Roughing it

First off, thank you to everyone that sent such nice comments about Theo's progress.  This is what happens when you try to not think about something that's bugging you.  You let it build and build until it gets loose and suddenly it's all you can see.  It was a relief to hear that people are seeing what I'm seeing and that I'm not horse blind. 

With my spaz attack over Theo's training behind me, I've been trying to get myself back on track with playing around.  The weather hasn't been too bad, but the bugs are another story.  We went out in the Ritz for some big canters and jumps on Thursday.  We only made it about ten minutes before the deer flies chased us back into the arena.  I kept it to transitions with him as long and low as possible while stuck in the sandbox.  It was nice to feel him round up and fill up the saddle while he stretched through his neck.  It was all about relaxation and getting him to stretch out as much as possible.

A cold front moved through last night, dropping temps into the seventies and giving us a nice, steady breeze today.  I figured this was the best shot we would get at the trails without being swarmed by bugs.  I slapped Theo's heart monitor on since I wanted to do Walnut Hill.  I also put on his fly mask, soaked him in fly spray, and grabbed my fly whisk. 

As promised, this time I got some pictures of what Walnut Hill looks like.

Doesn't every dressage horse do this on the weekends?

The path is just as steep and rough as it looks.  It's an old logging road and not maintained.  This was Theo's first time doing the hill by himself, so I was very pleased that he marched up bravely and didn't give me a hard time.  When we got to the top of the first climb, we were swarmed with flies so I had to turn and head right back down.  We didn't get to do the second, steeper climb.  The path is too rough and I don't know it well enough to do anything but walk, and without speed we couldn't do anything about the bugs.  Instead we headed across the street to have a quick run down the rail bed. 

Cantering kept the clouds of deer flies off of us, but just barely.  Theo was highly motivated to keep going forward.  We cantered sections we usually trot and trotted sections we usually walk.  It was very cool to pick him up and slalom him around the trees and roots at the canter.  It's not something I would have dared before this. 

His fitness is doing fantastic.  By the time we walked back to the barn and I dismounted, his heart rate had completely recovered and his breathing was normal.  Even the hill climb didn't get much of a spike in his heart rate.  He was sweaty but content after his workout.

It's going to be hot and dry all week.  We're scheduled for jumping and a fun group lesson this week.  Despite my plans, I don't think we'll get to go out on the trails much.  The flies think we are far too tasty. 

Trail adventures

As part of my attempt to mix things up, Theo's been out on the trails a lot.  On Wednesday he played lead horse for the group of adult ladies while we showed them where we go to do his canter sets.  He enjoyed the nice walk, though he was a little confused when we walked the whole thing instead of cantering.  Being lazy is nice, but going for a canter is also nice, especially when the bugs are out really thick.

Today Trainer A took us for an adventure up a set of trails I'd never tried before.  There's an old logging road running up Walnut Hill, leading to a cell tower at the top.  Instead of working in the ring, she grabbed Baby Pony and showed us the way up.  I remembered to turn on my ClockIt app.

Considering our rides usually look like this for altitude change, it was quite a difference for mi papi.  Note the scale change for altitude. 

400 foot climb in 0.6 miles.  That's pretty steep for a horse that usually sees nothing more than 100 feet in change throughout a ride.  That initial climb in particular had the ponies blowing and we had to stop to let them catch their breath (the spot where everything goes flat).  Theo wasn't blowing anywhere near as hard as Baby Pony, so our fitness work is definitely on track.

Aside from the elevation change, Theo had to be a serious business trail pony.  This trail isn't really maintained, so there were a lot of branches to dodge (or tear down and eat, as he saw fit) and some rock faces to navigate.  Since he wears shoes all around, granite rock faces are not something to handle lightly.  On the way up we slalomed our way along, finding the dirt paths.  On the way down, I let him figure out some sections.  It was adorable seeing him put his head down and check before tippy toeing down tricky sections.  He's never offered to put his head down and check his footing before, so that's a great lesson for him to learn.  Next time I'll go in my jumping gear so I can lean way back for the steep descent without hating my life and the cantle of my saddle.

I'll also try to get pictures.  It's quite pretty and looks like something you would never take a dressage show horse up and down.  Baby Pony looked quite at home, his spotted butt carefully marching up and down in his bare feet.  Theo looked a bit more out of place, but showed off how sure footed he's become by never missing a beat.

Tomorrow I have to go back in the ring before I completely forget how that's supposed to work.  As much fun as we're having, I do need to remember I have a three day show coming up in two weeks.  I need one more qualifying score before I can decide to officially slack off for the rest of the summer.

Show pony

You know you're starting to make real changes in a horse when the teenagers that would previously dodge having anything to do with him start talking about how much he's changed.  Miss Thang's rider stopped to give Theo a pat and said 'oh, wow, look at that neck!'.  A different teen was watching him work today and said 'wow, he's just fancy now!'.  His former owner's husband commented on how much muscle he's picked up.  Everyone was surprised when Theo came cantering off of the trail to cut through the Ritz with his ears up and absolutely no kicking (the very last spike on the chart).

400 mpm baby!  Yeah, I was surprised, too.  He hit his stride while we were out and was very happy to keep cantering with no management from me.  The stronger and more experienced he gets with uneven ground, the less I have to manage his every step.  We had just one serious trip once we were out on the trails and he recovered nicely.  He's still a bit more pokey going away from home, but we had a fantastic, willing canter down the rail bed on the way home.  I was able to get up off his back in a half seat, keep my reins short, and just enjoy the beautiful spring day while he powered along with pricked ears.

I take back everything I said about him not being fit enough.  I still didn't really get his heart rate up today.  I guess I'm going to have to branch out and find more places to play if I want to truly open him up or do hill work to get his heart rate up into the 60 - 70% range.  I don't think I can get much higher than 400 mpm on the rail bed without endangering walkers.  You can see on the speed where we had to turn around or stop to let people pass by. 

All of my work is paying off, though.  I did some ring work before I headed out to hit the trails and Trainer R saw me working the canter.  Her exact words were 'his canter is sweet, three beats and everything!'.  The best part was that I wasn't kicking, nagging, or begging.  I was just sitting there, working on keeping my keister in the saddle for all three of those beats.  She's always razzed us on his canter and it's tendency to go four beat, so it was fantastic to hear that.  We worked the counter canter in both directions and his simple changes on a four loop serpentine.  I really, really think he'll be ready to debut First level this year.  We'll do Training for the championships, but I expect to knock off the First level scores I still need.

On Monday we have meetings to lay out plans for our first couple of shows.  Entries open on the 28th.  The show season is coming up very, very fast all of a sudden.  I still need to go shopping for white breeches.  I don't wanna, but if I'm going to play with the big kids, I need to look the part.  White breeches, stock tie, matching spur straps, the whole bit.  Theo's already set with two show pads, a saddle, bridle, and girth.  Time for me to catch up with his wardrobe.

Has anyone else seen the previews of the PS of Sweden spring collection?  I'm going to be so broke!  There's a reason I don't have nearly as nice of a wardrobe as my horse.

Get fit, Theo

Theo's heart monitor arrived and after work beat me up for a couple of days, I finally got a chance to use it.

So, so easy to put on, by the way.  One pad under the saddle, one pad attached to the girth, done.  Bluetooth picked it up on my phone and away we went.  It was a breezy but sunny day so I went into the outdoor so I could get a clear look at the data.  Working in the indoor can throw the speed off sometimes.  Not a surprise when in the country in NH, reception is always a bit hit and miss.

How fit is Theo?  Here you go.

An hour of work and he didn't break a sweat.  Sigh.  But on the plus side, my canters were faster than the last time I rode him in the ring by about 30 mpm.  Progress!  I'm seeing now why his cardio isn't improving.  We never get his heart rate up above 60% of the maximum.  The highest we got was 127 bpm.  His resting is about 46, by the way, and he got back to 55 bpm in about five minutes after we stopped cantering. 

The very end of the chart when we went completely still is when he decided his ear itched and he managed to take his bridle off.  Yes, that's a thing he does on occasion.  It doesn't even freak me out at this point, though everyone around me was rather shocked when they noticed Theo was standing about with his bridle and fly veil on the ground.  Mi papi is a dork.

So we need to up the anty a bit in his work outs, at least for a couple of bursts.  He's not getting that out of breath and he's clearly working within his current fitness level.  He's just a lazy bum, which was what I figured.  Since he had his shots I mostly took it easy on him, though I did insist he canter along like he had somewhere to be.

Poor Theo.  He's been caught fibbing.

I Love Data: KER ClockIt

Seriously, it's an addiction.  My job is to analyze data.  On the weekends, I do data analytics competitions (kaggle.com).  Many nights see me cursing at my homework as I complete my data science certificate.  Any time I see a chance to collect data, I jump on it.  I love wearing a Fitbit since I can track my activity, weight, and calorie intake over time all on one chart.  But what about Theo?

Behold, my latest addition to the training arsenal:  KER ClockIt.

KER ClockIt is an app I installed on my phone to help me keep track of Theo's workouts.  It uses GPS to track location, elevation, and speed.  You can also use a Bluetooth heart monitor to track heart rate.  I'm using the Sport version.  It's a free app, though there are extra bells and whistles if you get a subscription.  Fun features include the option to let your coach look at all of your reports and help manage your fitness work (if anyone wants to spy on Theo, just send me your username and I'll set up a connection).

The graphs are from yesterday's ride.  I turned on the app, put my phone in my back pocket, and at the end of the ride uploaded the information.  This is so amazingly helpful!  I now know how far I went (6 miles), how fast I was going (about as fast as a snail), and how long I spent at each gait (I swear we were cantering).

I do have to do some tweaking on the settings for what speed the app uses to determine the gaits.  Theo is dramatic, but slow.  I only hit BN speeds once and that was in his last canter out on the trails.  I spent about ten minutes at the canter during our ride, but his canter is more in the 200 - 250 mpm range right now and the default settings on the app register that as a trot.  I knew we were slow, but I didn't know we were quite that slow.  We'll work on that.  He's got long legs, he can canter at 300 mpm, especially out in the open.  He did take the bit and open up on that last canter, which felt cool.  Too bad I had to pull up before he could really get rolling, footing is still a little iffy with the recent thaw.  He usually does better after a couple of gallop attempts, so hopefully if I take him out to open him up as much as possible, he'll remember that he can, in fact, gallop.

This was kind of embarrassing.  These are the speeds I entered for Theo to get a more accurate view of time spent in each gait in future rides.  Pony is sloooooow.  They're in mpm.

I miss Fi and her 375 mpm canter and her 550 mpm gallop.

But this is good information!  And it accurately tracked my time in the indoor arena, so that was a big bonus.  I now have a better idea of how long I can do a continuous canter on the trails.  About two minutes, end to end.  So if I want to really condition, I need to canter to the end, then turn and canter back.  Walk through the Ritz, up to the road, and back to the end of the trail to let him catch his breath.  Repeat.  The trick is doing it when there aren't a bunch of kids out trail riding on school ponies.  Theo is slow but big and looks very dramatic.  Also, brakes can get dicey once I actually get him up and rolling.  He's a big horse and goes in a double jointed egg butt snaffle.  I don't want to mow down a bunch of tots on ponies.

I'm looking forward to recording the information on all of the loops and variations we use so I can make educated decisions on what to do to get the type of exercise I want.  Hill days vs. gallop days vs. long trot days.  I also ordered a heart rate monitor so I can start to track his fitness that way.  Mi papi is excellent at acting like he's dying of exhaustion when he is, in fact, just lazy.  Some hard data will help me figure out his actual fitness levels.

I love data.