Winter Music

 test riding at home.. as best as possible in my arena with obstacles. easy enough test, but memorizing the in betweens is hard. just let me do it at a letter...  not lame... but a bit more weak/neuro/wobbly again. not bad, but losing her balance. bracing a bit on the left rein. let go holly!! it's half me. but had some good stuff photos: 9-26 test practice

 jump lesson at barbaras falling hard when tracking right. motorcycling. but game and forward and BOLD photos: 9-26 big sticks videos

  Okay girl!! Way to woman up!   I rode Lyric at home today. I wanted to do a quick ride to make sure she would be sound for our lesson tomorrow. And she was! Yay! And her leg looked better before our ride and normal after our ride. Yay!   And despite it being stupid hot today... it was quite pleasant this morning and by the time I got on, the arena was shaded and there was a tiny bit of a breeze and there was a hint of coolness to the breeze. Plus the humidity had gone down a bit. So it was still hot enough that we were both sweating but it wasn't miserable.    We did a quick ride, mostly because she was so good! We warmed up and then did a little bit of lateral work. Can you move your shoulders off my outside rein? Yes! Can you move your haunches off my inside leg? Yes! Not as nicely as her shoulders, but not bad. Good girl. Then we trotted and she pretty much started off quite nice and stayed quite nice. I'm either getting better at riding her or she's gettin...

 XC lesson with Jacel. Not great. Got in my head and was riding backwards and then jumping up her neck. Fell off over the tiny little roll top.. like the first jump I jumped. Doh! She added and I didn't and went up her neck. She slammed on the breaks and went sideways and spun me and then I swear I felt like I helicoptered two full circles around her head before I got slung off. I landed on my butt/feet/back so no big deal. Other than jamming my thumb on the way down. She stuck around, horrified! We got back on and I waited and she was fine.  Jumped a few more and got a little better about waiting but she was doing that "process" hesitation again, which.. bothers me. It doesn't feel smooth and it doesn't feel confident. I couldn't get out of my head and kept riding backwards. Had to jump the lincoln log stack down hill and as soon as I pointed her at it, her right shoulder slung out and I couldn't get her lined back up, so we stopped. Then a second time. j...

  I debated going back to Ashland today because it was so hot! And the woods sounded inviting, but... I was tired and just didn't want to haul yet again. Plus I wanted time to ride both girls, so... I drug the arena and moved some obstacles around and then chilled out in the air conditioned house for a little bit. Finally at 5ish I decided I needed to just get on and get over it. It was either that or run out of time. It was supposed to storm and cool things off, but I figured the storm was going to blow around us. And it did. BUT... we did get a little nice breeze and some cloud cover for a little bit. Yay.    Lyric was a good girl. We had a really good ride. I let her investigate the barrel with my "garrocha pole" and she was spooked at first! She did go up and investigate it but was jumpy and when I made it moved, she almost spun out from under me. She stayed calm enough to invesigate it and smell it and eventually I was able to jiggle it a tiny bit. But only a tiny bi...

  Today was a fun day! I got up early for Patrick. He got everyone done and when we went to do Lyric I mentioned that she seems to be sliding forward off her shoes. And he noticed that she is pressing hard laterally, so much that her lateral side clips are almost "burned" into her hoof wall compared to the medial side clips. And I was telling him about how she still buckled her hind end once or twice but it was soooo much better. So he thought long and hard and then he added some trailers to her hind shoes. Which worries me a tad because she interferes, but... I figured we'd see. Maybe it'll give her enough support that she will track more straight.  After he left, I turned them out to get some water and grass and made myself some toast and then went back and got Lyric and we headed to Ashland to meet Jessica for our knowledge swap. Flatted. lyric was amazing!!!! So soft and willing and had energy on her own. SOft and floaty and even in the connection.  tracking Left,...