Winter Updates

Well folks, it's been quite a winter here in Missouri. It's basically either been wet or frozen since early January, so Mort and I haven't had quite the progress that I was hoping for but I thought I'd update you all on where we are right now and what we've been working on. I went back and read my last blog post from the end of November and I'm happy to report that we're at a better place in our training and relationship than we were then.

From our schooling show in November

I'd been struggling with Mort connecting to his outside shoulder while tracking left. This issue is LOADS better. I can consistently get him to connect both in a long-and-low frame and a higher frame with just an easy half-halt on that outside rein. A lot of this comes down to a lesson that I had in early January where she addressed that I need to sit a hair more on my inside seat bone so that I'm not leaning to the outside. It was like magic.

Unfortunately, in getting better tracking left I'm noticing that we don't have a truly good connection tracking right. I don't think it's gotten worse; I just think the major improvements tracking left have left tracking right behind. We spent a lot of December and January doing a bunch of changes of direction. These really help me gather his hind-end and shoulders where I need them to be and keep him thinking that we might change direction at any time so that he's more willing to listen to my half-halts. In our lesson in early January, my instructor commented that he was looking more even than she'd ever seen him and that we were certainly on the right track.

We haven't done a ton of work in the canter. We work on transitions and we've been working on bend and counter-bend to help with the straightness--especially on the right lead. As spring (hopefully) comes I plan to work more on transitions, developing more jump in the canter, and continue to develop a better counter-canter. I also want to focus on my seat to make sure I'm weighting the correct seat-bone. I want to make sure my outside leg is helping him turn and that I don't hold too tight with either leg. And I finally want to make sure that my hands are following and encouraging an even connection, even as they go higher with more collection.

On the days where the footing has been questionable we've been playing with a ton of lateral work at the walk. This is really important to us as it's where he likes to get tense and we stuck not going forward. He's getting better about coming back to me when I pick him up from a loose rein and he's certainly really starting to understand lateral work. We've done everything from side-pass and leg yield to shoulder-in and half-pass. He allows me to manipulate his body into haunches-in and half-pass regularly now. He can't hold either for too long yet, but he understands it.

Mort and I had been riding 4-6 days/week as the weather permitted. He has held his weight and fitness well. As the weather got worse, so did Mort's spookiness and behavior issues. The lack of real turnout has been a problem since we moved last winter, but until the bad weather this winter I had been able to somewhat combat it with regular riding. Unfortunately, the less I rode and he got turned out the worse he got. This isn't surprising, but there are simply not a lot of boarding options near me.

In late January, a semi-local dressage rider reached out to me asking if I knew anyone looking for a boarding barn. She has a small, private facility and was looking for a gelding to fit into her turnout situation. After a lot of back-and-forth I started to become pretty optimistic that it would be a good fit for Mort. So, I moved Mort on Valentine's Day and he's been so happy ever since.

Mort and his new bff, Milo

He immediately got along with his new turnout buddy and I think he's really happy to have a friend again. He gets to go out in a big pasture with him every other day--rotating with a gravel dry lot and shed. Even though the dry lot is small, because it's gravel he still gets to wander around and play if he'd like. I've only been able to ride him three times since our move (darn weather), but he's been calm and well-behaved in spite of that. He's getting a lot more hay and an alf-mix so I don't have to supplement him with alf cubes anymore. I think we're both really happy with the move. The only drawback is that I'm back to driving 35-40 minutes each way, but I still wish I had moved him months ago. The things we do for our horse's happiness and well-being.