Lesson Recap: 22Jun2025 - Pyro is anti-sweat

 We had dressage coach Brynne back to Windsor to teach an afternoon of lessons this past Sunday. It was REALLY HECKIN' HOT, but thankfully our indoor arena was tolerable to ride in. Despite the shade and breeze through the open doors, my phone still overheated when trying to record my ride with Pivo, so apologies for the lack of media. 

As it had been 3 months since my last lesson with her, we started with a bit of a rundown on what work I'd been able to do with Pyro lately (not much) and what issues I'd been experiencing in the saddle (him being very busy with his mouth and me reverting back to old patterns of crookedness).

I was grateful for the cooling towel I got as a participation gift from the Indiana Dressage Society last season at one of their shows. 

In the bareback ride leading up to this lesson, I realized I had begun over-engaging my right glutes again, which pops my right seatbone out of the saddle. This starts a cascade effect where my weight shifts to my left seatbone, my ribs translate left, I collapse on my right side, and I protract my right scapula. Aka, I'm super crooked, and Pyro is blocked from moving his ribs left. 

You can see it a bit here. (Yes, I was riding in shorts and tall socks. It's called fashion... also it was too dang hot for pants.)

With the intention of keeping the workload light due to the heat, we focused on straightening both myself and Pyro out first. Pyro has a habit of bowing out his right shoulder, and when I ask him to pick it up, he tends to respond with rushing forward since it's difficult for him. 

Prior to the lesson, I put his "thinking cap" on (Back on Track poll cap), wondering if tension in his poll was exacerbating the bit mouthiness.

We used leg yields and shoulder in at the walk to practice asking him to pick up his right shoulder. I focused on keeping BOTH seatbones in the saddle and finding those moments I could relax and soften when he was carrying himself with straightness. Inevitably, he would loose it, and I'd have to straighten him back out again, but there were some good moments. He also offered a lovely, forward, tracking up walk despite the heat.

I was riding in the slim, semi flexi, eggbutt Winderen

We moved to walk-trot-walk transitions on a circle, still focused on asking him to keep his shoulders up and straight through the transitions. His immediate response the first time I asked for the trot was to hollow his back and throw his shoulder right. When I got him to do the transition while maintaining straightness, his response was to rush forward. Thankfully, it didn't take too long for him to come back to my tempo. 

Fairly smooth transition from previous bareback ride

This was the first time this season he'd been asked to work in truly hot weather, and at this point in the ride he was starting to become sweaty. My Sensitive Chestnut™️became quite dramatic, ducking his head to swipe at sweat on his legs, rooting the bit to try to rub his head on the arena wall, and kicking at the sweat that was starting to drip on his belly. 

Sweaty boy before his post-ride hosing

He showed no signs of being overheated or dehydrated, just annoyed by the sweat, so I simply redirected his attention back to the work at hand. As we attempted our first canter transitions, two things became clear:

1. Pyro had plenty of energy despite the heat.
2. He IS THE DRAMA.

Brynne provided very positive comments such as, "wow, look at him being fancy", "he can practically canter in place", and "well, he should be able to get pirouettes no problem" as I rode my spotty heathen who apparently woke up and chose violence. Each time he would overreact, I'd bring him back to the trot and work through lateral movements like leg yielding with his nose to the rail and shoulder in until he mentally came back to me and found relaxation, then quietly try the canter again. I was grateful my stamina held up that day as I tried to tactfully guide my 1,100lb ticking time bomb from doing a terrible impersonation of a piaffe with every muscle tense to relaxing into working with me. 

Breaking up the wall-o-text with more bareback + shorts media. Pyro was happily reaching out to the Winderen bit here.

Thankfully, we managed a slightly less feral canter depart each direction before the end of the lesson. While I clearly have my work cut out for me in terms of developing his straightness and relaxation through more challenging (although foundational) work, there were lots of positives that came out of this lesson. I was so grateful to have Brynne's coaching through the tough portions of the ride, supporting me with her low pressure, positive approach. I felt surprisingly "normal" that day, both physically and mentally. Pyro clearly has plenty of energy, AND he didn't get thumps after the ride, so his electrolyte levels appear to be adequate even in this heat. 

How does one get a horse to accept the feeling of sweat?? More practice sweating, I presume? He has less of a problem with dripping after being hosed off.

After our lesson, Brynne gave me a few more minutes of her time to chat about bits. 

• She agreed that he was pretty busy with his mouth, but she observed it was more tongue movement (licking it out) than anything. She wondered if he might like a copper roller to fidget with. 

• He did occasionally chomp on the bit, but it was more often when we were standing/walking on a loose rein than when actively in work. In her experience, the non-metal nathes DO invite some horses to chew on them by nature of their fun texture alone. Thankfully the Winderen gel material is resistant to damage from chewing. (Unfortunately for me, it makes a horrendous squeaking sound when he chews on it.)

• I mentioned that he was stiff and leaned on a rigid mullen, but that he felt unstable in the double jointed bits I've tried so far, like the HS KK Ultra loose ring. She wondered if he might like the happy medium of a mouthpiece with a barrel that allowed some movement, but locked the bit from completely collapsing. When I said I'd tried the Myler comfort snaffle, but found it to be too sharp, she offered that the Fager Nils was a similar style bit that in her experience was a little less likely to back the horse off the contact. She also noted that fixed/eggbutt ring bits would be her choice to help steady Pyro over a loose ring. 

• She encouraged me to ride in the slim, semi-flexi Winderen a few more rides before making a final decision on it.

The Fager Nils Sweet Iron Barrel Fixed Ring bit

So, all-in-all it was a very positive lesson despite Pyro protesting his sweatiness and being a bit dramatic. Here's hoping I have a few more "good" days to work him through it in the near future!