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Y’all are gonna have to put up with me being a sap for a minute. Sorry not sorry.

Henry went to his first event 3 years ago, at BN. I remember walking the course and looking at the Novice fences as we went past, horrified about how huge they looked. Not really just that they looked big, but more that it seemed so… BEYOND us. Light years beyond. I️ swore we’d never go Novice.

And then at Henry’s first Novice, at Texas Rose, I remember looking at the last fence that Prelim and Training shared, sitting next to our last fence, and feeling like it too was way beyond anything we could ever do, or ever be. Training was a fantasy, something that looked – from where I️ was standing at the time – like it was a whole world away. At that point I didn’t really even know if I wanted to get there, much less whether or not we could. When it seems impossible, it’s not something that even crosses your mind. You may as well have asked me if I wanted to go to the moon.

I guess I looked at the people and horses at that level and saw something that was way better than we were. Way better than we could ever even hope to be. After all, I’m a very very average rider just trying to make it work as best I can in our less-than-ideal circumstances, and Henry is a mentally scarred, crooked legged, unassuming looking horse. We’re as “mere mortal” as it gets.

Over time he showed me that he was more than worthy and more than capable, but I’ve always struggled to find confidence in my own ability. I got so caught up in how great other people were that I forgot we all have a different journey and we all take a different path. I had to stop living and dying by how I️ thought we compared to everyone else. Somewhere along the way I perfected the art of at looking at other people and seeing all the things that me and my horse are not. I’m not a 16yo kid with balls of steel and talent to spare. I’m not in a regular program. I don’t get many lessons. My horse is not fancy.

What I so often have failed to remember is that sure, I have it worse than some, but I also have it better than a lot of others. We all have advantages and disadvantages. We all have struggles. And for the love of god, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Trying to use someone else as a template by which to measure our own success is idiotic, at best. It makes a lot more sense to focus on what we can do and what we do have.

When we finally did officially move up to Training, it was on “home turf” courses. Places we’ve been a lot, and schooled a lot, and we were pretty comfortable at. This weekend was a lot different. We haven’t been to Texas Rose in two years, and we’ve certainly never jumped any part of the Training course. It was only our second recognized Training together, and it was big. It had some serious questions. It was not a gimme by any means. This was a real test… can we actually do this? Do we really belong here? This is supposed to be the impossible for us, isn’t it? That’s what I thought a year ago.

But this horse has, time and time again, made the impossible… possible. Henry rocked right around that course, one that not too long ago seemed so far outside of our wheelhouse that it may as well have been the Olympics, and it was a walk in the park. I’m not sure I’ve ever been more proud of a horse in my entire life. Holy shit guys. He is incredible. And WE DID IT.

I never really take the time to celebrate and appreciate these milestones. I’m more of the “that was cool… except for that mistake, or that fence, or that part of the dressage test. I need to do better.” type. We can have 17 out of 18 perfect jumps, and I always end up focusing on what I did wrong at that 1 bad one. Which is fine and all, when it comes to improvement, but I think I’m missing out on the sheer joy sometimes. I have a pretty amazing horse that allows me to do some pretty amazing things. I had The Best Time jumping stuff that was friggin BIG. But Henry made it feel easy.

So for today, I’m NOT going to recap the show and tell you all the things I could have done better and all the things we still need to work on. Today I’m giving myself the luxury of just being tremendously happy with how far we’ve come, how lucky I am to have such a badass horse and awesome friends, and how much fun I had out there yesterday. The rest of it can wait.

Today we’re headed out bright and early for Texas Rose Horse Park! I haven’t been back to Texas Rose since the 2015 AEC’s, so I guess you could say we’re well overdue. To be honest I had kind of planned to avoid the place for a while longer, because the courses are beefy, but this was my last option for the year so here we are. If I don’t vomit and/or crap myself at some point over the weekend, we’ll call it a win.

I wavered about entering Training Horse or Senior Training Rider, ultimately settling on STR. Of course, that means that there are 17 in my division and only 7 in TH. Isn’t that how it always freaking goes? I’m gonna have to figure out a new 2018 goal because AEC qualifications clearly aren’t happening. The perk is that I’m one of the first out on cross country on Sunday morning, so at least we’re done early and can get home before dark.

The weather looks like it will be fantastic, too, aside from the fact that I might get rained on during XC. Warm enough to not be miserable, but cold enough for Henry to wear his Back on Track sheet at night. Perfect! I’m actually looking forward to running a Training course when it isn’t balls-hot. My horse feels so much better when he can actually breathe.

On Monday he had his electroacupuncture appointment, and then I clipped him again for like the 9000th time. Really I’ve been clipping him every couple months all year, trying to help him handle the heat better. Now that the temperature is starting to drop a bit I waffled a lot on which kind of clip to do. I much prefer a hunter clip for showing, and that’s what he’s been getting in the warmer months, but I really liked how the Irish worked out for us last year… I didn’t have to worry so much about whether he was getting blanketed appropriately. I was still on the fence until I was standing there holding the clippers, then practicality won out. He might look a little goofy at a big recognized show, but I prefer that over worrying about whether he’s cold all the time. Especially since he’s the type who swears he’s freezing to death when it’s below 60 and boiling alive when it’s above 80. Plus we’re still kind of at the point where what kind of clip he’s got is like… the least of our horse show problems.

On Tuesday the farrier came out to drill and tap Henry’s shoes. We’ve been doing that all year but I guess last time they forgot, or maybe thought the season was over. Either way, I had no holes in which to insert studs. That’s a problem. Henry feels way better studded at this level, so I had to have the farrier come back out, pull the shoes, drill and tap them, and put them back on. Yep, I’m that high-maintenance client. Don’t worry, he makes plenty of money off of me and my every-5-weeks-on-the-dot horse. I still felt kinda bad, but pony needs his cleats.

I’m hauling up and staying with a friend this time instead of taking my own rig and camping, so that’s kind of a weird change. I’ve gotten so used to the routine of packing my tent and camping supplies that I felt a little bare last night when I was looking at my pile of crap. Hopefully I didn’t forget anything important. YES I GOT MY SADDLES.

Bobby has already declared his intentions to stalk me all weekend, so I’m sure that if nothing else I’ll have some good stories come Monday. Have a good weekend everyone!

 

Do you ever have one of those moments of extreme clarity when you’re like “I really am a special kind of stupid”? That was me last night.

There’s nothing like a 40 degree temperature drop plus wind and misty rain to liven up your biweekly dressage lesson. Or test your resolve and dedication to this idiotic (and futile) pursuit of circle-trotting perfection.

Ok maybe I’m over-simplifying the objective of dressage.

And maybe I’m being dramatic about the temperature. There was no ice. Not even close. It was 48. Not pleasant, but not too terribly miserable. Granted, it was 88 a couple days ago so my thighs and butt were numb all the same.

I was a little concerned I might have a lot of airs above ground, so I got on early and walked for a while. I definitely had some forward but Henry was surprisingly not that tense or silly, aside from pretending to spook at the poles on the ground (which is kind of embarrassing when you’re on an event horse at a dressage barn).

After a short warmup we went straight to two-track work, where we quickly displayed that if it’s possible to do something, it’s also possible to OVERdo something, and we got dinged for too much angle in the shoulder-in. Look, Henry has decided he’s super good at sideways, ok?

He had a little bit of a tantrum when we got to haunches in on a circle. And by tantrum I mean he tried to root down hard against my hands and trot quickly away, like a horse’s version of clamping his hands over his ears and going LALALALALA CAN’T HEAR YOU.

Unfortunately for him I’m more stubborn than he is, so he ended up doing the exercise anyway (albeit with a lot of sasstail).

When we got to the canter work, Dressage Trainer threw out this little tidbit: “think of getting him to take longer strides with the hind legs”… which… are all of the people I ride with co-conspiring behind my back or something, because he’s literally the THIRD professional in the last month that has thrown out that exact idea.

I became even more convinced of a conspiracy when we were walking out afterwards and I joking told Dressage Trainer that I was gonna try not to die at Texas Rose this weekend. He barely even hesitated before he said “Well if you do, I’ll take Henry”. Jokes on him, because Event Trainer staked her claim a long time ago and she’s way meaner than he is so there’s no way he’d win that fight. But really though… I’m starting to get paranoid about their motives…

 

…a Yeti cooler.

Before you get too shocked about it not being an actual horse-related item (if I ever stop asking for horse-related stuff for the holidays it’s fair to assume I’ve been bodysnatched), I specifically want it for horse shows. Mostly to keep ice for Henry’s ice boots so I don’t have to worry about it the morning of cross country. That’s normal, right? I don’t need anything huge, just the Roadie 20 or the Tundra 35 would work. I don’t even care what color it is. Ok that’s a lie, they should make one in navy, but they don’t.

The serendipitous thing about this is that the SO gets employee discounts on Yeti stuff through his work, so he can buy me one! So thoughtful, I am. He hates buying me horse-related presents so I think I won’t tell him why I actually want the cooler. We’ll just let him think that I’ll use it for normal things like food and drinks.

Otherwise, my dad is taking us all to Utah for Christmas, which I’m pretty excited about. Maybe it’ll be snowy? Hopefully we can hit some of the national parks and do a little hiking. Christmas mini-vacay!

The only thing left is to figure out what to ask me to buy for myself (because I buy myself the best presents). I think Henry is going to get the Back on Track quarter sheet (shhh don’t tell him), so we’ll see what else tickles my fancy on Black Friday. I have become weirdly obsessed with this checked vest at Riding Warehouse. It’s so… lumberjack chic. And I dunno about y’all, but I definitely want to be lumberjack chic.

But I’ve also been toying with the idea of getting a pair of my beloved Aqua X breeches in a full seat, for cooler weather. They’re definitely not winter breeches, but maybe the full seat would make them workable for Texas’ version of winter?

There are a few things I actually do need to buy that I’ve been putting off, like more poultice, brown spur straps, new clipper blades, etc… we’ll see what “fun” thing jumps in the cart along the way!

As for Presto, he’s getting a box of toys and either a blanket or a leather yearling halter with a nameplate that he can grow into. I haven’t decided yet. I mean, what does a scruffy, awkward weanling/yearling really NEED anyway? Besides manners.

Did you guys figure out what you’re asking for for the holidays yet?

It’s been a couple years since the last time I audited a Charles de Kunffy clinic. He comes to Dressage Trainer’s barn pretty regularly, but I’ve been off focusing on not getting killed during the jumping phases. This time was kind of perfect though… SO was out of town on Sunday and I was up stupid early anyway thanks to the time change, so planting my butt in a chair for 6 hours to watch CdK at work was quite a treat. Below I’ve copied all the notes that I put into my phone over the course of the different rides. Hopefully you find some of them as helpful as I did! If you have questions just ask and I’ll try to remember the context/give more explanation.

Most warmups included Zig zag up centerline at the walk, leg yield left 4 steps, right 4 steps, left, right. With precision – always practice everything with precision.

Toe in (straight), think of touching the inner calf to the seam of the saddle pad.

Steady elbows, always perpendicular to the ground.

Alternate left shoulder and right shoulder back (NOT the hand, just the shoulders) in rhythm of the gait to connect the seat bone to the horse’s back and improve the shape of the topline.

Down transitions – be sure to stay connected in the outside elbow.

“Grow large” in your upper body in the sitting trot.

Alternate giving the reins (one and then the other) to verify correct connection and to give the horse the feeling that it can always go forward – never stuck in a rigid hand.

In half pass, the reins are only for alignment, do not pull or overbend the horse.

Horses are where their haunches are. (he said this about a million times)

Practice the things that are more difficult for the horse and reward any effort.

Think of dressage as physical therapy for the horse’s body, and slowly build on difficult exercises over time as they gain strength.

Riding without a purpose is totally stupid. (he is not a fan of mindless toodling)

Use constant transitions within the gait to supple the horse and increase rideability – you want to have many different trots to choose from. Don’t just trot around in one set tempo.

The best route to the perfect extended trot is not to practice extended trot but to practice 10 different trots until you have the suppleness and rideability to create whatever trot you want, whenever you want.

Think of the upper body as 3 vertical pillars – the spine and each arm.

Your center of gravity is a direct reflection of the horse’s center of gravity.

First posture, then transportation – which means first get the horse round and bring the hocks up to the bridle before changing gait.

For canter aid, think of bringing the outside knee back.

Always give the outside hand forward a bit in lateral work to allow the horse to travel.

We have to be careful not to disturb the horse’s posture or gaits with our hands. (He told almost everyone to work on quieting their hands – no bouncing)

Don’t stop a horse when it does an unexpected move – keep going and pretend it was intentional. Don’t start a fight. The horse will learn to stay more relaxed and obedient.

A croup high horse needs more development of the lumbar back to have enough strength for collection.

Collection always comes from the seat, never from the reins.

Take time but don’t waste time.

Energy and suspension come from the inside leg.

Teaching is repetition. If you don’t get what you want the first time simply re-organize and ask again, as many times as it takes.

Resistance = confusion. When horses offer resistance, usually it is because they are confused. Always consider how the horse is interpreting your aids and make sure you aren’t inadvertently giving conflicting cues.