The downside of being in a program where we have lessons or training rides 3x a week is that it becomes impossible to document thoroughly. It would become a task of gargantuan proportions that I wouldn’t be able to keep up with and I think pretty much no one would be interested in reading.

That is the only downside. Well ok and the cost. But like… best money I’ve spent in a long time so no ragrets.

But I’m still navigating how exactly to summarize everything here on the blog. I suppose it could be a clinical day by day with general notes about what we did. Or I could just hit whatever highlights there may have been. Do the people have a preference for what they want to hear about? This is a problem I’ve never had before when even in the very best of times I was getting a lesson a week. But it feels pretty redundant to just be like “this is awesome I love it, Presto feels amazing” without more detail than that.

It’s also a bit more challenging because lesson video or media is not happening very often… it’s just not possible to have someone with me randomly at 2pm on a Tuesday or 9am on a Thursday very often. We work lessons and rides around my erratic schedule so it’s different every week. And I hate writing tons of word vomit with no photos to accompany.

So basically, what do y’all want to hear? It’s unlikely that I have time to update here more than once a week, so what’s the best way to cram it in here without being a) overwhelming, or b) not enough detail?

For instance, last week Ellie flatted him and jumped him and then I jumped him and flatted him. Her flat ride was his first real work day back after Rocking Horse (he mostly hacked and did stretchy flat rides, with a pole day) and he’s never quite as enthusiastic about dressage after he’s just run XC. He thinks the Runny Jompies should be a way of life and can be slightly feral about being a well-trained, obedient boy for his first proper dressage ride back. He was pretty good though, aside from one slight protest about the counter canter.

Then she jumped him, again targeting the rideability and reminding him that he still has to listen and does not indeed know everything (he disagrees). She jumped him into a line, leg yielded out of the line, turned around and jumped into the line the other way, leg yielded out, etc etc. Once he was being consistently soft to the base and leg yielding away without tightening his topline, she let him jump down the whole line. It was a pretty short and to the point ride – they usually are with his training rides.

We came back the next day and I jumped him, working on the same exercise. It definitely helps me get a feel for exactly what she’s doing and what we’re going for, to follow up directly after. Again we didn’t do a whole lot, just the same leg yielding exercise, then we jumped down the line. Since he was good for that we added a one stride and a bending line too, focusing on maintaining that rideability. He was superb.

Sunday we did a dressage lesson, working on elements from a new test. Particularly this series: leg yield from the rail to the centerline, turn, canter, lengthen the canter on a half 20m circle, back to working canter, 10m half circle back to the rail, trot. This series probably would have turned him into a bit of a pogo stick a few months ago, but he was actually quite good for a first effort. Before we started that we did a lot of shoulder fore on a circle (to make sure he was in the outside rein), and then shoulder out down the long sides (as a prep feeling for coming off the rail to leg yield to center line). It was fun to work on some new stuff.

As for Rubes, he’s getting rides when and how I can. We’re almost at the end of retail season, which will open up my schedule tremendously. Until then I’ve just been maintaining him where he’s at, and working a little more on bending and stretching. Once I have more flexibility with my time and can get him back on a 5-6 days a week schedule, we can resume with building on to his education.

He’s such a happy boy though, and loves to work. Anytime he sees me coming he’s like “ARE YOU COMING FOR ME? HERE I AM.” and presents himself to his gate whether I’m actually out there to get him or not. I feel bad when I’m not. Sometimes he just gets scritches and a “Sorry buddy, tomorrow, I promise!”. He’s getting used to having a less predictable schedule/routine though, which honestly I think is good for him. He struggled so hard with that in the beginning.

Oh, btw, we were selected as one of the pairs to be featured on the OTTB on Tap podcast for the road to the RRP Makeover, so make sure you’re subscribed to that! It’s a great podcast, so even if you don’t want to hear from me (who would blame you) you should listen anyway.

As for Henry, well. He’s been struggling on and off with a foot bruise for the past month or so. As soon as it’s almost better he decides to act like he’s 2 instead of 18 and takes himself for a gallop around his field and then is like “oh dang, my footie is kinda owwie now”. Yeah, bro…. what a mystery. He’s always been super prone to bruises this time of year so it’s nothing too surprising. I did get on him one of the days he looked sound and he spent the whole time pretending he was an actual dolphin. Perhaps he’s taken the retirement thing a bit too far.

I’d love it if his feet would get on board and he was reliably rideable again, because I find myself really wanting to go home and work on the things Presto and I do in lessons. Rubes just isn’t that far along yet, but Henry has the buttons. If I could ride him some and work more on myself and building the muscle memory more, that would be great. Someone tell him to stop being a dingbat about his footie.

In the meantime, Presto and I did enter another show, and now I’m obsessively trying to make sure he doesn’t do something dumb and hurt himself before then. Ya know… my life’s work.

Also, he’ll be 8 in a few days, can you freakin believe that. EIGHT! WHAT THE F