I’ve long been lamenting that I should use this blog more, but it’s not often that I have a whole post in me about one specific topic. I then realized that a) this is my blog so I can do what I want and b) I need to stop writing diary entries in my Instagram captions, so… here we are.
This probably won’t be a truly biweekly series, purely because the frequency is going to depend on what we do and how much I have to say about it in any given week, but for now I’m just going to aim to post at least every couple of weeks about what we’ve been up to, because I’ve been having some Thoughts™ about some things in the last few weeks (more on that at an unspecified later date) and I’d like to chronicle our journey towards at least one small part of them. I’m sure I’ll also end up testing out different formats for these posts until I settle on one I like, but for now we’re going with this iteration.
July 15/16: We spent the 16th at a local jumper show, mostly just for the heck of it. I like to get Coops out when I can, and it seemed like good prep for the mini trial in the middle of August, plus it was extremely low-key since it was just my barn owner, me, and one of the lesson students riding in it. We weren’t there to try to win anything, but we did walk away with a few ribbons despite the fact that we probably trotted half of every single course (being huge helps, I guess). I’m proud of him for that, but I’m even prouder of him for the fact that he relaxed really quickly and was great for both schooling on Friday evening and our actual division/the mini prix on Saturday. He’s such a curious horse that going to new places typically just results in him wanting to investigate everything as opposed to freak out about it, and I feel like that’s the best kind of attitude to have. Also, shoutout to the weather for ignoring the forecast of almost 90 and sunny in favor of high 70s/low 80s and overcast/light rain for half the day,
July 19: #trotsettuesday lol. I gave him Sunday and Monday off because I know the show was tiring (truly, I slept eighteen out of twenty-four hours on Sunday) and Monday also brought with it some storms, so giving him a couple of days off seemed like the right move. I want to be more deliberate about his training now that he’s ~a grownup~ and to make sure that I have him prepared and conditioned appropriately for whatever we do (hence why I’m starting this post series—helps me monitor and hold myself accountable), so after doing our walk warmup by wandering around the farm, we did some trot sets (5×3, so three sets of five minutes of trot, with a few minutes of walking in between each set). He was decidedly not convinced to start with, but about halfway through the second set he started to stretch over his topline and was really stretching down consistently by the end of the third set without falling on his forehand.
It was a bit of a challenge for me just because I gave into the urge to run on Monday after work (in my basement on our treadmill because I know myself enough to know that trying to run outside in 85+ degree heat and 60+% humidity would not end well) and my quads were sore as heck, but I’m pleased with the results of both my run and the trot sets. I need to focus more on doing my own fitness work outside of riding (mostly running, really, barn work helps with the muscle side of things, but my cardiovascular fitness is not where it probably should be), so I’ll probably also drop some of those bits in here too since they are tied to my riding goals.
July 21: #transitionthursday (okay, I’ll stop now, I promise I’m not trying to purposefully do t-exercises on Tuesday/Thursday). Our transitions have been a bit of a weak spot for us (especially trot to canter and canter to trot transitions) so I’m trying to focus on them more, especially given that we’re no longer in the land of walk/trot only dressage tests. Our test for the mini trial only requires two canter circles, but I don’t want to leave accuracy points on the table if I can help it. It’s really my own fault for not insisting that our transitions be clean up until this point, but hopefully I can undo some of that in the next few weeks. I’m starting to figure out what Coops needs in terms of a warmup to really be relaxed and stretching, so the plan is absolutely to time-manage in such a way on mini trial day that we go into our dressage test being chilled out instead of giraffe-esque like we were last year.
I’m still trying to figure out the canter situation—my seat has been way better since my lesson (in that I can, y’know, actually sit both directions now), but it’s still a challenge to get him to hold his lead to the left. I need to engage in a bit of an experiment and see how he does inside, because I have a sneaking suspicion that our current difficulties are due to the slope of the terrain where we ride in the field—he doesn’t swap going uphill or around uphill turns, it’s usually in the first half of a circle going downhill—so it might be time to work on it in the arena until we get the strength and balance to hold it outside. I’m somewhat loathe to go indoors (it’s so much hotter and we have much less space) but it’s probably worthwhile for me to spend at least a little bit of time in there every ride, even if it’s just for a small amount of canter work on footing where he’s not trying to navigate terrain changes on top of the general need for balance.
July 23: I was supposed to ride today because I didn’t ride on Friday night. I did not. Apparently I was so tired from the week that I slept in until 12:30 instead of my usual 9:30/10am wakeup, and between it being hot as hell by noon and the fact that I woke up to a very dark sky which quickly turned into a lot of wind and a torrential downpour… I did not make it out to the barn. I did, however, go for a run again (in my basement, this will become standard) and I am happy to report that while I am definitely nowhere near as in shape as I would like to be, I am definitely more in shape than I was six months ago. One of my cats also came to hang out while I was stretching afterward and I would like to report that she is a lying liar who lies (in that in the main floor of our house, she pretends she hates me, but if we’re in the basement or outside, all she wants to do is cuddle). Her nickname is Her Meowjesty. Most imperious creature I know.
July 24: I rode! Yay!
Being honest, it was a little tough because I accidentally stayed up til 3:30 in the morning reading a 300+ page novel in one sitting and then woke up at 8:15, but it was definitely worth being tired for not having to deal with the heat. It was still a bit muggy, but it was in the 70s/low 80s for the duration of our ride instead of the 90 degrees that it was by the time I got home, so I consider that a win. I should really try to do that more often, but we’ll see how good I am at convincing myself to actually get up on the weekends.
We did our first run-through of our dressage test and it was… rough. Not as rough as it could be, but definitely still rough. It was definitely really helpful though, because we have nearly a month until the mini trial and running through the whole test today let me figure out where I want to focus our attention until it’s showtime. Our current weaknesses are: a) holding our canter lead (this is still a me problem, not a him problem—we got it fine when we put the whole test together at the end of our ride, but I need to really focus on and practice keeping my aids where they need to be because he can hold it on level terrain both directions as long as I do that), b) not rushing the trot after we canter (he gets Very Excited once we’ve done some cantering and is almost too sensitive to my seat and leg afterward), c) transitions (somewhat related to the rushing, our walk/trot/halt is pretty solid, but trot/canter and canter/trot, not so much, like I mentioned earlier in this post), and d) not falling flat on our faces (he sometimes doesn’t mind his feet because baby ADHD).
With all of this in mind, I have my plan for the next four weeks, and hopefully I’ll be able to stick to it. I want to do one ride every week focused on incorporating pole work (both for adjustability and foot placement purposes), one ride focused on transitions and gait quality (pretty self-explanatory), one ride of trot sets (weather-permitting, I’ll replace this with general flatwork if there are too many storms going on/the footing outside is too boggy to be safe), and one ride of chilling out/doing a bit of jumping so that I don’t fry either of our brains. If I make it out a fifth day during the week it’ll probably just be another flat ride, and I’ll try to run through parts of my dressage test every week (without stringing the whole thing together too frequently, because Cooper is too smart for his own good and he will memorize what’s coming next if given the opportunity). If I don’t make it out to ride a fifth day then I’ll definitely be doing at least one run myself, for the sake of my own fitness.
I know it’s also probably a bit ??? that I’m doing trot sets with a horse that I have entered in Starter this year, because he’s definitely got enough fitness from our regular riding to handle the level no problem, but the fact remains that we’re in Starter due to a) our canter work needing some more time to solidify and b) my jumping anxiety. I have absolutely zero concern about Cooper’s ability to clear BN or N fences (or even Training, but we are nowhere near that yet), but I still need to keep working methodically to get my brain on board with fence heights going up. Once we’ve got our canter under control (and I truly believe the trot sets will help with it since they encourage him to stretch over his back and really step up under himself, both of which are things that should improve our canter too) and I get over my mild panicking about anything over 2’3″, I have a feeling we’ll start moving up a lot faster than we have been the last few years, and I want both of us to be ready for that from both a fitness and a psychological perspective.
One good bit of news is that I wasn’t sore at all today from my run yesterday, so it seems that my stretching/foam rolling after I ran did what it was intended to do. Stretching is another thing that I need to make a point of doing more frequently because it really does help my riding, but it is a very real challenge for my brain to form new habits and I’ve still got a couple that I need to nail down, so it may be a few months until I can really focus on trying to add stretching to my routine.
I am now exceedingly tired (not even getting five hours of sleep and then going to exercise will do that to a person, I guess) so I think I might go take a nap, but for now, that’s what we’ve been up to over the last week or so. I may be back with a post next weekend, I may be back with a post the week after that. Who knows. All I know is I will be back very soon.
Peace out, folks x
Spymaster Equestrian 