Once again, I’m falling behind blogging. Last time I posted, Nay and I had a lovely ride before he bolted on me the next day… We’d been on a 1 good ride, 1 bad ride pattern for quite a while. I ended up switching him off his performance feed and onto the same brand’s senior feed (but not before the feed store had already ordered me a bag of performance) and the senior has made a world of difference. He has energy, but not insane amounts of energy. I’m debating feeding him some of the performance mixed in with the senior (my original plan though now I think the bag will last me 2 months at the rate I want to feed) or just feeding Subi the performance since I’m pretty sure he’ll eat it (and I don’t need to worry about excess energy. Stay tuned tuned…

Anyway, the caveat to all of this is my health is still a mystery and hasn’t been good. My MRI was normal (thank goodness, though some answers would have been nice). I’m doing PT 2x a week and it’s NOT helping. I’ve been able to ride through the vertigo for the most part (until my latest lesson) as long as I medicate. But generally? I feel like utter crap all the time. It’s taking everything I can to ride 3x/week and I know Nay needs more, but…

Last Tuesday, nervous after Nay took off with me Sunday, but knowing it was 100% energy related, I had a really nice lesson. Nay was a gem. Willing, patient, and a star when it came to his left lead. We didn’t do a lot, but what he did, he did well. After some canter work, we worked on these little boxes (that Nay could walk over) in a figure eight at the trot and canter. Leads weren’t a concern since he was a super star earlier so the plan was the trot unless he landed correctly. Either way, he did them in both directions in both gaits and we called it a day.

I rode again Saturday morning after PT. I felt like shit, but my medicine seemed to kick in before I rode. (I don’t take meds for PT though I wish I did!) Nay was super UP in the cross ties despite the fact that it was 85 degrees so I tossed him on the lunge line to be safe. And could barely keep him going. I guess he just didn’t want to stand around? We basically repeated our lesson on Tuesday. Trot work, canter work, then some jumps. I’m trying to bring the Pivo out 1x a week and I managed some video but I don’t know what was up with it because it kept turning around to video the barn… Anyway, I got some video? Nay was wonderful even when a pony was galloping around in the nearby field. We repeated our figure eight from Tuesday’s lesson and then trotted and cantered a single a few times before calling it a day.

Sunday? More hot and humid weather (it’s MAY! In the Mid Atlantic! Too early for July weather). My plan was a nice and easy ride. Just some trotting and cantering. We got out to the outdoor and Nay basically knocked me over when another horse trotted over a cross rail coming towards him. Nice job. Thankfully that was the end of his antics (I guess it caught him off guard?) and he was comatose once I got on. We had the ring to ourselves for a few minutes but were quickly joined by another horse. This actually gave me the chance to work by the road as we chose to split the ring. I haven’t actually worked much by the road lately. Nay didn’t care. We trotted, did some poles, and then cantered left without care (or pretty much any effort). To the right? We struggled. We picked it up wrong then got it. So, when the other horse left, we did some figure eights at the canter with simple changes. Our left leads were perfect, the right less so, but I do thing Nay got it he does need to canter on both leads. We did several transitions before calling it a day.

Finally? Tuesday. I woke up feeling good. Weather was cool and by the time I got ready to ride, I felt like crap. I took meds but I probably could have taken them earlier. I’ve always been OK on a horse, but not this day. Nay was super fussy with his head the entire time I was walking and that make me feel even more wobbly. Trotting felt bad (cantering, less so, but maybe the meds were kicking in). My trainer did tell me to get off if I was dizzy, but I’m freaking dizzy all the time right now so what am I going to do? Nothing? Medically I’m fine unless they can find something… So we pushed through, but it wasn’t the ride I wanted.

Trotting was OK. Nay had energy, but was slow at the trot. He was trying SO HARD to be good. When I first got on, I thought, I should lunge, but I didn’t. I regretted it the entire ride. I planned to lunge when I got there, but there was a horse turned out in the indoor. I hate that. I didn’t want to lunge during the lesson prior, but I should have just taken the first 5 minutes of mine to toss Nay on the line.

Nay’s left lead was fabulous. I mean absolutely fabulous. He’s so confident and balanced now. When lunging, I’ve JUST been lunging to the left. It helped so much. But created a new problem. Our right lead sucks now. So, that’s this next week’s goal. To the right, we lost the balance and confidence. I also someone don’t trust myself and keep looking down. Unlike when we lost the left, we CAN get the right, Nay just gets a little stressed. So yeah. We asked 3 times and picked it up the first and third. Third time he dramatically side passed into it… So, some time on the line to re-establish the canter, lots of praise, and he’ll have it back.

We tried to repeat the figure eight exercise and it just didn’t work. The plan was to do the stone box to the brick box and instead of repeating the stone to go wide to the blue X (the in of the inside line). The first attempt of the stone Nay was jumping sideways with energy and we had to circle before walking over it and cantering out. We managed to get over the brick and then did and up and down trot to the blue. We landed and it took everything I could to get Nay’s head back up. The second partial attempt started the same way before I just said no. I didn’t have the balance to deal with it and he had too much energy. He was good, but damn, not lunging hurt.

I can add also that 2 of those 4 rides also required help loading to go home. Why? No clue. So trailer training is happening again. (If someone walks/stands behind him, he loads right up so it’s a test thing).

What to say, what do say. Honestly? I don’t even know how to talk about my rides anymore. My ride on Saturday was as good as my ride on Sunday was bad. I don’t really feel like talking about Sunday, but for documenting purposes, I’ll briefly recap.

Due to some work on both the rings (neither had jumps and both had been freshly dragged), we were forced inside as the outside had sprinklers set up and was being watered. Fine, no problem. The ring felt HUGE. Nay isn’t a fan of the indoor, but we whatever. I lunged then got on and we rode with a friend and her 20 year old (very quiet) mare. Nay was full of energy despite a good, long lunge. He NEVER pulls at the trot, but he was digging down and flinging his head. Despite that, we trotted a good 15/20+ minutes and actually had some nice work eventually (we stuck to half the ring). I decided to try and canter on the left lead and… it wasn’t that Nay kept flinging his hind end to the outside but rather that he kept throwing his head up in the air in anticipating. That said, we got the lead. And then he proceeded to take off on me. I mean, it’s Nay, so it wasn’t race track fast, but he was determined. He DID comeback to me when when I insisted and I had him hold the canter about 5-6 strides, praised the heck out him, and then called it a ride.

He had a shit ton of energy and I wasn’t going to get myself hurt. My friend confirmed everything I was feeling so the galloping was not in my mind (it was not your hunter hand gallop; it was an “I want to bolt” gallop). When she was done I pulled his tack and just had him run around the indoor and work off some steam. He rarely does much, but actually ran around and bucked quite a bit. He’s had a decent amount of energy lately so part of me thinks the sugar/starch in his feed may not be agreeing with him, but then I have other rides where he’s an angel and I question that… He did put on a lot of weight fast though…

Saturday, Nay was an angel. He lunged (we’ve been just working on the left on the line), then it started raining? But we rode out anyway. It stopped but there was pretty much no chance of rain.

I tried to work on using my right leg and not getting dizzy. I’ve been dealing with a ton of vertigo this week so doing pretty much anything has been hard. Riding was OK (get off? Not so great). He was pretty good so I either wasn’t using enough leg or he just wasn’t being dramatic. Both are possible. I had some reaction at the walk, but nothing major.

Cantering to the left? I found that our trouble spot generally is over by the pasture fence side of the ring. So, I pretty tried to avoid asking for the canter there. This seemed to work. When we approach that area at the trot, Nay is quick to throw his hind end to the outside and once it’s there, I’m screwed. If I trot through the center and ask where I can keep him straight, I don’t have to manage his hind end as much. There are a few places that he offers me the left lead and I don’t add leg and/or catch him in the mouth and/or bring him back to the trot because I wasn’t expecting it… Well, most the time I just didn’t ask and it caught me off guard. I tried to reward anyway or just not make a fuss. He has a habit of anticipating that doesn’t work. When I ask and he gets it? We throw a party.

We followed the canter up with a small jump, trotting in then cantering it. We didn’t quite get the collection in at the canter, but he landed wrong and offered up a nice simple change.

Before the right lead, we attempted another jump which I’m leaving off the video not because it was bad (it wasn’t the nicest, but you could see Nay launching in jumper mode ::rolls eyes:: refusing to listen in any way, shape, or form), but the location of the pivo doesn’t really allow you to see anything useful…

We did a tiny amount of work on the right lead. While riding, there was a LOT going on. Tractor work moving heavy stuff and then a bunch of motorcycles (insisting on waving). Everytime we make progress on one lead, the other lead starts to go. Nay was convinced that I wanted the left lead so I have to make sure I’m very careful and clear on my aids. We then followed up with the same jump exercise.

We ended by just trying out one of the new jumper fences in the ring. He would have been fine to do the whole line, but I didn’t feel like doing the oxer so we just did the first fence.

It’s just amazing how one day he’s so quiet and the next he’s a fire breathing dragon…

This was a weekend of a lot of firsts. Some highs, some lows, and some good old boring repetition. My trainer is away for a couple of weeks so our homework is just to ride, repeat some exercises, and repeat again and again and again until we’re both bored silly.

I need the repetition as much, if not more, than Nay Nay!

I was off on Friday so Nay Nay and I had 3 solid days of riding in front of us. Typically I don’t ride 3 days in a row, but… In hindsight, we could have skipped Saturday’s ride.

happy ears our of the ring

Friday was nice and low key. We worked on the basics, played over our crossrails, and ended going for a walk around part of the property. Our FIRST trip out of the ring! And Nay held it together! This was impressive considering he was chased by ponies 2/3s of the time (damn young ponies). I let him watch them and sat and he was OK. He tried to lose it at the end when we walked by the pony mares again (the true terrors) to get my bag (one spin and jump and big loud grunt but we didn’t actually move), but all was fine once we entered the (fenceless) outdoor. Without the ponies chasing? He’d have been fine.

Full-time grump.

Saturday the weather was crap. I forgot his ulcergard (we’re still getting a 1/4 tube pre-ride/haul), it was trying to storm but… not, ponies were ponying. And we just didn’t sync. I managed to fall off getting on? thanks to some random step sideways that left me tumbling forwards in slow motion off the other side. Positive? Nay Nay was not bothered at all and stood stock still (without me holding him in a fenceless outdoor) looking at me like I was the biggest idiot in the world. Yep, I agree. After that, nothing felt right. We could not get the right lead (this has become our solid lead in the outdoor), and everything else just felt… off. We rode, it was fine, but just not in sync. He was a brat in the crossties and ended up having to share his treats with Ranger because Ranger gave me a look.

Sunday? Ulcergard in hand we had a nice ride. Ponies were galloping around like fools and Nay was very fascinated (there is one pony visiting while everyone is at the show and he is equally as fascinated by Nay Nay).

3/4 of ride was spent with Raisin galloping around the fenceline staring at Nay Nay… Ponies. But, we took the energy and put in to work over our crossrails. Our corners our of the second crossrail needs major work (I tried), but we’ll get there. Mostly Nay Nay just wanted to gallop to his jumps once he realized we were jumping. Erik stopped the videos pre and post so you can’t see the enthusiasm that came with the fences. His video technique (ie: vertical video and immediately stopping post fence) needs work, but I try not to criticize. At least he came out in the heat at all!

Stay tuned… Subi gets his own post because he scared the crap out of me on Friday night…