I Pivoed Myself

 Y'all have probably heard of this nifty little robot camera gadget called a Pivo. I thought it sounded cool and I bought one. I read half of one how-to on using it and figured if I needed help once I got going, I could google it. It works exactly as advertised--tracks the horse, struggles with multiple horses, and if it loses you, just ride in front of it again. 

Cool. Whatever. Pretty much everyone on the internet has one now and there's an entire facebook group devoted to people who are too stupid to read the instructions. You don't need me for that. 

You definitely needed this level of cuteness tho

The Pivo comes with a handy dandy remote that I think most people carry with them and use to turn the tracking features on/off as needed. Right? Like you maybe don't want a 30 minutes walk warmup of you talking to your buddy but you probably do want the 5.5 minutes you trotted around in the good light trying to get a decent screenshot. (Just me? Whatever.)

But since I'm lazy level pro right now, I don't use the remote for the simple reason of I didn't bother to bring it. Ever. It's somewhere. Maybe at home. I literally plop the pivo on the mounting block, try not to kick it over when I get on, and go for a ride. I trot around for a bit (and yeah by the time I'm WIPED OUT, apparently it's been like 5.5 minutes), and then I pop off to stop the pivo while we take a quick break. 

Nobody wants to screenshot long videos

That means two things:

1) I get adorable photos like the one above. 

2) I have a chance to review the footage MID RIDE.

This has turned out to be BY FAR my favorite feature. (Even more than screenshots, because the light in the indoor is crummy so even a really good screenshot on a pretty decent phone camera is still not good.)

See?

Real talk tho: I'm a working ammy. I think I took 1 lesson this year. I ride 1-4 times a week, depending on my work travel schedule/the weather/my mental state. I have ok feel, middlin' reflexes, and bad riding fitness. ZB is the perfect ammy horse in that my schedule is A OK with her (and if I'm there more than 4 days she's like OMG MUM GO ON A TRIP I TIRED HOKAY). 

That means I get on and bomb around for 5 minutes working on whatever THE THING I think I need to do is. Last night, I thought "we will work on forward!"

um

It was hard. I was huffing and puffing and contorting myself and nagging with my legs and god only knows what the reins were doing. 

Then we took our mid-ride break and I watched the video.

And I thought. 

"Well gee whiz. Sure is hard for my perfectly nice horse to try to figure out what I want when my reins are two miles long, my hands are bouncing all over the stratosphere, my legs never really come on or off her sides, and my body is oddly contorted."

In fact, you might even think that if I was clear with the FORWARD aids, then I could be long in my legs, strong in my core, following with my elbows, and soft with my hands. 

What a concept. 

Reset Pivo. Round 2. 

It's not that I'm magically a better and fitter rider with the video review. It just shows me what my issues look like. That helps me pick a couple things to correct on that night based on how I'm riding in the moment. I have to be real honest about whether the things I'm doing are actually making a difference to my horse. 

Or if they are dumb things and the difference they are making is bad. 

oh that's a bit better

I'm not a great rider. I'm not going to become one on my current schedule. 

I'm ok with that about myself. 

It is my ongoing goal to be the best I am able with the resources I have on hand, and to do that, I need to be very clear and fair with my horse. She can be her best self when I set her up to succeed. 

now that's almost something

After watching the videos and reviewing the stills I pulled out of them, I can make some informed choices about our next ride. I can say that the best work we had all night was when we did lateral work and compression and then pushed forward and asked for stretchy trot. 

I definitely think the things I'm asking for right now are hard and require schooling, more for strength than for repetition itself. 

LEGOS

I also know we both get bored of doing the same thing over and over. Will there be indoor jump video in the near future? 

MAYBE.

Everything Slides Faster on Ice

I could write about how I finally decided ZB's western saddle actually didn't fit, and then how I maniacally shopped for one that would, then somewhat unintentionally bought one, then was pleasantly surprised that it included fittings and a cute teal pad and now I want cute teal boots to match and figured out I need a shorter girth. 

that back end <3

But like. 

What's more important is that then I went on the ultimate horse girl spending spiral and ended up with a horse-hauling truck so WHOOPS THAT HAPPENED. 

when all your wildest dreams come true

I'm still processing that particular event (and uh paying for it) and this blog is about the cutest horse in all the land, so let's look at her. 

so cute

We're on a western kick right now and a large part of it is that I don't have to be super prepared about outfits when I can just wear cowboy boots and jeans from work to the barn. 

Another part is that I am really enjoying the process of tackling something new. 

also soccer

I have to think through every ask and every give. I have to know what I want and work with ZB to figure out how to show it to her. I have to know when to push and know when to release. If the goal is "polite, balanced western jog", what are the steps I need to take to get from here to there? 

It's also really cool because it ends up being the same skills--I'm looking for her to be balanced back to front and move forward softly. I want the cadence slower and I want her to self regulate a bit. She can't stick her nose out like a pony and run on the forehand if I want her to go on a loose rein and be accountable for herself, so I have to be very clear about the steps I need her to take. 

ground tying is fun

That means I have to step up as a horseman. I have to be accountable for my movements and expectations. I have to be clear, calm, and consistent. If I want a particular response, am I asking with a particular aid? How am I setting her up to succeed? 

This is ZB and I we're talking about, so that training has to be interesting with a lot of variety. She struggles with the canter (especially transitions), so we school those on the ground with a quick lunge warm up. Or in english tack so I can influence her balance and stay off her back. Or ignore it completely and go for a hack under the stars during a full moon.

I think we're about ready for prime time in the canter (aka actually schooling the lope vs just bombing around from time to time), but first I'm definitely going to resolve the cinch situation. 

Or maybe we'll just do it bareback.

A Progression in ZB

You know what we haven't done in a while? 

dun dun dun

A progression post! 

When I met ZB, she was a loveable 4 year old with an impossibly smooshy nose that seemed almost too large for her rather-slender body. She was 15.2 on a tall day and had the best lil attitude about absolutely everything. 

Summer 2017 - 4 years old
(layover at her Auntie's house)

Everyone warned me that drafties grow until they're 8 so it worked out that my whole life fell apart shortly thereafter. I mean it didn't work out for me for a long time (tho it did eventually), but this is a REALLY NICE PHOTO that ZB's other auntie took the next summer annnnnnd yeah you can see that her dimensions have changed a lot. 

Summer 2018 - 5 years old
(it's two zbs!)

I was going to post a summer vs winter picture for each year but 1) apparently I don't take a lot of winter conformation shots without tack on and 2) uhhhhhh let's just agree that some of those winter growth phases DO NOT need to be more documented haha. Instead, let's look at summer 2019 when the pieces actually started to come together for my little lady. 

You'll have to use some imagination on this one--I have a habit of not living in state in the summer (or at all SOB) so this was my best conformation shot in like 4 months. Whoops.

Summer 2019 - 6 years old
Looking like a little powerhouse

I now realize I probably should have been more diligent about documenting her growth--I think she's about 15.3 in front and 16.0 behind now. My logic is that I can get on her from the ground so she can't be that big. SOME PEOPLE are fond of pointing out that if your horse is roughly the same diameter as your couch, it keeps your hips more mobile. Whatever her height, she's the right size for me. 

She does seem to have leveled out the exponential growth at least--her balance is more consistent and hey, she looks like this:

Summer 2020 - 7 years old
All sport-horsey and cute

We're going into her 7 year old winter now feeling fit and sassy. We both like variety and adventures, so we're spending time learning to neck rein and do a western jog but also working hard on the canter (and omg transitions) in her english tack with plenty of trail rides and jump days thrown in. She is coming together SO nicely and I can never emphasize enough just how lovely she's been to work with for the entire process. 

She has a fantastic back end, a natural over track at the walk, solid bone, and an amazing brain. I could talk about how her conformation impacts her athleticism or how her breeding informs her dimensions, but you know what's most important? 

She's just so much fun.  

Pressure and Release

 An interesting thing has started happening lately. 

Right now (I've been in town for almost a month omfg!), Zoe is in the most consistent work with me that she has been in a long time. She's worked harder before, but that was with weekly training rides by a competent professional. I am not a competent professional, nor have I played one on tv in a long time. (Or ever, let's be real.)

Point is. ZB is working harder and more often than she has in a minute. 

As much as I go on and on about her lovely, can-do attitude, I have definitely been wondering lately about what horse I'd have when the pressure went up a little. 

And another thing--the first summer I had ZB, a lovely trainer we did a clinic with pointed out that to move her along in dressage, I'd need to sensitize her to stimuli. 

Make her hotter, if you will. 

I was a few months off a hotter-than-hell horse and that sounded like the worst idea on the planet to me. 

So I didn't do it. (And then my whole life fell apart and I basically quit riding, but who's counting?) 

NO RAGERTS

That creates a twofold issue now--we're adding pressure and I'm dialing up her sensitivity. I'm saying REACT QUICKER and MORE REACTIONS and both of those things are new.

Her response is a mixed bag--she definitely handles pressure better than any horse I've had before. She's willing to step up and try hard and give me good work, day in and day out. 

She also (very fairly) has some of her own ideas about how that should go down. 

O HAI

I'm having a fabulous time problem solving our way through it. I dialed up her reactions (great!) but then when I tried to do a bareback-in-a-dress photoshoot after work one day, she was like OMG LIONZ, which was kind of funny because I'm pretty sure she'd just SMOOSH LION if she actually met one. 

It's not a bad thing per se, it's just a different item to address.

WE REACTIN HOKAY MUM

I also have no interest in mindlessly drilling her like YOU WILL DO 5000 TRANSITIONS because fuck that noise. I'm not that person and I don't want to be. Like if you are that person, maybe get an RC car or something because you will break a living being. #shade

Which brings us back to our usual training path. 

do we have a usual path

My biggest thing about not wanting to "sensitize" my non-reactive horse was that I did not want to create a dragon-monster-horse that lost it's shit over stupid things like a stereotypical dressage arena princess. Zero interest. Got ZB to not have that horse. 

But we're fooling around western and you know what a good western horse is? 

dramatic in photos? wait no

Sensitized. 

Dialed in to their rider on a low wavelength energy. It's not about being hot and reactive--it's about being keyed in and responsive. 

It's about the rider being clear and consistent, providing the same subtle aids. 

It's about the horse being soft with it's mind and body, carrying itself forward. 

got kickass pictures too. cake=had and eaten.

OH MY GOD WE JUST WENT FULL CIRCLE DID ANYONE ELSE SEE THAT.

Ahem. 

Please tell me you saw that. 

I'm working on becoming the best version of myself. Say after me:

Clear, consistent aids.
Clear, consistent aids.
Clear, consistent aids.

It's a lot harder than you'd think. Remember how we had a jump lesson like a week ago and my position was totally bangin' and I was totally mentally like "GOOD JOB SELF YOU ARE SUCH A SUPER RIDER WELL DONE"? 

Well then we had an impromptu jump night and all the things I did right in the lesson, I managed to do wrong. See also: run at fence, pick to the base, fling entire upper body at miniscule X. 

And definitely always go for the long one

Strangely, our performance was less brilliant that day. Even my gung-ho, jump-loving baby horse was like NO MUM IS NOT SAFE 4 JUMPIN and slammed on the brakes. Whoops. 

The cool thing with horses is that they don't really hold grudges, tho. I cleaned up my ride, and she gave me different results. Clear, consistent responses to clear, consistent aids. 

It's almost like. 

Who is training who?

Welcome to uncharted territory. 

We Take a Lesson!

I've been able to ride consistently enough lately that I actually felt ok scheduling a lesson last week. 

And then I thought. 

Let's make it a jumping lesson! 

literally the cutest

Here's the entire history of Zoe jumping: 

1) we spent a lot of days on the ground/lunge line learning how to go through poles and not fall down one winter 

2) One day, my barnmate was like "does she jump" and I was like "iunno let's find out" and apparently she does. 

3) Since that day, we've had about 4 random days where we popped over wee single cross rails to the tune of less than 10 jumps each time. 

4) and then we were signed up for our first ever jump lesson 

outfit on point, as always

Not gonna lie, when I saw my trainer setting up an entire course of jumps, I was like "uh yeah so do you realize this horse has never jumped more than one fence in a row IN HER ENTIRE LIFE and yeah I was thinking some trot poles and a crossrail or something?" 

Trainer was like "oh yeah totes this is for the lesson after you no worries". 

And that's the story of how whether or not it was intended for the lesson after us, ZB and I jumped AN ENTIRE COURSE for the FIRST TIME IN OUR COMBINED LIVES. 

Also that's my first course since uh............. 

Wow like 2015? I don't even know. Been a minute. 

And it was the cutest thing ever. 

I could go on and on about how she's the most fun to ride and how cool it is to have a horse that lets me sit in the middle and steer because she thinks jumping is THE FUNNEST OMG MUM and how cool it is to like, "work on my position" because I'm not just desperately clinging on and trying to avoid death. 

But you probably guessed those things anyways from how it's ZB. 

The Long and Short

When I typed out "I've literally never had a bad ride on zb" the other day, it made me think. 

What is a bad ride? What causes a ride to become a bad ride? 

For me, a bad ride is emotionally turbulent, accomplishes no clear goal, leaves horse and/or rider more frustrated than when they started, or ends in injury for horse or rider. 

That's not to say that every ride has to be all-positive, all-the-time, 100% training focused. I mean, if you've been around here at all, you definitely know that I spend more time toodling than working my horse and I am 100% more focused on playing horse soccer than I am on going to horse shows. And while I certainly gush about ZB's (many) (many) excellent qualities, she's also a bit of a moose on the ground and not always the most motivated under saddle. 

Albeit a very cute moose

A bad ride is more than an "eh not feeling it, let's redirect and trail ride today" where not much is accomplished. I would actually call that a pretty decent ride as long as you identify the issue and make intentional choices to address it. 

One of those moments of clarity I found in between Courage and Zoe was this understanding that a partnership depends on being the person your horse wants to be with and finding the horse that you want to be with. It sounds oddly simple phrased that way. 

But like. 

It's not that every day is butterflies and rainbows. 

It's that when I'm toodling around bareback in the pasture on a loose rein on the first cold fall day of the year and my horse goes COMPLETELY TENSE OMFG WTAF IS HAPPENING, I choose to slide off, do some ground work, address where our attention goes and when, and then choose a successful note to end on. 

Could have been a bad ride. Might have gone ok. I addressed it in a different way. 

That not to say one shouldn't ride through resistance because you 100% should, some of the time. It's important to set yourself up to win the little battles so you never really have the big battles. The other day I hopped on and ZB was definitely "eh not feeling it" on the going to work issue. 

We started with halt/back/halt/walk transitions to confirm "you must comply in a soft manner", then added trot into the mix, which got the whole Going Forward/Stepping Under pieces engaged. Then lateral work for straightness, then figure eights with bend/counterbend for direction changes with consistent balance. 

And all of a sudden, I had this lovely, soft, balanced horse who was on the aids and I asked her to stay soft and step up into canter (vs hollow and run), and wouldn't you know, she did it. And we could repeat the transitions. She wasn't strong/consistent enough yet to hold it for more than a few strides, but for the first time, she totally got it. 

Lightbulb.  

That wasn't the most promising start, but it became a good ride. 

I'll admit I'm 100% spoiled here. Ms. Zoebird has this ridiculous Disney horse attitude and shows up for work 99.99% of the time. She's good natured, hard working, and lovely to be around. She makes it easy. Even if she really just needs to OMG MUM G2G BUCK AND DO RUNNIN, she lets me know that's on the table and tries so hard to make sure I get off first. 

She's never going to be your international eventer and I dunno if she wants to dressage once the dressaging gets hard, but she's the horse that made riding fun again for me. 

People have bad days. Horses have bad days. 

If you're both having a bad day, it's maybe not the best day in the history of ever to get on. 

More than that tho--good rides are about good fit. Good goals. Good camaraderie. 

On a personal level, it has mattered a lot to me to take showing off the table. Instead of sort of patching together an uncertain partnership in pursuit of indifferent public approbation of my skills, I've gotten to zero in on the things I want out of riding and what I enjoy. 

It's not that showing is bad, because it isn't. 

It's that having a good ride is so much more natural when "good" is a finite term that I can see and feel and touch. It's that moment of appreciating my horse and knowing that I'm in the right place at the right time. It's the ability to take a day or a month or a season to teach her goofy things that make me laugh.

The other day, I wanted to win a shiny satin ribbon. I'm spending a little more time polishing show ring skills than I did before. I have a goal of taking a couple lessons to advance our skills that I think I can finally accomplish. 

Maybe we'll give showing a go next season. 

Maybe we won't. 

Either way, we have many more good rides to look forward to.  

That New Leather Smell

It's weird how our foray into learning western stuff re-energized me for all things horsey, but here we are. And like. I know I never stop going on and on about how great ZB is, but seriously she is the actual greatest and I love her so much. 

So anyways. We've been westerning. I dragged my moose sized western saddle out and I can't really tell if it fits or not. To trot around for 20 minutes, it's fine I guess, so we started playing with a little more complexity in our neck reining adventure. 

SMOOSH SUNSET

I decided to clean up my tack explosion area at the barn and realized that since I'm not riding often or hard enough to justify juggling two saddles and ten pads on one saddle rack and the top of my trunk, that I ought to just take the dressage saddle and to-die-for otto bridle home where they're safe. 

And then I tried riding in my jump saddle. 

I realized these things:

1) I hate my stirrup leathers more than life itself

2) Neither of my girths fit my horse

3) The girths are so bad I literally can't use my $$$ custom mattes pad that I impulse bought in a 'rona sale this spring

And see, despite my total moderation in tack purchases lately, I have (un?)fortunately cultivated a lovely group of very tack savvy friends. 

In less time that it takes to talk about it, I have:

1) Custom-made Gary Mundy stirrup leathers with my initials stamped in them on the way

2) 3 (count 'em) girths to try out

3) A bonus anatomic noseband that is oddly sized to mess with

Stay posted for the prolite vs county logic throw down

Well that is surprisingly perfect

Oh look it's the indoor time of year

I'm one of those weird people that like CANNOT EVEN if things aren't working. I didn't realize how much it bugged me that my tack wasn't quite right. 

Which is dumb. 

Because after playing musical girths and messing around, I got on with a saddle and rode like an adult and ZB was super champion of the world. Seriously. I don't know why she's like ROCK SOLID HOKAY MOM I BE GOOD GIRL literally every time I have EVER sat on her, but it's insane and amazing. Still. 

Seriously horse it's been over three years now and WE HAVE LITERALLY NEVER HAD A BAD RIDE. 

And I don't even feel like I'm jinxing it by saying that out loud. 

And then because I am a dumbass, I pulled her saddle off and walked away to put it on the rack with her loose wearing the fancy new bridle in the middle of the arena. 

And yeah it was totally fine she just stood there and watched me. 

when ur mum is a dum dum but u still love her