Cob Jockey

While I wasn't fussed about the low scores at Waterloo, it did leave me with a couple of nagging feelings I wanted to sort out.

The first was that I wanted some validation from my trainer that I should really be showing Second. Her students normally get higher scores than my low-to-mid-60s, and I found myself dreaming of the 70s we are no doubt capable of if I'd just drop back down to First. And I know she would not BS me about this.

Unrelated: I want to take a moment to appreciate how freaking well the Fairfax (F/S) browband fits around his head.

"Absolutely, Second is where you should be," she said when I asked in my lesson last week. "Don't let last weekend get you down. It was incredibly tough going on Saturday with all the standing water, and then on Sunday the horses were all tired, probably from slogging through the mud on Saturday. And the judges didn't go easy on people."

Uh, yeah, he was tired on Sunday

While that does make me feel better, it also makes me feel like Second is just not going to be Connor's jam, which I've heard people say is true for some horses. The good news is we've achieved just about all that I want at Second, so at some point she'll say "Hey, it's time to look at Third." We know the flying changes came more easily to him than simple changes, even with CGP in the irons, so here's hoping we can put Second behind us for good soon.

Misty horse show mornings in Michigan

Second, I know I need to start focusing on Connor's fitness. We can't make Dressage any easier for him than one test per day, and in order to score well he can't be behind my leg. Riding in a lake is out of my control, but increasing his work capacity is something I can do.

The body is strong, the work capacity is weak

I had already planned on adding in 20-30 minutes of walking a few times a week when I saw Lauren Sprieser's blog published last week about talking to Jimmy Wofford about how to condition Dressage horses safely. Her plan included 20-30 minutes of walking 3x a week on hills using Equibands. 

"Oh my god are you kidding me?" - Connor probably

So that's what we're doing. One loop of our (rather hilly, for our area) property takes Connor 15 minutes, 20 if I add in the front pasture, and I put his Scoot Boots on so we could leverage the gravel driveways as well. (He's very sound on gravel, but I want to avoid finding "a rock with his name on it" in the middle of show season, as Dr. Marks would say) 

Ideally I'd like to find a way to do 20 minutes of this in the morning and then a schooling ride in the evening, at least through the summer, but we'll see if I can swing that with my schedule.

Finally, after Waterloo I emailed the NDPC show secretary and asked to add a tack stall to my entry for the first time in my life. They've always felt like such an unnecessary and expensive luxury to me, mainly showing at the HHP where my trailer is never more than 50ft from my stall and where I can wait out rain delays from the comfort of my own home if I feel like it. 

But after Waterloo, I had to admit that my teammates had the right idea with their tack stalls. They had a comfy place to hang out, a place to change clothes that wasn't a porta-potty and their show setups were very organized with lots of space to spread things out. Plus, I'm going to have an entire entourage of friends with me at Pony Cup and I don't think we'll be able to fit all those chairs in front of the stall front alone, lol. It's a GREAT problem to have!

Going forward, at least the first time I show in a new and unfamiliar place, I'll be getting a tack stall, but I still can't imagine wasting that money while showing "at home"!

Last night I had my first lesson in a while, and it was just awesome.

From the very beginning, I was just grinning from ear to ear.  He's getting so much easier to ride, and that makes me ride better, which makes him go better, and it's just a fantastic feedback loop.


We worked on not allowing him to dislodge my "carousel pole" in the transitions as MW would say.  This requires me to be very organized and firm in my body (something that's getting tons easier thanks to Pilates!) and it also requires me to be quieter with my aids, my legs in particular.


I also have to carefully manage his balance with a lot of half halts, which is a good thing!  It's so much easier to do when he's this engaged, and the communication is so much more refined. 

Not the best halt, but I love the way he stays on my aids and asks me what's next

I would not describe it as particularly brilliant work, but brilliance will come after strength and balance.  What matters right now is the way he's using himself, the muscle he's putting on, and the balance and feel we're both developing.  This feels like a starting point.  A fun, pliable, engaged, relaxed starting point.

Too much neck bend, but this sequence felt so EASY

Afterward, my trainer looked at him standing in the crossties and said "His butt is getting huge."  I've noticed the same thing myself.  His topline, butt and most impressively, his abs have all exploded recently. 

Worst conformation shot ever, sorry little buddy.  But check out that belly - that's not a hay belly!

So happy right now <3

My vet came out yesterday and did a three week re-check on Connor's back.  Last time, I watched as his back sank and flinched away from her fingers.  This time, I told her I was 100% confident she would tell me he's better, but I wanted to hear it from her anyway just because.

I am so happy to report his recheck couldn't have gone better.  She couldn't get him to react to the palpation in the slightest - not even an ear flick!  She was amazed and delighted, and said we had done a fantastic job rehabbing him, that his topline was already changing, and just the way he stood in general looked totally different and more relaxed.  She did a tiny little mini adjustment, and his body was soft like putty when she was done.

And has a new Micklem!  Thanks, Carly.

Over those three weeks, I rode only in my CWD and he also got lunged a few times.  I used the band system for every ride/lunge, and also put Connor through a series of stretches recommended by my vet and CGP before most rides.  So I guess the moral of this story is that you really do need to keep riding when you have a back sore horse - as long as you've removed the cause of the soreness.

And that brings me to the flapless.  ESS had one more thing we could try, but with as close to show season as we are, unless they were 100% sure it would work, I wasn't willing to gamble on another round of back soreness.  I said if Carmi ever comes to this part of the country on one of her fitting tours, I'd be willing to have her fit him in person, but for now, I'm sending the trial back and not moving forward with it.


(If anyone in this part of the country would like to try the flapless at a fitting tour, let me know in the comments - critical mass is important to getting her out this way).

It's a bummer.  I still love that saddle, and I think it's a great saddle for a lot of people/horses, but like any saddle, both horse AND rider have to love it, and Connor let me know he didn't like it.  And that's okay.  We made it through this back soreness episode, and I'm DELIGHTED at the work he's been giving me lately, so no permanent harm done.

Look at those symmetry scores!

This may surprise you all, but the Patrick is also out for me.  I did like it, and we had a good year at work so I can afford it, but it literally costs more than I paid for my had-never-had-a-horse-in-it-before trailer, and I just can't square my brain with dropping that much money on something as temporary as a saddle (all saddles are temporary, as JenJ reminds me regularly).

So I'm going to continue riding in the CWD, and in the meantime, there's a plan C in the works, and a plan D on deck, just in case I need it...

As always (will this ever end?) to be continued...

We're now about three weeks into using the Equicore Concepts band system, so I thought I'd give an update.

Mah precious

I'm in love with them.  Although I don't think they're for everyone or every horse.

All of the rest of the photos in this post are courtesy of Austen, who took some AWESOME photos of us at my barn a couple of months ago

My trainer and I have seen dramatic changes in Connor.  His default way of traveling is different, for the better.  He lifts his back, engages his abs, "puffs out" underneath me, has more impulsion and  better hind end engagement.  He also travels with his underneck soft and open by default, which is a freaking miracle with this horse.


It's not fool-proof though, it requires a lot from me for them to be beneficial to him.  He likes to translate all that impulsion the bands give him into splatting on his forehand, and/or going really fast as an evasion. It's very much a finesse thing to get him to use the bands for good and not for evil.


Pulling is always bad, but I feel like it's extra bad when using the bands - the horse has something around his butt saying "GO" and your hands are saying "WHOA".  The good news is, with that much impulsion and engagement, it's easy for me to sit with a good, solid position, and my half halts are SO much more effective, so I'm less inclined to pull.


Three weeks in, we've just now worked him up to the point where he's ridden with them for an entire 45 minute ride.  I'm not sure how many weeks I'll ride with them until I try my first ride without them - maybe a month?  I want that muscle memory and the muscles themselves to be good and used to this new way of riding before I play around with riding without them, but I also don't want to still be riding in bands 100% of the time as we approach our first show of the season in April.

My heart.  He's the actual best.

Some horses will benefit a lot more than others with these, I don't think they're a miracle one-size-fits-all thing.  For a pulling breed that wants to travel with his hind legs behind him, his head high and his underneck engaged, they are ridiculously helpful.  If your horse isn't a pulling breed, I think you'd still see a difference, but it may not be quite as dramatic as I've seen.



PSA: Your horse needs to be super solid if you want to use these without a ground person.  You have to walk around your horse while pulling hard on his butt with a rubber band in order to put these on (did I mention they're under an enormous amount of tension when adjusted correctly?), and the fact that Connor doesn't voluntarily leave the scene when I do this at the mounting block every day is a testament to what a Good Boy he is.

(Even though he's great with them, I still only ride with them under very carefully chosen conditions (The indoor. On non-windy days.  When our resident skunk isn't around.  And it's not raining. After lighting a votive candle at the nearest church)).


Finally, is this a shortcut (negative connotation)?  They ARE a gadget - which I am not opposed to on principle, look at how much humans can accomplish when they add resistance training.  And maybe I should be able to achieve these fairly basic principles of Dressage without a gadget.  But after struggling to solve these problems for years without really ever overcoming them (and since I'm using them to help him recover from back pain and atrophied back muscles) seeing the possibilities that the bands have laid before us is enticing.  I feel like I'm self-aware enough to use them in an effective way and then hopefully set them aside for infrequent use.

If anyone ends up getting them, let me know, I'm curious what you think.

My vet gave me a rough outline of what to do to help Connor's back heal.  It included a stretching routine (for him), riding in the CWD, and a recommendation to incorporate "something that encourages him to keep his hind end underneath him, like a Pessoa"

Pessoa

I didn't mind the idea of a Pessoa, but I wanted something that I could use while under saddle too. In the past, my trainer has used her HorseHugger on Connor, but even when we got creative with adjustments, it always felt like it was a bit too big for him. 

Apparently they're not made anymore?  Fun fact: It was NK's trainer that came up with this.

So I bought this: Equibands System from Equicore Concepts.  Look, SCIENCE!


I took a bit of a flyer on this and didn't do my usual amount of neurotic research before I bought it.  In fact, it wasn't until after I forked over the money that I saw that my GP trainer is listed on their website under the "testimonials" section, talking about how much it helped a "wiggly" horse under saddle. (So is Mary Wanless!)

Do you know who else is wiggly under saddle?

PC - Austen

I've been using it for a week now, and I love it.  We've kept the sessions short so far, with an eye toward gradually building him up to wearing it the whole ride.  In the instruction manual, Equicore Concepts says they want you to use it every ride/work session for a while, but gradually taper off usage over time as the horse develops the muscles to maintain his new way of going without it.

And I do love the way he goes in it.  It's not forcing him into a frame at all, but it's encouraging him to engage the correct muscles for whatever activity we're doing.  And, for a horse bred to pull that naturally travels with his hind legs behind him, it's huge for encouraging him to step under himself.



That isn't just a carefully chosen screenshot, he went around like that the whole time.  Under saddle, he feels so much more solid and engaged, which gives me a chance to focus on my own body slightly more than I am usually able to at the beginning of the ride. If you've ridden him, you know he makes you feel like every part of his body is going in a different direction at first, and the band eliminates that feeling.

First ride, with the bands relatively loose and not as engaged yet

With Connor, I was more or less able to put it straight on him with no theatrics.  I did follow the instructions and took it slowly, putting it on loosely at first, but the only time he ever seemed to care about it was the first time we picked up the canter under saddle, he threw a hind foot out in protest (which is as close as he's ever gotten to bucking).

That said, Connor is broke to harness and I feel like that helped me here.  If your horse isn't used to stuff hanging all over his body, I would take it reeeeeeeeeally slowly.  Even Connor sometimes has a hard time figuring out how to stop while wearing it - "Uh, there's a thing around my butt telling me to "go" and you want me to stop?"

Does what I ask, doesn't ask questions.  The best boy.

A few things to know if you're looking at one for yourself: first, it comes in sizes, and those are saddle pad sizes.  Connor is wearing the "small" size.

16.5" CWD with forward flap shown here

I've heard some people hate this saddle pad, but I love it so much I want to track down their supplier

Price: $220 for the saddle pad and two sets of bands; $50 for each additional set of bands
Sizes: Based on saddle pad size, pony, small, regular, and large in AP-shape, or Western