Winter Music

  Today I managed to work all 3 ponies in a decent time frame. I grabbed the stuff and headed out to the pasture to find them. All 4 of them were grazing by the arena in the farthest corner of the pasture. Dan meandered up so he got to go first. Then they were all hanging out at the gate and taking turns rolling in the sand. Ha ha. But after I worked Dan, I turned him loose and grabbed Funny. Then I turned her loose and grabbed Lyric. Ha! It was so quick and easy with them all lined up for me. ;)  I opted to just do pillar work today as I still think Lyric hasn't figured out how to use her body. Although afterwards I was so tempted to ride.... I want to ride! But she was great. We started out with a good static pillar 1 and she really let go. Then we got some good walking pillar 1 and even some good Pillar 2 and 3's. Then we progressed to short lunging and her yielding her barrel and shoulder to me when I stepped into her. She got really good at it. And we played a little with...

 No sass :)  tried to do pillars, but... just no real relationship to contact yet. But hard to work on from the ground. Trying. Also hard under saddle. Especially because she can't figure out how to eat a snack with a bit in. hee hee. but... progress!

 Today was a "short day". I got home at 5 pm!!! Luckily I still had some daylight so I worked Funny in the arena and then when we were done... all the horses were back at the barn, cause... dinnertime. So I grabbed Lyric and took pity on her and took her to the roundpen instead of making her go to the arena.  We did our pillar work. She's getting better. I got a bit more licking and chewing and a bit lower head. And we even got some better releases to pressure. We also did some pillar 2 (although technically it may have been pillar 1 backwards) and some pillar 3.  I also worked on our lunging at the trot. She's still not letting go in her neck, but she's not as braced. And I got a stride or two here and there of her actually reaching down. More so than she does at the walk, but.. certainly not for more than one or two strides. But yay!  We finished with a bit more pillar 1 at the halt and then I let her back out. Good girl!

 This morning was still chilly so I left clothes on til after I got back from the dentist. Dan managed to grab Flecks' before I could get it and was playing with it. Lyric was intrigued! hee hee... They were cracking me up! Anyways... after I rode Dan, I rode Lyric!! Kelli had come over and brought Marvin so she agreed to stay and let me ride her and have her as my moral support. Because Marvin was in a stall, I left Dan in a stall and then turned Funny and Fleck out, hoping they would come up to the top of the pasture to keep us company. I should have known better! Fleck and Funny went down to investigate Marvin, so... when I went to lead Lyric up to the arena by ourselves, she got upset. She actually reared up and tried to bolt! Sigh.. my bad, for not allowing her time to process and think, and not rewarding the forward walking. In my defense, Kelli didn't have long, so I was trying to hurry for her sake. And mine too because I had to be done in enough time to take Mike to ge...

 The temperatures dropped dramatically last night and today. Yesterday it was super windy but was still warmish. It was like.... 60 degrees, but the winds were blowing at 10 mph. And Lyric has a very thin coat, so I tossed a sheet on her for the night since it was supposed to drop into the low 40's in the wee hours of the morning. Then it was still blowing hard this morning so I left her sheet on til 11ish.  She and Fleck were quite content to come in for hay, although Fleck was super frisky! She was pretty chill. Heathen 1 and Heathen 2 were out kicking up their heels. But yay for good brained chestnut TB mare. ;)  I did manage to do a very short session in the arena. I'm still frustrated though because I feel like she's cheating in the pillar work. She softens and goes low but she hasn't quite fully let go. I am getting more licks and chews though. And while lunging at the walk, she does seem pretty jello-y and soft. Trotting definitely gets her more braced, but not n...

    My original plan was to ride Lyric Thursday! I even convinced Kelli to come babysit us... in turn I had to go to dinner with her. :) She had shoes, she had her teeth done, she had been treated for ulcers, we had done groundwork... and Cindy was coming that morning to check saddle fit. And then, Meg got into my head about her not being ready to carry a rider because she can't lift her sling yet. And I got in my head about not knowing if she had brakes... And then it rained (YAY!! Thank you God!) and so Cindy showed up at noon instead of 9:30 so we didn't have to deal with the rain. So I had pretty much written it off. I figured what's another week or two.. or three. We had plenty of groundwork to do. So Cindy came and put Dan's jump saddle on her and said it would work but I would need to shim it up front. Because of her being butt high. Ha ha. Dude, it's bad! And the wedges in her hind feet only didn't help the situation. She also said to use the half pad. B...