Turning the Screws

So this happened:

I have decided to blame all those polo ponies on which I learned to ride as a kid.  Ex-polo ponies, technically, but not ex enough to have manes by the time we got on 'em...

I did it on a whim, because I have always loved the look on other people's horses but been unconvinced that my own has the neck for it, but his mane was long enough to want pulling and I certainly didn't feel like doing that...  So far I am digging it!  Although word to the wise: even if you don't think you have to grab mane while jumping, add a neck strap first time over fences post-roach anyway.  That experience was, uh, illuminating.  Also I am trying not to think too hard, in those moments when Tuck decides to stick his ears up my nose, about any resemblance that his neck musculature as also decided to go the way of some fine Argentinean steed...

Tucker and I have been busy lately getting on each other's nerves, albeit in that companionable know-you-too-well way that is our usual.  I'm not laying blame for the kick-start of this go-round.  I am just saying that some pony has an interesting habit of accelerating into any whippy branches that happen to hang at rider-torso height over the trail...

But I did remember, following some atrocious pony behavior in the first half-hour of a group excursion to a nearby state park, that a bored Tucker is an annoying Tucker.  Atrocious behavior -- he was being a pill about some admittedly stop-and-go jumping -- was solved by a strong trot down the trail away from the group -- and bless this horse, even in the middle of being a pill, the second I say, We are going in this direction at this speed! he is on it -- and then back again, after which we were on the same page, did a very little jumping and, ahem, maybe also some glorious flat-out zooming, and then finished up with another hour of touring the trails at a walk and the best trot he's given up since the CTR last month: a moderate well-within-himself trot but absolutely fluid and floating and covering ground.

We've had a quiet few weeks, what with one thing or another, and that outing inspired me to go ahead and turn the screws on him this week before we ease back again in a two-week taper leading up to the 25/25.  We're in the middle of heat wave II: son of revenge of heat wave! so in practice "turning the screws" means resuming our usual despite the weather.

I had planned for an intensive dressage school in the field for yesterday's ride, maybe followed by a long slow walk up the mountain, but had to scrap that plan after discovering that New Hampshire biting flies?  Are way more hardcore than southern Massachusetts biting flies.  I am used to flies that are annoying while you walk -- and Tuck and I have a system; the deal is that he can toss his head around as much as he likes while on a loose rein but needs to stay on the bit when he's on the bit and that I will do my part in splatting or swiping any nasty biters that I can reach, like so:

-- but that fall away when you're trotting.  So an outdoor dressage school is easy-peasy, right?

Wrong!  New Hampshire flies are not impressed with trotting.  New Hampshire flies consider trotting a challenge and summon bigger, nastier flies to show you the error of your ways.  And they like to bite the human, too, just in case the message was not got.

...so we scrapped that plan, and instead we ran up the mountain, several passes of the dirt road, over the causeway and back again, etc.  Which was more fun anyway.  And hey, those walk/canter departs were totally test-worthy.

Today we headed to the relatively bug-free park across the street for some stretches of good long trot interrupted when I felt it was time for some cooling by having Tuck wade into belly-deep into the lake.  Had a lovely time -- just what I needed after a tricky day.

See?  Fly season:

The view towards home:

This is looking across the fields towards the paddocks on the hill and the barn on top.

He'll get tomorrow off and then we'll see how the weekend shapes up.  Onward!