Is it any wonder the mare has already accumulated several nicknames? Tooey, Too, Tutu, and for some reason...Tooper. As well as Mama Mare due to her odd protectiveness of my friend's paint filly.
Basically, what ha happened wuz... she was overdue and finally came on a Tuesday.
But I digress. The whole point of me feeling like a silly blogger is for me to track my progress with this girl. As I mentioned, I no longer feel like my riding is up to par. I see pictures of myself in the saddle and am generally mortified. Oh my god, do I really ride like that? Shoulder twisted? Chair seat? Shlumpy cockroach shoulders like I screech at my students for? And that, what is THAT?
It's amazing how you can feel like you're the shiznit and having a really good ride, and then you get home and look at the video/pictures you coerced your sister/friend/boyfriend/random bored looking person into taking, and you realize the reason your ride felt so effortless was because you spent 45 minutes riding like a sack of potatoes.
I find this unacceptable, and I am so tired of my self esteem crashing and feeling like a horrible rider. I'm tired of girls eight years younger than me, with their awful, elegant long legs and trim little torsos make me feel worthless and shlumpy and floppy. I'm tired of wondering, now that I know how crap I look, if when my students and their parents watch me ride, they wonder why I'm micromanaging every move the kid makes.
My sister took some photos of me riding the other week. When I got home and looked at them, I promptly sent BO a text begging her for help. I need a lunge lesson, I need you to screech at me and beat me with a crop the next time my body does THAT THING.
She promptly put me in one of her lessons warming up a kid's pony while said kid rode without stirrups on a lesson horse for a while, and when the kid was ready to jump, told me to stay and ride said lesson horse without stirrups and work on my leg and seat.
Enter: gelatinous pony
Meet Lilly Gray. Obviously a fancy shmancy athletic little gal, eh? You would never guess that Lilly is equus mondo girthus, with an eating disorder that involves eating anything that might be food, smells like food, or could replace food in an emergency. She is some sort of all American mutt; she looks like a tiny draft pony, but has previously had a little racking filly at her side. So who knows. All I know is that within two minutes of alternately sitting and posting the trot without stirrups, trying not to do so much butt plopping, trying to keep my leg under me, and trying to not let my devious twisty right shoulder get to twistin', I had a raging stitch in my side. And then almost got pulled off over her head when she decided sweeping off to the right (and towards escape) sounded like a much better idea than continuing our nice circle to the left. I felt just like a kid, I swear. However: I rode Too with BO a couple days later and could feel a difference. So, bright idea: Saturday, ride Too with no stirrups and be AWESOME!!
Cuidado: Fat daisy cutting pony does NOT = fat, quite suspended horse with large engine. You may experience issues.
Regardless, I will work as hard as it takes. Because so far, the documented journey with Too is this:
And so we see the chairseat emerge!
To be fair, I can explain away that day's shortcomings. I am, as we can delicately say, vertically challenged. When I made the hour trip to finally try this mare out, I brought my saddle...which ended up not being quite wide enough. Too didn't seem to be in any discomfort (although it is quite possible the two-year layer of jello covering her spine masked her nerve endings from feeling any fitting discrepancies), but I, however, suffered thirty minutes worth of G forces pulling said saddle and its top heavy rider to the outside of the tiny 12m circle we were forced to spend our entire ride in. (Hint to dude who was admittedly kind enough to let me and ex-owner use his covered pen while he was not home: Level your footing! Rail= danger danger!) I did my best to stay nice and tall and centered, which seems to have prevented icky right shoulder from coming into play (never underestimate what the fear of busting your ass can do for ya), but I was, however, bracing against my stirrups trying to keep the saddle upright on her back. Loved her to death, though, and I suppose enough laps around a 12m circle will encourage any horse to soften its face and relax, no matter how many years she spent reclining in a pasture and enjoying the good life.
Eight days later: second ride at her new home. The previous day, after ex-owner drove off with my ex-colt, I discovered that when put in a large jumping ring, my new horse was a biiiit more horse than she was in repetitive 12m circles. No matter, though; I honestly prefer a forward horse, as my aforementioned midget legs make waking up a slow-natured equine a little tiresome. The next day was a little calmer, and everyone and their mother took Too for a spin. And looked significantly better in photos than I:
So it occurred to me that perhaps I should focus on not riding like a tipsy cockroach. So I started practicing what I was preaching to the munchkins: puppet string to the chest, sit up like a ballerina, all that general mumbo jumbo.
Two weeks later:
Relatively acceptable for where I'm coming from...
But, nope, wait, there's that nasty right shoulder again, sitting about an inch and a half in front of the left.
Meanwhile, Too has her own obstacles to overcome; mainly, not overly overcoming her obstacles. It took a few rides for her to figure out trot poles were not necessarily supposed to be leapt over.
The biggest obstacle we met was the canter. Of course I didn't canter her before making the trade; do I look like a fool? *rolly eyes* It just was not happening in that tiny pen, and I'd seen plenty of video of her going to know I liked her.
I did not anticipate her not having a right lead, and crossfiring on the left lead. Oh not another Marco!
Wrong lead again..
and again, and again, etc etc...
I'm an understanding person, luckily, and try not to get frustrated. I kept in mind that this mare with a relatively long back had been pasture fluff for two years and was out of shape and certainly weak. We worked on it. We did lots of circles and figure eights and serpentines, and back stretches before and after every ride. We got it.
Or rather, she got it and I held on. I am still working out how to ride this canter. She has so much thrust (as that last picture shows; she wasn't going particularly fast) and I'm about as out of shape as she is. The problem I'm facing is that I'm over jumping and such, beyond the occasional low fence for a little variety. I want to do dressage with Too, but right now sitting the canter is HARD...but I'm trying so hard not to ride her like a hunter. Especially with this tendency to leaaannn...that she has.
As far as the crossfiring to the left, I have my own theory about that. She won't do it if I can keep her correctly bent just a bit to the inside... which, with my shoulder and/or whatever is causing it to shoot forward, seems much easier going to the right. My theory is that I am somehow blocking her going to the left, or somehow signalling for a change...something.
These pictures were from the beginning of February. I am hoping that not long from now, I can navigate back to these and see a world of difference. We are far from perfect and elegant right now (curse you, model kids and your lovely elegant horses), but for the first time since I sold Marco, I am regularly enjoying time in the saddle. I always have fun when I can ride Ben, but those times are few and far in between, and nothing ever really clicked when I rode PJ. There isn't a ride on this mare where I don't think to myself at least once, "I love riding this horse!" She is so fun, and such a different ride than anything I've ever had before. I am truly enjoying this girl, and enjoying the journey to get where I want with her.
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