Winter Music

 snuck in a ride at home at sunset but managed to get in about 45 minutes. (less riding because of photo taking!). Started out fairly terrible... maybe cause I was rushed feeling.. maybe cause I tried funny's maria bit on her (eggbut), maybe both. but above the bit and not in a good way...  tried.. both of us. did the circles with one quarter of lower gait for transitions. Did the yin yang change of direction... and it got better. did some walk to canters and those were pretty decent considering. after the canters, the trot was better. Finished with a really nice downward from the canter to a lovely trot and a few circles and down centerline. Good girl! Called it quits while we could, plus ran out of daylight too. Will try this bit again before I decide i don't like it. I think I like the baucher better but... maybe only because it makes it easier for me.  photos: 11-26 sunset ride. videos. 

 photos: Liz lesson day, canter from walk video Lesson day: Rode lyric first so could do outfit fashion show with funny. Happy to get haltered but did her usual stop and pretend to pee on way to trailer. tacked up and headed to arena.  warmed up well at the walk. got some nice work. tracking left is so much better. have to be soft with my outside rein too. post up and down (from my feet to my shoulders) not front to back. don't rush her. give her time to warm back up after we stop. counter bend is my friend. weak right hind, so tracking left use my outside leg to encourage more step. And can do a little haunches out. counter bend, ride the shoulder around and the haunches out, but don't clamp my left knee when trying to rid her shoulders around.  Tracking right, haunches in and counter bend to eengage right hind. But she got much better with it.  yin yang circles... do those to really help her, but sit through them. she needs support. don't throw her away.  The ...

  Lyric and I had a lovely ride today. The weather was threatening all day but despite the weather channel saying it was going to be raining all day, it never really did. We maybe got a tiny bit of a misting at the very end of my ride with Lyric and then when the trick or treaters were about to come around on the hay wagon, it drizzled lightly for about 10 minutes. Pathetic. Ha ha. But I am glad I got to ride. I rode Funny this morning at Ashland and when I got back I was starving. And the weather was looking like it might actually rain, so I decided to take a chance and make mac-n-cheese. If I got rained out, so be it. I was hungry! Luckily the weather held and it was just as threatening looking but not actually raining as before lunch, so.. I went for it.  We had a good ride. She started out quite lovely!! Even going to the left. She's much more soft in her bend now and I've figured out how to help her with my position. If I post to the outside and especially if I guide her ...

  Well, this morning I went out to get Funny for our ride and all three of them were by the arena, watching Jean's crew ride. I gave them all cookies and caught Funny. But then Lyric got all spicy and let out a big buck, IN MY GENERAL DIRECTION! Oh no.... nope... nopity nope. I had been trying to talk to Jean so I excused myself, unclipped the lead from Funny and threw it at Lyric!! No ma'am! Which of course just made her more bouncy so she let out another buck towards me. Okay... this is NOT okay ma'am! So I chased her off a bit. But by then it had dawned on me that Jean's trainer was on the baby horse who is "crazy", So I let it go. And by then, I was able to walk Funny away without any more shenanigans.    After lunch I decided to ride Lyric but I was really tight on time. (or so I thought). I didn't get done eating my lunch until 2:50 and the saddle fitter was coming at 4 pm. So I knew it would be tight. We did a speed groom and I tacked her up and we ...

  I couldn't do another arena ride with Lyric. Maybe I should have since we need to work on things, but I just couldn't. So instead... we headed to Ashland.        We had a glorious hack. She was a bit slow at the walk but she was walking in good form with a nice topline. I let her be on the loose rein mostly but we had good form so I didn't worry. We did some trotting and she got a bit more forward with that. And she felt sound, so yay for that! I also let her be on a loose rein for most of it. We even did a little canter in the woods.        After we thoroughly enjoyed a nice long hack in the woods, we headed to the cross country field for a tiny bit of field dressage. She wasn't too bad. She felt more bendy even to the left, but we also had ALLLLLLL the room so it might have just been that our circles were really really big. ;) She did lose her hind end a few times and got a little carried away and "ran away" with me at the trot. She got r...