Buzzed

And no, not the first thing you think of when you read that word.

This weekend of lessons was interesting in very unexpected ways. Good though. I feel like we made some steps forward and we also had some moments where we struggled to connect. But I’m happy those happened while we were in a lesson. That’s what the lesson is for right?

Friday I had to rush as I was trying to fit the lesson in during my lunch hour. I got to the barn maybe 15 minutes before my lesson was supposed to start so I was a bit stressed while grooming and I’m sure Ezio fed off of it. He was a bit more bratty but we both settled while walking to the arena.

When we got on, it was clear he didn’t hold a grudge. The walk was pretty nice and forward from the beginning. We’re settling into the walk more quickly each lesson and I’m having to remind him to lower his head and relax less and less. Its pretty nice to feel and see the progress.

That side eye though

We were on for a bit and really relaxing into the walk when it happened.

We got buzzed.

By a huge ass fire dept helicopter. This thing was loud. I saw it flying back later but in the moment, I obviously could not see it as I was dealing with a baby horse who was taking great exception to a helicopter flying around 40 feet off the ground. I’m still so proud of him for holding it together as much as he did. He did buck for sure. I was focused on getting his head back up and pushing him forward so he couldn’t continue bucking. I even heard Trainer J saying something to me via the headphones but I couldn’t hear more than her voice was saying something. It’s not like she could have given me any advice in that moment than what I was already doing.

Ezio didn’t escalate past a few mild bucks and when the helicopter passed, I immediately circled him and asked him to bend while moving his hind away from me. He actually settled very very well and it didn’t take very long for him to get back to walking in a relaxed manner. Very proud of him cause that was scary for any horse.

We did have a bit of a rough time starting to trot. He had some feelings and did try to pull some attitude the way he did before we started the training. But we worked through that and did several trot transitions that while not great, were not bad either.

Dog pic for fun

Saturday we did have to deal with some residual feelings about the helicopter. He was spooky in the corner where we’d been buzzed and he was a bit more difficult to settle than the day before. But honestly I wasn’t upset with it. It was understandable and the fact that we could work through it and get past it was great.

Trainer J and I had also had a bigger discussion on which aids to use when asking for the trot and how long to hold them. I’ve been trying to make sure that we have very clear discussions about these things because I want to do everything like she has been in order to get the clearest results. With a better understanding of my asking for bend and forward, we tried trotting again. We did three transitions, each one better than the last.

On the third, he gave me a very relaxed transition and then trotted several steps with his head stretched down and relaxed. I basically threw us into a halt and patted the crap out of his neck before throwing myself from his back. We couldn’t have possibly gotten a better ending point for the lesson.

Unfortunately, Sunday didn’t happen as my trainer had a dressage show that day and her and her client’s rides were stretched through out the whole day. She said she’d owe me a lesson and we’d figure it out at some point.

I was really hoping we could get the trot more confirmed after this weekend but you roll with what the rides throw at you. We’ve got some lessons coming up this next week, and then Trainer J and I need to talk about what we will do the following month. I don’t think he will need another month of full training. But I do want at least weekly lessons and she did suggest we talk about a weekly ride from her for another month. We will be discussing that during the next lessons.

Hopeful

Before I hop into Ezio breakdown, lets update y’all about Scarlet.

Now that the weather is cooler, he’s really having fun in the morning. Super snorty, jigging and being his silly self. Its nice to see but also a tiny bit annoying to deal with tbh. I just love flying an arab kite in the morning.

His excess energy has made me think about comparing how I tread him and Ezio even more. Yes there is some limit to how I can discipline Scarlet for goofing off due to his physical limits but I honestly rarely have to. Even when he is being his most silliest, he’s never even so much as knocked into me. He doesn’t try to push through me and completely respects my space on the ground. Some of that is likely due to his age and the time that we’ve been working together. But some of that is just his personality. Which is nice to deal with even more now that I recognize it.

He’s doing well physically. We’re finally getting on top of his hock sores now that the ground is softer. I tried to boot them but he wears pony sized things on his legs and I’ve yet to find any pony sized hock boots. So the regular sized hock boots need to be strapped tighter and then he got rubs on his tendon areas. After that I just stopped using boots and just put ointment on his sores. It seems to work pretty well so far and winter is always easier for him in that regard.

I’m posing. Can I have the cookie now?

Now that we’re updated on the good old boy, lets get into the young rascal. Who actually has not been much of a rascal lately.

Guys, I’m so so so happy I decided to (and was fiscally able to) get him into full training. His whole energy has changed and its so much easier for me to be around him and relax as well. He still tries to nip me but its less often and I’m not flinching away. He stands tied even better. Hand walking him is super chill. Riding is still a work in progress but in a we need to take it slow way, rather than a shits still going bad way. We’ve had four lessons with my trainer so far and they’ve been great.

As much as I really wanted to get on, I tried to make sure that I entered our first lesson with absolutely zero expectations. I’d learn the tools for the ground work and we will see what happens there. The ground work is just a couple of ways to get him to move his feet away from me, completely yielding to me. Trainer J says that she uses this to check in with him mentally before she gets on. I did my best to absorb it completely.

Everything went super well so Trainer J had me hop on and we started with the walk tools. She explained that Ezio needs absolutely zero tension when we work. So when we walk around, I need to stay focused on his tension. How I’m helping him is by asking him to bend away from my inside and lower his head. If he doesn’t from light inside aids, we then go into a circle with stronger inside aids. For this first ride, it definitely ended up being asking him to drop his head and relax every few steps. But we did get some chunks near the end where I wasn’t asking him frequently.

Trainer J was very pleased with how that first lesson went. She told me she hadn’t expected us to even get on that day but I did a great job learning how to help Ezio and kept my feel of his tension sharp. The second lesson, we repeated the same thing and then hopped off.

He stands head down and relaxed so much more often now!

The following weekend, it went even better. I’d been thinking about what we did all week so I had no issues doing the ground work on my own and Ezio responded quite well. Surprising both me and Trainer J, Ezio settled in to a lot more forward of a walk without any real issues. It only took a bit of time to get to the point where we could go about half the circle without a reminder each direction. Trainer J was super excited and asked if we wanted to try to trot. I was all for it.

We walked around and set him up for the trot by asking him to move forward at the walk with a very exaggerated bend. Then I was to ask for the trot and if we got it, great, if not keep going. Then I asked and we trotted. My brain straight up short circuited. I then remembered I had things to do! I need to keep the bend going. I did it and we got maybe three trot steps. Trainer J laughed because she could see the whole short circuit on my face. We asked a couple more times and got a trot step here or there but no real trotting.

The transition point is the big issue. It actually has been the entire time that I’ve owned Ezio. I’ve talked about him being anticipatory with transitions and me not being able to do more than one close together. He really tenses up and gets anxious when asked to change gait. So getting the transition to stay relaxed is going to be the hard part. Trainer J says that once they get into the trot, he’s pretty good about staying relaxed.

We unfortunately did not quite get there in the 4th lesson. We had another good lesson with a great, swinging walk with basically zero effort from me straight from the beginning. I did ask a few times and get some steps but we didn’t maintain the trot due to tension. I’m hoping that by the end of this month of full training, we will be able to do some trotting together.

Even though progress is going to be super slow, I’m very happy with what we’ve done so far. I can really feel how much more comfortable Ezio is with what he is doing and I can see how that will transition well for further work. And I didn’t have these tools. He needed to go back to level zero and I thought I was already at level zero. But he needed a lower zero than I had so I’m very grateful that Trainer J had that level for him. She’s really helping me and him communicate again. Its so nice to ride my horse and not feel him freaking out underneath me. It really confused, frustrated and hurt me when I couldn’t communicate with him previously. I’m a decent rider. I’ve got decent feel. But nothing I tried could get through to him then. And now it does so I’m super excited to see what more is coming.

The Next Chapter

So, its been a while since I checked in about Ezio. Online I mean. Physically I’ve been checking in on him this whole time.

I’ve spent the month he’s been in full training going out to turn him out on his off days. He’s been a lot more respectful of my space after me realizing he was pushing me around. That and his training have made his energy level seem a lot calmer. We also moved him to a different stall where he has buddies on all sides and is right next to the dressage arena. This barn is primarily a dressage barn so there’s a lot of activity there. I think his new place suits him.

Last Saturday I met with my trainer so that we could talk about the month of her being in his care and the transition over to the month of both her and I working with him. It was nice to hang out with him more. He stood pretty well for grooming and didn’t seem to try to bite as much while he was being affectionate.

The first thing she did was explain how he needs to never have any tension in him or he stays stuck in his own head and isn’t aware of his body. She showed me some ground exercises she’s been doing to get him to respect her space and to check in with him to gauge how the ride will go. She also explained that she’s asking him to keep his head low “like a quarter horse” all the time. We all know horses relax when they lower their heads but she’s also using it as a mental switch as well as the physical one.

While riding, it was slow and still really focused on tension and keeping it out of his body. She wanted his head to be low at all the gaits. It really sounds like she was riding his head because she kept asking him to lower it but its really just riding his brain. I understood why she was doing it as when I’d been dealing with his issues before, my biggest issue was his anticipation of everything. It felt like anticipation at least. His whole body would get tight, regardless of how much I tried to not convey any changes in gait or anything along those lines.

All the stall mats in. So much work. But he was super respectful while I did it. In my space but no biting. He just wanted to be a part of it.

After watching her ride, we talked about the schedule. I will admit, there was a tiny, small part of me that was hoping she’s hand me back a horse that was perfectly fixed and I’d just hop back on as normal. Obviously that is completely unrealistic and I 100% realize that that hope was stupid. But it was still there.

Trainer J emphasized that we will need to go slow as the problem is as much him as it is between us. We have a lot of bad habits to unlearn. Maybe it won’t be bad. Maybe it will. But I need to come out with no goals or expectations for each session. I won’t deny that it will be hard if we don’t manage to get on him the first couple of times. But it will be what it will be and I will hold my expectations back.

So for now, I’m going out on Saturday and Sunday to have plenty of time to work with him. After this weekend, we will see how it goes as far as how many days a week I will be working with him. Ideally, we can increase it each week because it goes well and we can wrap up the full time training after this month. But that’s the ideal. We will see how it goes. I’m prepared to need a third month of full-time lessons with Trainer J. But hoping for not. It all depends on how this weekend goes.