I have several draft posts about my recent lessons that I just haven’t had the motivation to write about. They haven’t been bad. They haven’t been exciting. They haven’t been boring. I just haven’t had the motivation. That said, I do like writing about lessons as this blog also serves as a record of Nay Nay’s progress. Still… I’m not pushing it.

My last 3 lessons (all taking place in a 7 day period) have been all over the board. This reflects my recent rides. Everything as of late is lacking consistency. I’ll be honest? This has sort of wrecked my confidence a bit. But, going forward, I need to just put that aside and ride the horse I have.

Instead of recapping the rides, I’m going to instead recap the takeaways.

1. Sit DOWN. When I’m uncomfortable, I have a habit of tensing in my thighs and ankles and sitting ON the saddle vs IN the saddle. If I really sit down, Nay starts to relax. If I tense, I give Nay reason to tense.
2. Engage the brain. When I get on, get to work immediately. Work doesn’t mean trotting. Work mean getting into the center of the ring and circling and changing direction and marching forward. Start the trot the same way. ONLY once the brain is engaged and the body and back is warmed up do we leave the center and continue on. Once on the rail? Sometimes the brain still needs extra engagement. Nay likes poles on these days so circling and adding some pole work and lots of change of direction once his back is warmed up is good.
3. Utilize draw reins. This one might be controversial to some, but, like everything else, they are a tool and when used properly, they have a place. We’ve introduced them and Nay Nay is responding well.
4. MARCH ON. This is especially important when using draw reins. If I am using draw reins, I CANNOT have an up and down trot. It needs to have power, it needs to be forward, it needs to have controlled speed. Basically, I need to ride. So often when trotting, I just am happy if we are trotting slowly and not dying, but this isn’t OK. This isn’t a proper trot. So, March On.
5. Ride the horse you have today. Basically, stay in the moment. I can’t ride concerned about what happened last week or yesterday because the horse I had those rides might not be the horse I have this ride. This one is SO hard for me. I fixate on past issues or mistakes or fears rather than embracing the moment.
6. Control what you can control. Some rides just don’t happen. If Nay is tense? It might be worth it to take advantage of running through the indoor. Preemptively. If I get on and it’s STILL not going well despite engaging the brain? I can get off and lunge or run around the indoor. That’s OK. Sometimes the only thing you can do is free lunge or run around or lunge. That’s OK too. If it goes really well and everything is accomplished in 10 minutes? It’s OK to end there too.

While Nay Nay hops around and curls up in a ball, he doesn’t actually do anything beyond that. In addition, he ONLY does this at the trot. Never at the canter. So, as long as he warms up and works out of it, things are usually fine once we do canter. I’m so much more comfortable at the trot MENTALLY, but my horse does NOTHING at the canter. I have no clue. Brains are strange things.

Anyway, it’s cold and miserable (temperature wise, we finally have sun over snow and ice) but I’m hoping to get out to ride by Saturday if I can dig out the trailer. We’ll see if I can follow my own advice!

Or however many rides as it’s been since I’ve actually blogged.

There seems to be 2 Nay Nays out there: Good, perfect, willing Nay Nay and opinionated, angry, energetic Nay Nay.

Neither Nay Nay really does much wrong, but Good Nay Nay is my preferred ride where as Angry/Opinionated Nay Nay is a little more unpredictable and makes me work harder.

A couple weeks ago, Angry Nay came to play. Leading up to my lesson, I just didn’t ride enough (lacking motivation) and Nay Nay, enjoying his time off, was a bit bitter about this “work thing.” A normal horse might try and buck you off or take off or be fast. Nay Nay doesn’t buck. In fact, he was pretty quiet. But, instead, he put all his excess energy into spooking. And by spooking, I mean, getting distracted by various things like cats because, Nay doesn’t really spook either (he did at the end of the lesson when some crazy farm equipment came speeding down the road — he was fine once he saw it). But, scary invisible cats just… Yeah. So cats plus just not feeling the ride? Not good. He decided he didn’t want to jump (we got over our outside line) and then he decided he under no circumstances was jumping the inside single. Not because of the jump, just because he didn’t want to. So we fought it out and he got angry and lost. It had NOTHING to do with the jump, but it was that kind of day. His brain hadn’t been engaged enough leading up to the lesson and yeah.

Post lesson, I decided to put my sweaty horse into boot camp. We working Friday-Sunday plus Tuesday and I had a very perfect horse. He was happy, quiet, but annoyed with this work thing. Yet, perfectly awesome to ride. Then, because, adulting, we skipped a lesson that week, and resumed riding this past weekend with rides Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday? The outdoor was a bit mucky from rain, but despite that (and a lunging horse at the start of the ride), Nay was a gem. I mean, he is a wild thoroughbred as all videos will show (my husband has retired again so enjoy video until he un-retires in 2-3 months). But, completely, utterly perfect thoroughbred. Showing shades of growing out of his green been status.

Sunday? It was windy and ugly and I rode inside because, why not? Ride started perfectly with a quiet horse. We jumped some fences as part of our flat work (I like to incorporate some crossrails or tiny jumps into flat work just to spice things up and all was good. Then, later, we jumped a small jump on the diagonal (we’re not jumping much, just a handful of 18″ fences that we usually trot over and then 2-3 2’+ fences that we usually also trot and maybe canter 1-2 18″ fences) and things went… array? You see, he landed on the wrong lead, no problem. Except, he landed, balanced, and when I unintentionally touched my spur to his side, someone decided to toss in a full change. Then, he did it again the next time we landed without any accidental cues. Then, he decided he could toss his legs all over the place because he’s awesome like that… Not that his legs go anywhere because he’s not athletic, but….

So, the rest of our ride was spent dodging legs and remaining vigilant, and getting out excess energy because a certain bay horse suddenly was feeling very full of himself… He didn’t toss in anymore changes, but he did think about it. I don’t plan to try any on my own (I’d like help for those thank you very much!). After I finished some work and a particular display of… leg flinging, we ended up trotting for 20 minutes to end and cantering a few times around each direction without acrobatics before we ended… Despite all of that, he never came close to unseating me and I don’t think he was trying. There was no buck in there, but lots of front leg flinging… I wish I had video of that.

Back when Nay Nay was having all of his stomach/ulcer issues from March-June, I stuck him on Succeed at some point in a fit of desperation. I had no idea if it did anything, but he liked the taste and something he was on (Ulcergard, Succeed, Outlast, or Redmond’s Daily Gold) plus a massive diet overhaul seemed to fix his stomach. Not the way to test supplements/medicines but I was desperate and Ulcergard wasn’t doing it (and by month 3…).

Well, mid summer, I decided to remove the overpriced Succeed. Haha. Something went wrong (saddle fit) and Nay Nay got a touch grumpy and back on Succeed he went and I don’t know if it was the Succeed or just life working out again.

I recently decided that spending $100/month for 1(!!!!!) supplement was crazy. Especially one that I don’t know was doing anything. Nay is on Platinum Performance ($$) plus Outlast plus Daily Gold plus electrolytes on top on his diet of alfalfa pellets and rice bran and special hay and alfalfa. Feeding this damn horse costs a freaking fortune. Not to mention Ulcergard as needed for lessons and/or rides if he’s feeling stressed…

Nay has been off the Succeed for almost 10 days and is becoming increasingly grumpy. Until yesterday, he’s been good under saddle. Yesterday he was fine, but had the bug up his butt attitude. Today? Complete turd. Until we jumped. Then he was happier. But he’s grumpy. He’s got mushy poop too. And a sensitive flank. And he kicked out at me. Once. He learned never to try that again.

All coincides with time off the Succeed. So, thanks to his generous sponsor, a new autoship is being placed and back on he goes. There’s something in this oat flour concoction that makes his belly happy. And a few days of Ulcergard or Esomeprazole/nexium might not hurt either.

Horses. Trying to bankrupt us every step of the way!

I’ve talked some about our right lead issues. We had a right lead and then suddenly it was gone.

Saddle fit played a role, I’m sure, but honestly? I don’t really have a clue what caused Nay Nay’s right lead to pretty much disappear. But it did.

We’ve been working on it. And it’s been frustrating.

What’s worse is that when we get it? The right lead is actually BETTER than the left lead. I mean, there is NOTHING to do once you pick up the right lead. You just sit there whereas the left lead? the canter is less consistent in terms of pace and gate and all that. But the right lead? The canter is PERFECT.

During Wednesday’s lesson, we worked with the spurs on moving his hind end over. First standing still, then walking, then trotting, then eventually when asking for the canter. We weren’t able to pick up the right lead, but he did get the concept of moving off the spur.

Thursday we took another lesson and continued the above. When it became clear that we weren’t getting the lead, my trainer got on (yay!). First, I need to be way more assertive with my leg/spur… But, it was actually nice to see someone have similar issues. After a little bit of wrong answers (which were ignored), Nay Nay answered with the right lead and OMG so much praise. Then he was asked again, and again, and again. The thing is, he is OMG THIS CLOSE and then, hesitates, and left lead. All in all, he picked it up 4 times, each time getting so much praise.

Afterward, he was VERY proud of himself. My trainer basically said, the canter is LOVELY and there is nothing physically preventing it. He just needs this to be repeated over and over and over until he realizes that, yes, we do canter on the right lead. She was shocked at how balanced the right lead is. It is THAT lovely (loop your reins and occasionally cluck/squeeze but that’s it. He does it all).

On Saturday, I picked it up 3 or 4 times. I had to work for it, but praised the hell out of it when I got it. Then he landed from a few fences on the right lead so we held the canter and again, praised the shit out it. He’s crazy happy about jumping so I’m trying to pop him over a few fences every ride just to balance out the canter crap.

Sunday? 4 right lead canters and then he landed from his roll top on the right lead several times again. The canter was so lovely that we held it all the way around and cantered into the roll top — first time cantering that fence. And it was perfect. I can’t say enough about this kid’s enthusiasm for jumps. Even when I miss a distance, he says, “I got this!” and takes care of it.

So yeah, that’s where we’re at. If nothing else, the fact that he’s trying to land right is progress. We’ll see what progress we make in a few more weeks…