Week Recap

 We started out this week in the Eastern Cape, nursing my granny after a minor eye surgery. Granny turned out not to need any nursing whatsoever and bounced right back after the surgery, leaving us to enjoy a quiet week in East London. I missed my horses with a fierce intensity that I haven't felt since I was a little kid; it's safe to say that my love of riding has returned full strength, and I am so grateful for it. It's a gift from God and one that I thought I had lost for a minute there.

We visited our favourite local haunt, the Sea Spirit, ate way too much seafood, spent some time splashing around on the beach, and went to see a movie for the first time in a while. I read Felix Francis' Pulse (standard engaging Francis fare) and James Patterson's The Horsewoman, which was disappointingly poorly researched, and I'm not even being a snobby horse person critiquing everything just to prove how smart I am. It just... completely failed to capture what riding really is, and made it feel like any other high-stakes sport. Sorry Mr. Patterson, I know you are rolling in dough thanks to your writing prowess, but I didn't like it.

I quickly remedied this by reading the next instalment in Jeffery Deaver's Colter Shaw series, which has been impeccable so far, because Deaver just always is.

there were so many doggos on this beach

Anyway, it was lovely seeing my grandparents and spending the entire week basically inseparable from my husband, but when we got on the plane to go home on Tuesday I was ready to get back to the beautiful life we've been given at home.

Steve picked us up from the airport and she was delighted to be reunited with DH, and he likewise squawked "Steve!" the moment he spotted her. I swear I'm the third wheel around here sometimes.

It's the first time I've flown since I was a tiny girl, and it felt like time travel. One moment I was at the beach and the next I was in my home arena, teaching lessons.

I was too tired to ride once all the lessons were done, so I hung out with Wynnie and did her mane instead. She chomped on her haynet, happy for the attention, and stood almost perfectly still for the whole thing. I can't believe she's growing up so fast.

On Wednesday morning I got to try out some new goodies I'd ordered that had, characteristically, arrived while I wasn't home. Thunder has been desperately needing a new girth for an embarrassing amount of time and I got this nice Capriole one for like R500 from Tack Shack. (That's about $30). It's elasticated, shaped and nicely padded, and I'm fairly impressed for the price. I also managed to guess the right size perfectly, so bully for me. (It's 24", in case I forget again by the time I need another one).

I don't think I've mentioned Thunder's new saddle yet, either. Back in the days of being a teenager with parents who fed me, I bought three saddles - a JC jumping, a Kent & Masters jumping, and a Wintec 250 dressage. The JC was sold to Jamaica's child after Magic retired and is being passed on to Jamaica's new child, the K&M has had a thousand tiny repairs done and goes on Flashy, Midas and Faith, and the Wintec 250 is still going strong and fits Arwen and Lancey. Not a single one of the above ever really fit Thunder. I discovered a Blackburn dressage in the tack room at the Friesians and asked to buy it, at which point the owner promptly gave it to me. It didn't fit me but it more or less fit him and I probably wouldn't have been able to ride him at all for the past two years if it wasn't for that Blackburn.

Still, it moved at the back and I drowned in it, so I was saving up for a new saddle even before holes got worn in the saddle flap and knee rolls. I was anticipating paying a small fortune for even a secondhand synthetic dressage until J came through for me and worked a little bit of magic to get me a secondhand Flexi Rider dressage for half the price I would have paid anywhere else. It's in pristine condition and fits Thunder perfectly once I'd put in a red (wide) gullet plate.

used a half pad under it while we waited for the new gullet to come

The Flexi Rider is a sort of Wintec knock-off, although the quality seems better than the Wintecs I've sat in. This one sits very similarly to the Isabel Werth, which is my favourite saddle in the universe. I love it to pieces and so far it's been life-changing for both Thunder and me. And that concludes the most painless saddle shopping experience ever.

Anyway, E2 the work rider (who is back now that her collarbone is better, yay!) posted on her WhatsApp status that she had some stirrups and leathers for sale at a total bargain, so I asked her to bring them. They turned out to be Prestige MG stirrups and I got them for an embarrassingly tiny amount of money (like... $15?) even though I did try to offer her more.

They're a little beat up but I'm pretty sure DH can work his magic and make them beautiful. I'm thinking... silver glitter. I like the broader footplate and the weight of them (they are HEAVY), although I'll still scrounge a pair of Nu Angles somewhere one day.

Thus dolled up in all the New Stuff, Thunder and I had a sticky sort of ride. K had been riding him last week and Sir TBird clearly took advantage and plopped around a bit. I also felt a little discombobulated up there after like 10 days off riding. It wasn't bad, just sort of lazy and meh, so we kept it simple and focused on gait quality. Either way, it was so, so good to be back on him again.

He's going to J's for three months in the winter to be made Extra Fancy and I am not entirely sure how I'm going to survive that, but I know it'll be worth it for both of us. It's not fair on him for his ammy mom to try and teach him the PSG movements alone. J Boot Camp will be far better for us both.

That afternoon, after a quick catch-up lesson for Shaila, I saddled up Madam Dragon in her adorable new outfit. Steve and DH clubbed together to get me my first proper matchy matchy set for my birthday last month, and now I am a real proper dressage queen. Did I mention that the numnah is glittery? It is so, so glittery.

K and E2 and my super groom, M, had kept Arwen thoroughly in work while I was away - she is so fat that she really can't have any time off - and she was really pleasant from the moment I got on. Arwen is used to having lots of people ride her and very quickly adjusts back to me. As always, we did a lot of work on suppleness. Her gaits are solid quality now, and the suppleness is slowly improving. We finished off by playing with the flying changes for the second time. Technically she needs a suppler topline before the changes are really going to be anything, but she has been offering them so I'm not going to turn it down. She tries really hard and gets the idea, but we need a bit more practice - and, again, suppleness - to make them clean. She's the first one I've had that changes behind first and then takes a stride or two to change in front.

Lancey had a photo shoot the next morning so I didn't want to ride him and make him all dirty again, but also didn't want to fall and die considering that we were taking pictures in the cosmos flowers, which are taller than we are. I gave him a little free lunge and he was actually sort of flat, but very obedient.

The next morning bright and early E2 arrived. She wanted cosmos photos for her portfolio and offered me a short shoot for a great price. Lancey was spicy and playful as we walked out to the flowers, which are currently in full bloom. I know they're invaders but cosmos time is still my favourite time of year. The whole farm is decked out in a way that puts me in mind of the heavenly Jerusalem coming down out of the sky as the Bride of the Lamb. I'll post all the photos later with some poetic drivel I'm working on, but here's a sneak peek.

by Erin Vogler Photography

It was really fun. Lancey was spicy and threw one little porpoise-y buck, but he was so game to do whatever weird thing I asked. We even cantered a short distance through the flowers (almost squashing Blizzy in the process) and he went boldly, no questions asked, leaping through them to keep his legs from getting tangled up. I'm not sure there's another horse in the world that I'd ask to do that.

On Thursday afternoon between lessons I hopped on Thunder with a bit of a more businesslike approach and made it clear that we were going forward from the very first stride. He immediately obliged and was actually pretty spicy after just a few minutes, giving me everything willingly and easily. It was really, really great. I carried my whip, but only used it twice; the rest of the time he went straight off my leg. We played with lateral work to heat him up and he gave me really super half-pass zig-zags in trot, quarter line to quarter line to centreline, with a soft easy bend.

Since those were so easy, we took a shot at a movement we actually haven't tried before - the same movement in canter with flying changes. The first time through he got a bit excited and thought we were doing tempis, so it was a bit hair-raising, but when we did it the second time I felt him say "oh! it's like the thing we do in trot" and it was smooth. Not perfect, but smooth and easy with clean changes. That made my day.

We also went back to working on the pirouette canter and large quarter pirouettes for the first time since getting our new saddle, and that was much easier than before. There was no getting stuck or kicking my leg. I worked hard to stay sitting up instead of curling over my hands, and it was the best work I've had from him. He was sweaty when we were done, but didn't feel tired. I think the muscular stamina is finally getting there.

Arwen was supposed to have her weekly jump with a kiddo on Thursday afternoon, but when kiddo rescheduled to Friday, M just gave her a good lunge instead.

Friday morning dawned with the exciting promise of lessons with J, always a huge highlight for me. I brushed Thunder's mane out - it's getting all long and Friesian-y now - and groomed him to within an inch of his life. His legs are being eaten up by the flies a bit, but the rest of his skin weathered this summer better than it's done in years. We're looking for some heavy-duty fly boots for him to survive being out in a large field with friends all summer, so if anyone knows of a good brand, let me know. We can get most of the overseas brands down here.

J was in fine form on Friday and put us straight to work, teasing all the way. I thought I might have a tired, flat Thunder after riding him the previous afternoon, but instead, Thunder was so ready to work. I'm not sure if it was my more positive mindset or if his old saddle was bugging him more than I realized. Either way, he put his ears up and said "Yes, ma'am!" the second I put my leg on, so that was really great.

We warmed up with lots of rein-back, stretchy walk and some loose working trot, and then got right to business. J introduced piaffe/half steps on the long reins a few lessons ago, when we were in no-saddle-limbo, and today we tried it with me on board. My job was simply to sit still, keep him straight and soft, and not get my leg squashed against the wall. J was giving the orders. I'd done the same thing a few years ago but on J's two GP horses, so things were a little more complicated for me this time. Not that Thunder had forgotten how to piaffe - on the contrary, he knew perfectly well that if he gave John two or three solid steps (not expressive yet, but rhythmic and sitting), he would get a big pat and some treats. In Thunder's mind, therefore, there was no need to take more than two or three steps. The moment J gave him the voice command for piaffe (a rhythmic cluck, in his case), Thunder sat down and gave two nice steps and then stopped and turned his head for the treat. I was an accessory.

J rewarded him the first time and then started to ask him for a few more steps at a time, slowly building the strength that will eventually lead to more collection and expression. Thunder seems to find this movement deceptively easy. He's not very extravagant but there's a very solid rhythm and he can already do several steps almost completely on the spot. He did want to go backwards once or twice, though, at which point I kicked him forward a bit, and once he threatened to give a buck. No one got annoyed with him for that - he's allowed to express a lack of understanding or fatigue. Most of the time, though, I barely had any contact on the reins at all. He understands and likes this game because there are treats involved. 

We continued the lesson working on that ever-elusive collected canter that I struggle with so much. On the day, though, his collected canter was nearly effortless, in no small part because homeboy was HOT after all the piaffe work. J gave me a few reminders to keep my left rein the same length as the right rein and to keep his neck straight without worrying too much about the position. If he needs to lift his nose up a bit at this stage in order to engage his butt, then that's what he needs to do. There's no use trying to make a frame in front without true collection from behind, and it's not going to be perfect while he's still finding his balance in the ultra-collected movements. We proceeded to pirouette canter with a little help from the ground and got three or four almost on the spot steps at a time.

J left us with strict homework: collected and pirouette canter work, using treats to reward him after good steps just like we do with the half-steps/piaffe. My job is to interfere much less and trust the horse to carry himself far more. He's a big boy now and he can do things independently - I generally just get in his way. I need to be uncompromising about my leg aid in a way that allows me to keep my leg almost completely off except for tiny reminders from my upper calf even in pirouette canter. (Carl Hester's whole thing about riding a lazy horse with the leg off certainly applies).

Thunder hardly felt tired by the end of the lesson and barely sweated, although, granted, it was a cool autumn morning. He felt ready for more. I think we're actually getting somewhere now.

Lancey was next, and I was a little worried about him. I'd heard him cough once or twice when he was turned out and his legs were quite stocked up. He does that sometimes, and he had a normal temperature with no discharge and acted completely like himself, but I decided to keep a really close eye on him. Probably my favourite thing about riding with J is that he advocates, hard, for the horse above all things, more so than anyone else I've ever ridden with. J will never push a horse that's fatigued, let alone a horse that doesn't seem well or even the tiniest bit off or sore. I wouldn't even have saddled him up if it was anyone but J.

Still, his legs were cool if puffy, and when I took him for a little walk before the lesson he was chirpy and eager to go forward. We came into the arena and did a ton of lateral work in the walk, changing it up: either going down the long side and transitioning from shoulder-in to renvers (or shoulder-out to travers) repeatedly, or coming out of the corner in half-pass, down the quarter line in shoulder-in, back to half-pass to the centreline, down the centerline in shoulder-in, transition to renvers, large half-pirouette to the track, repeat. This latter worked really well to keep him balanced and supple and not allow him to brace. We picked up the trot and Lancey coughed twice more and then moved boldly forward with no hint of unhappiness, and by this time his legs were dry and tight, so we went to work. I'm pretty sure he was just a bit allergic to all the flowers we played in the day before, but he's got the weekend off and we're keeping a good eye on him.

okay here's one more - by Erin Vogler Photography

Right from the start, J wanted me to do the opposite with Lancey. Where I needed to leave Thunder alone more, I needed to ride every stride on Lancey more. We started with a ton of shoulder-in in trot, J encouraging me to really focus on connecting constantly to both reins and using repeated light aids to remind him of his position and be compassionately uncompromising about what I wanted. Consistency was the theme.

Once he was nice and warm, we played with some half-steps, too. They don't come quite as naturally to Lancey as to Thunder, and I had my work cut out for me keeping him steady, soft and straight in the bridle. Still, when we did get three nice steps, they were powerful and expressive and he got plenty of praise and treats. That seemed to make the penny drop for him, and they got better after that.

Finally, we went on to some canter work, just going round on a circle, and for some reason I was just... failing at riding a connection. At all. J reminded me constantly to keep his neck straight and to ride him strongly from inside leg to outside rein for balance and connection. Lancey loves to fight my hand, but the thing is that sometimes he's not actually fighting my hand, he's fighting my leg. He will go around very sweetly in a working frame in working gaits, but works hard to wriggle out of connection when I ask for the collected gaits. Still, once "Mother has her brain switched on" (in the words of an exasperated J), he gave me some really, really solid work.

Friday afternoon was Arwen's jumping lesson, so I spent her usual riding time hanging out with Skye instead. Skye was always a pretty standoffish mare - she'd come to me if I called, but she wasn't one for grooming or fussing. She'd had a difficult past before my parents bought her when I was a little kid, and some of that wariness stayed with her even when we were still riding.

Something's changed in the past year or so, though. Skye's become cuddly. She's always in the middle of whatever we're doing, nuzzling the lesson kids, lining up in front of the tack room with the schoolies like she wants to be involved. She even tried to get into the horsebox when we took Spirit to SANESA two weekends ago. I'm just so happy that I can groom and fuss and play with her without imposing on her, and I spent a long time grooming and cuddling and feeding her treats on Friday, especially because it was her Gotcha Day (or maybe my Gotcha Day; I'm not sure). I was seven when my parents bought her for me, and that was nineteen years ago. A whole lifetime. My whole lifetime.

I'm so grateful that we've had this incredible journey together, Skye and I. The Lord has worked so mightily in this mare. She gave me wings when I was little, made my childhood absolutely magical, allowed the imagination that makes my living today to run unfettered. And when I was a teenager, she was instrumental in helping me find the One behind the magic I saw as a kid. Now somehow I'm a grown woman and she's still here, beautiful and kind, still the same mane to cry into, the mane that held my childhood dreams and my teenage secrets. That's something so special. Something rare and amazing.

She's doing so well physically, too. It's almost time for her routine autumn bloodwork but on the surface she looks great. Her weight is amazing, she gallops out of the night paddock in the morning and back into it in the evening, and she trots only about 1/5 lame, which is not bad when you're a 35-year-old horse. The old knees will never be young again but they don't appear to impede anything she wants to do - galloping up the hill or lying down to roll or just grazing in the field - and that's a gift.

Arwen rounded off the week by being super good for her kid, which she always is. This kid actually rides well even though she's quite small and Arwen has started to bend and connect a little bit for her. She jumps with great gusto, only little fences, but the cardio is good for Madam Lardy Dragon.

She's just really hairy right now and starting to suffer a bit since it's still hot and she always sweats like a pig. I'm going to need to try and run the clippers over her next week even though it's a little early in the year.

God is good 💜