Achievement Unlocked

There's no question that my smooshy baby horse is a very special horse. The whole point of that "ruthlessly exclude" ethos and enlisting particular people to help me find her was to find the creature who fits my life right now.

And like. 

the only reason she didn't buck me off is cookies

I thought I knew what I was doing, but life is never quite what I expect. The little lady went from twice a week training backed up by 2-3 days a week with me to not anything. I dropped her out of training (because money is a thing) and quit showing up to the barn (because jobs are a thing) and since early this spring, she's been on a 1-2 toodles a month schedule. 

can you even with the cuteness level here?

But then September came around and I a little bit got my shit together. 

For the past 3ish weeks, I've been riding 3-4 days a week. Which, if you know how math works, you know is not very many rides. And also--those rides were things like "toodle bareback", "meet Teresa", "practice trotting on a loose rein in the field", and "JOMPING TIME". 

ZB R TEACHES MONKEY LESSONS

Which, whatever. Reality is a thing I live in and hey, drafties are supposed to grow until they're 8 and she's 6 so no rush here. 

I guess to me, that makes it even more cool to watch what a ZB can do on this schedule. 

Once this spring, I got a wild hair and popped Zoe over some crossrails. And she was adorable. 

Then a few weeks ago, I was like "what fun, let's do that again".

remember summer?

And she was adorable again. 

And then last week, I was like "yeah let's have this be a thing" because y'know. Variety. Fun. 

<3

So yeah, that's Zoe jumping like... her 15th jump ever. Seriously. When we jump, I just put up a crossrail, pop over it, tell her she's wonderful, and move on. And by move on, I mean the first time we jumped, it was over the same crossrail like 3 times. The second time it was a different crossrail maybe 4 times, and the latest time was TWO crossrails, a total of about 7 jumping efforts.

It's fun. It's easy. It's simple. And then we leave it alone.

Remember dressage? 

I sort of do. After we'd had a couple rides this fall, I tried picking up the reins and doing that whole "riding" thing. 

in a jump saddle because reasons

She was rusty. I was rusty. Canter is definitely a work in progress because oh yeah, fitness is a thing.

maybe next year i'll learn to sit the canter

Then we left it alone, again. Next ride was a bareback toodle with no goals or agenda. Primary skills worked on were "eating cookies" and "smooshing".

We're back on our winter schedule of late night rides with my best barn buddy and the other night, before she got on, I chucked my phone at her to grab some video and hopefully get a screenshot with our fancy boots on. 

I put my leg on.

Zoe went forward.

I picked up the reins. 

Zoe moved softly into the contact. 

We stepped up into the trot. 

there actually is video buuuut guess who hasn't done anything with it

I finished that ride grinning like an idiot. 

It is so cool to be on this journey with her. To focus on the relationship and having fun and being realistic about our trajectory. To give her time to grow up and me space to live life and then start to understand that the panicked flailing and pressure and struggles of past horses really just don't matter.

Not to her and not to me. 

She's the nicest horse I've ever had. 

We're doing better than we've ever done. 

Sometimes I Ride Too

If you're sitting over there like "yes SB is shopping and thinking thoughts about horses, BUT WHAT IS A ZB DOING PRECIOUS?", well, this post is for you.

SHE IS WEARING POM POM HATS

When we left off, Zoëbird had just figured out cavaletti and I took a lesson her.



 That's pretty much where we are.

Ha.

Before all y'all Zoëbird fans riot on me, the little lady is doing fantastic.

We're in the middle of a streak of unseasonably warm weather, which means we got to put in record-early first rides outside the tiny dark indoor.

Full disclosure: every time I rode C-rage outside the indoor the first time, he bolted with me. Baggage much? YES.

EARS OUTSIDE

I am pleased to inform you that ZB was a freaking CHAMPION OF OUTSIDE and like.

I R REAL TIRED MUM

Yeah one of our best rides lately and she didn't put a foot wrong. What's more, I'm starting to trust her and expect that and I was actually able to keep my stupid brain stuffed in it's head and things were good.

Then we had our second ride outside, so like honeymoon's over.

pic actually from first ride, but is representative

Yup still a champion. The one big thing I'm learning is that if I want to work her hard when it's above 40f, I will definitely need to clip her. I'd been avoiding clipping because I was so much enjoying not blanketing and she seemed super happy with our mild winter buuuuut that's just going to have to happen.

I do make an effort to mix things up, so I set a wee tiny jump for her.

Uh.

It's a work in progress.

10/10 cutest horse

I definitely wondered how it would be to start with a baby draftie type. Would the training be boring? Would my brain get on board?

What I've found is that my favorite part of horse training is learning to communicate with the horse, which I am already doing with Zoë on a basic level and she certainly has no shortage of things to communicate right back.

Plus.

I cannot say enough about how fun this little lady is. She shows up and tries her hardest every single day. She wants to do the right thing. She's sassy and opinionated and just a darn cool creature.

Bodies in Space

Ms. Zoebird is a baby mare and her middle name is not grace.

middle name might be "Effort" tho

And yeah, I want her to be my all-around horse, which means I want to jump her eventually.

At four (and a young four at that), I do not want her to jump high or often. It's too much stress for developing joints. Plus, she's butt high right now and as anyone who went through a growth spurt ever can attest (that's all of you except Leah?), changing bodies are murder on balance and body awareness.

that wither lift tho

I talk about this ad nauseum in person too--essentially, I'm completely changing up the little mare's routine and asking her to using her "carrying and pushing" muscles. If you've ever been a fatass (me) and then tried to get in shape (also me), you'll know that  building muscle is f@&%*** painful and takes a long ass time.

So not only is she in an awkward growth spurt, but the potential to make her sore with repetitive exercises she's not fit for (riding) is very high.

That's why we mix it up. This week, I had a fantastic ride with our BEST TROT WORK EVER.

baby mare very tired now

But see, after a hard riding day with lots of new material, it's time to do something else and let her "carrying" muscles have a break.

Here are some facts about Zoe:

1) she thinks jumping is FUN

1) she needs a little help with understanding where her body is in space sometimes

1) she needs a groundwork tune up maybe once a week to make sure she's tuned up

Did anyone else just hear "CAVALETTI DAY"? Cuz I did. 

If you're keeping track, yes I did just totally justify spending a day goofing off with my baby mare as a training day.

I know I say this every day and most of you probably want to punch me in my stupidly happy face, but this little lady is just so much fun. She shows up every day, she tries her hardest, and I can literally watch her learn. I'm definitely laughing at past-SB for thinking she needed a horse with more talent or whatever. Current-SB enjoys going to the barn every single day and P.S. is making a ton more progress than ever before.

PS saying PS reminded me that PS is making custom sized bridles now. Anyone with a money tree want to cough up $ so Zoe can have one? Possibly Zoe's mother has to quit buying shit for a while. 

Free Jumping!

Look who is just the cutest!

We aren't doing any serious/under saddle/whatever jumping this year. Just occasionally little exercises to get her to think about her feet and her body in space.

trotting a vertical is very hard

It's so fun to watch her learning process!

Cross Training the Dressage Horse

One thing I'm being very conscious of with Courage right now is variety--if he has a solid dressage day, I try very hard not to repeat the same thing the next day. I also don't always feel like riding (or wearing pants), so we find stuff to mix it up with. Toodling. Spa day. Ground work.

Courage is a horse that learns really well from the ground. Now that he's pretty comfortable going W/T/C/ plus halt and back off body cues in the halter, we're started adding a few things. One of them is ground poles--asking Courage to think and place each foot without anxiety or rushing. Some enterprising boarder has a mess of poles set up in the top of the outdoor, so once or twice a week I send Courage through them (from the ground, in a halter, at a walk) and if he calmly walks through, we just go on to something else. With a bit of creativity and a lot of walking, he's even gone successfully over raised cavaletti and started to be ok with it.

Another thing I've added is something Tik talked about when I audited his clinic--creating a vacuum in space essentially to "pull" Courage towards me. I can send him away just fine. Now I want him to come back. 

Courage, with his typical "I'm-the-best-at-this-watch-me", has embraced the concept and it's completely adorable. 

A post shared by Aimee Towell (@sprinklerbandits) on Mar 12, 2017 at 4:26pm PDT

Oh, and the video shows something else we've added back in--jumping.

I'm really enjoying breaking everything down to it's littlest parts and attempting to rebuild it, piece by piece.

Poles caused anxiety and rushing, so we just occasionally throw them in until he understands the question and is comfortable.

Now it's a jump. Because of the groundwork principles that are now in place, I can send him over the jump, and then take a break between each effort and have him come to me for scratches. The jump is a "trick", something he can show off and be the best at, without creating more anxiety.

Courage has always had a stylish, snappy front end, but then his back end. leaves a lot to be desired. It's not really conformational. I mean, it is in that he's short-backed and probably doesn't have the scope for HUGE spreads (think Grand Prix), but it shouldn't be an issue for him at the 3'-3'6"ish level.

really not worried about his scope

I do think part of his problem was his inability to step up underneath himself at the canter and be adjustable, which we've been addressing both on the lunge and now under saddle. He's made HUGE strides.

note inside hind now ahead of parallel with outside fore

So now we've fixed his canter, reduced his anxiety, and made jumping fun (on the line, from the ground).

But how do I show him how to use his back end? If this is going to pan out for him, he needs to not land on all four feet simultaneously, because that is no fun for anyone.

Lest it sound like we're drilling this--we're not. Once a week (or less), I throw him on the line in the halter and we just play a little. And again--Courage is a dressage horse now. I really don't think he wants to be a jumper, BUT this is another way to problem solve and address his back end without drilling dressage concepts over and over. Same principles, different medium.

And I think we've finally had a breakthrough.

demolished jump but HELLZ YEAH BACK END

Courage has always been a very careful jumper, so when he nailed this vertical with his front end, he jumped the hell out of it behind to stay clear. It's a good plan. It's very safe.

And it's the first time EVER I have seen him use his back end like a jumper instead of just sort of dragging it along awkwardly.

What's more, if you watch the video, you can see that while his next few attempts were awkward, he maintained some of that hind end motion.


(Notice: most of my jump media is off the left lead. That is mostly because I'm right handed and trying to lunge, video, keep the horse in the frame, and aim him at the jump with only two hands is wicked difficult.)

In case you're a video-hating curmudgeon (me), here's a still shot:

no demolishing needed

I'm fascinated. Utterly fascinated. Can I continue to teach Courage how to use his body in such a way that jumping under saddle is a potential future option that he would actually enjoy? I don't know. Maybe. The intellectual exercise alone is enough to keep me on track.

What is the compelling factor here? Was it hitting the jump? Is it jumping bare-legged? Is it a combination of learning to use his body and enjoy his job that's allowing him to work through more comfortable ways to do things? Is it just a one-off fluke?

I don't know.

I mean, riding Courage over a jump is not on my immediate radar--some days I'm still not trotting and cantering is definitely a special occasion at this point. Courage seems pretty happy as a dressage horse and I don't think any of this will change that.

There is no wrong answer here-if Courage never jumps with a rider again, I'm no worse off. I don't have expectations or plans. I'm just enjoying the process of puzzling him out, and as long as we're both having fun, what's the harm?

It Went Shopping, Part the Second

As y'all are aware, Courage is a dressage horse. As you are probably also aware, I wish he would jump. I mean, the horse jumps likes this:

But for complicated biomechanical reasons we aren't going to get in to right now, he is better off not jumping regularly with me. The point is, I have a jump saddle. The saddle really doesn't fit me great and it really doesn't fit him that well.

So while I'm out wandering the internet and buying anything in plain sight, I stumbled across a certain French Gentleman.

In case you weren't aware, Canadian dollars are basically monopoly money, so omg super cheap!! And yes, of course I know both Courage and my specs in the various French saddles. It's just part of being a tack ho.

Anyways. I went all crazy-go-nuts and bid on the French Gentleman and then drove Teresa and Leah nuts counting down the hours on the auction (quote: "you're giving me a saddle ulcer."). Those of you penny pinchers out there ought to be proud of how I didn't just completely freak out when I got outbid in the final minutes and let the Frenchman go to someone else.

too much monopoly $ for me

But here's the thing: just because I missed out on on wildly excellent deal I didn't need doesn't mean I can't look for another. #youmightbeatackho

I tried to be objective about it. I don't need a shiny new Frenchman. I only jump a few times a year. I just want something that fits both of us well enough to be safe and balanced. I don't jump enough to spend a lot.

And I want a monoflap.

Dammit.

I do.

So I scoured the entire internet. Sadly, all the monoflap Frenchmen were 3-5k+, which isn't in my price range for a saddle for a discipline I actually do, much less one I dabble in once a quarter.

and it has been reasonably pointed out that i'm not even riding right now

But then I stumbled across this one saddle:

18" medium tree monoflap saddle. Reasonable asking price. A friend has one and raves about it, but she rides a horse different than mine and I've never sat in it. It's a bit of an off-brand and it's not French, but it's affordable.

Despite what you think, I'm a pretty frugal person. I hemmed and hawed and tire kicked and gave Leah a jump on another saddle ulcer. Oh and I definitely didn't tell Alyssa because she's a bit of a hater on the tack purchases unless they're purple. But I didn't want a purple monoflap.

did want  purple polos. got them.

The seller agreed to a trial, but we went back and forth and back and forth and back and forth on price and details and weren't really coming to an agreement. I will close a deal NAOW if I really want something, but I didn't neeeeeeed it per se and I didn't know if it would fit and ehhhhh that's a big risk for me.

Finally, I told the seller I'd keep looking. (Translation: try to sell my current saddle so I actually have a budget and can start making sexy eyes at Frenchmen on ebay).

She said toodles.

Then she countered with an offer lower than my last offer. And the trial I wanted. And threw in some accessories. So I guess it was less like "countered" and more like "caved".

celebratory dinner party for one

I paid her. Things got weird.

Funny joke no. They were already weird. But once I paid her, the weird hit new and bizarre levels, including the seller messaging me to demand more money because she'd rather get more than than she told me she'd sell for, which is a fascinating way of doing business to be sure.

Not gonna lie, it was three days of sheer entertainment. The negotiations kept getting crazier. I laughed out loud a lot.

But at the end of day three, I was out $$$ and didn't feel like shelling out more to get a saddle I only half wanted and didn't actually need. So I asked for a refund, and to the seller's credit, she promptly complied.

SAY HES A BIRD

And that is the story of how I both bought and didn't buy a saddle, but sold a bridle to finance it and thus ended up with a hearty paypal balance and we all know paypal money isn't real money, so I rolled that balance into purchasing...

DUN DUN DUN

to be continued...

A Funny Thing on the Way to the Forum

When I got back in to horses as an adult, I wanted to do the jumpers. When I had a successful season on Cuna, it was a build up to moving into straight jumper land.

not gonna lie this looks really big now

And when I got Courage, he was supposed to be my jumper.

i tried so hard to make this happen

Are you sensing a theme?

I like my saddles brown with forward flaps and graceful curves. I like my colored poles that fall down.

But here I am three years later, making the transition to full (for now) DQ. While I make no promises about my trajectory as a rider if something were to happen to C, it appears that the next +/- ten years are going to involve a tiny white sandbox and an over-emphasis on out-of-sequence alphabet soup.

at least i've upped my braid game

I spend 90% of my time in a black saddle with long flaps these days, but I've always been way more comfortable in shirt stirrups and forward flaps. It's how I ride through all the things Courage throws at me and it always has been. Dressage saddles are for horses that behave, not ones that are losing their minds.

But then we went to our little open show and I had zero compunction about throwing the brown tack back on the beastie to look the part.

or... whatever

The weirdest thing happened--I felt absolutely uncomfortable and out of balance. I was virtually incapable of riding without a death grip on the neck strap of my martingale. I assumed it was show nerves and just sensing Courage's underlying tension, but in general, I don't get that weird about shows and this was just a whole 'nother level of fail for me as a rider.

martingale ftw

My first ride back at home was in the dressage saddle. The moment my seat hit the saddle, I was 100% comfortable. I was confident. I knew I could ride anything Courage threw at me, even if it was residual tension/flailing from overloading in the show environment.

It's carried forward, too. My next ride was outside. It was also massively tense (because reasons), and instead of a death grip on the martingale, I felt my hands stay light and giving while my legs draped nicely around Courage's sides. I felt the tread of my iridescent stirrups and I comfortably rode the horse I had in the moment.

I'm not saying I'm some sort of dressage maestro--I most definitely am not. I still tip forward, do funky things with most every body part, and haven't really addressed the sitting-trot-shaped elephant in the room (but I think we're doing another season at first so whatevsies), but apparently my body has finally learned to relax with those long black flaps.

I guess we've found our new home.

(definitely) Not Meant To Be

I got Courage three years ago with the idea that he would be my jumper. Maybe hunter. We could do hunter derbies if I was REALLY lucky.

Cough.

In a move that surprises no one familiar with my luck (I have none, ever), that plan didn't pan out. Courage has firmly opted out of any sort of career over obstacles on many occasions. He's a dressage horse now and I'm like oh, 80ish% fine with that. Except every once in a while I either go "OMG MISS JUMPING WAH MUST JUMP" or "OMFG DRESSAGE TOO HARD WILL QUIT AND BE JUMPERS".

That has happened three times this year. The first time was a massive shit show that's best described as "if you want to do something really stupid, at least remember to put your freaking martingale on, dumbass" and the second time was actually pretty great.

The third time was last week. It's possible that I had sort of convinced myself that now we were doing reasonably ok-ish dressage that everything would MAGICALLY click into place and C would be completely perfect and we'd be like "lulz y u waste time on dressazzz when could be world's most perfect hunter move over brunello".

ahahaha or something

I mean, I won't swear that's how it was in my head, but you know. It may have been rattling around back there. Because obviously a little first level dressage is all it takes to turn an anti-jumping OTTB into a six-figure warmblood with 1.5 decades of top level training. Obviously.

I'll pause to let your eyes recover from the stain of that collective roll. It's ok. I could hear it from here.

Anyways. Lindsey brought her magical French saddle out and played jump crew for the day. Now that I don't try to make her ride the beastie, she's actually way more willing to do that. Interesting. It started out great--we walked and trotted over poles and I just focused on keeping his topline loose and his brain engaged. He jumped cute both ways when we put up a tiny crossrail.

Then we did a wee little vertical and again, FABULOUS. Thrilled. So easy. Life happy. Perfect hunter. Daydreams.

ok maybe not "hunter" perfect, but i'll take it

And then we changed directions. Courage sucked behind my leg and got tense. I rode a couple circles and asked for some relaxation. It seemed sort of better so we trotted up to our tiny vertical, made a gorgeous jump over it...

swoon

...and landed flailing.

hard.

Hard enough that Lindsey completely missed the video because she had serious (if unfounded) concerns for my physical safety. I apologize for the lack of fail-related media. Alas, it (like my horse) was out of my control.

And lest you think I was abusively jumping the legs off an unfit horse, we had trotted in/cantered out over a teeny crossrail and vertical about 10 times. Total.

Sigh.

because i dared to trot him over a pole

Rest assured, I am in no rush to run out and purchase my own magical French saddle. And I guess, I do appreciate Courage's commitment to his cause and willingness to be upfront about his life goals. He's happy as a dressage horse and he's willing to play jumpies maybe once a quarter, but he definitely didn't want me getting any ideas about an alternate career trajectory.

I even compiled a fails video to remind myself of this fact.

So yeah. We dropped everything down to ground poles and slowly worked back up to our tiny vertical and ended on a good note and I actually don't think I broke the steering or the brakes this time, so that's cool.

it keeps his head from going over mine

But when people ask me why I don't jump and why a certain bay someone always goes in a non-dressage-legal standing martingale, well, that's why.