Winter Music

 cold left ventral/mid abdomen....  tight/hard right distal hamstrings disconnected front to back.. maybe worried about back end hitting front end. better long and low then epiphany... her neck comes out of her body slightly to the left, so she has a right drift. if we keep her from drifting right but hold her head ever so slightly to the right of her body, she gets straight and happy. doe eyed.. releasing.. then marching and reaching and over tracking.  play with resetting her brain for a bit instead of "working" but can still do long and low stuff photos: Brain reset

Happy Valentines Day!  Except now you have to work. I started with Lyric and we headed to the arena in the halter. We did the uphill walk poles 6 times and then we went to the arena. I switched her to the cavesson and added the figure 8 polo wrap. So then we did some pillar walks and then we did the serpentine ground poles 8 times and then a few single raised poles. And good gravy, she keeps snagging the raised poles with her hind limb. It's like she gets so close to the pole with her hind end that she can't NOT hit them. Which... I'm not sure what that means...    After we did that, I did some bodywork before we lunged. I did her cookie stretches and then massaged her superifical dorsal line treatment point and then did her releases again. I do think she's getting better in her cat stretch and her neck stretch. She's maybe, starting to think about lifting her back! I also did some fascial work and chiropractic work on her poll. We got some good releases and I do th...

 unlocked the superficial dorsal line?  started clutzy and sticky. got mad. smacked my head with hers when i fixing the pole she tipped the 9th time. got really mad. then she was up. did a few more and kept knocking some, but better. then lunged... on second direction she chose to canter herself and did more than a full lap. went to try a canter to the right too and she went into racehorse mode and cantered about 20 circles at a "gallop". finally settled. then got a nice trot between, immediately softening. finally tracking up!! did trot poles a few times and called it quits. lots more work than recently ??? photos: racehorse mode

  Well that went suprisingly well! My long lines came yesterday and I had been planning to put Lyric back in her bridle to do pillar work to make sure that she was okay with contact in the bit vs just a good relationship to contact in the halter or cavesson.    I brought her to the trailer to groom first since it's been awhile. She was a bit balky about walking back to the trailer. Come on girl.. it's really not that bad, is it?? I got her groomed up a bit and picked her feet and then put her bridle on. We headed up to the arena so that we could get our session in before Jean's lesson. We did the two groundpoles uphill 6 times before we went in the arena. Then we headed in and I put the equiband on. We did our pillar walks with the bit and she was fine. Then we did our backing up, which was actually better today. Then we did the tail circles and the neck wiggle and the hula and the belly lifts. Then we did the groundpole serpentine and then the raised ground pole serpenti...

 took to round pen...  pillar, serpentine on ground pole, zig zag poles, backing... slightly uphill. trotted 5 minutes each way without lunge line... fairly soft and relaxed.. then cantered... better in the sense that she held it longer, but definitely not a happy canter.. hollow and bucking into it. especially left lead... haunches in significantly and throwing her butt in to pick it up.

  And getting a little bored... and despondant. Maybe that's not the right word... But, meh... not sure we're making progress... not sure I'm doing the right things... ugh. I grabbed Lyric from the pasture and she seemed kind of excited to go to the arena. I mean... I do just keep feeding her for minimal work, so.., I get that. But yay! Before we went in, we walked over the two gound poles up the hill 6 times. She kept trying to go to the arena... but I did give her some treats too. So then we went in and did some pillar walks and then I pulled her blanket and put on the figure 8 polo wrap and we did the butt circles, the hula and the head wiggle. Although the head wiggle is hard because she kept trying to sneak into my fanny pack for treats. I did adjust her poll because she was very crooked and got some yawns so yay. So then we did our serpentine over ground poles and then over the raised poles. She's definitely much less coordinated over them than Dan. And she was re...