The running life

Yup, I still run.  Not nearly the crazy levels I was running for awhile, but enough to keep my cardio up and avoid Theo having the upper hand.  Hoof.  Whatever.

In 2018 I ran around 450 miles and something like 25 races, everything from one mile to a half marathon.

In my team uniform and everything

I made all sorts of friends and learned a lot about being an athlete.  Let me tell you, when Theo has an off or creaky day after a hard work out, I am far more likely to just let it go.  I've had many days with a scheduled work out that got rescheduled for a hip or knee that just did not want to work.  I've learned that prevention really is everything, nutrition is huge, intervals for strength training are not to be rushed, and the right equipment makes a tough thing a bit easier to manage.

My goals for 2019 are a bit different.  2018 was all about learning and trying a little bit of everything.  I did road races, trail races, obstacle races, short runs, long runs, group runs, solo runs, big races, little races, you name it.  I loathe running, so I wanted to find the least awful way to get it done.

My running bff with me for the Snowflake Shuffle 2019 (freaking 17* out)

 I now know that I'm not a really long distance runner.  My knees started to crap out once I was running 8 to 9 mile long runs each weekend.  Ow.  This year, I'm going to stick to 10k or shorter.  I may have that one 10 miler again, but I'll relay it or walk chunks of it.  No more halfs, the body just doesn't tolerate the training.  The actual race was not bad, but the accumulated wear and tear isn't something I want to repeat.

I'm also not a fan of obstacles.  Seriously, how does anyone do any of that nonsense and live to tell the tale?  But I have now actually experienced a friend yelling 'do a barrel roll!' in a non-ironic, non-joking way.  Is that an accomplishment?  I feel like it should be.

I prefer trail races.  I like the challenge of uneven footing, the slower paces, and the scenery.  Something about running through the woods is much more fun and my knees appreciate the break from the pavement.  Down side?  Holy hell the deer flies we get!  So not in deer fly season, but the rest of the year, I want to hit the trails.

I enjoy shorter races where I can get out, knock out my miles, and get my beer.  Because I'm all about the instant gratification.  I got to a sub-30 5k in 2018, I want to aim for a sub-60 10k in 2019.  Interval work and runs that are typically five miles or less should keep the bod happy and the pony on his toes.

Today I tried to give Theo the day off after my 5k and he started rattling and slamming his gate as he realized I was leaving the field without him.  Well, fine then.  You can come out and play.  We played soccer for ten minutes straight with him chasing the ball without my input other than some tricky corners.  I need to buy a Pixio, he's so cute trotting after the ball and shaking his head before giving it a mighty shove.  It gives him an outlet to play and rough house without broncing during our ride.  He was quite well behaved after ten minutes of play time.

Took his braids out to reset them, the long, wavy mane makes him look even more like a Friesian

I still hate running, but the right shoes, company, and rewards makes it bearable.  And being able to kick my pony's butt when necessary is plenty of reward.

The magnificent land porpoise

Theo decided to remind us all that while he's a good boy, he is no saint.  The temps plummeted, the chiro gave him an adjustment, he got an extra day off, and we suddenly have a sighting of the rare and magnificent land porpoise.

One second I'm cutting across the short diagonal, the next I'm hanging on for dear life as my horse leaps magnificently into the air, props and attempts to bolt.  We've got enough miles that I felt it coming and didn't get rattled.  I sat up, halted, and looked over to the door to see someone looking horrified.  Theo heard them walking on the ice outside of the indoor and lost his mind.  It was a pity, he has so much more energy when he's sassy and we were getting some great work.

I dropped my reins to let Theo's brain reset while the teens yelled commentary about how cool Theo looks when he does that.  Yeah, yeah, it's great.  I'll be feeling that in the morning.  Jerk.

I worked him hard, then Trainer A worked him hard the next morning, and then his other rider got on him.  And he dropped her.  A little drop due to dropping his head and shaking it after a jump, but still.  Don't drop her!  We need her!

So I got on him today and did what I could when temps are at 23*.  I don't want his respiration up much, I don't want him to sweat, but I still need to get the energy levels down.  Ha.  Ha ha ha.  I went for forward trotting with bits of cantering on a long rein over 12 inch fences with walk breaks after every 4 fences.  Wash, rinse, repeat.  It certainly did the job.  He never got huffy or sweaty, but he was noticeably happier and calmer by the end.

He did squeal and leap in one of his changes, but at least the change was clean?  It was Trainer A's favorite, but it might have been because of the noise he made.  Seriously, he's a porpoise complete with really high pitched sound effects.

Hopefully he'll be done with this soon.  I don't need a lot of reminders on just how big and naughty he can be.  

The matchy match life

Hi, my name is Catie, and I am addicted to matching horse accessories.

I currently own 8 outfits for my horse, not including his formal wear.  It really doesn't help that he's black bay and looks amazing in just about every color. 

Azalea pink
Pink and white browband from PS of Sweden
Monogram Azalea Pink saddle pad from PS of Sweden
Pink polos I found in the clearance bin at the local tack shop, can you believe it? 

Bright blue (with glitter boots)
Silver Clincher browband from PS of Sweden
Bright blue earnet from the clearance bin of a local tack shop
Monogram Blue saddle pad from PS of Sweden
Glitter boots from the local tack shop (or white if I don't feel like getting glitter on everything)

 

Navy blue
Midsummer Joy pearl browband from PS of Sweden
Navy earnet from the local tack shop
Midsummer Joy saddle pad from PS of Sweden
Navy boots from Smartpak

How do I have no pictures of my navy set?!  Here's my show set, at least it has the earnet and browband (and my navy coat, totally getting a navy helmet for next year)

Black
Black Delight browband from PS of Sweden
Onyx Stripe saddle pad from PS of Sweden
Black jumping boots from PS of Sweden (I nabbed these used from a local rider)
And in the dead of winter, black square cooler from Smartpak that I refuse to take off for pictures

Merlot
Bold Merlot browband from PS of Sweden
Monogram Merlot saddle pad from PS of Sweden
Merlot polos from PS of Sweden
My rarely seen white bell boots

Yes, I bought the merlot vest I'm wearing to match this outfit.

Iced coffee (with matching polos)
Hot Chocolate browband from PS of Sweden
Stripe Prosecco saddle pad from PS of Sweden
Stripe Prosecco polos from PS of Sweden

Brown
Sleek Fudge browband from PS of Sweden
Brown earnet from PS of Sweden
Mustang Brown saddle pad from PS of Sweden
Brown jumping boots from PS of Sweden

Can you believe this set is four years old now?

Green
Green and blue browband from PS of Sweden (their ocean colored one from a couple years back)
Green saddle pad from PS of Sweden (from their test run of pads they sold a couple years back)
White boots from Smartpak (at least until I find the perfect polos)

It's a lot of stuff.  Once I type it all out, I realize I have also become a poster child for PS of Sweden.  I don't currently own any saddle pads that aren't PS of Sweden.  I think I'm up to 10 of their browbands.  Can't complain about the quality of the product, I machine wash those pads and boots regularly and they bounce right back.  Haven't needed to retire any to date and some are approaching four years old.  It does help that I have so many saddle pads I rotate them a lot, but even my jumping pads where I've only had two are still looking great.  Still using the same set of jumping boots I bought for Theo on our first Christmas together.  They'll need to retire soon, they've accumulated a lot of strikes, but that's impressive.

My accessories were taking over my car so I finally came up with a solution.

These are storage bags from Amazon, the kind you keep under your bed to hold sweaters or comforters.  The one on the left is saddle pads, the one on the right is ear nets/polos/boots.  It keeps the chaos under control and I can just grab the colors I want to go with my outfit.  The polos and boots went into mesh laundry bags so they are easy to grab and I don't have to search for that missing one.  There's always one missing.  On laundry days, I can haul the whole bag in and wash up the saddle pads.  The polos wash in their laundry bags to keep the tangling down, leaving me with just the re-rolling.

My browbands live in a drawer in my tack locker.  They're safe from getting snagged and damaging prongs in there.  The kids at the barn whisper to each other about Theo's jewelry box.  I'm not joking or exaggerating.  I've had some ask to see his jewelry collection.  They're always very impressed by the sparkling browbands I pull out.

I've got most of the major color groups covered right now.  I snoozed and lost out on the PS of Sweden purple set.  I was very mad at myself since that's the one color I'm missing from Theo's wardrobe.  I really really want a purple browband to go with my purple coat.

The antique pink browband looks great, but I want a purple one.

I recently found a new comic to follow.

It's so accurate it hurts.

Redeeming the ratbag

It's really unfortunate that such a cute pony got dubbed Ratbag, but it's been appropriate way too many times.  When his brain breaks and he suddenly gets stuck going backwards and crashes into a beginner lesson, he gets called Ratbag.  It's just the way that works.

Dolce, like most horses, thrives on routine.  Since I've taken him under my wing, he's been put on a schedule where the same thing happens over and over.  I get him out of his paddock, take him to the same cross ties, groom, tack, take him to the ring for work, then back to the cross ties, then back out to his paddock.  Nothing bad happens to him, he gets so many scratches and pets that it's actually kind of enjoyable.  He's starting to think this isn't such a bad deal.

He's still pretty damn sure the entire world is trying to kill him, but he's decided I'm probably the exception to that rule.  He used to shy away when I pet him with a loose rein in my hand because clearly, it was time to beat the pony with the reins.  So I spent quite a bit of time trotting around with loose reins and petting his entire neck.  It's fun to mess up his mane while trotting a figure eight.  He doesn't care anymore.  He also doesn't care about me mucking around with my stirrups, patting his butt, throwing my jacket on his head, etc.

I think he's actually starting to like me.

Took the green bean for a long walk down the road to start getting him road safe.  Cars are not demons from hell, pony.

I dumped his ugly bridle and put the High Jump on him.  Fits him perfectly and is quite flattering on his little face.  Noseband is loose because I'm me, but I did notice him being less evasive with his mouth.  So there's that.  I also swapped him to Theo's spare Verdinbend bit so he would quit laying through my hands.  Yeah, full cheeks are nice for teaching steering, but that fat, single joint bit was making it way too easy for him to get a hold and drag me wherever he wanted to go.  This bit is lovely and he likes to work it with his mouth.  So much drool.  So.  Much.  Drool.  And the more he's thinking, the more he chews and drools.  It's pretty ridiculous.

The tack change was well timed.  When Trainer A surprised me with a request to record my ride for a sales video, the Ratbag was looking very nice.  Trimmed mane and tail, all matching and well fitted tack, and my outfit matched his white saddle pad with blue trim.  There's a reason I go down to the ring like people are watching!  He's still ridiculously fluffy but it's winter in NH, people will hopefully understand.  I'm pretty proud of him in the video.  He looks green but pleasant.  The canter departs are awful but the actual canter looks like something someone could ride.  Walk, trot, canter, reinback, trot over a pole, dodge some beginners in a lesson, it's a pretty good display for the all around pony.  I think we should add video of him walking over the little bridge and being an absolute rock star on the cross ties.

I'm taking Denny Emerson's advice to heart and spending a lot of time walking under saddle while working on correct responses.  One leg, move over.  Two leg, go forward.  None of those cues is for scooting.  Repeat until he just does it without thinking about it.  As he gets comfortable with his routine, he's settling in.  He will now stretch for me in short bursts, can trot around without looking like a giraffe, and canters in something approaching a civilized manner.  It's going to take a bit more time to get that canter depart sorted, but at least it's a quick canter instead of a frantic bolt with his tail clamped down and eyes rolling in terror.  Progress!

Still not my personal cup of tea, but he's making me more confident of my first assessment.  There's a cute, fun all around type pony under the fuzz and ratbag routine.  Hopefully I can keep getting him out as the cold of winter closes in.  We're getting down to 5* for a couple days this week.  Ew.

Don't let fear drive

Am I the only one that wakes up in the middle of the night in a panic over horse stuff?  I hope not.

I'm probably the only one that does that over teaching a horse a movement.

Hm.

It's weird when you try to improve your riding off of clinics you audit, videos you watch, books you read.  You don't have the instant feedback you get in a lesson or when you ride in a clinic.  That lack of reinforcement makes it harder to stick to the plan when you're not sure.  When under pressure, most riders fall back to what they know.  It's safe, it's secure, and you're confident you can do it.

Even when you know you're doing it wrong.

I was reminded after my last post that using a pole to teach a change is inviting more problems in my flying changes.  I defended myself, I'm human, but I thought about it.  I didn't come up with Thoughtful Equestrian out of the blue.  Should I use a pole to teach a change?  I damn well know better.  A trick from ages ago when I needed to put swaps on ponies quickly so they could be sold as jumpers isn't the way to teach my horse a change so I can get my bronze.  Gods forbid I push past Third and need more than one change.

Fourth seems a stretch with this barbarian

I can defend myself with the fact that he has this weird pseudo-change that was installed before I met him and a pole prevents it.  And that will always be there as something I need to manage and combat.  He does this weird change of lead where he doesn't really break to the trot, but there's definitely an extra beat in the change like he touches the ground an extra time.  But when I'm being honest, that was a cop out for the fact that I'm genuinely afraid of getting this wrong.  Trainer A is good eyes on the ground and has put changes on a horse, but not for competition.  I'm her first rider going Second, much less schooling Third.  I need to go see Mary Howard again as soon as the roads are safe.  Stupid New Hampshire weather.  But in the meantime, I can try to play her voice in my head. 

I saddled up on Saturday with the mantra that my horse already knows how to change.  I just have to teach him the cue.  He's done it plenty of times in the past, just not in any kind of predictable way.  That's a pretty radical paradigm shift from where I was on Friday.  On Friday I was scared I wouldn't be able to get the behavior, that he was too old (he just turned 15), that I didn't know how to ask properly, that he wouldn't know how to do it.  I fell back to what I know because I was so scared of failing.

I made myself follow the plan I knew was correct, not what I was comfortable with.  I developed the canter I wanted (aka very forward and almost hot), got him responsive off both legs, and then I asked for the change on a short diagonal.  There was some flail, of course.  He's a total greenie at this.  But he changed once in both directions.  No poles.  No drama.  Lots of smoke out of his ears but no disconnected changes.  Including the elusive left to right.

Once I got the two changes and administered the appropriate amount of cookies, I went and did something else.  They were super duper green, but he did them and that's all that matters at this point.  No need to harp, just another thing he has to do now, the same as a turn on the haunches or a simple change.  Nothing to stress over.  He's well rewarded for the effort so it doesn't seem to overly bother him.  I . . . almost think this is something that comes naturally to him?  Maybe?  He's certainly built for it.

And then we spent Sunday out on the trails because it was 42* in January and we'd earned a day off

He still thinks I've lost my damn mind, make no mistake, but he's willing to humor me for cookies.

Soooooo maybe I need to tell myself that my horse already has a change, it just needs work.  Because that's a totally different frame of mind.  I don't need to teach him how to do a flying change, I need to teach him how to respond to the cue for the flying change.  And deal with the smoke coming out of his ears that I now want him to swap leads after a year of convincing him to knock that evasion off in the counter canter.

Maybe I need to do the exercises to improve his canter, get him hot off my leg, and set him up so that the change is super easy rather than getting carried away with making sure that I succeed with poles and props and theatrics.  And sabotaging myself along the way.


Why are horses so hard?

Ch-ch-ch-changes

I said I was going to do it and by golly, I'm not backing down this time!

Also I told Trainer A, who set up a lesson plan based on my January goal, so I didn't get a chance to back out.  Past self is smart.  I hate her.

Today was my first lesson where we were expressly going to work on flying changes.  Since jumping helps, I threw on his jumping tack.  He gave me a shaky change in each direction last week and he gave Trainer A a right to left change yesterday, so he's at least aware of the concept.  It's just not on a cue or at all reliable.  With his jumping background, the plan was simple.  Jump him, swapping leads over the fences like usual.  Drop the fences to poles on the ground and then we'll take the poles away.  It will take a long time, but we do change of lead over fences all the time because he's a smart boy and knows there's a change of direction coming when I turn my head.  Might as well build off of what he knows and where he's comfortable.

Theo is all about finding comfort wherever he goes

He was sticky in his warm up, dropping behind my leg.  He felt stuck in his hip.  Chiro is out on Monday so we'll get that fixed up but for today, I focused on forward, forward, forward.  Jumping helped because he does love to jumpa da jumps.  For the first couple passes, it was easy.  He's done this enough.  Crossing the diagonal over fences?  Change leads in the air.  But the swap from left to right disappeared quite quickly when he realized there were no bending lines or real jumps.  Not a surprise, he prefers his left lead as a rule and these were single little cross rails.  I started to ride for the change and managed to break the change over fences completely because I'm an idiot and thought collecting would fix that while jumping.  Pony knows that he dressages when in that frame and when dressaging, rewards come from hanging on to that lead.  It also had us coming in far too close to the jump and defeating all of the forward and lift we get from jumping.

We moved the jumps up so he wasn't in dressage mode but then he was much more interested in staying on his left because it's easier to jump from.  It got us forward again, but we were both more focused on getting the jump then we were the change.  We dropped the poles on the ground so both Theo and I would stop thinking about jumping.  I got changes with no poles at all last week so it was worth a try.

Right to left, he's got the idea.  Canter up to the pole, get a push from the new inside leg, swap leads cleanly with a hop over the pole.  Done and done.  No big change in rhythm, no bolting, just a change of lead.  Many, many cookies for the pony.  Once the light bulb went on, he was very consistent.  I like working on this over a pole with him since it makes sure he's going to go up for the change.

Left to right, it's hard.  He doesn't particularly want to canter on his right lead, so it takes more creativity to get him to offer the behavior when he has very little idea what I'm after.  After a couple passes, I got my whip tap timing right and he hopped up into a clean change (of course it was a couple strides after the pole).  Much petting, many cookies.  The lightbulb started to flicker.  Repeat with the good side, then come again asking for the change to the right.  It takes three or four strides after the pole with me asking the whole way, but he does change.  Some passes got disconnected, but we were able to end on a clean change.

The good news is that the biggest protest was a buck due to the whip tap. Theo is not a fan of whip taps ever, so this isn't change related.  He's not showing a propensity for bolting and slamming into the bridle.  I think it helps that he is learning it with a click/treat so he doesn't want to fly around.  He wants to stop for his reward. 

The bad news is that he's not always clean with the left to right change.  He'll change behind first if he's protesting the request.  Which is super weird to me, I've always had horses change in front and forget the back.  Theo will swap behind, then get around to swapping in front a couple strides later. 

Let me tell you, our walk to canter was freaking sweet by the end of this lesson.  He was thinking forward into the canter and stepping under himself.  I was also not overriding it because I was more preoccupied with the new tricky thing.  I didn't expect that bonus.

We also completely blew Theo's mind.  We had to have a complete stop/cookies/cuddles reset in the middle of the ride because he was starting to look overwhelmed.  He was offering the behavior I've been asking for in recent months, but all of a sudden I wanted something else and it was very upsetting to him.  Counter canter = cookies!  Simple change = cookies!  He made a valiant attempt at walking for one change since simple changes are how we change leads and mostly tripped over himself and the pole.  I'm glad he didn't actually fall on his face or try that twice.  This is the same horse that threatened to rear and flip over when introduced to the turn on the haunches because it wasn't what he expected to be asked.  Theo is a total PITA to teach new things, he finds new expectations very upsetting.  I'm glad we confirmed counter canter first.  If we were going the other direction?  Forget it.

So we survived day one.  As this is super tricky and my horse is ridiculously clever at evading things that are new and challenging, I will only work my changes with supervision.  Trainer A will also be working on them during her rides.  Our goal for the month is just to get a calm change on a cue over a pole in both directions.  Once Theo has the mechanics completely sorted out in his little head and it's no longer so new and strange that smoke comes out of his ears, we can wean him off the props.  There's no rush, I don't need the change for at least another year. 

Getting our groove on

I'm not very good at making commitments.  I waffle and fuss and debate for a long time.  I'd set my sights on some Latin tango music for my freestyle but it wasn't something that completely blew my mind.  I liked it, it suited Theo, but I wasn't sold.  But if I'm going to use a freestyle in June, I darn well need to get in the queue to have my choreography done.  I logged into Musikur to request an invoice and lock in my music choice.  Because I'm me, I skimmed through the music.  Hmm, a new section called Vocal?  What's that all about?

Guys, I have my freestyle music.

The trot music:

The canter music:

I can't actually identify my walk music.  The whole thing can be heard here under the Feel It Still music.  I really fell in love with the canter music.

'Cause I'm on top of the world, 'ey
I'm on top of the world, 'ey
Waiting on this for a while now
Paying my dues to the dirt
I've been waiting to smile, 'ey
Been holding it in for a while, 'ey
Take it with me if I can
Been dreaming of this since a child
I'm on top of the world

Yeah, I want that for my freestyle music.

I've picked my music and I'm paying for the choreography to be written up made to order.  I don't want to stress over this.  Maybe for Second Level I'll write my own.  For this one, I just want it to be done for me.

I've sent a Youtube video of Theo doing First 3 to the lady that will be writing my choreography.  It's out of date but his speed hasn't changed much.  He looks much more correct now, but he covers the diagonal in the same amount of time.  My next step is to fill out a questionnaire about how I want to present my horse.  Show off the counter canter and circles, hide the lengthens, don't leg yield off the wall.

I'll keep things updated here as the process progresses.  I'll be getting diagrams of my freestyle and a copy of the music with audio cues to help me practice.  Then I just need to wait for the spring thaw so I can set up the large arena.  I'm so excited!