Ride 10! And a bit risky

Oh I needed today. I desperately wanted a long trail ride on Dan, but... alas. I thought about trying to take Lyric to Ashland and trail ride but.... honestly, I wasn't sure I could get her on the trailer... get her on the trailer to come home... I haven't ridden her in a few weeks... it was windy... and I wanted time to do Dan's walking work. So, I rode at home. Kelli's lesson got cancelled so she came and joined me. Which meant that I had to put the horses in the middle field and then I pulled Lyric out to tack up and ride. The horses stayed in the middle field although they did stay close to the arena so she could see them. She was a little worked up in the barn because they weren't there, but not too bad. She had Marvin to look at. We groomed, tacked up, and headed to the arena. She was a bit jumpy and thought about rearing up once or twice. But she didn't. Kelli asked if I was going to lunge. Nope. I just needed to do some pillar walking. And sure enough, that did the trick. Once I got her in the arena and we started our walking, she settled. Of course... then an opened umbrella came flying down Jean's driveway and hit her gate. Both Lyric and Marvin got on their tip toes, but then Lyric wanted to march up and see it closer. Brave girl! That bodes well. We marched up to the fence and I let her look for a minute or two and then we carried on. Back to the pillars. She settled quickly so I got on. We did our practice with stop and go a few times and then we walked around. I was waiting to trot for a bit because Kelli still hadn't gotten on Marvin and they seemed like maybe if I had started trotting they wouldn't have been happy, so I waited a bit. I think she was also waiting on me, for whatever reason. Of course then Marvin got riled up about something else, so Kelli decided to lunge. Lyric was fine with that and didn't seem to care. So we did our walking. Then Kelli asked about cantering and I told her not just yet. I then started trotting and she only needed a few circles to have me feel comfortable telling Kelli to canter. So Lyric and I walked and trotted while Kelli lunged. 

 

She was a pretty good girl. She didn't get as relaxed as she does while lunging (which isn't all that long and low yet either, but getting there). And she was busy in her brain and her mouth but she didn't start chomping til the end. But she was a bit more nervous feeling. She got a little scooty a few times, but... she listened to my seat and core and came back down and settled. We even got a few little yields down and out with her neck with contact. So yeah. We just trotted. A lot of trotting. And did some direction changes and even a 5 loop serpentine. Oh and we trotted the pole on the ground 2 or 3 times too. Once she even slightly hopped over it with her front feet. Hee hee. Good girl!  I decided not to canter today. Partly because it had been awhile but mostly because of Kelli. I didn't know how well she would steer and having to canter and steer around Marvin wouldn't have been easy. Plus Marvin still seemed a bit tight and tense and I know Lyric has to run into the canter still and if she got squirrely.. I just didn't want to push Marvin over the edge. So we didn't. Which was probably the right choice in the long run anyways. 

 

So all in all, a good ride. She was a very good girl considering the circumstances. And after we had a little bit of a snuggle. She was good for untacking although a little wiggly. And then she was fine sitting in the stall with Marvin while Kelli and I measured her for boots. I was a little surprised because I figured she might be upset about her herd not being there, but... she seemed okay. 

Ride #10 wasn't too bad. Hopefully this weekend we can get to Ashland and do some trails.