up for... N/T, just training CT.. or go for a training 3 phase. Eeeks. We can school the day before but... 

Then we went on a short trail ride and Dan was all spooky about the dogs and cars being where they weren't supposed to be and was all jiggy and bouncy and sidepassing like a paso fino. Hee hee. Guess he likes his new forage diet! He's spicy!

Ugh.... not a great ride

 Dressage at Ashland. With draw reins. tried to give him breaks. Tried to keep it short

Well... finding more holes

Sigh... Dude... dressage is hard! And Dan drives me batty but I love him. 

Freddie came this morning. And Dan made snarky faces at him. He really doesn't seem to like Freddie, which makes no sense as Freddie is very fair to him. But he was extra today. Freddie even asked if he was in a bad mood. I said "he's always like this" but then Dan was snuggling with me. Like... nuzzling on my jacket and my cheek. Weirdo. He rarely does that. So nope, definitely not in a bad mood. Anyways, after that we checked the weather and it said only 11% chance of rain til this evening so I checked in with Rana and she said to come and get a lesson at 2:30. 

Yet... when I started to load up around 12:45, so I could get there early and warm him up and get gas, it was looking like it might pour. Stupid weather channel. And sure enough, it rained on us on the way there and was sprinkling to lightly raining when we got there. But we manned up did it. We rode... in the rain.... in the arena with "obstacles". We powered through and did our dressage. And it was not pretty. It was not a fun ride, nor a pretty ride, or even an effective ride from the riding part. But it was educational. 

 

 

I had told Rana about our ride the other day so she watched us go. And basically she said that he's just not through and using it to his advantage. She said that he is getting straight and bracing and using his underneck. And it's subtle enough that it's not obvious and he can kind of cheat, but it makes it really hard for him to do the things. And then he can't respond to my aids appropriately so I get frustrated because I think I'm doing the right things and he's not doing what I'm asking him to do. She basically said I'm not doing anything wrong. This is him. Well great... I can fix me... how do I fix him? So we spent the lesson working on getting him to go into the left rein. It was riding outside leg to inside rein. When I'm cantering to the left, he is faking the connection. He's not truly in my outside rein and he's definitely not anywhere near connected to the inside rein. And he's falling to the outside, so when I touch him with my outside leg to straighten him or move him off the right side and get him back to the center, he props and falls apart. And I can just barely breathe on him on the right side and it's an excuse. So she had me almost overbend him to the left, hold that inside rein, and really ride outside leg to inside rein. I was pretty much riding haunches in or half pass the entire time. And STILL he was wanting to drift right. But when I had him overbent, he couldn't use his underneck because he can't do that unless he's straight, so... he was able to move off my leg without propping. So yeah. Then going to the right, it's not as obvious but he still isn't really in the connection, especially on the left rein. So basically, I'm supposed to ride him haunches in both ways, and ride outside leg to inside rein, and keep him bent and through. That is the utmost importance for the moment. And that helps me stop over using my inside (especially my right) leg. So then she got the draw reins and put them on him. She explained that she HATES them... and that they are horrible in the wrong hands and used for the wrong purposes. But she also said that... basically, I need help.  Dan is too smart and too big and too strong and too sneaky that it will behoove me to use these for a bit. It just gives me an extra tool so that Dan is fighting against himself instead of against me, and making me sore and tired. 

Which... is depressing. I mean... I hate gadgets.. I hate that I have to resort to them. I hate using them cause it's an extra rein to have to deal with. I'm depressed that I've created this big hole in my horse's training... and it's just... sad. But, I'm hoping that I can just use this crutch for a tiny little bit, get some muscle memory for us both and some strength for us both and then go back to not using it. So we'll see. 

So, a helpful lesson, but a depressing one. Although the exciting part is that when he's through and really using his back, he feels really good. And I'm pretty sure that we got a lovely clean change (on accident) when he was through. So.. .maybe we'll just have to embrace the suck for a moment and fight through this battle and then we'll come out wiser and stronger and prettier on the other side. 

And then... I was feeling all defeated and untacked him and put my saddle away and saw this. I do love this freakin' goober!

Whoopsie....

"No one gets changes in a week"... "no one gets changes in a week".. "no one gets changes in a week"...  Except.. it hasn't been just a week.. it feels like it's been over a year in the making. Like... we've been "so close" for so freakin long, but we can't seem to get a darn change. And I know.. technically I've only been trying for the actual change for 3 rides. We've just been prepping before now. But ugh... and now I'm afraid I've really screwed him up because.. now... well... my aids aren't right. I am pretty sure that he now picks up the canter based on my inside leg squeezing and my seat bones asking. We can pick up either lead whether we're on centerline or the rail and we can even pick up the counter canter on the rail on demand. Yay... Except no. So then I tried to do a half pass. And now, at least when we go on the left lead, every time my right leg touches him (like when I ask him to bring his haunches over), he props/drops/or swaps. Ugh.. no.. that's not what that leg means. I think I made it worse because... I may have misunderstood Rana, but.. the last two rides.. when I do my downwards from the canter, I close my outside leg, change the bend, and then ask for the downward and then we go back up on the other lead. So now my poor guy is so confused. And for whatever reason, he can hold the right lead but now he can't even hold the left lead once I start asking for anything other than cantering on a straight line or a circle. Ugh. I don't know how to fix it either. Do I just carry on until we figure out the change and then try to go back and finesse/soften the aids or do I fix the aids now first.... 

But.. we did have a decent ride otherwise. We got some really nice upwards... our downwards are still a little bit stabby but we had a few good ones. We had some nice trot work. By the end he was getting frazzled and on the muscle so we lost some of the suppleness. Which is another issue... do I go back to getting supple? Or do I accept that it's going to get messy for a bit while we figure this out? Ugh. or do I just suck it up and let Rana do it? Let her put the change on him and call it a day. Sigh... I really kind of wanted to do it myself but maybe I'm just not capable... or too impatient to wait as long as it will take me.

Afterwards we walked to the lake with Kelli and Marvin and then walked back. Dan was still motoring and felt like he could have done another round. When I got home I realized he had some butt foam too. I kind of like his new diet - more forage, less grain. Clearly he's not lacking in energy, at least today. 

And... he was trying very hard today. I just hate it that I'm confusing him because he clearly is getting frustrated too and wants to do what I ask.

Adventuring with Sissy again

 Today we took Sissy to Ashland for another hack. Plus Dan and I probably needed to not stress over dressage for the third ride in a row. :) We had a good time. Funny sat on the trailer while I tacked up Dan, in preparation of getting her to stay on the trailer while Dan and I work. Then we hacked out and had fun. We saw a coyote (or maybe a fox.. it was far away) and some deer. We jumped a few little tiny jumps. And Funny actually jumped! We trotted. We snacked. It was a good day. 

And when the wind wasn't blowing it was quite nice out! The sun was shining and even the frogs were going crazy on one section of the trail!