Update 4 of 5: Taran's mid-life crises (all of them)

While this year ended on an amazing high, we almost didn't get there - several times. See, Taran has been plagued by one thing or another, and as a result I ate a lot of omeprazole and drank a lot of wine.

After our second-level debut in April, I noticed that he was a bit foot sore. It's been an on-off problem since fall of 2016, as he has flat feet and his right front toe has a tendency to run forward. I had tried glue-on shoes a few times, which he did great in, but he didn't seem to be able to keep them on for more than two weeks. I had my vet out to consult and take radiographs, and we were shocked to find that he had only 4.5 mm of sole depth. I opted to have the hospital farrier out (he made Brego's ginormous shoes) and we put a set of plain shoes on his front feet, with rim pads.

The first week in shoes was terrifying. Normally Taran never slips or trips, but in steel shoes he did both constantly. It was like he didn't know where his feet were. It was nice not to have to boot him to go for trail rides, but other than that, I lived in constant fear that he'd slip and rip a tendon himself, or get his shoe stuck in a haynet, or rip his shoe off and half his foot with it. Those of you have shod horses probably have nightmares about your horse losing a shoe... apparently I have nightmares when my horse is wearing shoes!

But Taran managed not to kill himself, and he was definitely more comfortable in shoes, so I felt like we'd made the right decision.  I put him on Reithoof, a hoof supplement with tons of biotin in it, to hopefully help him grow out some sole (it did). Things were back to normal, so I signed us up for another show in Houston over Memorial Day weekend. And then the week before the show, T started being ever so slightly off on the RF - and it got worse as the days went by. In a panic, I cancelled the show and called my vet for advice.

Shod RF, slightly swollen in the heel and pastern. Pass the omeprazole plz.

Long-time blog readers will remember that Taran stepped on a nail back in 2011, and it went through the navicular bursae and the coffin joint. During rehab, we struggled to keep his toe on that foot short enough so that it didn't put any stress on the damaged joints, and ended up having to reset the hospital plate that covered the surgical site every 4 weeks. My vet looked back at her records, and I looked back at the blog, and T was at exactly 4 weeks when the RF started giving him trouble this time. Bingo. We pulled the shoe, trimmed his toe WAY back, and presto - he was comfortable again.

Unfortunately, T doesn't grow enough foot to have steel shoes reset every 4 weeks, so we simply couldn't keep doing that. We decided to try glue-ons again, this time with a new glue, a couple of wraps of hoof cast over it for extra staying power, and bell boots 24/7. And that seemed to do the trick.

By now, we were into the heat of summer, and the spring show season was over. We focused on strength and fitness, and making him a really solid 2nd level horse. T even went to stay with my trainer while I was gone for 2 weeks, and came back very judgmental of my riding skills. The only thing was, for a horse working at the level he was, he didn't seem to have very much muscle or topline. He also seemed to struggle with the heat more than usual, and his overall fitness level seemed to be decreasing rather than increasing. I also noticed that he was chewing a bit oddly, so on a hunch I had the vet back out to look in his mouth. And guess what - broken tooth. It was so broken the vet literally just reached in an plucked out the broken chunk. Poor Taran! After a week of care he seemed to be eating better, so I figured we had averted another crisis.

Broken molar is in the foreground...

... and here's the piece the vet pulled out.

But despite having his tooth fixed, he never really wanted to eat his Senior feed. I started giving him alfalfa to supplement, which he seemed to prefer. We did a month-long course of omeprazole since we were concerned that the stress of traveling so much might have resulted in ulcers, but it didn't change his attitude or eating habits. T also seemed to be more and more lethargic. I compared his conformation pics from last year with now, and noticed that he was definitely losing muscle.

Then one morning I came out to feed after a short rainstorm, to find him wet and shivering in the barn - only it was 80 degrees.  I threw a fleece and a blanket on him, then jokingly texted his mum a pic with "You know he's a Texas boy when...".

Literally 80 when I took this picture. Not normal.

Still, it was odd. And then he had two very mild colics within 10 days of each other. Once again, I called my vet.

"So I have this long list of weird unrelated things going on with Taran..." I listed them out for her. I'd even sent them in an email since I didn't want to forget anything.

"Ulcers? Hind gut acidosis? Lyme?" I asked. The Internet is a dangerous place if you're an armchair vet looking for a diagnosis.

"Let's test him for PPID," she said.

I laughed. "He's only 15, and he's never had a problem shedding out. There's no way this horse has Cushings!"

A week later, she called me an hour before my first ride at Regionals with the test results. My vet is super optimistic, and I swear you can never tell what kind of news you're going to get from the tone of her voice.

"We got the test results back. The high end of normal is 110... and Taran is 987."

Click to embiggen. My fav part is the "test interpretation" - technical vet speak when what it really should say is GET YOUR HOSS ON PRASCEND STAT.

I sat down hard.

"I've seen numbers that high before... once." She laughed a little.

Mad props to her for figuring that out.  Not in a million years would I have guessed!

So. Wonderpony is now on daily Prascend, and looking better every day. His topline is coming back and so is his fitness and muscling. He acts like a normal horse, although I could do with a little less fire-breathing dragon. We've changed his diet (alfalfa pellets, fat supplement, Platinum Performance, and no more hard feed ever) and most days he's happy to slurp down his "soup". He does get cold REALLY easily (refer to his 400g fill blankie from nationals), so I check the weather forecast like 10 times a day and Taran now has a wardrobe that probably surpasses Valegro's.

My biggest takeaway from the whole PPID experience is to pay close attention to anything weird about your horse. Taran's PPID symptoms were not typical, and he's fairly young. I'm super lucky to have an awesome vet, and I'm glad I have this blog to refer to for past health issues. But I'm hoping that we've figured out the RF and the PPID and can keep him comfortably, sound, and happy. After all, we've got flying changes to work on and third level waiting for us!

Upate 5 of 5: A fairytale ending

No, I'm not dead. This blog might as well be, but everything at Wyvern Oaks is kind of awesome.

In case you're wondering where updates 1-4 have gone, I'm writing this in reverse order because I'm months behind. Whatever, you get the most fun stuff first.

If we're friends on Facebook, you know that the big news for me this year is that Taran and I qualified for and went to the US Dressage Finals in Lexington, Kentucky. Not only that, but we came away with something I didn't even dare to really hope for: a gorgeous, big-ass neck ribbon. That's right, T is top 10 in the nation for AA 1st Level Freestyle.

Victory lap in the Alltech arena. I only cried a little.

The entire experience of finals was like nothing I've done before. First off, before you show in the regional qualifiers, you have to "declare" your intent to go to nationals if you qualify for an invitation. There are two ways to qualify - you can either get 1st or 2nd place in your class, or you can get a wildcard score, which for freestyles is over a 66%. We qualified with a wildcard score of a 68.5%, with was 7th place. 

Once you qualify, USDF sends you an email "invitation," whereupon you log into their website and pay the class fee for whatever you were invited for. In our case, this was not only the freestyle, but we were also "in line" to ride in the 2nd Level AA championships, because we were 3rd place at regionals. If 1st or 2nd place had declined the invitation, we would have been allowed to compete (note, this did not happen).

After that it was a matter of signing up for the show. Kentucky Horse Park is a little weird because you get your classes through one site, your RV reservations through another, and stall/shavings/hay through a third. Normally all these are included when I sign up for a show online, so I found it a little challenging the first time round. Luckily, things were all in order when we arrived after a long-ass, two-day drive with an overnight stop in Little Rock (also, hell hath no traffic like I-35 northbound from Austin to Dallas when a semi overturns and closes the Interstate for 2.5 hours). 

Unfortunately, our first ride was at 8:40 a.m. on Friday, only 14 hours after we arrived. It was 30 degrees and quite windy, and poor T and I were both frozen. We had trouble finding the arena (it was a 20 minute walk from the barn and there were no signs) and so our warmup time was cut short. Luckily my trainer (who didn't go to Finals) had put me in touch with a good friend of hers, and he was on hand to help me warm up. Given that it was the first time he'd ever seen me ride (and uh, let's just say I'm pretty sure we didn't make a great impression), he did a great job jumping in and getting the job done. We rode a very stiff, uninspired, inattentive test for a 60.854, which was our lowest score to date. T stayed with me though and tried his best, but between the long haul, lack of warmup, and cold, I really didn't set him up for success. Lesson learned though - we really DO need a day to settle in if we're going to be competitive.

Pretty but completely frozen

After our ride, I noticed that T was not very warm under his 200 gram blanket, BOT sheet, and neck cover. I tried to find him something warmer at the show, but none of the vendors had blankets, so we ended up going to a local tack store and picking up a 400 gram turnout with neck cover and belly wrap. Within a few minutes of bundling him up in that, he toasted right up and started eating and drinking more normally. Note to self: Texas gear is insufficient for Kentucky temps. Also Taran prefers warm water.

Why yes my fully clipped Texas horse is bundled up to his eyeballs. Not shown: me also bundled up in my ski pants and parka. It was 23 degrees, don't judge.

Day 2 had us riding 2-3 again at 4 p.m. It was much warmer, and I was own my own for warmup. Well, except for my awesome husband who kept reminding me to let T go forward and turn my thumbs up. I was determined to put in a more forward, uphill, and relaxed test this time, so took plenty of time to warm up and really focused on breathing and staying loose in the tack so T could actually move. We got into the ring and every time I felt him get stuck I let out my breath, relaxed, and put my leg on... and he started moving again. Lesson learned! We had our absolute best mediums to date, and our canter work was SO balanced and round. 

Like, dayum. 

Does anyone remember when we could barely even canter on the left lead?

Uhhhnnnfortunately, we also put in more mistakes than we ever have before. We had a break in the canter, someone fluffed a giant plastic trash bag next to the arena so we bolted in a 10m trot circle, we did a reining spin instead of a TOH, and he was super convinced I wanted to canter down centerline. So our new score was ALSO the lowest ever... 60.061. But we squeaked the 60 and completed his 2nd level performance award, which was why we were riding it. Besides, it was probably the best test quality-wise we've ever done (he also offered 2 piaffe steps in warmup), and I was super stoked about that.

Seriously wish the pro photographer had gotten this one... alas, it's only a blurry screen cap of a zoomed-in video.

Our final ride was the Championships on Sunday morning. We were 4th to last in order of go (they do a draw by computer), so I had a fairly relaxing morning to prep. We had another good warmup (with coaching this time, woohoo!) and there was a scratch so we got to go a bit early. Overall the quality of the ride was not nearly what we had the day before for 2-3, but it wasn't bad either. We had two mistakes - we missed the first change in our line of 3 but managed to make it up, and he spooked at A when a hoof hit the arena wall (driver error, whoops). We got a little behind the music after those mistakes and I had to scramble a bit to catch up, but it worked out mostly OK. It definitely wasn't the super brilliant test I wanted it to be, but we got around and kept it together.

I had my back to the arena and was talking to my coach about how it went when his eyes lit up, and I turned around to see the scoreboard:

 

Hell yes I will take that. Also judge at B, I love you.

There was much frantic scrambling for phones to check how my score compared with the others (aside... did you know that iphones will brick when it's too cold? Just FYI), and I was sitting in 8th, with 3 riders to go.

And then two.

And then one.

And we managed to hold on for 9th.

I am so proud of this piece of satin it's kind of ridiculous.

I know we had mistakes, and I know it's only 9th place. But that damn ribbon couldn't mean more to me than if it said Champion on it and came with a fancy cooler. I am riding a tiny 15.1 homebred pony cross against warmbloods imported from Germany and holding my own. I've been told more than once that I'd need a fancier horse to be competitive... and yet, here we are. We have come so far in the last two years, and worked so hard for it, and we are not done yet. 

Taran not care about fancy ribbon. Taran care about friends OVER THERE.

2nd Level Bronze Medal Scores + 1st Level Awesomeness = best show weekend EVER

This year has gotten away from me. I felt so organized back in January, filling out the calendar with all our travel and events and shows and jousts and family things.

And then there's that moment when you look at your calendar and feel completely overwhelmed, and realize that something's got to give. And for me, one of those somethings has been blogging.

I've been riding lots though, and this weekend was the first show of the year. I was supposed to already have 3 shows done and gone, but see above-mentioned crazy schedule. The venue is our favorite, in San Antonio, in part because everything is covered but mostly because there is a FABULOUS restaurant right next door with awesome margaritas. Important detail, right?

I'd signed up at the last minute because they had some slots left, and it had become apparent that another show I had planned on doing wasn't going to happen because of other scheduling conflicts (*&!@&^ calendar). So I felt kind of unprepared - we haven't set foot at a rated show since Championships early last October, and we were tackling second level for the first time ever.

I really should start believing more in myself and in my horse, because it was quite literally the type of show weekend I've only thought other people, with fancy imported horses, get to have.

First up Saturday morning was 2-1. I'd had a tense warmup Friday night (because OMG SHOW), but Taran's bodyworker, who also takes lessons from the same GP trainer as I do (and happens to be an FEI rider herself), kindly took some time to talk me down from the ledge and reminded me to breathe. She was actually on hand for the rest of the weekend with pointers, and I'm pretty sure she's why we did so well.

When I went down centerline the first time, I had a HUGE smile on my fact. I WAS RIDING SECOND LEVEL. For real. I knew we could do it, and I focused on riding a clean test. We had three mistakes (one blown canter lead and we broke after both medium canters because if I sit too hard in the canter, T thinks I mean walk), but we also had some really nice moments. We left points on the table when I didn't halt for 3 seconds before the rein back, but we also scored an 8 on the centerline and had a lot of 7s for the canter work (?!?!?!). Our final score was a 61.5 for second place (out of 3, .4% behind 1st). And it was good enough for a bronze medal score.

GO TARAN GO!

After that success, I was able to relax even more. Saturday afternoon had us doing 1-3 for the 12th time, but I had hubby read the test because a) I haven't done that test since October and b) I can NEVER remember that damn test. T was feeling a bit tired, but we held it together and only had one mistake (another break after lengthen canter). Overall though, it was a smooth, clean test, and I made the final halt knowing it was the best 1-3 we've ever done, regardless of what the judge thought of it.

Final halt and salute. This got an 8.

I was right - final score was a 69.295%! That got us our second qualifying score for 2017 regional Championships, and it also clinched us 1st place for 1-3 adult amateur. We even squeaked out a Reserve Champion AA First Level ribbon. I picked up my satin and glassware (not going to lie, I love glassware prizes), and thought I'd had just about the most perfect day ever. We topped off the awesome by visiting with horse show friends, and then hubby and I had an amazing seafood dinner. Horse shows are even nicer when you have The World's Best Horse Show Husband (TM).

Satin with bonus glassware

Sunday morning dawned dark and stormy, with a bonus Tornado Watch throughout most of central Texas. Fortunately, my first ride of the day was just after the leading edge of the front moved through. Other folks were not so lucky, and one of the arenas lost power so dressage tests were ridden in the dark. At least the entire facility was covered!

Not what you want to see an hour before your ride time

I was determined to ride a mistake-free test this time. I'd spent some time thinking about my medium-collected canter transitions, which are a big struggle for me, and what I could do differently. We practiced a few in warmup and I had a very clear sequence in my head - inside leg, sit TALL, and FLUFF THE REINS. I went down centerline again with a smile on my face, because I knew we were going to rock it. Our trot work wasn't as good as the day before, but the test was mistake-free and I was really pleased with how solid of a ride we put in. Sure, we are leaving points on the table, but we'll get better at it the more we do it.

This time, the judge was a bit more generous and gave us a whopping 65.6%!!! And damn, I am proud of this test. I can't even believe this is the same horse I was riding a year ago. 

Unfortunately, we had a 5 hour wait until my 1-3 test. I considered scratching because T and I were both tired and we didn't need the score for anything, but I also really to see if we could break 70. We put in a very short, conservative warmup, and then I went out and rode the test like I was riding a second level test - way more uphill and collected than I normally would. We had a couple of transitions that weren't where I wanted them to be (canter at C was early and it would be great if T would actually halt at X long enough for me to finish my salute) but otherwise I was very, very pleased with it. Even the medium to collected canter transitions felt good! 

I was putting away stuff in the trailer when the results showed up online, but I heard this screech from Taran's stall area and hubby yelled across the parking lot "SEVENTY THREE POINT SIX!!!!" I wasn't even sure I'd heard him right, so I checked my phone... yup, a 73.676%. SHUT THE FRONT DOOR. That's a lifetime high for me, y'all. I've never even done that well at a schooling show!

Since I'd scored so well but both my divisions were the last of the day, I decided to stick around for the finals, and I'm sure glad I did. We ended up getting first place for both 1-3 and 2-1 in the AA division, AND we got High Point AA for both first level and second level. 

Satin like I've never had before

And then I read my 1-3 test, and I saw this:

I actually grabbed the poor stranger next to me, hugged her, and shoved my test in her face exclaiming "I GOT A TEN!" Sorry, whoever you were, and thanks for understanding my excitement.

So that sums up my fairy tale show weekend. Normally, when you watch the 70+ rides, they're on very fancy horses. I honestly never though we'd be able to score that well, no matter how good of a test we put in. I guess I was wrong. Apparently my little (borrowed) homebred pony, who's spent most of his life being a lawnmower, is more awesome than anyone ever knew. 

Heck, apparently he's a perfect 10!

FTW

Shoulder in! Renvers! Leg yield! Travers!

Our last session with Alfredo focused on getting Taran to be more mobile with his shoulders and haunches, and hotter off my leg. As Alfredo pointed out after I'd switched my whip for the 20975th time, Taran doesn't respect my leg unless I have a whip to back it up. That's all fine and good until you ride a test where you don't get to carry a whip, and then you're screwed (ahemGAIGchampionshipsahem).

We worked on the new, slower warmup, which seems to do good things for Taran:

Hellooooo, gorgeous stretchy trot. Where have you been all my life?

And then we transitioned to doing shoulder in to renvers on a circle. The difference is bending, which sounds easy, but it's challenging for me to rearrange all my body parts quickly so that Taran can make the transition from one to the other smoothly and without losing the trot. We've done this exercise with Alfredo before, but I admit that I don't practice it much at home. When I do, I'm not asking for the level of bend and obedience that he expects... because this kind of smooth, obedient movement is a whole new thing for us:

I really liked the feel that I could put Taran's body anywhere I wanted and I would get an immediate and BIG response - that goes with being more demanding of both myself and him. Plus, it's much harder to do shoulder in/haunches in on a circle than it is on a straight line (which is what's required in all the 2nd level tests), so if we can can do these movements well on a circle, we shouldn't have any problem when we have to do it down the rail. Plus it's easy to see in the video how a half pass could come out of these movements, if I just placed it slightly different, so that's exciting. Who knew Taran had so much crossover in those short little legs of his?

Finally, we did an exercise down the long side where we stared in shoulder in, switched bend to renders, then flipped to face the rail in leg yield, then changed bend to travers. Sound confusing? Try riding it! I messed it up the first few times, but eventually we kinda got it right:

Whew, I felt like I needed a translator! These movements (except SI) aren't really automatic in my head yet, so it takes me a moment to figure out what each one needs and then ask Taran for it.

We've definitely got our work cut out for us, but I got a lot out of the clinic. My biggest takeaway is that I really have to be more demanding of us both... Taran can do the movements, and do them big, and I need to push for that. We don't have fancy gaits to help us out with our scores, so it's important to ride every step for 110%. I'm excited with all that we accomplished in just a few short days, and am really looking forward to working on everything at home. After all, our first show of the year is just 2 months away!

A more effective warm-up & riding for better scores

The second day of the Alfredo clinic, we worked primarily on more shoulder in and renvers. But what stuck most in my mind about this lesson was what Alfredo had to say about warm-up.

At home, we usually take a short trail ride to the field where we do most of our work, so we have a 10+ minute walk warm-up. Then I do some trot and canter on a long rein, take a bit of a breather, and then consider us ready to get down to business.

Alfredo's suggestion was much different. Instead of doing long stretches at any one gait, he had us do perhaps a circle or a half circle of one thing, then a circle of walk, then pick the reins back up, do something else, walk, etc. Essentially it was a lot of very sort bits of bending and flexing, working lower and then asking for a few steps of collection, working lower, back to walk - just lots of gentle transitions, gentle flexing, and gentle laterals. I posted the trot the whole time to let his back warm up (I normally do a lot of posting so that wasn't new).

Longer rein at the beginning of the ride

Asking for him to come a bit more together

As the session went on, we asked for more sustained stretches of collection, more angle in the laterals, more bend, and a faster response off the leg. Again, Alfredo's method is very short stretches of good work, followed immediately by a walk/reward break when the horse does the exercise well the rider does the exercise correctly.

Flexion left with a bit more collection

Really asking that hind leg to come through

The trot near the end of the ride

I can certainly see the benefits of shorter chunks of work, especially with an older horse, but I do worry a little about building more fitness and also the horse expecting that he only has to work for short periods of time (ahem).

We did have one fantastically excellent spook when a pitchfork that was leaning against the side of the arena slid down the wall and onto the ground...

Thank goodness for saddles with ginormous thigh blocks! 

Another super interesting thing Alfredo said was about getting better scores on a movement. If your movement starts well, then the judge is likely to have in their heads a 6.5 or a 7. If you ride half of it well and then it falls apart, you might end up with a 6.5 or a 6, depending on where you started. BUT, if your movement starts off really badly, the judge might have in their heads a 5, and even if the second half of the movement is great, you're unlikely to score more than a 5.5 or a 6. So it's really important to set up the movement well and make that good first impression, even if it falls apart later. Easier said than done, of course!

Meh

Better

THAT's what you want to come out of the gate with!

"You need to be more demanding"

Hubby and I are attending another clinic with Alfredo this week. As usual, Alfredo insists on good work, and in our first session, about halfway through he said something that really stuck with me.

"You need to be more demanding."

He's right. At second, judges want to see a sharp, workman like test. The halt needs to be trot-halt-trot, not trot... walk a step... halt... stutter back to a trot, like was acceptable at first. When I work on my own, I try to make my movements correct and precise, but there's a whole 'nother level of accuracy when someone is yelling at your in a lesson. Everything needs more bend, more expression, more obedience, more precision.

Take our walk-canter transitions, for instance. I thought they were decent (I mean, we didn't have one like 3 months ago), but decent - with a step of trot - is not enough. THIS is what he wants:

Ignore the part where I push his haunches to the inside the step before the depart and look at how awesome my horse is.

We also worked on improving his gaits, especially the trot. We did a lot of renvers on the circle (ok, I tried to do renvers on a circle, but it's hard and I'm struggling with timing and body position).

I really need to step in the direction I'm going and get my hands right. But Taran is trying hard and the sky is so pretty!

But when we go straight after a few steps of renvers, this magic happens:

All the time like this please.

But riding that uphill, balanced, expressive wave is hard, and it's all too easy to get a little quick and on the forehand:

Half-halt needed. 

So, I gotta be more demanding, of both myself and my horse. Maybe that's my mantra for 2017?

What about you? What's your biggest struggle right now?

A year of Taran conformation shots: How far we've come

This time last year, Paddy had just re-injured himself (soft tissue in RF), and Brego, who was my plan B riding option, had just ripped off a huge chunk of foot that we were going to have to wait for months for him to grow out. I wasn't about to not ride, so I pulled poor Taran out of the pasture and he became my primary riding horse.

He was a pretty rough customer, since he hadn't been ridden consistently in quite some time. He was muscled upside-down, and had no topline at all. 

December 23, 2015

After just a month, his topline had improved dramatically and his butt was starting to fill in.

February 1, 2016

By March, the giant muscle on the bottom of his neck was becoming less prominent as his topline continued to fill in.

March 6, 2016

He started looking more like a normal horse in April, although this particular picture looks even better because his neck is stretched out...

April 10, 2016

Our May pic was kind of awkward, but you can see that he's continuing to fill in. The area right in front of his withers continued to be a challenge.

May 22, 2016

He spent most of July with my trainer since I was out of the country, and she evidently fed him extra as well as worked him: 

July 16, 2016

I think he backslid a little in August (you can especially see it in the base of his neck) since I was trying to figure out how to ride him more over his topline and not doing a great job of it.

August 20, 2016

He looked a little slender in the October shots, but this was after four days at Regionals where he didn't eat very well. The top of his neck, right in front of the wither, STILL hasn't filled in much, and you can see the hollow right behind his wither too.

October 9, 2016

Since October, we've been working on a lot more collection and laterals in preparation for 2nd level. I'm finally getting the idea of fluffing up his shoulders and really riding him through (sometimes, anyway), so this has helped fill in the muscles behind his withers and the top of his neck in front of his shoulder. His butt is looking more rounded and beefy, too!

December 14, 2016

Let's just have one last comparison look, shall we?

Damn. He doesn't even look like the same horse, other than the cute, kind expression!

Lessons with a Grand Prix trainer

Last weekend, I was invited to bring Taran up to a clinic with a local-to-Texas Grand Prix dressage trainer. Since the weather was nasty and I wasn't going to be able to ride at home, I figured I might as well go somewhere with an indoor and take lessons from someone new. And I'm really glad I did!

There are a million couple problems that are keeping us from progressing with 2nd level. We're working hard on these at home, so I was up front about things with GP trainer. Might as well air all your dirty laundry right off, you know?

• I love to pull with my left hand (this is a theme)
• Taran tends not to be even on his right shoulder, and as a result, he's not really in my right rein and therefore not really straight. I'm constantly trying to manage this and not doing a very good job of it, but it's our biggest problem right now because not being straight and even makes everything else 2x harder. 

After watching me WTC, GP trainer asked to hop up on T to see how he rode. I'm all for this, because sometimes what you feel from the saddle is very different from what you see on the ground. She was super complimentary of T, said he was trained very correctly and that she could feel what I was talking about. However, she felt that the issue with his right shoulder was more that he carries BOTH shoulders to the outside when tracking right. I could easily see what she meant in the videos, and when we addressed that issue, suddenly he filled up my right rein and everything felt more even. She also stressed how important it is to ride T with his poll at the highest point, so that his shoulders free up and he doesn't dig himself into a trench. 

First up, trot work. She wanted him to go with his shoulders to the inside and a little leg yield on the circle, but my problem with this is often that he tends to throw his haunches out and that's not correct. She wanted me to manage his steps so that he didn't have the chance to throw his body around, and we did a LOT of asking him to slow the trot from my seat. You can see in the video how he gets a little quick and on his forehand and then I sit and he comes back, back and forth, because I'm not so great at managing that slower, more collected trot yet (why hello, abs, it's so nice to meet you owwww).

Slow that waaaaay downnnnnn...

You'll also hear her talking about "moving the bit", and by that she means just a tiny flex of my ring finger. I get really stuck and stiff with my left arm (pulling, anyone?) and Taran responds by setting his jaw and poll on the left side. Simply flexing that one finger reminded me to stay loose in my left arm and as a result, he stayed much more supple. At 1:00 you can see me try to do a 10 m circle right, but it took me forever to get him off the track to do it because he was so stuck on the left rein. In my next 10 m circle at 1:45, my left rein/arm is softer and we're able to execute the circle much more easily.

She also refers to "fluffing up his shoulders," which is kind of like fluffing sheets when you make the bed. I bring him back with my seat, keep my hands up and light (NO PULLING), and add inside leg to encourage him to step under (explanation is at 2:10).  

For the canter, I uh, learned that I've been asking for the canter wrong for my entire life. Did anyone else not know that you cue with your inside leg when the inside hind is reaching forward? Bueller? Right. So uh, need to fix this so that my canter transitions don't suck. 

Note angry ears and mane shake, because cueing correctly means he has to sit down and do the transition correctly too. And that's HARRRRD.

His canter, y'all. It was SO NICE at times. He felt so balanced and steady. Annnnd then he would get tired and/or I wouldn't "refresh" the canter enough and we'd lose it. Or I'd forget to turn his shoulders, or he'd get quick, or something. He's really trying with this new canter, but it's super hard for both of us. Basically I need to constantly ask him for a baby leg yield to keep the inside hind working, but then wait with my seat (AND DON'T PULL) so I don't let the canter get bigger.

If you want to see a great example of shoulders falling to the outside, check out the canter depart at 1:03. Or here's the handy still sequence, where you can see juuuuust how much his shoulders aren't in line with his haunches:

Finally, we did a little work on medium trot (well, we also worked on shoulder in, haunches in, and half pass, but that that's not on video). To set up, we did a lot of forward/back with "small steps" - again, no pulling, but all off my seat and keeping his poll up. 

Although our mediums mostly sucked, there were a few steps here and there, at the very beginning of some of the lines, where you could see his shoulders really lift up and out (1:26, 1:58). That's totally new for him - normally his mediums feel like he's plowing a trench. But the combination of keeping his poll UP and having him take shorter steps off my seat made for some sort of magic where he could actually use his shoulders. GP trainer made the comment that he's not quite sure what to do with himself, but if we keep asking for a few steps here and there, he'll get stronger and understand that he can use his body better.

I really enjoyed my lessons and got a TON out of them, and I'm hoping to attend clinics with her regularly in the new year. She's about 2.5 hours from me but sometimes teaches closer. Her methods are very complimentary to my current trainer, and I think that learning from both of them would really allow us to progress even more quickly. Plus, she's hilarious (sadly not caught on film), which adds an extra element of awesome to any ride. 

Poor Taran. Life as a pasture ornament was so much easier than that of an aspiring 2nd level horse!