Winter Music

  Perhaps she was a bit chilly, because.... SASS! I had taken her blanket off around 2 pm because the sun had come out, the wind was gone, and it was quite pleasant in the sun. Of course I was also wearing fleece pants and a fleece shirt and a vest and a hat, but... still.. she has a coat! Not a thick coat, but she does have hair.    I got home from riding Funny and it was about 4:45, so I grabbed her real quick and tacked up. She got the back  on track saddle pad and I got on and we headed up the drive to the arena. When we got there one of Jean's interns (I can't remember her name now!) was riding so I asked if I could join her. She said she was almost done and didn't mind so we headed in and did a walk warm up. I did haunches in and shoulder in and... it was better! Still not great haunches in left but better. Shortly after that they left and it was just us but Dan and Funny were up by the arena and Jean's other horses were up by the gate too.    We did ...

  Today was a work day but I had a 2 hour break in between patients due to a last minute cancellation. Instead of being annoyed, I was grateful that I could sneak home and do whatever. I was tempted to rest because I think I'm still a bit flu-ish, but..I was feeling pretty good at the moment and had been lazy most of the weekend, so... I opted to go do something with the ponies. I wasn't committed enough to try to sneak in a ride, but... I decided to do groundwork.  Lyric was grazing close to the barn so I planned to snag her. But then by the time I got the halter and snacks, she had migrated up by the arena with the others. Oh well.. we'll be better off in the arena anyways. I still haltered Lyric first. I set up some fun pole thing and then we got started.  We did a lap of pillar work and she was good. I tried to get her to rock back and engage her pecs but stay relaxed in her body. She was good. We did a bunch of pole things... the raised end poles... the fan of poles....

  Lyric and I had a great ride today! We rode at home because it was too cold this morning and then my ride with Kelli and Dan was kind of smack in the middle of the day. So... I got home, ate a late lunch and then went and got Lyric. We hacked up to the arena and had a lovely ride.    She was really good! She was less rooty... really, hardly rooted at all today. She was still chompy and did her lip thing but not quite as noticably. She was a little bucky though. Ha ha. She was NOT a happy camper when I used the whip to encourage her to move her hiney over. We did play around with haunches in and shoulder in at the walk. She's still stiffer to the left but... we got about 5 good steps of it without her twisting. And we got a few good steps of shoulder in at the trot too! We played a little bit with some trot lengthens, but mostly we just worked on straight and soft. She wants to throw that left shoulder out and overbend right, so I almost have to ride counterflexed tracki...

 Soggy day...   farrier day... patrick tried something slightly different behind. larger shoe.. more in front of the toe, but still enough behind... got poured on.. then rained a good chunk of the day took lyric to ashland. Tried jump saddle on.. maybe it's not squishing her withers? rode in it... hacked... trotted some... did hills... then went to Xc field and did dressage... got some fairly nice moments.. lost her hiney once but not too terribly bad. still stiff bending left, but got some nice moments. I'm collapsing too. then walked bank, ditch, water, and water bank.. then she acted like she wanted to jump so trotted the mid ditch and she cantered out and then galloped off. ha ha.then jumped the banana. then did fancy dressage again til she settled.. took a minute..    then cooled off around blue heron lake. good pony!   shockwaved left front for third shockwave tonight. good pony. even in the cross ties      

 rode at home.  yesterday was stuck in the other pasture because the wind blew the gate mostly closed still concerned.... bite marks on butt, or... scratches? Had her ass in the bushes friday. but haven't seen her on the trough in a bit. ??? Did have crusty mare bits, so.. maybe that was the itchy part. Rode today... checked the bliss.. the next plate down seems too narrow, so added front shims and rode in bliss dressage and felt better. not touching her withers/dropping.  ride was better... still chompy but got some nice work... still wanting to not go into outside rein either way. bottomed out hard enough to throw me off the diagonal twice and less so a third time. canter felt icky, especially right, but... overall better ride. better in her neck and back... more willing to go forward. forgot to shockwave her today... will tomorrow hopefully. not sure if i was more adamant on connection and stuff because I "knew" she shouldn't hurt and if that's why she was bett...

  So... interesting.. This morning I gave Lyric two grams of bute because we were supposed to have a lesson. And I debated it... but I also didn't want her to be uncomfortable. Although she also got shockwaved the other night. And I planned to ride in the jump saddle, so a few variables. But... I figured I could tease them back out later if needed.    However, Jacel was running late so she only had time to teach me on one horse today so Funny won. But I decided it was probably worth still hopping on Lyric. So I did. I put the jump saddle on and also took her noseband off. (No specific reason really). The bute should have kicked in by this point as it was about 3 hours after she got it. Although, maybe not quite. Anyways... we headed up to the arena but first we did two laps around the pasture. Then we walked a bit in the arena and then we trotted. Sigh... and she isn't any better really. Still super chompy and rooty. Ugh.    But we kept at it and I tried very ha...