So riding has been very uninspiring. It’s cold, really cold, and the indoor is small and boring.

It’s even harder when the ring gets the rail rut that is REALLY hard to ride in and out of. Often you’re better off either making the ring even smaller than it already is OR staying on the rail.

Luckily I have had a handful of opportunities to take Frankie outside. He appreciates this more than I do I think. Sure, we are still in the ring, but it’s bigger, the scenery is much better, and so is the lighting. The footing, although a little hard, is much better than the indoor since no one else is riding outside.

Me and Frankie’s ventures outside have brought some fun “dressage” work that have surprised me. Since we have both been so bored, I thought maybe teaching him and myself a “trick” might be entertaining for both of us.

I thought lead changes would be a challenging balance and collection exercise for us. So initially I started going down the center line and changing rein and even direction a little bit for a change. I was able to get a change every two strides on my first day. It wasn’t pretty or straight. That wasn’t the idea. Frankie is a big boy with an enormous stride so that was better than I anticipated. He seemed to enjoy it, but was somewhat confused as to why I couldn’t decide what direction I wanted.

I didn’t drill him, I only did this about 4 times and called it quits.

The second time outside, a few days later, I tried again. This time Frankie wasn’t in the mood. I got changes, maybe every 3-4 strides with dramatic bends. Not pretty at all. I only tried twice and then gave up.

Then I tried our third time outside and wow! I didn’t even have to change the bend, just asked with my leg and he switched, stayed collected, and seemed to think it was fun! We got 4 changes every other stride! AMAZING!! I did it twice and haven’t been outside since. I have to say, that is a fun “trick”!

His flat-work has been fantastic! Transitions are almost perfect, though a little sluggish especially inside. He has been hard to get forward at the canter, but isn’t doing the lazy four beat thing that I HATE!

A fun exercise that seems to keep him light on my aids is the one stride canter transitions. I do one canter stride then walk or trot a few strides then one canter stride and mix it up. As long as I don’t ask for the transitions in the same spots he really responds well.

Our jumping has been terrible. We had a week of no jumping just because the footing was bad and then there were always other people riding. So, it had been about 3 weeks of inconsistent jumping all together. I had a pretty good routine going, jumping twice a week. One day of big trot fences (4’3″+) and small canter fences (3’3″) and one day of “course” jumping, but smaller fences (3’6″-3’9″) going for calm, quiet, and steady. It had been going well.

Then we had 3 weeks of not jumping much at all so I was ready to get him over some fences last weekend. I set up some bigger trot fences (4’3″), a few smaller canter fences (3’3″-3’6″). I jumped a few of the trot fences and he just wasn’t using himself. Clearing them, but heaving himself over them. The great thing about the trot fences is it generally REALLY gets him using his hind end, backs him off, and he is very relaxed over them. He wasn’t tense, but he wasn’t trying.

So, I moved to cantering over the smaller fences. Well he thought it would be much more fun to SHOOT over them and through them. GRRRRRRR.

Back to the trot fences.

He knocked the first one down, I went to the next, he knocked that one down, to the third and he stopped three strides away and started bucking. F*^#ing A@*hole! Grrrr.

I got off, reset the two trot fences he knocked down, got back on and trotted them again. He knew I was pissed. He cleared all three, but it was ugly; crooked, doing everything he could to not use himself outside of rushing.

I got off again, set all the fences to 3’6″ and decided to just canter around, calmly and finish with a nice quiet course. There were 5 fences set up total. Fence 1, down, fence 2, down, fence 3 down, fence 4, down. I’m not talking grazing the fences. I’m talking sticks are flying. He was tense, but backed off. we went to fence 5 and by some miracle, he cleared it. Good boy? No.

I didn’t feel like getting down to reset the other 4 fences so I just kept jumping fence 5; over and over and over again. He left it up. He wasn’t jumping pretty, he wasn’t trying or really paying attention. He knew I was pissed, which makes him shut down a bit. After jumping the one fence about 25 times, I called it quits. What else was I to do. I needed to take a step back and evaluate the situation.

Evaluation took a few days. However I did come to a conclusion, and for the most part it is a good conclusion.

Frankie needs his hocks done again. Bad because it’s expensive. Good because it can be fixed.

In the heat of the moment, I can’t think that it could be something simple and health related. He’s sound, working well on the flat—pain isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. It has been almost a year since he was last injected and he has done a lot of hard work since then. He generally drops rails, carelessly, when he needs his hocks done.

Since our terrible day of jumping we have had some good hacks, well, as good as they can be inside. I’m not asking a whole lot since he has to feel it even when he isn’t jumping. His hocks get done in a week so I will update as soon as I get him over some more jumps.

The weather sucks, it’s cold, snowy, and miserable. Does winter ever end?