Cob Jockey

I'd apologize for my lengthiest time away from this blog in a while, but nah.

It's the second time in my life that I've made a massive job change and taken a house down to the studs in the same year, and y'all? Do not recommend. 

And I do mean "down to the studs"

Both have been immensely positive changes, but both hitting at the same time has me feeling like a hamster running a treadmill that's just a little too fast. The quiet pause that I need to draft a blog post never happens. Neither does eating or showering some days.

But all that said - I have so much to be grateful for and to blog about, even though I haven't been writing.

The original gangsta of this blog turned TWENTY in May. Aside from some grey hairs around his eyes and losing a little topline last winter, he's showing no signs whatsoever of aging.

Our newest boarder's 8 year old started leasing him a couple of months ago, with her lease fee being cleaning his stall for me, and I don't think I've ever seen Connor so happy. 

It's the happiest I've ever seen him with a job, and he's making all of her dreams come true, including showing for the first time at a local backyard saddle club show. She's very sweet and grateful and isn't taking this for granted, which makes it all extra wonderful.

PC: LIZ!!!! Who came all that way just to hang out and take some of the most incredible photos I've ever gotten of myself on a horse.

PC: Liz. No exaggeration about barely making it to this show - I accidentally brought full sheepskin-lined winter boots to a show with a heat index in the 110s and didn't realize I forgot white breeches until I was standing there in my underwear in the tack stall 10 minutes before I needed to be on.

Kate moving back to the Midwest last fall has been nothing short of divine intervention for me and for Disco. All the usual concerns about sending a horse to an outside trainer were moot, because she cared for him like I would. Just like when he lived with Maude, I never had to micromanage or ask for updates or worry that he was mentally or physically stressed. He was just...happy.

I mean. Come on you guys.

Each video I saw of Kate riding him, I saw not only his training progressing, but her bond with him deepening, to the point that it pains me a bit to bring him home. She has truly enjoyed bringing him along and bonding with him, and has told me several times that I have a horse for the future in him.

He's also continued to enjoy playing with his brother-from-another-mother, Castleberrys Opportunity Knox

Truthfully, I'm not ready to bring him home right now, even though 'now' has always been the plan. Originally, the house was scheduled to be done by now, and my partner and his kids would be moved in with me by now, and I wouldn't be living in a camper with no running water on the farm by now, and I wouldn't be driving across town to shower and eat every night by now, but...

Current status

We ended up getting started 3 months late because our first contractor had a true psychotic break with reality (long story), and so we're currently months away from the house being done. But the weather (and a local Welsh show I'd like to support) is forcing my hand - the snow is about to start flying in northern Michigan, and if I don't get him now, I might not have a good chance again for a while.

Kate's BTE photo from a summer northern Michigan trail ride

But first - working from Kate's house all next week while I take lessons and learn how to ride my "new" horse before I bring him home on Saturday!

See you soon little buddy. PC: Leah??? I think!

This is, I guess, less of a Waterloo retrospective and more of a "First 90 days with Kate" retrospective.

This is Disco's new LinkedIn profile picture

See what I mean?

I am at a loss for words to describe what Kate has achieved with him since March 5.

This DOWN TRANSITION, Y'ALL (The GIF sped the tempo up slightly, but it still looks amazing!)

Three months into training with her, he is the most educated horse I've ever ridden; there is such a difference between 'broke' and 'educated'. Connor got to Second Level, sure, but he did it without ever really achieving self-carriage, and so many of the foundational building blocks of Dressage just never developed with me doing all of the riding on him.

Disco feels light, forward, and balanced. Every photo of him I see, his chest is facing forward rather than down, and that's no accident: Kate's style of training emphasizes balance before anything else. He's almost never behind the vertical even for a moment, and the contact is SO alive and obviously meaningful to him. 

All of this gives Kate access to his body parts in the most fluid way imaginable, which is why the lateral work is coming along so well. He's already beginning to learn half pass!

This schooling show comment right here (not from Waterloo) is EXACTLY why I sent him to Kate!

The difference between how he goes with Kate riding him and how he goes with me riding him is so stark. He truly could show First with Kate and possibly even 2-1, but he and I together are a solid Training level pair. When I ride to my absolute best, he goes so well, and when I ride to my usual crooked baseline, he meets me there, confused but obedient. 

Insert potato riding, get potato horse

All that said, I could not have gotten him where Kate has gotten him on my own, which SO validates the decision to send him out, but I can learn to meet him there, and I'm hungry for that challenge. The way Kate trains him and the way she coaches me, I can see a path towards becoming the rider I've always wanted to be and feeling things I've never felt from a horse before.

For the first time in years, I could not stop thinking about horses for probably a week after Waterloo, and that felt so good. I truly can't wait to see what kind of horse I have when I bring him home in October.

Darn my GIF program speeding these up, it's really lovely at real-life speed

That whole weekend of Waterloo, I was struck by how different showing felt this time around, as opposed to the last time I did it five years ago.

Gone were the nerves, the score anxiety, the feeling that I "had" to prove something to someone. There is, of course, a bit of pride to it still, and a bit of wanting to show Disco well on behalf of his progeny and his breeder. But I couldn't bring myself to care about our scores in the 50s, or the score in the 60s -they just fundamentally didn't matter to me on such a deep level.

At any rate, I did tell myself that if I expected better scores, I should have, you know, taken a lesson within the last four years or maybe ridden regularly in the last three.

The overwhelming feeling I had was gratitude and awe. For the first time, I trotted down centerline on a horse I watched grow up from the moment he slid out of his mom, wondering for the next five years what it would feel like when we did this. We did it, and I was present enough to enjoy the moment as it happened.

I still absolutely took my participation awards home (low turnout in the Pony classes, sadly!)

I was also so grateful to be showing with Kate, something I never thought I'd get to do for all of the many years she lived in California, and enjoying hanging out with her fascinating (said with love!!) family and framily.

I also met Eventing a Gogo IRL for the first time after following her blog(s) for the better part of two decades! Hers and Aimee's were the first two blogs I ever followed way back when I started blogging in late 2009.

Disco graciously accepts molestation from total strangers

(It was the craziest thing, I made an Instagram post and tagged her in it, and then she APPEARED AT THE SHOWGROUNDS like I summoned her Beetlejuice-style.)

Possibly most important to me out of anything,  I was amazed at how well my five-year-old stallion handled the atmosphere. Sure, I know he's been showing since he was five months old and has shown three different disciplines in two countries now, but you still never know. 

He went around in a flat/knotted halter all weekend, drank water like a champ, and caused several people to do double-takes and look underneath him after learning he wasn't a gelding. 

The world's most champion drinker from the moment he got off the trailer, even though it wasn't that hot.

He was looky, sure, and a bit backed off at times in the warmup ring when these massive warmbloods rode close to us, but he was far and away a better show horse than Connor was at his first show, which is saying something, because Connor's always been pretty top notch.

His behavior in particular makes me so excited for what we can achieve together. He's just always ready to go to work, and I so appreciate that about him.

One more Waterloo post - riding takeaways next! 

My incompetence at reading a show bill saved my bacon bright and early on Saturday when the show office asked if they could move my 8:00am ride to 11:00am so we could do my pony class measurements at 10:00am. I couldn't believe my ears and felt like I hit the lottery with that one!

We had to do a jog for measurements which was a new one for me.

I ended up needing the time, as I had some fits and starts with braiding. The sewn-in braids I always did with Connor predictably did not work with Disco, and I switched to a running braid technique I had only ever practiced three braids of once. It ended up working really well, and I'll probably write a whole post on that at some point. 

This is a RUNNING BRAID. I'm still amazed. It wasn't too bad for my first attempt at it, although I'm me, so there are definitely improvements I want to do next time.

Kate had the genius idea of entering the same test for all four rides that weekend to really set us up for success. Even still, I'm not at all ashamed to admit that I waved the white flag of adult amateurism hard all weekend, and Kate was very gracious about it. 

Kate read my tests for me and videod at the same time, off of the same phone, AND showed her own Castleberry horse (Belgian WBx Castleberrys Opportunity Knox). I actually don't know how she did it.

For that first test, I had her warm him up for me (I actually didn't know you could do that in Dressage until Kate offered!) and for the first time, I saw that First Level horse she told me she had schooling at home. He was a completely different horse from when I rode him, and it brought into stark relief just how much my own riding would need to improve after I take him home in October. In a good way.

Pictured: potato riding

I also had Kate read alllllllll four of my Training 2 tests. My old trainer would have died of embarrassment, but I was incapable of embarrassment over that. The mental odds were very much stacked against me, and I was going to take every chance I got to offload some stress and ride to the best of my abilities.

This post is long enough, so I'm going to summarize the first three tests (with scores in the mid-upper 50's) as follows:

1. Baby horse does the thing
2. The canter aid is kick and pray right?
3. "Canter surprise", also, OMG there are HORSES OVER THERE DID YOU KNOW THAT

Kate had put a sophisticated canter aid on him (lifting the inside seatbone) that I am more or less physically incapable of doing on my weak side, which I demonstrated by doing leg lifts in the tack stall after the first test. As a result, the canter transitions were a bit of an adventure all weekend even though with Kate he picks it up wonderfully, and he never misses leads with either one of us.

That fourth test, though.

    4. Redemption

I went into the ring feeling confident we could put it all together, and we did exactly that. The showgrounds were a bit quieter, Disco was feeling properly bored, and Kate had helped us to a breakthrough with the canter transition in the warmup.

I had realized I actually haven't ridden many trot-canter transitions over the years. 5-year-old Connor came preinstalled with a walk-canter transition so good, I wasn't motivated to do much with the trot-canter. After I said that, Kate had me ask for walk-canters as if he was an educated horse, and the canter transitions got SO much better, even if they did have a few steps of trot in there.

More on this in the recap post, but "stop riding him like the barely broke baby you dropped off three months ago" was A Theme this weekend.

We ended up scoring a 62%+, and I told him he won the Olympics.

Takeaways post to come! 

In terms of show goals, my only goal for Disco this year is "Do Pony Cup," and at some point I realized that I should, you know, do a practice show before then. 

Despite it being rated, Waterloo was the obvious choice: halfway between us, and we've talked about doing it together for years. Her dad lives silly close to it, and with the facility for sale, we weren't sure how many more opportunities we'd get to make that slumber party a reality.

For sale! Please buy it and keep it a showgrounds!

Entering was such an ordeal in pretty much every way possible, including Kate's vet giving us shot/Coggins records with just stable names on a receipt printed on a dot matrix printer, and not understanding why that wasn't enough, and me not realizing that pony class measurements were only held on Thursday night (we would be arriving on Friday).

That last one ended up being a blessing in disguise, but we'll get there.

Our two stallions stabled side-by-side

It was so, SO good to see this horse again, guys. I really didn't realize how much I miss him or how much he's grown on me in general.

But man, as of Friday night, as we crammed a lesson in very quickly before sunset, I was not entirely sure entering my first rated show in five years on my green five-year-old when I hadn't really ridden in years and had never braided him was a good idea.

(lol)

Look at me, riding my baby horse at a showgrounds for the first time!

He felt incredible, nothing like the baby horse I had given to Kate three months earlier, but I was riding like a sack of potatoes. I could barely turn him, and I couldn't figure out his canter aid. 

Another competitor saw JUST this view of the boys when Kate pulled up and asked if they were Welsh Cobs. I was gobsmacked. In all my years of showing Welsh Cobs, no one has ever properly identified them, let alone from this angle! She made my day.

And complicating things further, in the three months Kate had him, he'd completely outgrown his saddle, and it was tipping me forward badly onto my pubic bone. I actually ended up riding in one of Kate's saddles, a Stubben that worked out wonderfully for both of us, and it's saying a lot that I never noticed that saddle all weekend.

The Most Chill about show stabling. Still has never needed a chain anywhere we've gone.

I had an 8:00am ride the next morning, with Kate's ride a few minutes before mine so she wouldn't be able to coach me. After my lesson, I said "I really think I want to scratch that first test, I just don't think we're setting us up for success between the fact that you won't be able to coach me and having to braid him for the first time and everything."

Kate talked me off the ledge, saying lets stay entered and just see how he feels in the warmup. So that's what we did. To be continued...