Winter Music

  So... the saddle fitter rescheduled us to Saturday. Which is fine, because it meant I got a jump lesson on Funny with Jacel! Yay! So after I got back from that, I grabbed Lyric and tacked her up. I decided that I would try the Peter Horrobin on her because... I needed to see if I still liked it and how she felt about it before I decide whether to keep it or sell it. Assuming it fits. But... I felt like it fit well enough to try because Kim had said that depending on what her topline and body did in the month after her last visit, we might not need to tweak it. So I tossed it on her and.. it actually felt like it fit her pretty well. So we gave it a whirl. We did a little bit of rehab work in the pasture before I got on. We backed up, we did her scapula stretches and we did turn on the forehand and turn on the haunches. And we even backed up the little mole hill by the round pen. Good girl! Then I got on and we walked hills for 10 minutes. Then we went into the arena and did some ...

 quick ride at home. did hills for 10 plus minutes in field then did our 10 min of trot work in the arena. Rode in her jump bit. less fussy but still fussy. bit?? Or other. more trippy today. fatigue? Me not as good/remembering what i'm supposed to do? but had some good moments. didn't want to bend left again today.  will work on poll tomorrow hopefully, but did bemer and tiny bit of fascial work on the poll saw the easter bunny again photos: hills and hills and bunny

 photos: 4-26 progress good lesson. felt good in her body. got right on. need to swap out my bit, not happy in that bit and how it sits on her bars. worked on walk to trot. twist at C2 on the left. ride the garocha pole to left.  good girl

  Well, this morning may have been sad and depressing, but this afternoon was a good, hopeful day! I posted on the nobacknohorse facebook page about Lyric and a handful of people commented and basically said it sounded like I should just retire her. Um, cool... thanks for the advice and moral support... NOT! Ugh. Luckily the moderator sent me a private message saying they thought they could help and they would get back to me. So... whatever.    Anyways... they all got their teeth done this morning too. Lyric did have some sharp points on the right, so hopefully this will help with some of the fussiness with the bit. Although to be honest, I suspect it's more anxiety than anything else. Whether that anxiety is from pain... (although not sure what else it would be)??? She got cleared to go a whole year before her next visit. yay!   After they recovered, I took Dan to Ashland for a hack and some dressage. And then when I got home, I grabbed Lyric and got her groomed and...

 did our homework.  good groundwork... but fussy in the bit. fussy in the bit when i got off too. Not so much when i was on, but harder to tell. but rooty and stiff bending left under saddle. did our homework though of walk to trot to walk. more contact but... still didn't feel as good as the other day. hmmmm photos: 3-26 homework

  Today was great! I've put three 10 minute walk rides on Lyric and so I figured it was a good time to get Liz to teach us. Plus, Liz had time for all three today, so yay! I'm soooo grateful that God worked it out for us to get to lesson together! She's been so helpful and amazing! So I groomed Lyric real quick and tacked her up in the jump saddle and we headed up to the arena. Liz did some reiki/energy work with her and said she felt pretty good. We started off with some of our in hand work. The backing... the leg yields... and then the keep your nose right but stay off your right shoulder. Liz did some more work and reminded me to really be adamant that she doesn't just shift to the left but she doesn't keep bouncing back to the right. And then she said when we do our leg yields... when we're tracking left, it's super easy for her because she gets to dump on the right front. So instead of leg yielding traditionally... she wants me to do the leg yield but b...