Progress

Apologies for the lack of media, I've been trying a new app to track my rides and have been using it's photo features. Unfortunately, it's buggy and has eaten my photos and my ride tracking. RUDE.

Last night Arya and I could have had a really, really bad ride.

Her ground work was a bit more... up...? than normal. She was an odd combination of very forward and rather un-responsive to the stick and string. My brain was still wandering off wondering where my hay farmer had disappeared to and then got a call from my husband right before I got on. My fly spray didn't seem to be working... it was just a mess of things. But I threw my leg over and decided to see what we could do.

Left wasn't too bad, but she was rather rude about wanting to canter, only, and did get a bit playful in the canter (which doesn't always feel "playful"). I am trying to keep myself accountable and keep my leg on and not let my hands go awol all over the place pulling. I've found that I have two bad habits, that probably stem from fear from Arya's terrorist days: I tend to get handsy and pull badly with my left rein, and that I take my leg off when I feel like shit is about to go down. The left rein issue is in both directions; I either lock up pulling going left, or I feel like I'm constantly dragging Arya out of a tiny spiral of a circle going right. My right leg seems to be lacking in the muscle department, so I need to be more thoughtful about using it and ensuring that I'm riding more evenly. Definitely an area to improve, just like keeping my leg on and keeping her coming forward.

There were several moments during our ride, though, that made me think that shit was about to hit the fan. I felt, especially at the canter, and then a thousandfold more at all gaits going right, that I was sitting on a spring wrapped around dynamite, and that bucking and rearing were definitely on the menu. It look a lot of forcing myself to be calm and breathe, and doing a lot of focused releasing of my lower back, as well as trying to be tactful with my leg and hand aids, but Arya, for once, let me manage the forward and the anxiety and we were able to keep going with our ride, and actually found some really fantastic moments in that ride.

Arya isn't a naturally soft horse, despite being light and having naturally collected gaits - she always feels/looks good, but the connection is generally false and it's hard to realize when she's faking you out right up until she totally disconnects and starts to be shitty. What really surprised me was that Arya was able to overcome her tension going left at the canter and came down from it (albeit it took almost an entire circle) and for some reason I was impulsive and tried softening my whole connection (both hands, which I know I am not supposed to do) and giving her a bit of a scritch on the neck before picking her up again. For some magical reason, this really worked - she softened and stretched down, and took the connection again in a much lower and softer frame than she normally goes in. And I was able to ask her for more. The trot I got to sit on during this... was lovely. Truly. I'm addicted.

Unfortunately, she's still too tense going right to do such a thing, but we were able to negotiate our way past some more potential tantrums and blow ups to something decent. She is definitely more balanced going left - the canter feels semi normal that direction, vs the extremes (either bolting or cantering in a half rear/tea cup) of her right lead. I was very pleased with her ability to actually use her brain last night, and wish she could get over her issues with bugs so we could do more work with less fly related anxiety.

Speaking of anxiety, I had to stop myself from giving her Nexium last night... I feel like she has relapses into stress, and I'm not sure what the trigger is. The last few days, I tried to keep the mares on the paddock, which is getting over grown, to try and have them mow for me (and give the pastures a few extra days of rest. The mares seemed pretty meh about this and didn't graze a ton (though I was feeding hay) and have been doing a lot of standing around in the shelter. Now that I opened the grass back up on Sunday, they continue to come in and stand for long periods in the shelter or by the barn, just hanging out. I'm worried they aren't eating like they used to, all of them. It hasn't been as hot, and I haven't felt like the bugs are any worse than they were  before... has anyone had their horse(s) go through a summer slump?

Summer Summer Summer

It's been hot, it's been humid and I've been spending very little time inside. Which is good!

Bailey has been working regularly, much to her chagrin. We've been mixing dressage and jumping, and enjoying the fact that my trashed hay bales from the fateful hay barn partial flooding of Spring 2018 have resulted in having a fun jump to play with. I've been building it up, and tried it as a corner, a big solid "table" and recently moved the top bales to the side to be a airy-in-the-middle oxer type creature with poles on top. Having 5 "standards" has also made jumping that much more fun - four has been a bit limiting, but having a 5th fence, even if it doesn't move, has been super fun.

On the flat, she's been a bit lazy. She wants to bounce and stare around, but I got after her and really made her work the canter on our last ride and the horse I jumped a couple days later was amazingly light and uphill and steady in her pace... resulting in a magical jump school. I need to remember that the whining and the "work is hard" tantrums are worth it.

Hi Yes my eyeballs are sweating why are we doing this

Arya has been battling the bugs and putting in a few more rides under saddle. She's been progressing slowly, but the moments of feeling like she's really on board with me are really worth it.

Obsessed with these photos

I still struggle what to do with her when she gets behind my leg or starts to get silly. She's been offering a lot more forward lately, and I've been struggling to keep her out of the canter so we can do some trotting. Her MO now is that she either:
- Doesn't want to trot so she either sucks back and does a tiny trot, and then tucks her chin into her chest and  canters, or
- She strongly bends herself out and when I open my inside rein and apply my inside leg to say, um hey stay in this stratosphere plz, she pops up into the canter and gets defensive because she knows it's not what I want and is like GOSH WHY DO I HAVE TO STOP ALREADY even before I start trying to woah her

I've been allowing a lot more canter than I have been before, and she does have a lovely canter. I can be a bit more in her face with the half halts at the canter than I can be at the trot, which makes it a semi-comfortable gait. I do get a bit defensive, as she gets very skippy and swishy with her back end, but so far (knock on wood for me, plz) she hasn't gotten bucky or particularly light in front, so she's been getting a lot better about keeping her feet on the ground.

Much sweaty. I guess we're achieving those mythical wet saddle pads!

On Tuesday, instead of fighting the wanting to run up into the canter, I asked for it earlier and tried to just continue to ask her to work while cantering, and trying the trot work second. It worked decently, but not perfectly; she still misinterprets the inside leg squeeze on her barrel as a forward aid on principal, but I did feel like we got some lateral thinking. Shockingly, it actually went better to the right than the left barrel-movement wise, though she jigged the entire time which was obnoxious.

We're getting some good downward relaxation, but still not achieving true connection. It's a work in progress, especially with a horse so tightly wound as Arya is. I have faith that we'll install more willing lateral work under saddle soon; we've been doing a ton of yielding fore and hind quarters online, which seems to be translating slowly under saddle. Her online work has been improving in leaps and bounds since the Tik clinic, so I expect I'll see more under saddle if I keep the faith and be persistent.

It's less than exciting to say that all we can do is walk, trot and canter most of the time in control, but not usually on the bit or with any relaxation after a year, but I keep telling myself she's not a horse you can rush, and we're repairing a relationship as well as doing some big building block learning at the same time. We'll get somewhere, at some point... I hope ;) Either way, I adore her almost blindly in a way I haven't loved a horse possibly ever... and maybe she will bend under my unending love and determination!

WW: Arya's 1 Year Update Photos

I'm a bit late, but happy 1 year of being a Minnesotan, Arya!

Here are some images I took to share with New Vocations along with her last update.