Right before we left for Kentucky Stanley and I had an incredible field ride around the property (recall from Summer, Stanley, Saddles, and Sunshine).
Returning back to NY we were relieved by the pleasant cool weather. The horses were on night turnout and the bugs weren’t too bad so I thought I would turn Stanley out without his fly sheet…give him a few days of being naked before we dive into blanket season.
He had other plans.
The next morning Stanley came in with inflamed scrapes along his back and down his flank. They weren’t deep, but they were actively raised and sore to the touch. He was fine otherwise but there was no way I would get on his back with those! Instead, I cleaned them up and applied Absorbine’s Silver Honey. I put on his cross-country boots and did a groundwork session. I worked him up and down small hills and brought him into the pasture for some in-hand cross-country jump schooling. I enjoy doing this so he can feel comfortable and gain confidence without me getting in the way. He had the rest of the week off to allow his booboos to settle down.
By Sunday I could ride, the scrapes were not sensitive and mostly just missing hair spots. We had been painting jumps all morning and I snuck in a ride before the afternoon jump painting party. At first, he was anxious as the wind picked up and we got about 5 minutes of a shower. He calmed down quickly, and I popped him over a few cross-rails. Suzanne was on the ground and raised a jump to a vertical for me. For the first time since my accident, I jumped Stanley! We did approximately 2′ or 2’3.” I was proud enough of him for settling in so having a successful jump school left me smiling ear to ear.
That week in our dressage lesson I used my western saddle to get some help with my western dressage tests. I signed up to ride the following weekend in not one but two tests this time. The lesson was very helpful in figuring out my geometry.
Wednesday we did another “field ride.” I opened the gates to the pasture and the arena and traveled around the property. We were both a little tired that day so I took it easy but we cantered and trotted around the property and worked on our stamina and terrain. As I cantered around the field I felt like a badass, it really wasn’t much but after being confined to a ring for so long it was amazing to finally get out and experience this.
On the 15th we had our dressage show, it was the last show planned for this venue. Stockade Polo Club has given the community 21 amazing years. I’m bummed that I only first went there in 2022. The grounds are impeccably kept and it’s a truly lovely retreat. I hauled a friend’s horse there for some morning rides because Stanley wasn’t scheduled to ride until 3:30pm. I was able to help her tack up and go for her combined test rides. After that I drove back to the farm to pick Stanley up. He was fantastic. I arrived at the farm and loaded him up, we were driving back to the show within 5-10 minutes tops.
He was calm the entire day. We walked and trotted around the warmup ring like he’d always been there. He napped as he awaited our turn.
We rode WDAA Intro Test 3, the same test we’ve ridden twice before. This time we didn’t have an emergency itch in the middle of our double coefficient free walk. We weren’t looking around for his brother. A couple of times he started to look around but quickly came back to me.
I was thrilled! I couldn’t contain how happy I was with him. Our trainer was there to watch and she described our ride as harmonious.
A few rides later we were back in the ring to perform WDAA Intro 4. This test was also walk/trot but included square turns (as double coefficients) as well as a 5m shallow loop off the rail. Getting the geometry right for the loop was my biggest concern. I knew he was good with square turns as I school them every ride. He was even better in this test than the Intro 3. He stayed with me every step and worked with me. I made an oops on my second circle…riding the last corner instead of finishing the circle. I walked out of the ring again smiling ear to ear. I felt on top of the world to have a happy relaxed horse that wanted to work with me like he was doing. It’s everything I’ve been working towards all year long.
The slow steps were entirely worth it. We earned a 67.75 in our Intro 3 test, and a 68.00 in Intro 4. We were the only ones in our division so the first-place ribbons were anticipated…what I didn’t expect was to earn a TIP high point thoroughbred award. At that rate I never expected to earn a high point dressage award. We were stopped as we were about to load and said that there was a possible chance I’d have more ribbons coming. We waited for the rides to finish and as Anita tallied the scores. The wait was worth it because Stanley earned both awards and nearly had me in tears. I had already felt like I won by having a calm happy horse and rode well…and earning these awards didn’t feel possible for at least another few years.
The next day we dragged the arena and set our new jumps out. Suzanne was able to get photos of Stanley and I with his new ribbons (and jump tack). We both rode and schooled the jumps, it was so cool to jump a course that I built…and the whole barn family came out to help paint them!
Stanley and I worked on combinations, they have always been our nemesis. Our course offers a 3-stride, 2-stride (in one line but you can ride in and out of each easily) as well as a 1-stride across the diagonal. We added extra strides to each of the 2 and 3 strides but he understood the question quite well. When we did the 1 stride we had a different problem. The first part was he didn’t understand the question. The second problem was entirely me. I was anticipating and rushing the second jump…I never sat up after the first jump and the second jump comes up very quickly so he was confused about what I needed him to do. That’s on me.
We managed to get through it and we did end up jumping the 1 stride line but I kept it in mind to make the line easier for him our next time out.
Our other huge milestone was taking an oxer for the first time in 15 months. It was a small 2ft oxer but after such a long time it looked like 3′. We jumped the red vertical to begin and bent the line to the oxer placed on the diagonal. I needed to help keep him straight and convince him he was ok to go forward, but he read the jump beautifully and it felt heavenly. The jump felt so perfect I ended our session right there.
We had the chiropractor scheduled to Tuesday that week. I had shown him Sunday and jumped him Monday, so I was interested to see how he’d be feeling. He’s typically very reactive to his left hip and sacral area being adjusted. To all of our surprise, he didn’t react at all. He didn’t raise his head. He didn’t pin his ears. We were all astonished at his progress. The hind shoes, better angles, and regular work seem to be doing all of the right things. We finished his session with acupuncture.
The following Sunday we took Tiger and Stanley to a local park for a trail ride. After owning and riding Nahe and Tiger I can certainly say Stanley has a good marching walk. Tiger really had to try in order to keep up with Stanley, and it didn’t feel like he was working particularly hard…it’s just a good walk. It gives me hope that we might do pretty well trying out some limited-distance endurance rides next year. The ride went very well aside from a schooling opportunity over a dried-out creekbed. We covered about 4.5 miles.
After a day off we had a fantastic dressage lesson…english dressage. We were given a fun exercise of yielding off the rail to 2 trot poles, and yielding back to the wall, picking the canter up in the corner, cantering the long side, and trotting at the next short end.
Stanley gets flustered when I ask this much out of him but I stuck with it. We are still struggling to pick up his left leads and it leads to tension over the entire exercise. One of our trips we made a tight circle at a walk and he picked it up. He was able to left lead canter three times. When he successfully picked up his left lead he seemed to calm down entirely after. We had a beautiful leg yield and poles afterward, and we finished the exercise with transitions within the trot. We did the same to the right and he was calm and focused. I even asked for some extension in the right lead canter down the long side. It felt uphill and AMAZING. He may not look it entirely yet but he feels like the fanciest thing I’ve ever sat on. I’m so excited about our future.
The next day a friend and I rode in the jump arena. He green youngster is still getting used to this ring and Stanley was a calming presence (that wasn’t always the case). While they had a nice walk trot session Stanley and I schooled the jump course. I lowered the 1-stride into cross-rails. I warmed him up, jumped a crossrail in each direction, then a vertical. I then rode in to complete the 3-stride line, and turned around to complete the 2 stride line. We are still putting in extra steps but I’m not fully confident and Stanley has been so good about waiting for me. I jumped a crossrail and cantered into the 1-stride line. Lowering them was exactly what we needed. I remembered to sit up and look ahead, I didn’t bury him, and he confidently went through the 1-stride with no issues. We rolled back to jump the oxer. Because he was waiting for my cues we knocked the rail…getting in a little deep. I decided to end our ride there. We were both tired and he was perfect. The rail was my fault and there was no point in asking him to try again when he was tired. We rode back to our blue barn, a first for our friend and her green boy. Stanley was happy to calmly show the youngster the way home. It was a winning ride for all of us.
In horse training, there are always highs and lows. This year I’ve been very careful about taking each low in stride. I’ve been deliberate in our rides and mixing things up. We’ve been taking it slow while still getting him off the property a couple times each month. It seems this month we are beginning to see the results of our work. It feels like he is happy, engaged, willing to work, and calm. I feel like I have a partner who wants to work and also wants to learn, and trusts me to be his leader. We have been working on his strength and fitness but I’ve also been working on my own. I’ve been working hard to be the leader a horse needs and wants. It feels like our hard work is paying off.
Our next big event is an Andrea Waldo clinic that we are hosting. I have high hopes for him doing well, but I expect him to be a bit high with so many people and horses around. Either way, I know we’re going to get a lot out of the clinic. When this post goes live the clinic will be set for tomorrow. I’m not terribly worried because we have been doing so well and I have more tools and rapport with him than ever…I’m really only super excited at this point. So tune in to see how great or ugly it was!
The Green Horseman 
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