Posts

So darn warm!!

Image
  Ooof, I thought it was a bit less muggy this morning! I woke up around 7 am but then was so exhausted I decided to go back to bed for an hour or so. This heat and humidity is doing me in. When I fed it was bearable... not nearly so steamy as it has been so I was optimistic. I had plans to ride with friends at 2 pm, so... I decided to ride the girls at home. I figured it would be quicker and give me time to do both. I decided to ride Lyric first because she sweats so much! She has so much body mass... poor girl. Except, I think she probably ended up having the most humid ride of the day, so not sure it did us any good. I feel like Funny had a breeze for her ride. And Dan had some rain and a good breeze. Sorry girly! I tried!   We tacked up and I walked to the arena. Twice.. ha ha.. Somehow I dropped a glove on the way and missed it when we backtracked, so I looked in the trailer... no glove.. So we headed back up and then I found it. Doh. Oh well. We did a little turn on the ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Steamy

Image
Ooof, that was a bad idea. It was still super hot today, but then a storm popped up and we got a little bit of rain. It dropped the temps dramatically, and was like... 87 degrees instead of 97. And there was a bit of a breeze and not quite so miserably humid. But, by the time I decided to actually ride and got Lyric and got tacked up... the humidity snuck back in and it was steamy and miserable. Ugh.... And I didn't even put a bra back on and my shirt was still soaking wet.  But we were already tacked up, so I figured we'd keep it short. We hiked up there and did a tiny bit of in hand work. I tried the turn on the haunches left and kept her in left bend and she actually did it, so... that's good. I need to practice that more without me on her to help her realize she can do it. Then I hopped on. And realized I had forgotten the darn half pad again. Whooops! Sigh. Oh well. It actually didn't feel like it was sitting that low today.. maybe I had moved the saddle farther ba...
Post a Comment
Read more

Another great jump lesson

  photos: 6-26 steamy lesson took lyric to barbara's for a lesson with laura. in raging heat and wanted to snuggle with smarty, who was not interested. ;)  so hot. a little lazy at the walk but trotted and cantered and warmed up nice. then did ground poles to practice... some single instead of jumps and some with two poles.. some with flower boxes. trotted a course of ground poles. overjumped the flower box the first time. ha ha. then every other ground pole got set to a small jump. trotted through them.. trot them all. no cantering other than allowing her to land in a canter on the back side but then bring her back down immediately. Went better than expected.  course originally was outside line, to two jumps on a circle arc, then short s curve to short s curve to short s curve. Then flipped it and did it backwards. So... course was long and easy and flowing, to tight and turning... or vice versa. Lyric did great! I was rusty and jumped up her neck some. but she was jumpi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Great Lesson

Image
  Well.. those new shoes Patrick put on behind might have done the trick! Lyric only bottomed out once or twice today and not that bad. Whoo hooo! Fingers crossed.  We had lessons with Kelly Eaton today.  Since Dan had hacked Friday with Sharon I decided to ride him first so that I could hack after my second lesson with Lyric and give her more time in the woods. And then I might have had more time to warm her up too. Since the first lesson was at 7:45 am. ;) So Dan went first. Even though both of them were snoozing when I got up to feed. After his lesson I came and got Lyric and she is in raging heat so she came running back to greet Dan. Handy... now she's right there for me to catch. :) I did hose her off before we hauled because I didn't want her to get sweaty in the trailer. Even though she wasn't sweaty yet. She was dry when we got to Ashland though!   I tacked up and took her for a warm up hack around Heron Lake. We had plenty of time so then I also went around...
Post a Comment
Read more

Good ride

 rode at home.  gorgeous day although a bit sweaty in the arena. not as much breeze there.  good girl. trying hard. Lost her hind end really hard (like rolled a fetlock) twice and then fairly hard another 3 times or so. mostly tracking left but not every time. had a nice stretchy warm up and then "held" her but got some really nice self carriage where I could soften and i think she stayed pretty uphill. the canter departs are getting so much smoother and easier and quicker... and our downwards too. the canter was quite nice today! The trot had moments. She is hanging on the left rein and I can't get her into the right, both directions. she's stiff bending left unless i overbend her... and ride small circles, but then I could open her back up and she'd hold a nice "frame". did some nice leg yields.  overall, quite nice. just... struggling with the right rein contact. hard to ride to the light and give to the heavy, especially alone. I don't like when ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Jumping Lesson!

Image
  I'm so proud of us!!    Jacel said she would teach today but I had kind of already offered to volunteer at the Ashland show. Luckily she said she could teach me at 8 am and Caroline didn't need me to noon, so... yay! I was debating whether I should take Funny or Lyric but decided to take Lyric. Partly because it's been raining so much I didn't know how the arena was going to hold up and figured Lyric would be jumping much smaller, but also because... I wanted to jump Lyric!  So... bright and early this morning we loaded up and headed to Barbaras. I had a moment of panic because... Lyric likes her routine... we had jumped yesterday... I'm not sure if her saddle really fits... and then when we got there.. she was nervous and it had poured buckets last night (not at my house, but at Barbara's) and the arena was obviously wet in spots. And Lyric isn't exactly the most catty of horses even on a good day with good footing. I mean heck.. I'm still not convinc...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hack Day!

Image
   Today was Lyric's turn to go to Ashland, so.. we did. We met Sharon and Baylor this morning. It was humid and soggy but it was a fun ride. We met Caroline and Oliver when we were tacking up and Oliver is so cute. He's at a fun age. I gave him one of my broken dragonflies and one good one to play with and he was excited. Apparently it kept him entertained while Caroline taped off the XC course and she said they even played "the floor is lava". Ha ha. Awww cute! Lyric was a good girl and didn't mind her dragonfly on her head, which was good! Of course she shook off one side of the wings halfway through our ride and then shortly after the other half, so she finished the ride with a big blue worm bobbing around her head. Ha ha. Doh!  It was a fun ride. We had to avoid the beaver bridges, so we decided to do the perimeter trail. Lyric was a bit jumpy and nervous today for some reason. There were ground trolls I guess. ;) And the occasional deer, and then the dogs by...
Post a Comment
Read more