Perfect Timing

I swear sometimes Sofie is equipped with an impeccable sense of occasion. She seems to miraculously know when someone I want to impress (or, ahem, stick it to) is watching, and she delivers.

Like when a girl who never has anything nice to say about my riding (and always likes to give unwanted advice) decided to watch me ride Sofie. I'd only owned her for a couple months, and this was before we fixed her feet, so she was still racing around at the trot and breaking into a canter all the time, inverted as hell and not steering or rating. But for some reason on that particular day she was calm and relaxed. Though she took a few wrong leads and wasn't bending properly, her lovely free walk on a long rein prompted my harshest critic to actually compliment me.

And the time Anne came a little early to trim Sofie's feet, and I was still riding around out in the yard. It seems silly, but I really respect Anne as a horseperson, and I really wanted to show her that I knew what I was doing and I wasn't one of those dressage riders who subject their horses to Rollkur and Neverending Circle Torture. Sofie had been acting up at the trot, but she moved out willingly as Anne watched, and she stretched down into the contact as I bent her in both directions.

So last Wednesday, after a nice half hour or so out in the Big Field, during which we cantered twice, once just because, and once because of scary birds (so very scaaaaary...yeah, right, Sofie) I felt we had done enough out there, so I dismounted and led her back into the indoor. I considered quitting for the night, but I felt like riding a bit more, and I figured getting back on her would help with our ongoing Barn Sourness Eradication (capitol letters make it more Official Sounding), so I brought out the three step mounting block and got back on. Another horse was being led around, but otherwise we had the arena to ourselves.

She walked around pretty nicely, not falling in too obnoxiously or being mad because we were supposed to be done. I picked up the reins and tried a couple trot transitions, and she was quite good. Around this time, I noticed that the trainer who was there to teach a lesson was standing in the office, looking out into the arena, but I didn't really give it much thought.

Since she was being so good, I wound up doing more trot transitions. She was moving forward, on the bit, moving fairly straight and even bending through the corners. I tried a trot-halt transition, then back to trot. More trot-halt and halt-trot transitions. Sofie liked this game. Our transitions weren't super crisp (trot-halt was pretty prompt, but she did take a few walk steps before going back up to a trot) but they were still quite good. It was totally freakish. It was like my arthritic, opinionated little Paint mare who would rather be bombing around a Big Field had turned into a little dressage horse. I mean, we had rhythm, relaxation, forward, straight, bending, and SUBMISSION big time. She was seriously all "What do you want next? I will do it, and it will be SWEET." And I was like "What happened to you, Sofie?" Then I thought about who was watching and went "OH, I GET IT."

Because the trainer watching through the office window was the only trainer who's ever worked with Sofie and I. Our one lesson was a pretty major disaster, since she wouldn't listen to anything I told her about Sofie, and she decided that my horse was just a bitchy mare with a bad attitude, I needed to push her more, she wasn't hurting, she just didn't want to cooperate, blah blah blah. Really, because I didn't think you were an equine vet! So how would you even KNOW if she's hurting? And I know you're like a big time TRAINER, and I'm just a kid, but I'm the one who's been working this horse through her NUMEROUS issues for more than a year, not you. So maybe you should listen to me just a little, okay? But no, she just had to keep asking me "How do you know?" when I told her my horses doesn't like this or that, or my horse gets bored easily and needs variety. "How do you know?" Um, because I actually LISTEN to my horse, which you clearly have no idea how to do.

So then she went on to tell me that she hates mares. Which is always great to hear. And later on in the lesson she actually told her that her gelding tries to buck her off during EVERY SINGLE RIDE. Which, you know, just FILLED me with confidence in this person's ability to ride and train.

So with this firmly in my mind, I rode Sofie for a bit longer, enjoying everything she was giving me freely and happily. I even did turns on the forehand in both directions, which I haven't done since her hock issues surfaced, and of course she did them to the best of her ability. Then I got off and gave her hugs and petted her and then took her in, thanking her for her perfect sense of timing. I really love my horse.

Captured On Tape

All has been good in Sofieland. Although her right hock has been acting up (I think it is in the process of fusing, which is not an especially nice process) Sofie's attitude hasn't wavered. Even when she started bobbling behind and head-bobbing slightly at the trot after a 30 minute ride in the back field, with lots of trot work and hills, which really got her using herself (apparent in the video taken that day), she never acted upset or mad. She was still willing to do whatever I asked her. I ended the ride a short time after feeling her become "off" and made sure it wasn't a tendon or hoof injury, but no, just the dumb right hock.

The day after I had another good ride. She was rather anxious and herdbound for some reason, but not too unmanageable, even when I rode her down the road (things got a little dicey, but we pulled it out in the end). The big event of that last ride was that she cantered all the way from The Place Where We Like To Canter to the front yard, almost to the driveway. I stayed off her mouth, and her hind legs did what they were supposed to. And later I walked her through The Place Where We Like To Canter without a repeat performance.

I'm just really impressed with her attitude as of late. She's trying really hard for me, and she lets me give her hugs and hold her face in my hands. When I first got her, any face-holding resulted in head-throwing.

The dad got video of us out in the Big Field, and while I still have to go through it and get some stills with my equestrian eye (there are some awesome ones to be gotten, I know that much from watching it), here are a few dad-picked stills for the meantime.

Back in the field/Stuck in the indoor

On Wednesday I went to the barn around 5:30 and assisted Judy with bringing horses in so I could ride Sofie in the Big Field normally occupied by the geldings. Sofie was happy to go in her stall, but when I released her and she realized there was no grain in her feeder and only half a flake of hay in the corner, her expression turned tragic ("Where is all my food?!").

It was a nice, cool evening, and I worried that Sofie's alter-ego, Fireball, might make an appearance out in the Big Field, so I free schooled her for a good, long time in one of the empty paddocks. She had a good time, grabbing bites of grass, throwing in lovely canter transitions and spazzing because one of the Pony Club moms was setting up jumps in the outdoor arena.

Back in the aisle, we worked on getting ready to ride and not eating the garbage can (that was HARD, especially when Judy brought out the OTHER garbage can OMG). Yeah, she's not afraid of garbage, she just has, like, a fascination with it.

She watched intently as Alex, a pinto pony roughly the height and width of a bicycle was ridden around in the outdoor. There was quite a bit of activity going on that night, but she only got a bit high headed watching everything. Warming up in the indoor, she was distractable, listening to the sounds of Judy's grandkids running around and the Pony Club mom coaching her kid. The mom and I elected to take Sofie outside, since disembodied voices are slightly less weird when one is out in the open instead of in a box.

She was excellent. Just excellent. She went where I told her to go, never acting up or protesting. I walked her down the Scary Fenceline, and we did lots of trotting all over the place. She trotted away from the barn without balking or wiggling all over the place, and she kept a nice rhythm when turned toward the barn. At one point she spazzed a bit and got a little anxious about leaving the barn area, but instead of getting out of control she let me turn her away from the barn, and she used her energy productively, trotting a sizeable hill with no issues at all. I made up patterns, weaving her through brush and tall grass and weeds. Toward the end of the ride, I wound up doing some work on a loose rein. I started out trotting her toward the barn, and I let the reins go to the buckle and rubbed her neck, which tends to relax her, and sure enough, she slowed to a walk and stretched her neck down without any bit pressure at all.

Then I experimented, turning her different ways and giving her a loose rein. I was actually able to keep her straight, even heading away from the barn, and at one point I actually turned her away from the barn on a loose rein. It was pretty cool.

Just before I quit for the night, I was trotting her on the buckle, and she decided to throw in a canter. Away from the barn. I have no idea why she chose that particular moment, since she usually won't canter away from the barn, but she did, and it was niiiiice. She kept her head down, too, and she was nice and relaxed. I did fleetingly think gee, I hope she doesn't decide to buck because she could definitely get her head down right now! But she doesn't seem to have issues at the canter unless I hold her back too much. Anyway, it was an awesome ride. She was definitely at her best.

Yesterday's ride did not go as well. Sofie was in a bit of a mood (she actually ran at my mom while she was free schooling her, which she hasn't done in quite some time) and I was totally out of sorts for some reason. We were stuck in the indoor, too, because it was raining, and Sofie was just not into it. I can't really blame her, because the indoor sucks (especially compared to the Big Field) but I can't just not ride her when the weather's bad, or she would be a fatball. She kept drifting in really badly tracking left, which we keep having to work on, and for some reason I couldn't deal. So I kept picking at her, and getting mildly annoyed, and reading way too much into her weirdness (the more I focus on her minor evasions/bad behavior, the worse she gets). She never did anything major (she might've swished her tail a couple times, but that was it), she just wasn't a happy camper. She was moving great when my mom free schooled her, so I don't think she was too terribly uncomfortable. I think it was more just not wanting to work on boring stuff in the indoor, and both of us feeding each other's iffy moods. There's just not a whole lot we can do in the indoor, with her stiffness (and limited turning ability), so boredom is obviously going to be an issue.

We did do a fair amount of trotting, and she was actually better at the trot than the walk. She even volunteered the trot a few times, so she might've had excess energy, too, which would make anyone fidgety. I kept putting too much weight in the right stirrup and making the saddle uneven, which made me mad, and then I got mad at myself for picking at Sofie too much when she wasn't really doing anything wrong. I basically just had a crappy outlook that day, and I hate that feeling because I used to have such a huge problem with always picking at myself and my horse and needing everything to be perfect, and Sofie has really helped me with that. I don't think I'm relapsing or anything, I just had a bad day. Which happens. I wasn't abusive or anything, and I did get a nice trot circle to the left, some nice halts and backing, and some nice long and low at the trot, reins on the buckle, with her nose down as far as it could go and her still moving forward. This from a horse that used to just get really inverted when I put the reins forward. I need to just let myself off the hook, because I didn't really do anything wrong, and even if that was a "bad" ride, it was still was still so much better than how we used to be. A year ago she could not stretch down at the trot. At all. A month or so ago, she wouldn't trot without balking and pinning her ears and threatening to blow up. Where we are now, on both our good AND bad days, is a great place to be.

Priceless Ride

Horses = expensive. A good ride = priceless.

Yesterday's ride was really, really good. Sofie free schooled well, showing off her nice trot and lovely canter and only being a bit naughty, stopping in corners and frantically stuffing her mouth with grass. She wasn't at all reactive to grooming and saddling, which was nice, and she walked around the indoor well. I decided to trot her in the indoor before going outside to see how she was feeling. She trotted willingly in a relaxed frame in both directions, so we went outside to have some fun.

The neighbor guy was building a cute little shed in the Scary Corner, but Sofie wasn't terribly fazed. She didn't like the garbage bags across the road, which seagulls had gotten into and trashed ("What is happening to the neighborhood? There's, like, garbage everywhere!") but they didn't require spooking. They just required staring. Lots of staring.

We meandered about, finding places we could trot away from the barn, since we're keeping the trotting toward the barn to a minimum. The best place is The Place Where The Dog Burst Through The Underbrush, because it's a nice straight line and she's been very well behaved there ever since The Dog Incident (yes, my horse is chronically weird). As I trotted her down the gelding fenceline, she started revving up as we reached the Scary Corner (which she's not really scared of, it's just an excuse to go fast, wheeeeee!). I frantically half halted, then released as I felt her sort of respond, and she flowed into a canter. Fortunately, I was off her mouth, so we had no issues with her getting mad at me because I was holding her back. Her canter was super nice, and I relaxed into it and enjoyed the ride all down The Place Where We Like To Canter, then brought her back with my seat before we turned for the barn. So The Place Where We Like To Canter has been resurrected, but I'm not too worried about it because I actually wouldn't mind cantering sometimes, and as long as we don't get into a pattern of always cantering there, I think we'll be fine.

We went down the trail, where we trotted when the footing allowed, and managed not to scrape my leg too badly on the big branch thing that sticks out, or slice open Sofie's leg on a big spiky branch thing that she insisted on walking right over. We freaked out a little at a bird bursting out of the underbrush, followed two seconds later by a freakin' gynormous grey squirrel jumping out of a tree, but we didn't do anything too drastic. I trotted her on the way back, too, and she actually was more relaxed and had a nicer tempo than she had heading away from home.

Then we worked on a serpentine in the front yard, starting in walk, then moving up to a trot. She did well at staying straight and turning (she can't really bend properly at this point because of her hocks, but I don't really mind as long as she tries) and going where I told her to go. All through the ride I had her trot away from the barn in different places and although she wasn't always thrilled with the idea, her ears weren't pinned, she didn't get all mad (except for one time, and it was quite minor). She's still drifting left, right, left, right as we head away from the barn, but not to the degree she was before. And now when that doesn't result in her getting her way, she trots, as if that will make me reconsider, but instead I go "Yes! Let's trot away from the barn, good girl!" and she goes "That was so not my intention."

I'm sure we will have bad days, but this shows me that I'm on the right track with my training, and I'm sure we'll have plenty more good rides, too.

I need to get new conformation shots (I need to get new pictures, period!) but here are some conformation shots of the Sofa from last fall.


"What d'you mean, square up? I want grass. That's why we're out here, right?"


"The. Grass. Is. Right. There. RIGHT THERE!"


"Okay, fine. Take your stupid picture, beyotches."


"Hey, look, I can make myself look really croup high! Ha. You'll never get a good picture now!"


"Just kidding. I'll be good. When have I ever not been good?"

Small Steps Forward

After our lousy ride last Sunday and the dog-bursting-out-of-the-underbrush incident, I was concerned that Sofie would become unmanageable in the yard, particularly right by the neighbor's yard. I had fears that The Place Where We Like To Canter (which had just recently become a place where we could walk or trot nicely in a straight line) would become The Place Where The Dog Burst Through The Underbrush, which would create a whole new training issue, when we had just conquered our old one. And I had other fears, like "What if our training, which seemed to be going so well, is just teaching Sofie that she needs to step up her evasions?" I stayed away from the barn for two days because of excessive heat, and then we returned on Wednesday. The first thing I did was hand the Sofa over to my mom, who took her out in the yard to longe the silliness out of her. We had been free schooling in the indoor to minimize stress on her joints, but obviously if the Sofa has two days off, the Sofa needs to be longed, especially since the Sofa tends to be lazy in the indoor when it's hot.

Sofie didn't seem to be afraid of The Place Where The Dog Burst Through The Underbrush, but she did have about 500 % more energy than she knew what to do with. So she cantered and cantered and kicked out and was nutty for a while, but she didn't attempt to bolt for home (and she was just wearing a halter). With the edge taken off, I took the Sofa in and got her ready to ride.

I rode mostly in the indoor, because occasionally we need to do a "focus ride" and I felt that we especially needed one on this particular day. Sofie seemed to be in a weird mood, and I think I was anticipating badness from her, and so I reacted too much to her minor weirdness at the trot and read waaaaay too much into everything (I even thought she was incredibly inverted, and my mom said she really wasn't). So neither one of us were totally happy, but nothing bad happened and eventually I rode her out into the yard. My goal was just to walk past The Place Where The Dog Burst Through The Underbrush and we accomplished that with no issues at all, on a longish rein. After that I worked a little bit on our ongoing barn sourness issue by trotting her a few steps away from the barn. She wanted to do her signature tight spinny turn back to the barn so I had to use a strong inside rein on her for a moment, but I released her when I got her straightened out and she softened. Then I tried it again and she was better, so we quit for the day.

The next day I returned to the barn and found the Sofa besieged by bugs. Bad, bad bugs that were making her bite at her sides and paw at her face (and yet they failed to make her actually move from her grazing spot, of course). The mom longed her again, and she had less excessive energy than the previous day.

I rode her mostly outside, even though the bugs were bad. She seemed like she might be a little ouchy in her hocks (maybe because she was, um, a maniac on the longeline?) and she did NOT like the bugs, so we dealt with some barn sourness and some baditude. There were times when she was quite good, lovely even, and times when she was pretty bad. But I got her through the times when she wanted to just go back to the barn and be done with it, and we went almost all the way down the trail, trotting on the best footing, and on the way back I trotted her a few strides and she didn't rush. I also rode her partway down the road, and she was quite good, except that at first she kept looking for things to spook at (I just went "Do. Not. Do. That!") and she got fidgety after we passed the first driveway and we hit footing she doesn't like (sand mixed with gravel. I have no idea why she would take issue at that footing. She has rock crunchers for feet now. And she goes out of her way to try to walk on pavement. Nutty horse.) but I kept her going for a bit and then turned her around.

We have NO issues with The Place Where The Dog Burst Through The Underbrush, apparently...she was actually better behaved there than any other place! She did a couple lovely trots through there, relaxed with her head down, reaching for the bit, staying in a nice tempo.

We finished up in the indoor, where after some initial resistance she trotted willingly in both directions, responding to just a touch of my leg. She also did some beautiful halts (that "stopping the motion of my back" thing I learned in my lesson with Sue has worked SO well with the Sofa, better than anything else I've tried. Yay!). When I got off her she was very sweet, and I was reminded of why I put up with her. She's incredibly opinionated, she never hides her feelings, she's sensitive and intelligent and forward and sometimes she uses her powers for evil, not for good. But she's a sweet, personable horse, she's beautiful, and she has so much personality. There's never a dull moment with her, and it's impossible to be bored. And even though she's not always a "sunshine and kittens and rainbows" type horse, I love how she tries for me even when she has ouchy hocks and bad bugs bothering her.

Great Lesson, Crappy Ride

I arrived at my former instructor's place at around 10 AM on 5/23 to get my borrowed horse ready for my lesson at 10:30. I had decided to ride Charlie, a 16 hand Quarter Horse-something or other cross gelding. I had only ridden him twice before, and it had been over a year since I'd last ridden him, so I figured it would be interesting to ride him again. He was cooperative, and I took the flash noseband off his bridle when I couldn't figure out how to adjust it (well, I've never used a flash) and he kept looking at me as I fiddled with it like "Please, no". I figured he probably didn't need his mouth strapped shut, and if he was absolutely horrible without the flash, I could always have Sue put it on.

Charlie started out sluggish, and I had left my dressage whip (the nice, long one with the shiny silver cap that I don't get to use on Sofie hardly ever) on the mounting block. Sue had me let go with my legs and seat, stop driving and just keep everything very loose and "allowing". Charlie responded with a power walk! It didn't last, of course, so Sue introduced me to an aid she learned over the winter from another local trainer (the guy I wanted to ride with, but he's too expensive and will only go to certain barns). It's kind of a lifting, upward squeeze with your legs, and an upward push with your seat. It was effective as a "reminder" for Charlie to keep the tempo energetic, along with the loose, relaxed seat and leg to keep him happy and moving freely forward.

As far as my position went, she actually did not say anything like "Wow, I can tell you've been riding on your own for a long time!". My position only needed a few minor adjustments, happily enough. She reminded me to distribute my weight on all three points of my seat (I tend to ride a little too far back on my "pockets", apparently) and told me I needed to steady my core a bit, because apparently my back was moving a bit too much, and if I steady it, I have more power and more ability to half halt. That was haaaaaard. Core strength is not really my thing, but steadying my core did help a lot with speed control, and I think it will really help me regulate my posting, which helps regulate my horse as well.

Then we worked on suppling, and Sue told me that I need to look ahead and plan my turns, and look with intention (which I knew I needed to work on) but that I also need to make sure that my horse's eyes are looking where I look. Which really makes sense, because many times I've looked ahead, intending to make a turn, and Sofie has been looking some other direction. So I worked on looking ahead and getting Charlie flexed to match where my eyes were, which was tricky because I like to be really, really passive with my hands (unless I'm on a bolting, bucking or otherwise disobedient horse). Sue said something like "You have nice, soft hands, but I want you to use them a little more!" Yep, trying here, Sue! She also hand me use inside leg in time with the inside hind coming forward to engage that leg and prevent falling in, and outside thigh to turn the horse.

So for a while longer we worked on bending and straight lines with all that in mind. Look with intention, flex the horse to the inside, inside leg, outside thigh, keep your core steady, keep the tempo...yeah, lots of stuff. I love dressage, though, it's so cool when you get that connection. Charlie was a very good boy (even though he decided he was done after 45 minutes and I required a whip to get him going again at more than a crawl) and I was relieved that Sue has not been corrupted by the vast majority of dressage people who pull their horses' heads in all the time. I got to have my awesome floaty reins, which I hardly ever used. I really lucked out with nice, breezy weather (it is so horribly hot here this week!), and both Sue and my former instructor thought I looked good, especially for having been without a trainer all this time. And I may be able to get weekly lessons with Sue, which would be invaluable.

Later that day, we went to the barn to see Sofa. The weather sucked, it was hot and nasty, and I wouldn't have even gone to the barn if I could've avoided it but Sofie hadn't been worked for two days, so we needed to do something with her. She walked right up to me as soon as she saw me, and she was moving great and didn't seem too energetic, just a little inverted. So we saddled her up, and I took her out to the yard. She started out nicely enough, but was a little inverted and looky on the trail, and a little rushy at the trot. Back in the yard, things started to fall apart. Big time. She was looking at the neighbor's yard and generally being inattentive and silly. As we turned toward the barn, she decided she wanted to canter, then decided to bounce around and be pissed off because I had a little too much contact on the reins. I wrestled her back to a walk and continued on to the barn, when she heard some little insignificant banging type noise that normally would be less than insignificant to her, but on this particular night she spooked and bolted at it. I managed to not panic and cling to the reins, and I let them forward and brought her back with my seat. But after that she was just impossible, especially when she saw the other horses coming in, and her friend Piper being hand-grazed in the yard.

Then later, when I was handwalking her after her bath, one of the neighbor's dogs saw her walking past, and it turned out he was loose because his owner didn't think anyone was doing anything in Judy's yard anymore, so the dog burst through the hedge and I had to let Sofie go because I knew there would be no stopping her. The dog chased her for a bit, then went back to his yard after I yelled at him. Sofie thankfully did not step on her lead rope or slide/fall on the concrete aisle when she ducked into the barn. But it was the perfect end to a horribly sucky time with my horse. I know I handled it the best I could, what with me being tired/hungry and Sofie having too much energy/thinking she needed to go in for the night. But it reeeeeally sucked, and I'm trying not to worry too much about any potential training issues that might come out of this, and I'm really trying not to take it personally, because it's really not personal. But it feels that way.

Progress

As the title indicates, I've been enjoying some good progress with the Sofa. She seems to be coping well with her arthritic, probably fusing hocks and the nasty summer heat we're having hasn't slowed her down in the least. And today I FINALLY got to have a lesson with my all-time favorite trainer...not on Sofie, unfortunately, but I had lots of fun and learned several things that I think I can apply to my work with Sofie. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

5/14 My first day working on Sofie with my mom gone on her trip. Grooming and tacking up goes well, even with lots of distraction - another horse coming in and out, a lady showing up to do a saddle fitting, and Judy's shavings trailer arriving. Sofie handles it well and stays ground-tied for the most part. I start out my ride in the indoor and Sofie doesn't quite feel 100%. But we get our warm-up done and then go outside since the Sofa is bored, bored, bored going around in circles. Outside, she has one of those days where she wants to do her own thing and she doesn't want to listen. She drifts in toward her much-loved barn and the right side of her mouth feels like concrete. She spends much of the ride with her head counterbent to the right as I try to soften her mouth. She is not thrilled with this turn of events but fails to "act out". She does become rather barn sour, and tries out balking, but she's not very good at it, so all she does is shorten her stride and invert. I quit when I get a few straight steps heading away from the barn and feel good about how I didn't lose my patience or dissolve into my old mental standby - "I must be ruining my horse, she hates me, I'm a horrible rider, I don't deserve to have this horse".

5/16 For the first time in forever, I have issues bridling Sofie. She takes the bit nicely, as always, but after I fasten the throatlatch and noseband, she nips me on the arm. I smack her in the nose a millisecond later, and she appears startled and apologetic. Well....maybe just startled.

After thinking over the previous ride's issues, I conclude that I was putting too much emphasis on her getting soft on the right rein, and that the real issue was that she was bulging into my left leg. It's called inside leg to outside rein, genius, and it's, um, just, like, a fundamental part of dressage. So I start out in the arena (where she also drifts in, especially down the one long side) and really push her over with my inside leg. She is sensitive and smart enough to get the idea pretty fast, although she needs reminders. Lots of them. Especially when we go outside. She is definitely still drawn to the barn, so she requires a LOT of inside-leg-to-outside-rein. She also requires reminders that no, we don't just pick up a trot when we turn back to the barn, even though you're right, that would get us there faster. She does much better if instead of clinging to the reins and nagging "Please don't go faster, just walk, just walk, no don't speed up" I let her have her head. If she starts trotting and won't listen to a polite aid, then I do pull back on the outside rein, hard enough to get her attention. Then I release, and repeat as necessary.

The Sofa doesn't know if she likes these new requirements, but I just stay persistent since my new requirements are pretty basic and definitely not over the top. She starts to get the concept, she just needs reminders. I don't do a lot of trotting in the yard since I'm still working on getting her straight facing away from the barn at the walk, and I'm avoiding trotting toward the barn. So I take her for a trot on the trail, and she moves out nicely. Wheeeee! I also ride her partway down the road. She strides out with an eagerness that I haven't seen from her since before her hock trouble started. After we reach a certain point she starts to get a little fidgety, so I make her go on a bit longer and then turn back for home. The ride ends up being our longest one in a while (45 minutes) which accounts for her fidgety-ness.

5/18 Even though it is a hot hot HOT day, Sofie free schools energetically, even throwing in a walk-to-canter transition. Then she becomes convinced that the one long side of the outdoor is evil. I catch her and try to lead her down it, which results in her making lots of bolty-spinny circles around me. The second time, she is better, making normal circles at the walk. I quit with that and start bringing her into the barn, and she spooks inexplicably in one of the small paddocks en route. I go into the barn, put on my helmet and gloves, and take her out the one of the "scary corners" in the yard. All the wants is to eat grass. I take her back in the barn to get her ready to ride, figuring Fireball has had her fun and won't come back for more.

Once again, she threatens to bite after I tighten her noseband, but backs down when I raise my hand. As we get started, it's clear that the moving-off-the-leg lesson has sunk in. She moves off my leg very well in the arena and stays on the rail better than ever before. Of course, after a couple minutes of this she reverts a bit to her old ways, but I'm excited to see a glimpse of what could be.

Outside, we make a circuit of the yard, do our shallow turns and straight lines, and work on our inside-leg-to-outside-rein connection and our basic obedience. For too long, I kind of let her do her thing out in the yard, first because she was so much fun to ride, and then because she was so sour that I had to use the magic pull of the barn to get a trot transtition without theatrics. I was afraid of her at that point, so I did not insist on obedience and my control was kind of questionable. So the Sofa probably wonders why I'm now insisting that I pick the pace AND the direction. She complies with my new demands, albeit sometimes lacking a smile on her face. But I understand that she's not always going to like what I have to say, and the important thing is that she complies and is rewarded for trying.

I decide not to ride her down the road as I'm concerned that Fireball might make an appearance. Instead, I ride her down the trail, picking up a trot over the best footing. I decide to go all the way down the trail. There is a huge tree limb over half the trail, so I try to leg yield Sofie over. She decides she would rather push through it, so the branch gets hung up on my leg for a sec. Sofie continues on, and I give her a pat, knowing that many horses would probably freak if a huge, like, tree thing seemingly grabbed at them.

5/20 I arrive at the barn late on what was supposed to be a hot day. It is pleasantly cool at the barn, so nice that the horses don't want to come in, but we bring them in because it's not too horribly early (5:00) and I want to ride Sofie in the gelding's field. The Sofa is miffed that she doesn't get to go in her stall like everybody else, so she is a bit of a handful when my mom longes her out in the yard. She moves great, though, showing a nice, forward trot and canter. She even canters on the right lead (partly because she was falling in on the circle and couldn't hold a counter canter on the smaller circle she was making). She reeeeeeeeeeally wants grass, so she attempts to grab some while cantering. She almost gets it, but the clover she went for just wasn't quite tall enough.

I figure out, while talking with my mom, that I was tightening Sofie's noseband one hole too much. Not exactly crank noseband territory, but the Sofa is very sensitive. I adjust her noseband correctly, and she makes no move to bite me.

I ride her for like two minutes in the boring, dusty indoor, then head for the Big Field. We walked around it to finish warming up and then started some trot work. We trot down the field, up the field and across the field. I weave her through some bush-things that were growing in different places, ride her up little hills and slopes, down little hills and slopes, work on having her move off my leg - occasionally it feels like she actually starts to cross over a bit. I also move her off my leg in the trot. She is more confident going away from the barn, and she keeps a nice, steady tempo going toward the barn - no rushing, just nice and soft but not too slow. She flexes at the poll at times, rounds her back a couple times (and NOT because she was pissed off and thinking about bucking!). That field is sooooo good for doing LONG straight lines in all different directions, and the hills really help her engage her hind end.

There's one fenceline that she decides she does not like to go down (coming up it, she's perfect) and this was the only "ugly" part of our ride. She starts trotting and drifting away from the scary fence with the trees all in shadow, so I really open my outside rein, keep my inside leg on her, and try to keep her from drifting too badly. I'm sure it was NOT pretty, but at least I kept her from totally leaving, and the second time was better. Ah, Sofie and her "problem areas"! We end the ride with some leg yielding, then a lovely, flexed-poll, correctly-bent few steps of trot away from the barn. So much fun.

So there you have it. I'm SO happy with the progress we're making. I really feel like I can deal with my horse now...we may not fit into someone else's definition of perfect, but we don't need perfection, we just need progress, and eventually we will get there. Where is "there"? I have no idea. But dressage is a journey, and that journey is all I had in mind when I chose Sofie, my project horse.

Next time, I'll write about my first "real" dressage lesson in eons, and what I will hopefully be able to transfer to Sofie when I ride her later today.