I have a love-hate relationship with the USDF National Championships. It’s a great show, a ton of fun, and an honor to attend. And I know why it has to be so late in the year – so that all the regions can hold their Championships, and let participants make their plans to get to the show.
But Fiero and I are stuck in Second Level purgatory, and I’d really like to be either a) giving him some down time before Florida, or b) making our cheerful way towards Prix St. Georges.
He does his changes, he makes his half passes, and he’s got an idea of what a pirouette is all about. And in a few short weeks, after our Great Kentucky Adventure, we can play with all of those things. But for now, it’s Second and Third Level, some fitness work, and a lot of thumb twiddling.
But none of the other horses in my string are so hindered, so they’re keeping me plenty busy. Dorian and Danny, with whom I’ve finally crossed both the first-month-or-so new-horse-honeymoon-phase and the third-month-or-so buyers-remorse-oh-god-what-did-I-do phase and entered the now-we’re-a-team-let’s-get-on-with-it-phase, have made big, big progress recently. They’re both six, and they’re both learning their changes and their more intricate lateral work and their more sophisticated balance, but they come at it all very differently.
Dorian rides like Midgey did at the same age—way more power than balance. When Dorian’s body-organization falters, when he hits the tipping point where he can’t be loose, swingy, engaged and carrying all at the same time, he defaults to power, using his big strong hindlegs to throw himself forward onto his front end. It feels a bit like a little snowball that, suddenly, becomes an avalanche capable of crushing a small Alpen village.
He’s made terrific progress through the summer getting better avalanche control, but just last week I picked up a stick and started playing with some half steps. Erin Freedman, his lovely former owner and trainer, told me that he was a child prodigy when it came to piaffe, and she was exactly right. And while, of course, at six years old he’s well ahead of the curve and doesn’t need to have a big-P Piaffe for years, playing with that degree of collection helps make him strong in his back and his body in a way that will help keep all that power organized in the basic gaits.
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For Dorian, I approach the half-steps from the walk. He stays quite cool in the walk, which helps, but it also takes the power out of the equation – he’s way less likely to overpower his front legs with his back legs from the walk than from the trot.
Danny, too, continues to develop the ability to balance in an upper-level way, but when he falls apart, his hind legs defer to stopping. He’s the one who will go from brilliant, brilliant canter to SPLAT to floundering trot, rather than fall apart but keep cantering. If Dorian is an avalanche, Danny is quicksand—you’re cruising along and, suddenly, you’re stuck in the mud.
I don’t know, of course, because I don’t know his previous people, but my guess is that he got a long way on his talent—he can turn up this HUGE trot and these GIANT flying changes, but struggled to just trot and canter along in self-carriage when he came into my life. So that’s what his summer was spent doing: making basic work, thinking about transitions and turns until he could do them all on his own. And in the last few weeks, he’s taken off—I can put together everything from a Third Level test with relative ease, of course stepping in to help him when he shows his age, but it’s getting better and better, easier and easier.
The idea of half-steps has helped Danny too, though with him, I play with them from the trot. Someone gave him the idea of passage already, so I’m picking away at making the trot more about quick-high-short steps-low impact instead of fancy front leg-slow hind leg-lots of airtime. It’s coming together, bit by bit.
Both horses play with that work just a day or two a week. I certainly don’t want to make them sour to it; I want it to be more like play and less like work.
Fender will be part of the Piaffe Club of 2015 as well. For him, it’ll be more of a concerted effort, since he’ll be 9 next year, and it’s time to get a move on. He has the idea for sure; I’ve had Michael work him in-hand, something I’m not terribly good at, and Fender’s grasped the concept. With his injury earlier this year, it obviously hasn’t been touched since, but his recovery is going gangbusters; as he’s on track to be in full work by the time we leave for Florida, I’m confident we’ll be able to hit the ground running.
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Ironically enough, I think the one with the biggest talent for the work is Johnny, the baby of the group. While someone standing on the ground wouldn’t necessarily see it—as he’s only 5, my playing with collection is far more abstract than it is on the other horses. But he’s just a little freaky about it. I touch him with the stick, and his croup lowers about a foot, and he just cheerfully plugs along. Um, whoa.
Talent like that I don’t want to mess with, so we keep things light and playful and rare. Johnny has been a bit of a head-scratcher for me all summer—I feel like I’m doing everything right, and making little progress. My rational brain says that this is how it goes, that baby horses make progress on their terms, not mine; and that he’s grown almost a hand since this time last year, and it’s a downright miracle he can find his legs, much less operate them with proficiency. But I made Allison, my assistant trainer, ride him for a week to “check my work,” see if she felt anything I could be doing better, and she gave me the all-clear. I am so grateful for my village!
I’m repaying her with what I hope is an act of kindness—turning over the reins to Goya, Cleo’s 3-year-old daughter, just back from being started by my friends Andy Ladd and Alex Robertson. Goya is a spitting image of her mother, tall and kind and sweet-eyed, and I can’t wait to ride her, but I ate all kinds of humble pie learning all I don’t know about riding 3-year-olds from Goya’s big sister, Farrah, last year, and I am (finally) getting smart enough to know my limitations. Goya will be mine next year at the earliest; until then, Allison is in charge. But I’m so excited to have her home. It feels like a second chance.
The weather is turning, the days are crisp. If we can just get to the other side of the National Finals, we’ll be ready to hit the ground running come 2015. I’m eager to get there!
