Another Calm Ride!

 So yesterday morning, despite keeping the horses OUT of the pasture with the downed trees lest they hurt themselves... Lyric hurt herself. Ha ha. I had no idea on what, but I think I know now. When I was filling the water trough I noticed one of the thousand random extra gates/roundpen panels we have laying around had a really sharp edge. I'm guessing maybe that's what got her. She came in for breakfast with dried blood ALL down her face... down the inside of her leg. Luckily it's just a scrape on her star. A deep one. But not really that bad. I could have maybe stapled it, but... I figured she wouldn't approve. And there's no flap. So, it'll heal. It may not heal beautifully, but it'll heal just fine. And maybe her star will be extra cool with an extra little harry potter mark. ;) She was pretty good letting me use the mist setting on the hose and spray her face off. And then she let me spray it with the silver honey spray. 

 

Anyways, yesterday was a work day so no riding. Today was a day off but the weather was not that cooperative. But we managed to get in a ride anyways. :) 

I tacked her up at the trailer but because of her face, I opted to use the cavesson/bridle since it doesn't have a browband. But she was a little fussy so we just walked up to the arena in the halter. (Rather than risk her getting loose without anything on her face not in a contained area). And I wanted to lunge her anyways as she has been feeling a bit hollow lately. I wanted to see if it was tension or the saddle we're trying. So we walked up there and she was good. She only got balky at the very top by the arena but not as bad as she has been. Once I got her in the arena I tried to put the bridle on. I couldn't quite coordinate it without her freaking out so I ended up just taking the bit down on one side and got the bridle on without the bit and then added the bit. That worked! 

(Oooh, she looks pretty in this green too!)

So then we lunged. And she isn't peanut rolling by any means, but she's starting to at least go neutral pretty consistently and even starting to stretch a tiny bit! We had a nice sensible trot speed and rhythm! Good girl. I didn't make her do too much because I did want to get on. So I did. We did a lot of walk work with me encouraging her to go down and out. And stretch! And she did a little bit. Yay! We got her pretty loose longitudinally and then we picked up the trot. She was quite nice! She sped up a tiny bit in the beginning but then she settled quite quickly and we had 90% of the ride at a lovely nice trot! Again, she's not reaching down and lifting her back yet, but she's getting much closer and staying more neutral so consistently. And we did get a few steps of her actually going into the contact and reaching for more!!! And she's not afraid of a soft contact anymore and not hanging on it. We haven't quite gotten to where she's seeking it (but honestly, Dan's not there all the time yet either!), but.. she's not hanging on me or pulling or afraid of it! So yay! Progress! We did lots of changes of directions and did our serpentines and even touched at the square circle game. She was like "Got it!"! And she did. She was responding to my leg aids and seat aids :) 

 

So then we cantered after a really nice few trot circles. We started right lead and I posted into it and it was nice. And it was actually a quite nice canter too! So then we came down to the trot (via posting) and her downward was better but she got a little quick. I asked for a walk (via posting) and she actually settled quick before we even walked but we walked anyways. Then we picked the trot back up and she was slow and calm! Yay! So then we got another circle or two and then tried for the left lead canter. And she was good! I posted into it and she got it too! She has to fall in a bit, but it was much improved over the last canter attempts that way! Yay! And the canter was nicer too. (Well duh!). So we did a few circles and then posted into our downward and then got a nice lovely trot! Like she actually reached for the contact a bit and held a very lovely outline! So then we walked, got a lovely walk and quit! She wanted to walk back via the pasture instead of the driveway so I obliged! And then it started raining on us, so I got off and untacked her and turned her out! I figured it wasn't worth trying to hitch up in the rain and practice trailering. That's just not conducive. But maybe if the rain let off we could try later. Except then I realized that I had to go get the chipper, because I did end up finding someone to finish the job that the first guy had left and Mike was annoyed and wanted it done this weekend so... then the chipper was attached to the truck so I just figured today was not the day to deal with it. We'll get back at it hard core next week. And maybe a little breather will end up being a good thing.