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.  

Baby Mares: They Grow

dust. the season before mud.

I've been in absolute tack ho hysterics lately because it seems like nothing I own fits Zoebird anymore. Which like. Babies grow, I get it. But also she is four and sure people TELL ME that drafties grow through their seven year old year and yes, I've formed her life/training plan around letting her growing body develop, but also like the horse is four. How much is she really going to change?

Cough.

I'll just wait for y'all to quit laughing uproariously.

Okay. So. I was cleaning up my phone pictures the other day and I saw this:

is a baby!

That's a baby Zoebird the first day I ever met her. Look what a leetle beebee she is! 

Annnnnnd here's Zoebird playing in the round pen last week:

VA VA VOOM

And like. That isn't a fat horse you're looking at. Mare is solid. She's muscle. She's pretty fit. She was in great shape when she came too--nice weight, glossy coat, all that. 

It's just that in four months (I counted), she doesn't look like the same horse anymore. 

You can see it under saddle too:

one of her first rides

I think that was like... first few days of August? 

Annnnnnnd here's October: 

mmhmmm

Oh and if you're wondering what a curvy girl looks like without all the tack, well, brace yourself:

that's real round

IN FOUR MONTHS

boss corgi needs more coffee

So uh. 

That existential scream you just heard was definitely someone else saddle shopping. 

Definitely. 

A Look Back

that look when I photograph someone other than him

 It's hard to get excited about people rehab. I hurt a lot, I ride badly, my horse is being a saint but nothing overly photogenic or inspiring is happening. I struggled with how to make "I toodled for twenty minutes and then I laid on my couch the rest of the day" more interesting and then Teresa pointed out I haven't done a progress post in ages.

So blame her.

Here's Courage in March of 2015.

first clinic!

We'd just started out in dressage. I think we were still planning to go back to jumping at this point. This was a very good moment for us--"put head down" was pretty earth-shattering at this point. I'm in my first dressage saddle and I I'm all set for one hell of a rough year, but I don't know it yet.

Let's skip ahead a whole year to March 2016.

so warm!

In spring 2016, we had a successful year of training level outings under our belts and were thinking about first level. My position is better and Courage is covering more ground, but we were definitely at the point of soft-or-forward, balanced-or-sideways. ie, not really ready for first level.

It's technically not March 2017 until tomorrow, but I didn't think of that until just now, so you get a February 2017 picture for this year.

awwww

This is definitely not the spring I was planning--winter was brutal and I'm coming back from an injury. I've been pretty bummed about our lack of brilliance under saddle, but even just comparing this shot to last year at this time, I guess I still see progress. From the hips down, my position is ok. Not great, but ok. My hands are actually better--less camped out on the horse and more semi doing something. We won't talk about my neck and back cuz they're angry.

Even with a lackluster ride though, look at Courage. OMG LOOK AT HIM. This is his under-powered-take-care-of-injured-mom baby trot and he's killing it over there. I can't ride his good trot right now (or let's be real, ask for it), but his work on the lunge line shows me he's developed a moment of suspension, which is a whole new world for us.

fanceh

 So yeah. I'm not thrilled with where I'm at right now. Most of this past winter is a blur of prescription drugs and Netflix marathons, but you know what?

We're getting somewhere.

this is not me but i took this picture on my phone and kinda love it

2016 Year in Review

These are my favorite posts of the year! I love looking back at everyone's adventures and remembering what we got through. Here goes.

JANUARY

Not much changes about January. It's a shitty month with bad weather, which prompts survivalist posts like "The Winter Rider" where I talk about making smart choices to not die.

It also prompts thinking posts like "Training the Sensitive Horse" where I reflect on the type of horse Courage is and the best ways to get through to him. And sappy posts about trust and relationships, like this one.

january trotting!

FEBRUARY

Apparently the weather finally decided to be less horrible, because Courage and I got ourselves back in regular(ish) lessons. In Learning Lessons, we used our trainer as a relationship counselor and started figuring out hard to get through the hard parts together. 

And then there was the Fantastic or Insane post where I talked about starting to bridge the gap between Courage being nuts and Courage being rideable. We actually had a lesson where I rode the whole time and he kept his brain in his head. Proggress! 

feb trotting!

And who can forget that one time Lindsey and I went complete nuts and bought a pile of shit from India! 

MARCH

Our relationship continued changing in March. Courage was learning how to trust me, and I was realizing that riding better meant deep ass soreness. 

Plus I started experimenting with dressage saddles and had the most amazing fail contest ever.

march trotting! (early precious sighting)

APRIL

I mentioned I was trying saddles. 

That escalated quickly. I fell in love and sold a good chunk of the hoard to afford it.

On a riding front, things were very mixed. Courage went to his first show of the year and freaking killed it at training level (70% WHAT WHAT). At home, he was a nut job who wouldn't let me catch him in the field.

april show trotting

MAY

May was basically one start-to-finish shitshow. As per the usual, I guess. 

We had out first level debut at a schooling show. Day one was bad, day two was worse. 

After that, I snarked at people who felt the need to run me down and opted out of paying through the nose to go fail at recognized shows.

may trotting!

Disappointing is the best thing I can say about that month.

JUNE

In June, we rallied and tried to go to another show. It. Was. Terrible. 

I struggled with whether to keep Courage. I got laid off from my job. I got super depressed and decked my horse out like he was going to a show.

June trotting

I started seeing some progress on the lunge line from our consistency under saddle, but it was not really making up for the rest of my life.

JULY

This month at least started out on a better note--I wrote a guide to the hot, emotional horse and talked about how the little things added up to game changers for Courage. I also got my job back, which is a game changer for me. 

We celebrated our three year anniversary together and he stepped out of the closet. I apparently failed at getting any under-saddle kickass trotting pictures, but we did canter sometimes.

Years in a row of posting every weekday was wearing on me though.

AUGUST

I was dealing with heavy personal issues and piling internet dumbasses on top proved to be too much to handle, so I signed off for a bit. Even with his struggles, Courage was helping me deal with life. 

I started reflecting on the process of developing a horse without getting bogged down in the daily details. Courage and I revisited our jumper roots (with mixed results). 

August trotting

We ended the month with new sparkles and a new appreciation for the partnership we were building.

SEPTEMBER

September ushered us in to a new era--Courage started pro training. I also discovered that a horse in training expects to be ridden by people who know what they're doing.

I also audited a Tik Maynard clinic that helped me think about how and why I did what I did with Courage. 

september trotting

I also wrote a craft how-to for people who don't craft. It's harder than you'd think.

OCTOBER

We kicked things into gear on the training front--I got myself into lessons and Courage was developing well. I had a family crisis that entailed skipping a lot of barn days and buying a lot of tack. 

We also tried out some new bodywork stuff that went really well. We even signed up for an open show. 

october trotting

What could possibly go wrong? 

NOVEMBER

For reasons that I'm sure are COMPLETELY UNRELATED to 2016 taking a massive dump all over me, November landed me back on the struggle bus in terms of Courage. Our open show was a catastrophe, Courage was increasingly worse at home, and I wasn't coping well. 

I did come up with a plan and ride in a clinic, but things were not good.

November Trotting

DECEMBER

December is pretty anti-climactic. I had an inspired revelation about why my horse was a complete lunatic, but then my poor car got blown to smithereens and I still haven't recovered. 

I was trying to stay consistent with the pro training, but the weather and the horse are stubbornly determined to not cooperate. Courage might be back under saddle this week. Or maybe not til February. 

yeah let's think that one through carefully

I can't say I'm sad to see 2016 go. It's been a pretty terrible year on a lot of levels. Despite all that, I've learned a lot and hey, if you examine my monthly trotting pictures, there is definitely progress shown. 

Onwards and upwards! 

Video Update!!

Ok well I super promised myself I'd just write one sappy anniversary post but I ran across this comparison and I just had to share it.

Here's Courage and I on our second ride post-track.



And here is our most-recent under-saddle video.


Look how my little man has changed!!

Enjoy the Journey

It always mystifies me when people say they buy green horses because they enjoy riding them so much.

Seriously?

I have done a lot of time on the greenies and let me tell you, any time I get the chance to sit on something broke, I get REALLY excited. Broke is fun. Training is good. I love buttons and not dying and steering and all those wonderful things.

Courage is finally sort of passing out of the "green" phase and starting to feel like a broke horse like... eh... 75% of the time? I define that as "he might not really want to behave, but I can generally talk him into it".

Honestly, I find that incredibly exciting.

He's more or less a first level horse right now. On his good days, he actually feels quite solid. Whether we move to second next year (unlikely) or stay at first and try to suck less at shows (seems like a good idea), it's time to start changing his way of going--he needs to learn to sit more, push off his hind end, and lift his withers. What's more, his default "bad" at shows is to shorten his topline and make his stride 2" long, so anything I can do to reverse that muscle memory is good.

It's not rocket science. It's simple weight lifting, as Denny Emerson is fond of reminding us. Here's a visual:

This is Courage when he first moved to our current dressage-focused barn. You can see he's a decent mover going nicely forward in this picture, but he's not lifting his withers or pushing from behind at all. He's just plowing forward on the forehand with his neck down and his nose poked out.

After a lot of time and development, here's Courage early this spring. You can see his whole frame has bulked up (it's all muscle, trust me). He's almost thinking about curling his neck in this picture, but you can see the muscle development in his neck, bum, and abs. He's going in a more level balance and he's not free falling forward.

This shot is from a week or so ago. You can see Courage has lowered his haunches to allow his body to lift. He's developed a moment of suspension in the trot and he's actually using his back and neck.

All that goes to say--the less green Courage becomes, the more fun I'm having. Most of my rides are now about developing finesse and strength and correctness. I LOVE those feelings. I do not at all miss last year's "summer of survival".

nope

Our last few rides have been spent on giant figure eights in the arena. We walk until we have a respectable, swinging free walk, then maintain the stretch and swing, roll into the trot and work to develop the biggest, loosest, stretchiest swinging trot he's possibly capable of. It's sort of compatible with the stretch trot circle, but I'm not doing it for that.

I want Courage to be able to use that pretty topline he's building. I want to step up our quality of work. I want to start thinking just a little bit about second level. All of those things take a lot of strength. For him to be strong enough to begin collection, he needs to muscles we're building that let him push across the ground. He needs the strong, supple topline that comes from thoughtful repetition of simple exercises.

I dunno when second level is in our future, but I know that every day, I'm creating a softer, stronger, more educated and more rideable horse.

And that is how I enjoy the journey.

The Good and Bad

We're in an interesting place, training-wise. Courage is starting to learn how to connect through his whole topline and really push off his hind end, which feels AWESOME when it's right.

But getting to "right" takes a pretty long time each day. Courage has to try all the options and see what will work and what I want. We do things like:

this sweet head twist

this hollow/inverted thingy

this super crooked move

Courage is in AMAZING shape right now physically. Now he's learning to take a little mental pressure and do hard things right. Not gonna lie, it's getting pretty fun.

Also does anyone notice that sometimes SOMEONE's bay mouth isn't completely gaping open? (It's a little open. That's better than gaping.) That's pretty cool for us.

It's not perfect. There's room for more. BUT OMG GUYS LOOK AT MY HORSE MY HORSE IS SO CUTE.