2019 Horse Spending

I wanted to keep track of my horse spending this year. Several other blogs to it, and I was curious. I didn't come up with a budget or anything, but I wanted to see how my spending compared with others out there. And being financially-minded, to see if there were any areas where I could decrease in the future. It was a very atypical year. I moved Mort three times (two barns and then to the property). I bought a new horse. I also bought hay and equipment for the new barn. Essentially, things were pricey. I definitely did not include the actual costs of building fence and stalls etc. But I did include the "things" that I bought for the barn like buckets, rubber mats, hooks, etc. I definitely didn't go overboard on these things (and I also got most of my mats for free), so it didn't hurt too bad. I did not include Blue's price, but I did include the tack that I bought with him. I broke it down into the following categories: Board, supplements, farrier, misc. equipment, vet/dental, lessons/shows, and trailer. Board: $5456.23--$454.69/month This is by far the biggest category. Which makes sense--horses aren't cheap to take care of. They eat a lot. The barn where I was for the first two months of 2019 only charged $275/month. But when we moved to a much better barn it got bumped to $400/month ($410 in the summer for fly spray). Totally worth it obviously. This also includes the $1800 I spent on hay for the two guys this winter. Since they moved, it is where I put the feed and bedding costs. Thankfully, it's gone down tremendously since they're on 24/7 turnout and Blue doesn't eat much. I'm really interested to see how this compares next year with two horses living at home versus boarding one. Supplements: $1055--$87.92/month Mort's supplements changed a good deal this year, but thankfully the budget for them didn't. He went from an ulcer and hoof supplement to joint, ulcer, hindgut, skin and coat, and hoof. He also gets a bug supplement every summer. Mort turned 10 this year and started showing some age in his joints. Adding the supplement (and a stifle injection) seems to have helped this. I was able to keep the costs under control by using a combo supplement for joint, hindgut, skin and coat, and hoof. I also found a very similar ulcer supplement for significantly less money. I thought about moving him to just ulcer, hoof, and joint after he moved to save some money but I haven't pulled the trigger on that at this point. Blue is currently not on anything--we'll see if that changes next year. Farrier: $965--$80.42/month This really isn't too bad compared to a lot of folks out there. Mort has simple shoes on the front only. He is thankfully not too complicated. My cost went down some when we moved barns. I had to go with a new farrier again when he moved home. The new farrier is even less expensive (not why I chose him), but adding Blue still obviously puts us up a bit. Thankfully, two horses is still less than Mort was with the original farrier so I'm still coming out on top. If Blue ever needs shoes, that will go up though, so we'll see what next year brings. Misc. Equip: $1619.51--$134.96/month I admit that this is the one that I was worst at keeping track of. There are definitely a few purchases that I forgot. It was also a very expensive year with building a house, so I kept this spending to the minimum. I bought supplies for the barn, occasional tack, fly spray, etc. This was not the year for pretty new things--maybe next year or the year after. My list of "wants" is only growing. Vet/Dental: $520.10--$43.34/month That's right y'all, be jealous. To be completely honest, I still haven't gotten the bill for Mort's lameness exam and stifle injection from the summer (though I did remind the vet when she came out to do teeth and fall vaccinations). So I imagine this will at least double. But honestly I'm still not mad about it. Spring and fall vaccinations, floats for both boys, a spring fecal exam, and dewormer throughout the year. Thank goodness for healthy horses and no major accidents. Lessons/Shows: $997.50--$83.13/month This was another category that was low this year. Not only was I aware of spending money on "extra" things, but the time commitment of building is also ridiculous. So, this year was very slow on this front--only one show and a handful of lessons. I did also cut some from this by braiding at the show. Hopefully I will have more time to spend money here next year. Trailer: $216--$18/month Nothing went wrong with the trailer. All we had to pay for was the annual tire/bearing/check-up. We spent a lot on it last year updating the frame and floor. And there are certainly more updates that we want to make, but who knows when Steven will have time for that! Total: $10,829.34--$902.45/month That's a pretty big number, but it could be worse. We'll see if the money I save (if any) on board next year will be replaced with lessons, shows, and equipment. I'll also try to do an even better job keeping track to get a more accurate picture.

Since the Move

Both boys have settled into their new routines. Blue never seemed phased and Mort was overall pretty decent. He was a little scared and spookier the first week or two, but now he's as calm as he usually is. They both seem totally happy on 24/7 turnout. I did find them cold and wet a time or two at the beginning before they learned to go to the run-in, so now I lock them in the lot if it's going to be nasty. Feeding their hay in there has helped them want to hang out as well. I've been able to ride/lunge Mort 3-4 times each week while I work with Blue about twice. This is better than I was expecting. I was worried about winter weather and the shorter days, but I'm making it work. Of course, this means that some days are a quick 30 minute bareback ride before it gets dark, but I'm still happy with that. Mort seems to be holding his fitness well with all the turnout and I even managed to get Blue to lose a little weight. And, most importantly, both boys seem happy with the arrangement. Mort has been stellar since the move. As cheesy as it sounds, I feel like our relationship is even stronger than it was before. He comes out calm and happy (his version of calm) for our rides. He's standing well in the cross ties. He is easy enough to handle that even Steven had no issues taking care of the boys when I was out of town for work. And our rides have just been a blast. I'm having a ton of fun with him. Whether it's me hopping on bareback and walking him in the pasture, or going up to the field and putting in a dressage school, we're really clicking. He's forward but soft and listening. His lateral work has been coming easier and easier (though that haunches-in to the left at the trot is hard still). His transitions are getting stronger and smoother. We may be riding on a slight hill in a 3.5-acre field, but we're killing it. I've got a lesson scheduled this weekend at the indoor where my instructor teaches and I'm really interested to see how it translates. Blue and I are doing well too. He hasn't put a foot wrong (other than stepping on Steven's foot once by accident). He's been pretty steady and easy to deal with. That's about all we did for the first few weeks. I would lunge him or ride him 2-3 times/week. I'd groom him when he got dirty. I'd feed him and give him the occasional treat. We had a good working relationship, but there wasn't a whole lot more. Thankfully, he's started to open up for me more in the last couple weeks. I started playing with some more in-hand work to get creative on getting him worked when it was dark out. And he opened up a bit more for me. Whether it was his version of settling in or it helped him get to know me and my body language a bit more or whatever else, it seems like we know each other better now. I think he probably still has a little more personality to show me when he's ready, but I'm feeling good about where we're headed. Beyond our rides, it just feels great to be the only person for my guys. Even though I still check-in with my horse friends on random decisions, I love being in charge of their daily care and feeding. With me going out twice a day, they get groomed more often than when I was boarding and I monitor every change. I get to just spend more quality time with them and it's the best. Literally every time I feed I just stand there and watch them eat their hay for a few minutes soaking in the peacefulness of it.

Blue

Blue, or Bee B's Blue's Man. Is a 14-year old Rocky Mountain Horse gelding. He was owned by the same woman from 3-13 years of age. Due to financial reasons, she rehomed him to PALS (People and Animal Learning Services, Inc.). PALS is the therapeutic riding center that we leased my old guy, Fred, to while I was in college for his semi-retirement. So I knew they were good people and his old owner was still very involved in his life as well. They were retiring him from being a therapeutic horse after a year for a few reasons. He wasn't a fan of being with so many different people and would occasionally try testing them. Nor was he great with the less able-bodied folks. But, he was still safe and sane which were my goals with my second horse. When I tried him out in late September, I had a blast riding him and never had a moment of feeling unsafe or not being able to trust him. That's big for me, as I almost never trust a horse the first time I ride it. Blue has been trail ridden in several states and been to some big show facilities (including the Kentucky Horse Park. He travels well and settles in quickly. (He travelled like a champ on the six hour drive home.) He's an extremely easy keeper (aka pretty fat right now) and does all of the things that a horse should. I worked did some ground work with him Sunday and lightly lunged him Monday. He was well behaved and definitely does better with a lunge whip. He's very treat motivated and is looking for one at all times. I rode him for the first time at home Wednesday evening and he was a pretty good boy. He definitely wanted to "test" me with being lazy and leaning that shoulder toward the gate, but he was easy to correct and was never actually naughty. I felt good on him and was getting bored riding in the pasture, so I took him to the big field on the hill and he was a good boy out there as well. I see a lot of long walks in his future to try to get him into better shape. We did gait some but I don't feel good doing that for too long of intervals for a while. Short intervals of gaiting and endless walking. If the weather holds, I'm hoping to take him along the county road this weekend sometime. We'll see. So far, I'm happy with my choice and I'm sure he'll only get better as he settles in and gets to know me.

The Big Move

As I'm sure you can imagine. Owning a horse while trying to build a barn and house (especially when said horse lives 40 miles away) isn't easy. Steven and I were really busy trying to get the property horse-ready. I was horse shopping. Work got a little (more) stressful. Basically, I'm giving you all of the excuses for not blogging but more importantly not really doing a whole lot on the horse front at all. Mort was only being ridden 3 times a week. We were purposely not working on anything hard or complicated. I knew that I wasn't in the right head space to train, nor would it be fair to him to ride that frequently and ask for serious work. We mostly worked on fun basics and occasionally would play with something from second level. But I never set goals as those would have come with expectations and stress. I definitely had more than one ride of bareback wandering (once or twice with a beer in my hand). But we finally got the property horse-safe! The fence is up and operational (tested by Steven and the poor pups). The barn is cozy and safe. The feed was purchased and stored. The million other things were accomplished. I had picked out a horse and a date to pick him up. So, Steven and I trekked out after work on the 18th to Indiana. We picked up Blue the morning of the 19th and headed back to Missouri. I had arranged the barn owner to haul Mort to our property as we got close so that the new guy wouldn't have to stay there by himself for a few hours (she's the best and I'm going to really miss riding with her!). Both boys got out individually for an hour or so that evening and there was very little excitement. They spent the night in their stalls and I put them out together in the lot the next morning. Zero drama and much grazing. They did run several happy laps when I let them into the big field but settled quickly. After spending two nights inside, I have transitioned them to being in the pasture during the day and the lot at night. They both seem perfectly content being out 24/7. Eventually I'll let them have free roam at night, but I want them to learn the routine first so I'm not hiking out to bring them in for breakfast in the dark at 5:45am. So far they come to the run-in part of the barn when they hear me prepping their food. I did start off with some buddy-sour issues the first couple days. They wanted to cling to each other and would get pretty stressed for even a minute inside alone. While they still don't want to separate, I am able to ride them now with only minor stress from the other horse. I think they longer we're there, the better they will continue to become. Thankfully, it's just the one that is "left behind" that is stressed and if either of them is the one that is being worked with--they're totally fine. Basically, we're all getting into a routine and figuring out our new lives together. I am so happy. Before I even picked Mort out the summer after college, it was 100% my goal to get back to keeping my horse at home. Now I've got them on my property and hopefully by next spring I'll be living out there too. Mort doesn't have to move again and I love that. Stay tuned for the next blog post about the new guy!

Riding Without a Plan

Mort was good last night. I didn't go in with much of a plan. I want to keep this week lighter and mostly work on the basics--no use getting either of us worked up before a clinic. Suppleness is the name of the game. He started out the tiniest bit more up than normal. I think the cooler weather is helping him feel the pep in his step. I did some walk work before trotting to get his attention on me a little more. We started off with full-arena figure eights. I tried to focus on getting him straight and only asking for a little bend. Steering from my legs and seat while just softening the jaw a bit. I've been doing better with not letting my left hand go too low and I've been working on trying to sit heavier on my left seat bone (because I'm always sitting right these days). The seat bone is a lot harder to fix. I never used to have an issue with being this crooked, so I blame Mort's crookedness influencing me a lot on this one. That's not me trying to come up with an excuse not to work on it, but it is a bit frustrating. I'm not buying a new dressage horse anytime soon though, so it's just something that I'm going to have to get stronger about. Honestly, we got to a good spot pretty early into the warm-up. He was responsive and forward without being rushed. He got a bit fast after we cantered, but nothing that some half-halts couldn't easily fix. After our walk break I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I went back to the circle exercise with bend/counter-bend and leg yields. It's a good one for loosening him up in the base of his neck. He has to tune into my seat and legs even more for directional aids. And working on 10 and 20-meter circles is never a bad thing for us dressage folks. He did well with it and I only ended up doing it twice each direction. After another break I just did some leg yield zig-zags. We ended with some stretchy trot both directions. He does so well with this at home--I can't wait for him to unlock that back someday at a show. We walked a few laps in the field to cool down. He was spooked by something back there last week and hadn't been really comfortable in turn-out since. One day he was so worked up in the lot that the barn owner had issues with him being rude coming in. So, I've made it a point to end our rides out there. He was really up and nervous at the beginning of our cool-down on Sunday but worked into a state of semi-relaxation. Yesterday he started off mostly relaxed and was fully relaxed by the end. And he was good in turnout last night, so I'm calling it a win!

Horse Show Recap--Sunday

So, my friend and I came in with a plan on Sunday. We fed, and while Mort ate she took her mare on her morning hand-walk. Mort panicked and spilled a lot of his food. I cleaned his stall and watered him etc. The love of his life came back and he settled. Then it was our turn for the walk. I walked in the barn for a bit, but every time I came to our aisle he would scream to her and get worked up. So I went to one of the warm-up arenas and walked there. He wanted to jig and I had to stick my elbow to him a few times to remind him to not get in my space but he did slowly start to walk flat. I eventually had a somewhat reasonable horse and I touched on some in-hand ground work and he was decent. We went back to braid. I checked in with the show office to see if they had any scratches that one of us could switch with so as not to warm-up together. No luck. So we came up with a plan to warm-up in separate arenas and try to sneak them around each other for the actual showing. My friend was amazing and let Mort and I have the arena that was intended for our ring. I actually ended up being able to switch with another rider and went three rounds early. We then snuck the mare in as Mort snuck out. We both still had tension, but nothing compared to the day before. I again went into this test with relaxation as the only goal. We spent the warm-up doing a million changes of direction and finding those moments when he would give and let go in the base of his neck. I actually ended up feeling confident enough in the test to let him think about some lengthens. I didn't push for them or ask for them, but I also let him build instead of throwing in a bunch of half-halts. We didn't get much in the stretchy trot, but he did give me some good free walk. We pulled a 62.9%. Then we had our final test of the weekend. His girlfriend left while I was tacking and we snuck her out after her test while I started my warm-up in the other arena. We then did a very similar warm-up in our correct arena and I felt like actually trying a little bit in this test. I asked for some conservative lengthens. I found a little stretch in the trot and he gave me some really nice walk work (earning us some 7's). His canter felt pretty good and if I felt like really asking for a lot I think we could have gotten some solid work. Overall, it was a decent test. It wasn't as good as we could put down if he had been relaxed but I was happy with what he was giving me. We got a 64.5% and both left the arena feeling confident. It was not the weekend that I expected. In my head the tension that we had worked our way down to by Sunday would have been all that we started with. I was hoping to be able to get some low/mid 60's on Saturday and pull some high 60's on Sunday. Obviously starting off with a personal-low of 50% and a very overwhelmed horse on Saturday made me readdress my game plan. I'm very disappointed in how Mort handled himself. I don't blame him and I'm not disappointed in him by any means, as he was truly just so upset that he couldn't handle life. He did his very best to stay with me and be obedient in spite of that and I am happy about that. But I'm still disappointed that all of our prep work and training had to go out the window to go back to just building confidence in each other. I understand that that's just training horses. I didn't buy a made horse and it's my responsibility to work him through these issues. We both did our best with what we were given this weekend. But sometimes reality sucks. On the flip side, I am very happy with how we were able to work through it. I got to see the worst (hopefully) that Mort will give me. We not only got through it, but we continued to get better and better with every ride. I know if we'd had a couple more rides we would have continued along that trajectory. I convinced him that I was to be trusted as a leader who wouldn't take us to our deaths. He got more and more confidence in himself and me. I got to gain confidence as a rider who can work through something like that. I also found out that I could sit a rear and keep going. I also got to work on my bravery in saddling back up after a truly bad (and scary) ride. Mort and I are both coming out on the other side better than we were. Our partnership is more solid and I've got even more tools in my toolbox to help settle a nervous horse. I also know to never stall near this mare at a show again!

Horse Show Recap--Saturday

Mort was still pretty up for our hand-walk Saturday morning, but I am better at calming him down when I'm riding so I was still cautiously hopeful. I should not have been. Poor guy was so overwhelmed by the environment that he was very on edge. I had to have someone help me mount and have my instructor lead us to the warm-up ring. He jigged the whole way there and just felt like a powder keg. We did eventually start to get moments where he'd release at the base of his neck and take some deep breaths. Then his girlfriend left to ride her test. Mort was almost back to square one of tension. We continued to circle and try to make riding boring and give him something easy to focus on. It worked but only so much. She came out and we walked in and I've never felt Mort so tense in the four years I've had him. I couldn't get him to release and breathe. His back was as solid as rock and his stride was short and choppy. We entered the arena to start our test, but instead of being able to halt and salute--Mort reared. I was shocked and didn't even know what to do, so I just circled and started our test without a halt. The whole test was filled with tension and a couple minor explosions. I added a circle after our first canter depart and took a rider error to make sure we didn't exit the arena. Mort and his girlfriend screamed for each other several times. We got a 50% and my first score of a 1. But we both stayed in the arena and I stayed on. I did not want to ride our next test, but I knew that I had to. Thankfully, his girlfriend rode at noon and we didn't ride until 2:30, so we didn't warm-up together. This made a huge difference. Mort was still tense, but didn't have the added frantic fear of losing his girlfriend. I rode very conservatively and didn't ask for anything other than moments of relaxation. We pulled a 61% with comments that I would have gotten higher if I had done any sort of lengthenings (which was fair because I didn't try to do a single one). I was exhausted and didn't know what to expect on Sunday. I felt much better after our second ride as that was the kind of tension that I knew I could work us through. But the first ride of the day was back-to-back with his girlfriend again which would cause the same trigger-stacking as it had that morning. We both were having very similar problems and were very much on the same page that we needed to keep our horses apart as much as possible (with them being stalled next to each other) to have any sort of good experience.

Horse Show Recap--Friday

It was quite the whirlwind of a weekend. I'm exhausted mentally and physically and I'm very much looking forward to not riding or running today. I fully plan to just catch up on some laundry and bake Steven a cake for his 30th birthday. I'll start off with the trailer-loading since it's the shortest and easiest tale. Friday: Mort followed me right up with zero hesitation Saturday: We hooked up the trailer for Mort's dinner and parked it in a relatively quiet place. There was still a lot for him to be distracted by (vehicles and the H/J ring still going off in the distance). I did have to back him a few times but got him on twice and let him hang for a while eating his dinner. Overall, not bad. Sunday: We parked the same place where I practiced the night before. We placed his new girlfriend by the front window. He got halfway on and we waited a bit. I asked for forward then backed him. We got halfway on again and he walked the rest of the way. All of the trips went well and he seemed fine for it all. Now let's get to the rides… We got to the show early afternoon on Friday. We let the horses settle while we unpacked. After everything was set-up and we'd said a few hello's we decided to hop on a ride because there weren't very many horses in the rings. Mort was quite a bit more "up" than I expected. We've been to this facility twice and he's show in both indoor arenas. I expected some tension, but not the amount that I had. He wanted to jig and had a couple of minor outbursts (think jigging sideways and minor flinging). I did eventually get him settled down in the warm-up arena. We did a ton of circles and serpentines and figure eights and buddy boy started to breathe again. Once he was decently settled in the warm-up we headed to the main arena. It was just the two of us (thankfully) and I was able to work him through some more ring figures and get him relaxed. We even ended with getting some stretch and being able to walk on the loose rein. I was feeling confident that I'd be able to get him to the point of relaxation even sooner into the warm-up on Saturday and we'd still have some OK rides. I spent the evening hanging with friends and enjoying the atmosphere of the beginning of a horse show.

I May Be Type-A

Wednesday: Gather and pack things in car from home Grab from barn: Pitchfork Water buckets Buy: Fan Bucket clips Thursday: Load in trailer before ride Ride Feed Mort in trailer Pack trailer Friday: 5:30 - Wake up 5:50-7:30 - Run (9 miles) 7:30-8:00 - Shower/eat/etc. 8:00-8:40 - Drive to Fulton 8:40-9:00 - Vet with Jane 9:00-9:45 - Drive to Montgomery 9:45-10:00 - Let the dogs potty, turn on crock pot 10:00-10:45 - Drive to barn 10:45-11:15 - Finish packing, groom, small amount of ground work 11:30-1:00 - Drive to NEC 1:00-5:00 - Set up/ride/hand walk/bathe/etc. 5:00-5:30 - Feed Mort in trailer Saturday: 5:15-5:45 - Morning activities 5:45-6:30 - Drive to NEC 6:30-7:00 - Feed/pick stall/etc. 7:00-7:15 - Hand walk 7:15-8:30 - Braid 8:30-9:00 - Relax/drink/eat/go over test 9:00-9:20 - Get dressed 9:20-9:40 - Groom/tack 9:40-10:10 - Warmup 10:02 - Training Level Test 2 10:10 - First Level Test 1 10:20 - Untack/hose/relax/watch other girls 12:40 - Training Level Test 3 1:20-1:40 - Get dressed (maybe?) 1:40-2:00 - Groom/Tack 2:00-2:27 - Warmup 2:27 - First Level Test 2 2:40 - Untack/hose/change/unbraid/etc. 4:45-5:00 - Hand walk 5:00-5:30 - Feed Mort in trailer Sunday: 4:45-5:15 - Morning activities 5:15-6:00 - Drive to NEC 6:00-6:30 - Feed/pick stall/etc. 6:30-6:45 - Hand walk 6:45-7:45 - Braid 7:45-8:15 - Relax/eat/drink/go over test 8:15-8:30 - Get dressed 8:30-8:50 - Groom/tack 8:50-9:18 - Warmup 9:10 - Training Level Test 2 9:18 - First Level Test 1 9:30 - Untack/hose/etc. 11:00-11:20 - Groom/tack 11:20-11:48 - Warmup 11:24 - Training Level Test 3 11:48 - First Level Test 2 12:00-12:45 - Untack/hose/change/etc. 12:45-1:45 - Pack trailer/load horses/etc. 2:00-3:30 - Drive to barn

Feeling Better

Guys, I'm definitely in a better place mentally today thinking about the show this weekend. Mort gave me a stellar ride yesterday. I wanted to touch on some transitions and get him soft and supple and responsive. After a few serpentines and circles he started to give me exactly what I was looking for. He was good for our transitions and came back to me quickly and stayed soft. I remembered to lift my hands and release instead of getting caught in a pulling fight with that left jaw and (magically) he was much softer. I didn't actually do as much as planned because I wanted to reward that awesome feeling of obedience. But we did trot/halt/trot. We did some leg yields. We did trot/canter and canter/trot. We stretched both directions. I did some conservative lengthens. I picked him up from the loose rein walk a handful of times. The end. We were both feeling good. I also worked on the dreaded trailer loading. The barn owner hooked up as I was clipping Mort's bridle path and fetlocks, so I figured we should go ahead and practice before we rode as well as after since he's been iffy lately. He was a touch hesitant when I first asked. He gave me a couple steps on the ramp then decided to back, so I backed him aggressively. Next time he walked up those couple steps and I let us have a moment of rest as reward. Then when I asked for another step he decided to get on all the way. He got a handful of grain. We backed off very slowly with a couple of treats for stopping when I asked. He was hesitant again, we backed. He walked on like a gentleman. I let him have another handful of grain and we backed off slowly again. After our ride and hose-off I grabbed his bucket of dinner grain. He followed me about halfway up, stopped, then came up the rest of the way. We chilled for a little while then backed off slowly with treats. I asked him to get on again and he walked right up with zero hesitation. More chilling and eating his dinner in the trailer. We repeated this a handful of times until he was completely done with his food. Good boy. I will have the same game plan on Thursday--loading before and feeding him his dinner on it after. It's amazing what a good ride and a good loading session can do for one's mental state. We also got our ride times this morning, so I've been able to embrace my Type-A personality and get to planning like a crazy person.

A Fragile Mental State

I'm not really sure how to describe my mental state right now. Mort and I have our recognized show this weekend. We decided to stick with first level and keep things easy for Mort. Since we haven't travelled much in the last couple years with the trailering issues, I want the trips we do take to be easy. First level is something well within our wheelhouse. Schooling second at home and showing first is fine. It's not my second level goal, but it's been a really rough year with the property stuff. It's probably better for both of us. Speaking of travelling…. Mort and I took a very successful field trip at the beginning of July where Mort loaded fairly well with little drama Friday, Saturday (just for practice while we were there), and Sunday. He was calm and happy and I felt good about life. Mort and I hauled out for a lesson with my regular instructor the first weekend of August to get Mort off-property one more time before the show. We used my trailer instead of the barn owner's since it was just Mort going. He was a teeny bit slower getting on to leave, but soon decided it was fine. Good boy. We had a very successful and relaxing lesson. Mort was alert but calm for the whole field trip. Until it was time to get back on the trailer. He just wanted to stare off into the distance and ignore me. So I'd get him partway on with bribery then he'd decide he was done and wanted to stare again. He wasn't being dramatic, but he was paying about 50% attention to me and just didn't care to get on the trailer. We decided to up the ante and I added a dressage whip to the activity. When he would stare off he'd get tapped on the shoulder to get his attention back on me. This escalated things a bit. He kept swinging his body around the side. He'd tuck his chin to his chest and pull you along for the ride. He knows how big he is. He knows he can get away. He basically said "F*ck you" over and over again. He had dozens of soft moments where he'd give and step partway on the trailer. Well over an hour later, it was dark and we were running low on motivation. In a last-ditch attempt to not have to spend the night, I grabbed a handful of grain in a bucket. Mort walked right on. I'm not sure I've ever been so frustrated and relieved at the same time. Tuesday evening, the barn owner hooked up her trailer for us to practice on. I was nervous we'd have a repeat of Saturday but Mort hopped on three times with no issues. Saturday morning I went to practice again and could not get him on. I broke out the rope halter. I tried aggressive backing instead of the whip which I definitely liked better as he hated the backing but it didn't cause the situation to escalate. I eventually got him to a place where he'd walk forward a couple steps on the ramp before I would slowly back him down on purpose. I think he would have eventually gotten on with that, but the barn owner was hauling out for a lesson and needed her trailer. Here's to hoping he's back to getting on the next couple rounds of practice this week. So that's a big part of my mental state. I really hate not knowing how Mort is going to be on the trailer. I really hate that he didn't have the training at a young age that the halter is infallible. It's all a real struggle that the only way to fix is more and more practice and taking him places. But that's also what I want to avoid to not deal with all of the drama. Ugh. Part two of my mental state is just that I can't seem to get excited about the show. I'm not dreading it by any means, but I'm just so worn down this summer that my brain can't seem to focus in. (Definitely why just showing first level is the best idea.) I'm looking forward to a weekend filled with horses and horse friends, but my rides haven't been the best. Mort's been stiffer in his left jaw for longer into our rides which is causing me to fixate on it which is never the answer. We always end with him feeling good, but the rides have been longer and less focused than I like. I'm hoping to put in one completely loose rein/stretchy ride this week and one ride where he's soft and we just play with some transitions. I think Tuesday will be the transition ride that hopefully gets him soft and doesn't drag along (I know it's up to me but I suck lately). Thursday we'll focus on happy and loose and no pressure to maybe "reset" us some before the show. Hopefully my list-making and show prep will get me more excited and focused for this weekend. Hopefully Mort gets on the dang trailer. Hopefully we both have a fun and relaxing weekend at the show.

Weekend Activities

After an exhausting (and exciting) weekend of putting up fence posts and filling my barn with hay for the winter, I headed out to ride Mort Sunday evening. My hands were sore and blistered. My legs were tired and covered in bruises and scrapes. I honestly don't know where I found the motivation to ride. The barn owner had left her truck and trailer hooked up for us to practice. I grabbed a couple treats and the bruised apple from home and headed out there with Mort. I haven't worked on loading since our field trip the first weekend of July (how has July already come and gone?). In spite of me losing track of time and not practicing, Mort loaded well. I'm happy to have finally found a method that seems to work well with him. I give him a moment at the end of the ramp. I ask for a step forward, reward. I ask for a step forward, reward. I ask him to back. Then he usually hops on the whole way in the next time or two when I ask for the forward. Basically, he gets rewarded a lot. We keep it calm and easy. And most importantly, I stay in charge of when he's going forward and backward. I got him on after just a couple forward and backward steps. He got to eat half of the apple. We backed off one step at a time (earning a treat or two along the way). I asked him to step back on and he walked right up for the second half of the apple. We loaded again after our ride and I let him eat a bucket of soaked alf cubes. I'm glad we got one last round of practice in before we take a short, local field trip again this weekend. After a quick grooming, I was on and working on loosening up. I asked Mort to bend and supple into contact at the walk before trotting. This is different than normal. I wanted to address our suppleness issues since we have been doing well with the forward issues. I went into trot thinking the same thing. I'm honestly not sure it was the right decision. I put him on the circle and tried to do some bend and counter-bend and he just wanted to get stuck behind my leg. I wandered around trying to find the suppleness then ask for forward. Sometimes he would do both, but a lot of the time he thought he could only handle one at a time. I did some quick canter transitions in a row to get him in a more forward state of mind and that did the trick. We did lose some of the suppleness, but at least now when I was asking for it he didn't try to putter out. I did the bend/counter-bend, leg yield exercise from our lesson both directions. He got better in the contact again. It's so interesting to me that our "harder" direction gets so much better while our "better" direction only gets a little better. They always say that the less supple direction is actually the stronger direction and Mort definitely proves that to be true. We also worked on our canter transitions. It was clear in the lesson that Mort doesn't come back to me quickly enough during/after a downward, so I wanted to work on that. At first I started off just sticking to the 20-meter circle. Then when I needed more I would ask for him to come back to trot and immediately do a 10-meter circle. It helped me make sure I was actually riding the transition and it gave him a reason to come back and give me control of his outside. I started tracking right--our more supple but less powerful way. It was "meh" I had some really nice transitions where we'd start off nicely, but when I went back out to the 20-meter circle it would fall apart and I'd lose the outside shoulder. It wasn't terrible, but it didn't feel "on" either. After a quick break, we went the other direction. After just a couple transitions he was on it. He was forward, soft, and between my legs. Much praise was bestowed upon my smart boy. I went back the other direction and it had improved as well. My last exercise was walk/trot transitions on the circle. I wanted him to stay off my inside leg and stay soft in my hands while staying prompt. I started in posting trot and couldn't quite get all of those boxes ticked. I went to sitting trot and he would give me all of those, but I lost some of the forward. So I went back to posting and we got everything I was looking for. I did several each direction and he was a good boy. I ended the ride with some walk work. We did small figure eights and serpentines in both true bend and counter bend. I threw in one back-up where he was a champ. We're a little slow to warm-up these days but I know that's 100% my fault. If I get out there to ride him more often, he comes out expecting and wanting to play dressage horse. But if I leave him to his own devices for a few days, I've got to do some more convincing. It's just a crazy busy summer and he lives far enough away that if it's after five, it doesn't make much sense to drive out there. Hopefully he'll be at the property in just a couple short months though! And thank goodness he's getting proper turnout and he staying calm in spite of me not being able to ride as often as I'd like.

Lesson Recap

Mort and I finally had another lesson with my regular instructor on Tuesday. We discussed how I wanted to try for second level this fall. I basically think that I have all of the pieces for second one, I just need to get them more consistent and be able to string them together. She set up cones for me to work on my accuracy. It was a 20-meter circle with cones in the middle for a 10-meter circle. We started off as we usually do walking, stopping, and moving off my leg without worrying about contact. I picked up trot and he set right off. And folks, we have officially graduated from worrying about forward, because there were several times where she wanted us to slow down and take our time. It's great to hear about new issues because it means we're at least fixing part one of this million part process we call dressage. The barn owner was awesome enough to video for me, so I could see exactly what she was talking about. Mort was forward, but his legs were going so quickly that he didn't have enough time to get a full stride in. We want his hind legs quick off the ground but slow in the air. As the warm-up went along, she talked about how I needed to be more insistent that he get supple and round and soften his jaws. We worked on that some both directions (but especially tracking left). He's definitely giving me some awesome moments, and we are getting better, but he still has the tendency to go above the bit and get stiff if something doesn't go according to his plan. It's easier to do when we're moving about everywhere in the arena, riding on feel and adjusting as needed. It was harder on the same 20-meter circle (admittedly good for us though). We worked on transitions and getting him to stay supple through them. His canter is so much nicer than trot. I can adjust it and move him so much easier with little resistance. The trot is rougher, but it's coming along slowly. We threw in a few 10-meter canter circles each direction and he handled them really well. I want a bit more lift and jump of course, but we're certainly capable. After a walk break, she had us do a trot exercise on the circle that really helped us with connection and suppleness. It's definitely one that I’ve already gone back to. Start off on a 20-meter circle in true bend Do a full 20-meter circle in counter bend Leg yield in to a 10-meter circle (still in counter bend) Make sure the shoulders and hind-end move in at the same rate and you're not just falling in Do a full 10-meter circle in counter bend Do a full 10-meter circle in true bend Make sure you don't let the shoulders drift and you keep your track Leg yield out to a 20-meter circle in true bend Make sure the shoulders and hind-end move out at the same rate and you're not just falling out Repeat as needed It's a nice exercise where the exercise challenges the horse and you get to be the good guy helping the horse out. Mort does well with these types of exercises, because he sometimes needs to be convinced to look to me for support and guidance. We started off tracking left. I wasn't super precise on doing only one time around the circle before changing something. I rode him until I found what I was looking for then I'd pick the next set of cones to transition. So we were still accurate, but less strict. We made it through twice and the change was excellent. He was happily maintaining contact and was soft and supple. After a short break, we tackled tracking right. The true bend was easier but Mort struggled a bit at first with the 10-meter circle in counter bend. I switched my whip and he figured it out after a couple rounds. The second time we got back to that, he was much better. Even though this direction was harder, the change in his willingness to be soft with me was really nice. We ended after our second round with stretchy trot and I could easily steer him with my legs and kept him soft. Good boy. We're loosely planning for a field trip to the instructor's barn this month. It'll be a fun weekend boot camp and it's always good to get Mort out and about. The facility has nice indoors where we can hopefully hone in on some of those second level movements.

Unorganized Update

A very quick and poorly laid-out update on the last week with Mort. Mort has been sound all week. We did our first w/t/c ride last Sunday and he felt great. He has continued to feel totally sound all week. I kept the first few rides pretty easy as 2 weeks off plus 1 week of walk means that we lost some of our fitness. We're also a touch rusty on our training. I'm already feeling that come back though, so I'm sure we'll be back on track soon. I'm just so happy that he's sound and comfortable again. He's also just started his new supplement regime, so hopefully the added joint support will do the trick to prolong the next injection. Mort and I also went on our first off-property adventure this weekend. All the horses were turned out during the fireworks last week, but the neighbors put on a ridiculously extravagant show right next to the barn, so the barn owner moves them to another farm for the night. It makes sure the horses don't think they're in a war zone and it was a great opportunity to get Mort out without show stress. He was a perfect gentleman. He loaded to leave with no issues other than a few moments hesitation. We practiced loading that afternoon after our ride with similar results. Then he loaded up to go home on Sunday with no real issues. I'm so happy with how far his confidence has come--especially on the trailer with the steepest ramp! Mort settled into his stall in all of five minutes. He would call back to the other horses calling occasionally, but he was eating and relaxing through it all. He was calm and easy going for leading and grooming. He was a bit uncertain about the wash rack on Saturday, but walked right in on Sunday. We rode in a busy arena on Saturday. Mort wanted to be a bit glued to his new girlfriend, but other than that he was calm and behaved. We're still not back to where we were before his lameness, but we're getting there. He was well-behaved and we were able to start off on a loose rein immediately. Sunday, I opted for a lesson. Everyone has been telling me how great the instructor at this barn is (and it's the barn owner's regular instructor). We were there anyway. And I figured it would be a better ride if Mort wasn't riding at the same time as his girlfriend. It was a hectic arena at first, but did quiet down and in the end we had the place to ourselves. I was a bit nervous to lesson with someone new since my last lesson with someone other than my regular instructor was so "bleh". But this was a dressage instructor and she had glowing reviews. She let us do our own thing for our warm-up, so I was able to canter him before getting to the real work. With it being crowded, it wasn't quite our normal warm-up, but it sufficed. I told her we were somewhere between first and second with the goal of showing second by this fall. We played with some shoulder-in. She caught me on not riding accurately (both corners and circles). This is definitely a trap that I've allowed myself to fall into with the giant 150 x 250 arena at the barn. It has no fences and no corners so I don't ride accurately. I'm going to try to set up some poles as corners this week to work on that some. Overall, his shoulder-in was fine once I kept him on the rain with half-halts on the outside rein. Then she asked about haunches-in. I told her that we'd been working on them in the walk, but hadn't tackled them beyond that. We started in the walk and she fixed some of where I was placing his front end. We went back and forth in my body position from straight to haunches-in to see how Mort reacted. He was good, if a bit tight in the jaw and struggling with bend. He certainly did his best though. If I let him get away with a tiny little sitting trot, we could keep the haunches-in OK. When I asked for a bigger trot, things got less smooth. So I need to experiment with that some. I'm not sure why I had been putting off doing it in trot, but I'm glad she asked us to do it. We finally touched a bit on canter transitions. He's often a bit behind my leg for these, so she had us experiment with leg yielding in on a circle, back out, then asking for the canter. Our final canter transition was a lot smoother than normal, so that's homework as well. She said to try it in both walk and trot and I should get good results. Other than that, she reminded me a few times to keep myself centered and aligned. Those are always good reminders and something that is a constant work-in-progress. She also said that Mort needed to be rounder. He definitely was tighter in the jaw than we had been before our time off, so I think that will come back with time and fitness. Overall I was really happy with Mort's effort. I was happy with the things she said during our lesson. I think I'll plan to join the barn owner for another adventure up there sometime. She goes just about every week, so it should be easy to tag along on one of the trips. Mort was a champ. I am so happy he is back to his steady self. I'm so happy that I moved him, even though the commute sucks. He was calm enough that I could have had Steven handle him and that's always the goal for my horse's behavior. Now we get back into shape mentally and physically. I get another couple lessons with my instructor. I take Mort for another lesson with this instructor to get him off property again. Then hopefully this fall we'll be ready to rock-and-roll second level.

Mort Update

We did a lameness exam last Tuesday. Mort had some slight pain in his hocks and right stifle. The vet thought that our culprit was most likely the stifle due to the way he was moving. We blocked it and he trotted sound on the lunge. She thought we should inject it and see if it fixed our issues. She thinks/hopes the hock issues were being caused by the stifle being sore. Mort's joint injection was Friday morning. He had the weekend off and we'll do a couple walk rides this week before starting to get back to normal this weekend. Hopefully the injection did the trick and he'll be back to his normal old self. I'm nervous but cautiously optimistic. I spent the weekend being a braider, reader, and overall helper at the dressage show at Rio with friends. The weather went from awful to nice and back to awful several times over three days. There were definitely times I was almost glad that I wasn't showing. But it was a fun weekend overall. Everyone improved throughout the weekend and put in some solid rides. Here's to Mort being sound for the next one!

Bad News

Well, last night was very disappointing. Mort was lame. This obviously means we're not going to the show next weekend. But more importantly, it means we're probably dealing with something more serious than a stone bruise. They don't generally get better and then worse again. I'm still hoping for something simple in the hoof, but my mind is wandering to the soft tissue possibilities. Of course, it could still be joint as well. I sent the vet a text yesterday evening to set-up a lameness exam.

Goal Check-in

Checking in on my goals now that we're halfway through the year. Riding-Related: Show 2nd Level This could go either way but I'm putting it out there for the universe to know about it I semi-seriously considered showing 2nd at the show in June, but Mort's lameness nixed that. I do think if we keep on track that we'll definitely be there for the fall shows. Establish half-pass in trot and canter Within this is haunches-in in trot and canter as well I have not worked on this enough, though it's getting more consistent at the walk Be able to pick Mort up from a loose rein walk and have him "there" for me We were doing super with this! Lately it's been mediocre because I think I'm trying too hard. Still a work in progress. Develop Mort's medium/extended trot and canter This is coming along nicely. Develop a more relaxed "back-up" I need to do this more. He's always surprised by the first try, but then remembers what I'm asking for and does OK Establish a walking turn-on-haunches We've played with some really big ones, but I want to actually tackle them under the eye of my instructor Develop a more even seat Forever a work in progress Have more control over which seat bone carries more weight AKA: don't allow Mort's body to dictate my seat as much Getting more aware, but will probably always be a work in progress Develop more consistent hands AKA: an even feel of his mouth on both sides, not allowing one hand to become lazy Getting better, but will probably always be a work in progress Get better about the release of aids so that Mort can become lighter off of them All these rider goals are going to continue to be works in progress, but as long as I'm working on them that's what counts Don't allow myself to get frustrated I'm definitely a lot better about this than I was last year. Have my instructor out for 6 (or more) lessons She's been out for three and I'll have her out when Mort is sound again as I had to cancel a lesson for this week. I've also taken a lesson with another instructor. Attend 2 clinics Ideally as a rider, but auditor will also be acceptable This one has been rough. I was signed up for one, but it got cancelled. I was invited to another but it's the same weekend as the show (and now Mort's lame anyway). It's still on the list of things to do. Attend 2 shows Zero so far. The hope was June, September, and November--now maybe just September and November or I'll look for another schooling show. Horse-Related: Get Mort consistent about loading with a ramp I want Mort to calmly walk onto all three trailers that I have access This has happened! I haven't actually taken him anywhere, but he'll happily load on every trailer right now. Get our property horse ready Still a work in progress, but we've got 1.75 stalls built and most of the run-in. We've done major repairs to the old barn and purchased all/most of the fencing. Non Horse-Related: Run 2 half-marathons Ran my first one this past weekend! Run 6-8 miles/day 3-4 times/week This isn't happening, but I am at least running 3-4 days/week. I do have a new workout schedule for June-August. My body needs me to change things up and not just do long runs. Lose 5lbs And learn how to maintain that weight Well I'm certainly good at maintaining, but I haven't gotten those last 5lbs yet. I'm hoping the change in my exercise routine will help this. Work hard on getting our house built and working on our property Working hard on this all the time. My life is a tad stressful right now, that's for sure. We're supposed to break ground next week. Plant a small vegetable garden It's planted. It may not grow a single veggie, but there are some plants and they're alive for now.

Lameness Update

Mort stayed very slightly lame all last week. He didn't have heat or swelling in his legs, nor did he respond to any poking and prodding that I tried. He was sound at the walk. He was sound at the trot tracking right. He had a tiny head bob tracking left. I gave him some time off with the intention to hop on Sunday to decide what to do. I had a fresh pair of eyes on him when he moved and to look over his legs. He was still slightly lame. She looked him over and thought that our best guess was a stone bruise. That made sense with his lack of other signs and it was certainly not a bad prognosis so I liked it. I talked to the other ladies at the barn. I talked to my mom. I thought about it long and hard. I decided to hold off on calling the vet. I figured if it was a stone bruise, waiting another week would fix it and I wouldn't spend any money unnecessarily. If it was something more serious, our walk rides and lots of days off probably wouldn't cause something more serious to get any worse. I hopped on yesterday for our easy ride. I have been doing 10-15 minutes of walking on the buckle, then trotting on the buckle to look for a head bob. Since I've been seeing it tracking left, we go back to walk and that's about it. Yesterday I didn't see a head bob. I did loose rein walk and trot a couple times and still couldn't see it. He felt forward and about the same as he normally does at the beginning of our rides. I decided to risk asking for more. I picked him up a little bit and continued on with our warm-up. I did some circles and changes of direction. I asked for connection. I did some canter each direction. I did small circles. I did some light lengthening. I did some leg yield. Throughout all of this, I would drop him back down to a loose rein trot and look for that head bob, but I kept not finding it. He felt forward and game to do a lot more than what I asked. We walked in the field and came back to the arena for more loose rein trot--still nothing. Of course, last night I was alone so there was no one else to confirm (or deny) that what I was seeing and feeling was real. I know Mort pretty well after our four years together. He doesn't always move like a "normal" horse right away, but he feels great after we get over the hump of how he carries himself. But, I was worried that I got used to him feeling 80% sound last week, so maybe last night he was 95% sound and it felt good in comparison. I was also worried that I was justifying him being sound because I want him to be, but maybe he was more abnormal than usual even though he felt great at the end. All of us horse-moms get a little paranoid when our horses aren't quite themselves, right? The barn owner got home as I was untacking, so I decided to throw Mort on the lunge line so we could both watch him go from the ground. I sent him out tracking left and asked for trot. He gave me his crappy little shuffle trot and it didn't look good at all. I figured that I had just ridden a lame horse and couldn't notice. But instead of letting those first few strides dictate it, I asked for a bigger trot. His head got steady and he looked sound. I trotted him around on the lunge for several minutes and he kept his more forward trot and looked fine. So now we're in a sort of limbo. The show's entries officially closed yesterday but I can pay $20 and late enter. I didn't feel quite confident enough to enter him last night before the deadline, though I did shoot the show secretary an email giving her the scoop. Basically, I'm going to wait until Thursday to decide. There will be people at the barn to watch us go on Thursday. If they think he's sound and I feel like he's sound, I'll enter the show and hope that it's not already full. If he's worse than he was before our ride, then it's probably more than a stone bruise and we may need some diagnostics. Here's to hoping that he's fully recovered and we can show.

Lame

Welp, Mort was lame last night. I noticed that he had the tiniest amount of stocking up in his legs when I was grooming. It was so slight that someone who didn't look at his legs every day wouldn't have noticed. I wasn't overly worried. He's still adjusting to being inside during the day and it was barely there. We walked on a loose rein and he felt a touch slow, but I figured it was just because we were walking next to another horse as the barn owner and I chatted. Eventually we moved off into a loose rein trot and there was a head bob. He didn't feel super lame but since he was on a loose rein, it was noticeable. It was definitely the type of lameness that I could have hidden if I had picked him up. Obviously I didn't pick him up to do that though. Instead I double checked with the barn owner that she was seeing it too and she was. So I went back to walk. I figured that we'd do a lot more walking and I'd supple him up a bit to see if that helped. After a good deal of walking, I tried trotting again. It was definitely better and basically not there at all tracking right, but it was still there tracking left. So I did a little more walking and called it quits. I paid even more attention to his legs when I was grooming again. The stockiness was gone and I couldn't feel any heat. I'm only about 60% worried at this point. He had gone out with his friend for the first time all weekend (because his friend was away at a show) the night before, so they might have played hard. He might have had some soreness from working harder the day before. I certainly don't think I pushed him too hard and he felt great through that whole ride, but you never know. It might also be time to look into injections for those front fetlocks. It might also be a career-ending suspensory injury because of those front fetlocks. I'm 75% sure it's one of the first two because he got better with more work AND he played with his friend a bit after our ride last night in turnout. He doesn't hurt too badly. I'm 20% thinking that it's just time for injections. There were one or two instances this winter where I maybe thought I might have felt an off step so I've been paying extra attention. I'm 5% thinking that he's broken forever because I wouldn't be a horse owner if a part of my brain didn't go to worst-case scenario. He'll get today off and I'll see how he's feeling Wednesday. If everything is back to normal, we'll have a few easy rides and get back on track. If he's still lame, well, then we'll have to dig further.

Knocking on Second's Door

Folks, Mort and I made up for our poor ride on Thursday with an awesome ride yesterday. I'd been wanting to hit a couple of second level items all last week, but it never worked out due to weather and the lesson. We got a couple of easy rides in instead of what I wanted. Easy rides aren't the worst for him mentally though, so whatever. If we have a couple rides where it's basically a glorified warm-up we're no worse off for it. (This doesn't really include the lesson and him getting away with being lazy for a whole ride.) We started off as we always do with several laps on the long rein. I stopped him from my seat a couple times. He is improving with these but he's still not perfect. He yielded off both of my legs well. We moved into trot on the loose rein. He thought about being lazy for a bit but worked out of it. I did some walk/trot transitions. We did some big changes of direction. I started to pick him up and do some smaller circles. I did a couple canter transitions. He was working into connection and we were starting to rock-and-roll. I decided to jump right in after a short walk break. I picked him up and asked for a walk/canter transition. He stepped right up, only a little off balance and against the hand. I told him what a good boy he was and we cantered a circle. I asked for a canter/walk and he only had a small moment of thinking trot before dropping to walk for me. I asked for another and it was just about perfect for where we are now. He stayed connected and stepped right into it for me. He got much praise. I should have stopped with that, but I am the worst and didn't. I asked for another and he ugly trotted. I brought him back down to walk and he was tense, so I did some figure eights and such at the walk to get his topline back. Once I had him back I asked for another and got one that was prompt but similar to the first. I still told him what a good boy he was and did call it quits on that one. I just did two the other direction and they were both decent, if a bit unbalanced and stiff. I then worked on a couple canter/trot/canter on the other lead and he was good. I need to remember to actually ride those few strides of trot and not just sit and pray for it to work out. After some canter work he got another walk break. By this point Mort and I were really clicking. He was jazzed and ready to go but still listening to half-halts and moving off my leg. I played with a couple of really good (for him) medium trots across the diagonal. I didn't even have to push and ask, I just allowed him to take me. It was a ton of fun, especially considering how much he's struggled with these in the past. I wanted to touch on the shoulder-in, across the arena, shoulder-in from 2-1. Mort killed it. It was easy and basically seamless. I (thankfully) learned my lesson with the canter transitions earlier and only asked for it once. At this point, I was running of out things to work on from 2-1. So, I decided to work on my sitting trot for more than just a few moments. Holy poop I am out of shape. I think Mort could theoretically get through 2-1 but I'm not sure I could at this point. We'll see how the next week goes. I'm heavily leaning toward just showing him first, but there is a 10% chance I might try second. I doubt it. We did some trot/halt/trot transitions that he also nailed. We ended the ride with more walk work. I do have to give credit to the instructor from last week with my head tilt. I'm definitely thinking about it not tilting right for now and it is helping. This was the best ride that Mort and I have had in a long while and it's not like we've been short on good rides lately. I can really feel second level and I'm happy that my boy is back in shape and we're ready to start stepping it all up again.

Lesson Re-cap

Let's just preface this with the biggest thing that I learned last night: Have more confidence in myself to communicate what my horse needs. The H/J gals at the barn had a big fancy H/J trainer down from Chicago. They have lessoned with her before and really enjoy her "attention to detail". They all had good things to say about her both before and after their lessons. So it's entirely probable that I had a bit of a dud lesson and it's not the trainer's normal. She was nice and did have correct things to say about a lot of things. I want to say that I'm sure she's extremely knowledgeable and clearly is good at her job according to a lot of people. It could have been a fluke or a difference in H/J versus dressage or something else entirely, but I definitely had a disappointing lesson last night. Mort and I did a couple laps of long rein walk, then we stopped to talk about where we were and what I was working on. I told her we were somewhere between first and second and we work on through-ness, and connection, and crookedness, and all of the regular things. She wanted to know if we had any lateral work (that was a red flag since you should definitely have at least some lateral work if you've already shown first as it's vital in training a horse to use its body). I told her we had leg yield and shoulder-in and that we had haunches-in and half-pass at the walk. She sent us back out to do our warm-up. This is where I should have warned her that we had a bit of a long warm-up. I almost did, but for some reason I stopped myself. I think I was worried about coming across bratty. I was paying for her expertise so she should see what we needed and perhaps have a few pointers on the warm-up itself. I'm really bad about doing what an instructor says during a lesson and not having a conversation about it because I don't want to come off as too big for my britches. Anyway, I didn't say anything and we went off to our warm-up. I did another couple laps of long rein walk with a couple halts from my seat. I started in on our long rein trot and big changes of direction. I did one trot/walk/trot transition. I barely started to gather him up for connection and she called us over and asked me to circle and we got to work. Mort was still behind my leg. He wasn't using his hind-end or reaching for contact yet. We hadn't cantered, which is vital in our warm-up because it helps get him going. Overall, I was about five minutes into what is regularly a fifteen minute warm-up. Again, I should have interjected here and asked for those additional 5-10 minutes. If Mort isn't in front of my leg we have nothing. We have the Mort I had this winter who is sticky and grumpy rather than the Mort that I like who is fun and game. Instead, I got on the circle with my barely training level horse who was pokey. I wasn't having to kick him to stay in the trot, but he was underpowered. She talked about my position and that I sat crookedly and tilted my head a bit to the right. Those things are true and things that I work on fixing. She was the first instructor who told me to look at the left shoulder instead of the right rather than just to look up. It did help, but I'm not sure looking down is the right answer. It may help me mentally to fix the right head tilt though, as it at least gets me thinking about it. I tried to throw in some figure eights like I would in our regular warm-up. I tried to do my systems check of yielding him off my legs. She had us stop and explained that his haunches were supposed to follow his front end rather than yield out. It was good that she didn't see me asking for exactly that and she wasn't wrong that we wouldn't want to do that on a regular circle. But again, not ideal that I didn't stand up for myself and tell her that I had asked for it. At this point, I figured out that she wasn't sure I knew a whole lot. This is fair, since I never told her my personal experience. I'm always scared to tell new instructors that I've ridden through fourth level in case I come off as "braggy" or it doesn't look like I ride like someone who has ridden at those levels. We then stuck to the circle which is something Mort isn't a fan of at the beginning of a lesson. He needs those long sides to rev his engine, mixed in with some smaller circles to challenge his balance. Needless to say, I never got the powerful Mort that I know is in there. She worked us bending inside and making sure his haunches didn't swing out. She asked for more connection and a higher connection with my inside rein and a lower and more allowing connection with my outside rein. These aren't bad tips as long as I don't get too uneven. But, I knew that so much of our struggle to even maintain a connection came from Mort just puttering along, so I was frustrated. We did this both directions. We did go over some cavaletti which was fun. Mort has gotten a lot better in the last three years of me not doing them which was a pleasant surprise. I'm guessing it stems from me making him more responsible for taking care of himself the last year. We took a walk break and then finally cantered. She wanted a more forward canter but we were still stuck on a large circle. I did get him a bit more forward in the canter than I could in the trot because he thinks it's more fun. At this point, I could tell that I wasn't riding up to my potential. My hips weren't as open as they should have been, nor were my shoulders back. Unfortunately, neither of those things were commented on. She just wanted me to work on my hands and connection. We went across the diagonal and did a couple of simple changes through trot in the corners. The long sides let me start to finally rev him up. She did call me on not riding the trot strides in the simple changes which was good. Right when we finally started to get a decent canter, she asked us to walk. She made a comment that he was sweaty and could hear him breathing in the canter, so she knew that this work was harder than his regular work. This frustrated me even more because it was so, so much lazier than our regular work. He is a naturally very sweaty horse and is always snorty in the canter. She didn't know either of those things, but bleh. At this point, I had gone on way too long in the lesson to correct her. We had been so lazy for so long that if I called it out I would have sounded like I was just making excuses. We ended the ride with some walk work on contact. She had made a comment earlier in the ride that I was riding against the walk which is something that no one had ever told me before as I usually am good about swinging my elbows with his mouth. So I asked for some clarification on that. We worked on it, and as soon as I stopped thinking about my hands and just focused on getting a good walk she said that I had it right. I'm guessing that we were a bit off because he had been so behind my leg earlier in the lesson and now that he was moving a bit better it worked itself out. So, Mort never really got in front of my leg or moving into contact until the last walk work. I was really frustrated because he hasn't felt like that for a whole ride since our dreaded lesson in March. We're capable of a whole lot more and I hated feeling like he was getting sticky again. There are a lot of emotions attached to that feeling for me. It was frustrating that she never called us out for not being forward. Not once did she say he needed to use his hind-end more. She talked about lowering it, but wanted me to do it via lifting my hands and having good connection. That's part of it, but definitely not the first step. This is where I think there is just a difference in H/J versus dressage. Every dressage instructor I've had gets on us right away for Mort being underpowered. It was embarrassing that I said we were trying to move up to second level and Mort never got past training level work. I don't care that we didn't work on specific lateral work or "tricks" but he never had the connection and thrust and carry that a second level horse should have. It made me look like I didn't know what I was talking about. I almost warned about a longer warm-up at the very beginning, but I didn't. I almost asked for a longer warm-up before getting on the circle, but I didn't. I almost asked to canter earlier while we were on the circle, but I didn't. I almost asked to do some long sides, but I didn't. A lot of this comes back on me. If I had set us up for success, I probably would have been able to get more out of the lesson. But unfortunately, I get to stew about Mort getting almost a whole ride being behind my leg and I get to stew about looking like an idiot who thinks her training level-looking horse is almost ready for second.

Lesson Re-cap

Well folks, since I last posted: The clinic was rescheduled for June due to the clinician being flooded in out in Kansas Mort spent that weekend running around like a fool, throwing a shoe and earning a few days off But we've been back to our regularly scheduled programming for the last week, so I opted for a lesson Monday night with my regular instructor. Mort and I have been working more on our canter. I've been throwing in shoulder-in and lengthenings as well as our regular circling and figure-eights and leg yields. I've been trying hard to maintain a good connection through it all without over facing him. We're slowly starting to step back up into dressage land. The good news is that Mort and I were much more prepared for this lesson than the last one. We're both in better shape mentally and physically. We went back to the beginning and I believe that our connection and forward are even better than they were before. We were actually able to work on things and she was able to push us without anything breaking down. The lesson was fun and challenging and gave us some homework--all things that I look for in a lesson. We started off on a loose rein where I filled her in with what we'd been doing and where we'd been struggling. We did the "systems check" and Mort was good for moving forward/stopping, moving off either leg, and suppling to the rein. Even in that loose rein walk she wanted me to throw in transitions, so I halted him from my seat a few times. He wasn't 100% sharp, but he responded decently. Working on halting from my seat with no hand for back-up is on the homework list. Since all systems were go, we moved on to a loose rein trot. He was forward and would yield from my legs. I played with turning him from my legs and seat. She again asked for more transitions than we're used to doing, so there were walk/trot transitions in there as well. Since we had forward and sideways and supple, it was time to start picking up contact and asking the hind-end to do more work. We started doing smaller circles and figure-eights, all while still doing transitions. My homework with this part of the warm-up is a million more transitions and to start asking for more sooner in the ride. She kept repeating to let the smaller circles and figure eights challenge him while I stayed steady and was there for support when he asked for it. Once he was starting to be more reliable in the contact we threw in some canter transitions. The point of these wasn't to work a lot in the canter, but to keep him thinking about me and what we were going to do next while challenging his balance and hind-end. We'd canter for a little bit, getting him over the topline then go back to trot, only to re-balance and ask for canter again. We did this a handful of times each direction. Tracking right was a lot easier to rebalance and go than tracking left. Homework here is to do more transitions (again) and to make sure that he stays off my inside leg in the transitions. I need to get comfortable with getting him a bit uncomfortable so that he starts looking to me more for guidance and balance. After our warm-up, he got a long rein walk break. I re-checked our systems and he was good. We've really improved tracking right, but still can get a bit sticky tracking left. It may be time for another spur ride to get him a bit sharper off that leg. I also have homework to almost constantly think about sitting harder on my left seat bone when tracking left because I have a tendency to let his crookedness make me crooked. Part-Two of this issue is my uneven hands. My left hand is too timid to take enough contact with the left side of his mouth and my right hand tends to be too high. This creates a lovely little head tilt. These homeworks aren't anything new, but they're definitely still homework. We then got into the meat of the lesson. She had an exercise where we'd start down the centerline and leg yield off the right leg, when I got to the end I'd keep the feeling of leg yield but I'd do a small circle by changing my outside aids to turning aids. We worked on me maintaining even hands while weighting the proper seat bone then making sure that I used my outside leg to do the turn. For him, it made sure that he was listening to my sideways aids and my turning aids. Eventually this exercise can transition into leg yield to: shoulder-in, lengthen, or canter. It gets his hind-end stepping underneath and preps us for whatever I want to do next. Once I start introducing the other items, whenever we feel a loss of balance or through-ness we just go back to the magical circle. Mort did better than I expected. Leg yields have never historically been our strong suit. I know that I tend to lean to the outside and he'll get crooked (obviously) and lose power. The first attempt was a bit crooked but once I started using my outside aids correctly we got some good work. He felt powerful but focused to the right. The left wasn't as steep and we did need the circles at the end to rebalance, but they were still pretty successful. He actually does listen almost too well to the outside turning aids there, just need to work on me maintaining the bend through proper riding. My homework here is to start to start playing with more complicated items after the leg yield like I mentioned above. I'll be looking for the feel he's ready and waiting for me to ask for whatever and he'll be game. The canter was a ton of fun. I expected it to be better than the trot and it didn't disappoint. We started off on the right lead canter. The leg yield was good, though the shoulder led a bit. I haven't done a ton of leg yield in the canter, so I was just glad that it was working so well. We did some smaller circles at the end and he kept cantering and coming under himself though I could tell it was hard. The right lead was fun and successful--the left lead was even better. Again, our steepness wasn't there as much and he struggled a bit more with the small circles but it is such a better canter when I get it where I want it. On our last attempt she told me to get my shoulders above my seat more and I moved them right a fraction of an inch. Immediately Mort lifted more and felt straighter. It's amazing what a small difference can make. Our homework in the canter is to focus more on my upper body position; I need open hips but with a tight core and more even shoulders. We need to do more small circles to build his hind end strength. We'll also use the exercise to transition into lengthen canter or counter-bend and leg yield the other direction. In doing the counter-bend, I need to always have a feel that we could go back into a circle of true bend at any time. We ended with a little stretchy trot after Mort's final canter circle. We were both so happy with what he gave me that it was the perfect place to stop. We, of course, walked on a loose rein to let him mull it all over and relax before hopping off and giving him his well-earned treat.

Weekend Updates

Friday was misty and cool, but instead of hauling out we all decided to wait out the rain. I was both relieved and disappointed. I was nervous to haul Mort someplace new both because he hasn’t travelled a lot lately and I was worried he wouldn't get back on the trailer to come home. But I also knew that it would be good for us and get us to the facility where the clinic is to help him get used to it. Oh well--we may have a chance this week as there is even more rain in the forecast. Ugh. Mort was awesome on Friday. He stood well for grooming and tacking and I didn't have to tackle any of the standing issues that I did on Thursday. I did throw him in his stall after I had groomed him and wrapped his legs because the rain was taking forever to go away and I didn't feel like making him stand ground-tied for an hour. All four of us were riding together, but Mort did a good job keeping his focus on me instead of wanting to hang with his friends. This is a noticeable improvement from our time here and riding with others regularly. He was nicely forward and we warmed-up on a loose rein in the walk and trot. I started to pick him up and he stayed with me. I played with the shoulder-in on a circle that we had worked on the day before at the walk. I can tell that it's difficult for him, but he came around to it a lot faster and with much less of a struggle in both the walk and trot. I cantered him and he was really "there" for me. Of course, when he's on I ride better too. I felt my hips open and I was sitting up and able to use myself more efficiently. I touched on some counter canter, but not a lot. I was mostly just reveling in how he felt. I did test the collection with some smaller circles. I also touched on lengthening and shortening. I think he came back to me better than he ever has. He is always happy to slow down, but he usually wants to fall on the forehand. Friday he came back and kept his hind-end underneath himself. Good pony. I played with trot a little more, but mostly I was just having a good time an encouraging him to reach into the contact. He happily did so I didn't work all that long. I asked for a lot and he stepped up to the plate. Last weekend I noticed that he's filling out again along his topline and his haunches. Friday I got to feel the results of him getting back into shape. I'm glad that I have a trainer that made me go back and start from scratch again. He couldn't physically hold himself up, so when I was asking him to he was getting (rightfully) pissy and tense. That added with the fact that I didn't trust him to go too forward for the last several months at our old barn made for a really sticky Mort. Now I feel like we're heading back to a place that is even better than where we were before. I think his connection is more true and I know that I'm more aware of my seat and legs. After our clinic this weekend, I'll try to put another lesson in the books with my regular person and get some new homework. I'm excited to see what she thinks of our progress and to see what she thinks our next steps should be. Mort got Saturday off because of my laziness, but I did ride him Sunday. I planned on keeping it easy both mentally and physically since he was such a champ on Friday. Sometimes keeping things simple is hard for me because I tend to want to pick and fix and drill, but I was good and we never got above a training level frame. I did a lot of loose rein trot and just played a bit with him working into a low and steady contact. We didn't canter and I only barely touched on lateral work at the walk. He got a quick grooming and tossed back outside to eat grass in the sun.

Dressage-ing

For the last couple of weeks, I have been starting to feel hints of where Mort and I were before all of our time off this winter. He's pushing from behind and getting more and more consistent about connecting up front and looking for me. I can feel him getting stronger and settling back into our training. (Yay!) So, on Sunday and Monday I decided to ask him for more and see how he handled everything. We touched on lifting and some collection. We did bend/counter-bend in canter (and trot). I asked for walk/trot and trot/halt/trot transitions on a figure eight. We worked on rapid walk/trot transitions every four or five strides. I played with some shoulder-in both within trot and within the transitions. For most of it, he was mediocre on the first try but rapidly improved with the following tries. I only did each of these things a handful of times before I was satisfied and moved on. I didn't want to fry his brain, nor did I want to fry his body. I would touch on something and move on as soon as I felt it connect. I'm so glad that he's coming back to where we were. I'm glad that I've got an instructor that makes me go back to basics when things fall apart instead of trying to put a band-aid on our issues. I'm glad that Mort can take a joke.* And I'm glad that everything that we had is still in there somewhere. Mort is the perfect horse for me to learn how to train. He's forgiving and willing to try. But he's also lazy and won't fake it for me if I'm not doing what I'm supposed to. Since he had two harder days in a row, yesterday was much lower key. He was on the buckle until well into our trot work. He's so happy to stretch down and do our big loopy figure eights just listening to my legs and seat to turn. We spent a lot of time taking breaks at the walk. I did eventually pick up some light contact but didn't ask him for anything more than a training level frame. I touched on leg yields at the walk just to keep him even between my legs. And I did take time to pick him up and let him down at the walk as I always do. But the ride was short, easy, and pretty fun. It's amazing how much I'm learning with Mort. He's so sensitive to how I'm holding my body that he's training me to be a much better rider. I'm getting more zen and patient about my riding, which is a huge feat considering my need to control and plan everything. Retraining Mort is probably one of the most challenging things that I've ever done, but most days I'm just out there having a blast and soaking in how awesome my horse is. *I am the joke

Another Day in Paradise

Last night was a good one. Mort stood really well for our grooming and tacking. I only had to back him once at the beginning when I went to brush around his ears. He stayed put for other horses coming in and out. He stayed put for me putting on my boots in the tack room. He's actually a lot better at standing for grooming while ground tied than he ever was cross tied.

We headed out to ride before everyone else was ready. I like the mix of riding alone and with people. I don't have to worry about traffic in our warm-up but we have to work on Mort riding with his friends and remaining focused on me. The ride itself was very similar to the rides we've been putting in lately.

We started off on a loose rein walk. After a few laps of that I started adding in some inside rein suppleness and turning from my seat. We then moved into trot with the same concepts. I can definitely tell that he's coming back. I'm getting more and more glimpses of where we were before the winter. He's starting to be able to hold connection longer and stay balanced through turns and changes of direction while keeping a forward trot. He still sometimes wants to pitter out but all it takes is a little squeeze from my calves and he'll maintain his power.

We played with canter a little. I've been doing one-loops from my seat with just a following hand--only suppling if he gets really upside-down or twisted. Most of the time I don't have to do much as he'll straighten out or bend pretty well with just my seat and legs. We can circle big and small and stay straight on the long sides with minimal interference from me. My goal with his canter is just to not mess it up too much and let the real work start after another lesson or two when we get some new homework.

After a while, the other ladies at the barn joined me in the arena. Mort got a little distracted and I had to watch out for traffic. The good thing about that is that it forces me to look up. I have always had the bad habit of looking down even though I don't really need to. When I was looking up, I still knew exactly what he was doing underneath me. I could feel if he was connected or crooked or coming above the bit. And I was getting better connection than when I was looking down. Funny how not having your upper body tipped forward will help your horse.

After some more trot work and circles and figure eights where Mort was really trying for me and looking for the contact I called it quits. Last night's ride was a bit longer and I asked for a bit more than the previous and he responded by giving me that bit more. We ended with some really lovely walk work. He was reaching into the contact and staying forward in spite of me playing with some of our lateral work. Such a good boy.

We ended the day with me finishing up pulling his mane--which he also stood for better than normal. I think he liked that I broke it up into two sessions. I think our ground work probably helped too. I know that it helped us get on the trailer last night! A gal at the barn has hooked up her trailer for us three times now and Mort has gotten more confident each session. Last night he got on four times for me. Such a good boy. This trailer is similar to mine but I'm still really happy with him for taking to the new trailer so quickly.

I'm hoping we can have several more sessions with it over the next few weeks to really cement in the fact that it's not a scary place. Mort and I have a clinic the 11-12th of May so I'll have my trailer out before that to remind him that it's not scary either. We're well on our way of getting him confident on two of the three trailers that were on my list of goals for the year.

A Matter of Trust

Mort was good for me in our training work on Friday and yesterday. I wanted to reward him by keeping the training part short but that left me wanting to still work on some fitness. Back when we had easy access to trails, I would have adventured with him on those (hopefully we can get a loop established on our property someday). But now we're near town and I'm not adventuring on a major road. So instead, I let him have a hand gallop.

We didn't go for all that long and he probably didn't gain all that much fitness. But it gets his heart rate and breathing up and it puts a pep in his step. It's fun for both of us. I do of course end the ride with lots of walking to make sure that he doesn't revert to a total racehorse.

But the point of this post isn't to talk about our training, but our trust.

For the first 6-8 months of our relationship, I didn't trust Mort. We didn't know each other and he was tense and spooky. He wasn't bad, but we were both new to each other and he was in the totally different world of being a sporthorse versus a racehorse. So we slowly worked our way toward trusting each other. We started to explore trails. He started to enjoy being on a loose rein. He got a little self-confidence and our confidence in each other grew.

Fast forward a couple years and he was a horse I'd trust with almost anyone. We'd traveled to clinics and shows where he was a champ. Steven would graze him while I cleaned stalls or hose him while I changed out of show clothes. I let my sister ride him, which was her first time on a horse in over a decade. She was nervous at first but quickly realized that he was a horse who wasn't going to do something stupid out of the blue. I could go on vacation for a week and hop on him bareback for a hack along the gravel road.

We knew each other and had confidence that we were both there to take care of each other.

Then from 2.5 years to 3.5 years Mort and I were at a barn that was close to home but eventually showed that it wasn't a good fit for us. The trust that we had slowly got chipped away.

I didn't notice it at first. I would still hop on him after a day off without trepidation. In my mind he was still the easy-going horse. All horses spook sometimes. All horses have bad days. All horses have issues. He was still my Mort.

The incidences were infrequent at first. Maybe the barn owner had a hard time with leading him outside and he got pushy. He pulled back in the cross ties and broke a halter…and then another and another. I stopped tying him in the wash rack because he'd more often than not be nervous. I stopped riding him bareback without a second thought…then I basically stopped riding bareback all together. I started getting nervous if he'd had more than one day off from riding. He stopped only being pushy with the barn owner and started being pushy with me. I would rarely start a ride on a loose rein.

It's so obvious now that we should have never gone to that barn. But in spite of all of the red flags that I've just admitted to, there were still so many good days where we'd walk the gravel roads and the pasture behind the arena with confidence. It wasn't immediate, but I did see it before I did anything about it. I didn't want to admit to myself that Mort wasn't the same. The barn was close to home and they weren't doing anything glaringly wrong to cause Mort's behavior. When I finally started to realize it wasn't the best for Mort I thought we could wait until he moved to our property. That was selfish and I deeply regret it.

It's been almost exactly two months since I've moved Mort and it feels like a lifetime. I asked Mort to hand gallop on Friday without a second thought. I not only trusted that he would take care of us, but that it would be fun. I don't find myself stressing out when he's had a day off (or a week when the weather was still horrible). I don't keep myself awake at night worrying about his mental health or whether he's being pushy to the barn owner. I've ridden him bareback again and all of our rides start on a loose rein walk.

Just like with losing our trust, I didn't fully notice it being built back up again. For some reason, the desire to go fast on him again helped click it into place. I don't think we're back to 100% from where we were; there are a few scars that will take a little longer to heal. But I do trust my horse again and in trusting him again, only now do I realize how much that I didn't trust him before. I trust him and I trust that we'll continue on the path toward where we were--and beyond.

It was hard for me to write this post. Putting it down here is the first time I'm going to admit it to anyone other than myself. I don't blame the barn, and I definitely blame myself. We live and learn and thankfully Mort is forgiving.

Working on Our Homework

I came back from my quick vacation to Wellington feeling motivated and refreshed, so I've got a bit of a game plan heading into summer. Mort and I are going to a clinic the second weekend of May. This means that we've got to be back in shape and working together by then. It also means buddy boy has to be more reliable about trailering. So most of my game plan involves those two things.

In our last lesson a couple weeks ago Mort was so behind my leg that my instructor basically told me that we should go back and start from scratch. He was out of shape and weak behind so he couldn't carry himself properly. I had been letting him be lazy the last few months because I thought it was better than an explosive alternative, so he also developed a bit of an issue about being forward. I'm glad that she has seen us on our good days because I would have been even more embarrassed if the Mort she saw was the only example she had of us.

She also worked with him in-hand a bit to see what our trailering issues were. He basically didn't respect her space or trust her as someone who could help him. He's also just plain scared of the trailer. So we got a lot of homework there as well.

The next two rides after that lesson were forward boot camp. If he even thought about getting behind my leg, I'd follow up with a tap from the whip. It didn't take long before Mort remembered how to move forward with me quietly asking. I think I smacked him twice in ride one and just had to wave the whip once in ride two.

The next couple rides addressed him ignoring the sideways portion of my leg. I put on a pair of spurs for back-up. In between the focusing on forward, I'd occasionally ask for a step sideways. I'd start by asking with my calf followed by the spur if he didn't listen. This one is harder for him mentally and physically, so it's going to be a slower process than re-installing forward. I'm just trying to be very specific when I ask so that there is no confusion. I double check how I'm sitting and where I'm placing my legs. I make sure that I'm not holding with my hands, and I just ask for a simple step off my leg.

The first ride just involved me asking him to move a few times each direction--two of those times were at the halt to really keep things simple in his head. The second ride involved checking to make sure he remembered moving a single step sideways then evolved into a few short leg yields each direction at the walk. He was doing well, so I asked for a single step sideways at the trot a time or two as well.

After the first ride after my lesson I started to quietly ask for suppleness again as well. At first I started with just one rein and it would evolve into both reins as he responded positively. I'm trying to be really consistent with keeping my hands on either side of his withers. I don't want to allow myself to do too much of an opening rein and I definitely don't want to allow myself to get sucked into the indirect rein trap. He has been giving me really nice moments of suppleness and connection, especially tracking right.

Our last ride was with the whole group at the barn. As I've discussed before, Mort is easily distracted when his friends are out there. So it was a more simple ride. He was still very forward but we didn't have much else. So, instead of worrying that everyone else was watching, I just worked with what I had. I asked for forward and I'd ask for suppleness. He didn't want to give it to me as he had been in our solo rides. That's OK. We did several short, loose rein walk breaks. I finally got some decent suppleness doing some figure eights at the trot. I stopped. I asked for a single step sideways at the walk and we just walked around on the loose rein until he was cooled off.

I'm glad that I didn't get sucked into trying to pull him back down into reality. I'm glad that I was ok with dropping the sideways back down because that's really hard for me mentally. I used the figure eights and turning to work on him wanting to counter-bend and go toward his friends. He kept his forward and we ended well.

I read a quote from Denny Emerson this past week that really resonated with me. It basically broke down that in training, you don't feel a lot of success in any particular ride. You find a good place to stop long before it becomes drilling. But eventually, all of these non-eventful rides will add up to success--months and years down the road. You don't feel it day-to-day but you see it looking back at where you've come from. I'm hoping to keep this in mind if I start to want to drill and get greedy asking for "one more time".

So this is where Mort and I are in our riding right now. It'll come back quickly since it's all in there and I can still feel it sometimes. I'm sure I could be asking for more now that I've got the forward back, but I don't want to get stuck in the same trap as we got stuck in this winter. His fitness has to be established first so that it's fair to ask him for more.

Our in-hand homework is as follows:

He needs to move off pressure

If I put a finger to his neck I want his whole body to step sideways

If I put a finger behind his girth area I want his hind end to move sideways

He needs to not get into my space

He gets backed up if he crowds me

He needs to focus on me as a "leader"

We're working on standing in the aisle for grooming and tacking without being tied

He has to focus on me all the time and gets moved back into place if he steps forward

He needs to walk forward toward me when asked

I stand in front of him at the end of the lead rope and ask him to step forward toward me

If he steps forward before I ask, he gets backed up a step

I'm being very specific about how I handle him. We spend at least 10-15 minutes every time I'm out there working on our homework by the trailer. Saturday we hooked it up and I practiced asking him to move his body toward it. We worked on getting him to step toward me while I was standing on it. He put his front feet on several times and I would ask for a step backward, then a step forward. That was fairly successful. He does get treats occasionally while we work on the ground--particularly for stepping to me when asked.

He definitely understands what I want on the ground now. He's very good at the different tasks. I don't know that he sees me as a "leader" but he's at least thinking about me a little more. I'm hoping to continue to do the forward and back commands on the trailer a lot over the next few weeks before our clinic. Hopefully him focusing on the exercise will help us get on the trailer.