This is Gonna Be My Year

Stitch and I have gotten five rides in so far this year - and he's been wonderful!

He hadn't been ridden for about five weeks due to the horrible weather we had through December. But, with the New Year came relief from Mother Nature and we've had above average temperatures for the last week. In fact, it's been so nice that Stitch has been nekkid outside since Saturday, though I'll have to put something on tomorrow night as the nights will be a bit cooler again.

The break in weather will allow me to make some much needed repairs to the circus tent suit of armor that Stitch has been wearing over his winter blankets. I'm determined to get the rest of the winter out of this blanket before scrapping it. If I wasn't able to make the repairs myself it totally wouldn't be worth it, but since it's mostly just costing me time I'm putting the effort in. 

On the first ride back, he felt really sold under me. With the young ones, it's always a crapshoot as to if they revert back to a wiggly worm after some time off, but no, he felt really good. The first ride was very simple. He wasn't bending around my inside leg as well as he had been before the break, but otherwise did everything else he was asked.  Except for the big scoot into canter spook - I didn't ask for that. (He was looking for an excuse. I think a D-ring on my saddle jingled, and he used that.)

On the second ride, he gave me a couple of moments at the end of bending through his body off my inside leg at the trot. It was the day after the first ride, and he definitely didn't have the spring in his step that he did the previous day, but surprisingly he had good forward intent at the trot. I kind of thought that he would have to be convinced that he wasn't dying. 

I am 2 for 2 in snowshoeing across the field to find the missing hood in the first place I looked. Don't tell Stitch - he doesn't need to make it more challenging for me. 

Stitch had the next couple of days off, and on Saturday, I set up a square of poles in the center of the ring to be able to trot over two crossing the diagonals. Stitch likes doing poles, and was dragged around with me while I set them up, so I'm not sure if that is why he uncharacteristically was very fidgety at the mounting block and had a hard time with standing still in the right spot.  Once I got him to stand still he was his normal rock solid as I got on though.

He was very happy to do the poles. I usually try to set up poles once a week for him as a bit of a reward, but it's been a while, even when we were riding through November. Even at a walk on a loose rein he takes us over them.

I gave us two challenges with these poles. The first, was to do a circle and hit two poles through the V-Shape of the box. He found it tough, and we didn't quite succeed. These poles are 8 feet wide, and if they had been 10 foot we would have been able to hit the ends of the poles on the size of circle that we could manage. With the shorter poles we were kind of sliding through the gap at the end on the second pole. 15m circles are a little tough for him at the moment. 

The second challenge was to be able to come down the long side, ask for a bit of inside flexion while staying on the track, then switching to the outside aids to turn the shoulders off the track and onto the line towards the poles.

We've been working on being able to get a bit of inside flexion and keep going straight. In November it was mostly through the neck, but he was trying. It's now starting to come a bit more through the poll, and much softer through the neck. This ride was the first time that I was asking him to turn after setting up the flexion, and though it wasn't perfect, he was trying. Where the poles were set up in the middle of the arena meant that I had to be a little quicker than ideal about being able to rebalance between the flexion and turning, and he fell out a bit through the outside shoulder in the turn. But still, I was very happy with the effort.

I tried to do a selfie, mostly so that I could show off this super cute shirt I got for $5 on Black Friday from onthehunteq.com. Short arms are not conducive to getting pony faces in the selfie.

Ride #4 of the year was on Sunday. We again worked a bit on the flexion and turn but without poles this time. He also started to remember how to bend around my inside leg, and gave me a couple of lovely shallow loop serpentines to the quarter line where he totally softened into the new bend off my inside leg with each loop. We haven't ridden them in a little while and in the past they've been very janky so I was really happy with that new feel.

Last night, Tuesday, I set up a couple of single poles again and repeated the same exercise as before with the flexion and turn, but this time left myself a bit more time before having to turn to the pole, and as I hoped the extra time really helped and he had some good turns with the shoulders making the turns. 

For the most part, he's been really good under saddle and feels like he's really starting to understand. 

The one that seems to be broken is the turn on the forehand off my right leg. 

He learned it pretty early when I started him, but then he wouldn't stand still to park, so I stopped doing it until he started parking without anticipating that he was going to be asked to do something. Parking has gotten much bettter, so I tried introducing the turn on the forehand again.

For some reason, it's been a struggle. He just wants to turn the shoulders into the turn, and on the first two rides that I attempted it, I don't think we got a single step of the hind leg moving away. If I try it on the ground, he immediately moves his hindend with a light touch from my hand in the area that my leg would be touching, so he understands there.

Now, in trying to get a step, we've kind of broken the park mode again. 

Last night, I was pushing it a bit more to try to get a single step behind, and tried to just wait out the turning the shoulders and click immediately when he did the step behind and stop. We got about 5 or 6 single steps, none without the shoulders moving around first, but they got a little bit faster at the end. And then I asked him to park on a loose rein. And he actually did! A little unsure as to if he should be getting ready to do something, but tried really hard to just wait it out. I hopped off there and gave him his cookie because that was super and to be honest, unexpected. 

So, I'm very happy with where we've started the new year. 

Fitness is the biggest thing holding us back at the moment. In November we were doing an interval training program to help us get there, but with the time off anything that we gained at that time was lost and we need to start over again. However, I don't want to start if we are going to stop again right away, and the forecast is saying that it will be cold again, though it looks like it's been pushed another week out. I also need to clip again, and I'm thinking of waiting until after the next cold spell to do so. 

Once we can get a solid month together it will be time to get the canter going. I want him to have some fitness first because I'm pretty sure he's going to think he's going to die after a couple of strides. Schooling-wise he's ready.

I don't know if I am though - it's been almost two years since I've really ridden a canter! Eeek!