Well that went well!

 Well dang girl!! You have thoroughly exceeded my expectations today! 

 

I desperately wanted to take Lyric on a trail ride and was not thinking when I took Dan yesterday instead of her. Because today is the show at Ashland. And when Lyric went to the last show, she came off the trailer ... animated! To put it lightly. But oh well. I figured I could hopefully get her out and about quick enough that perhaps she could settle and we could avoid the chaos. And then I couldn't think of anyone who would want to join me and keep us company. So... I figured it might not go great. But it's me, so.. we went anyways. 

 

But she was brilliant!! She got off the trailer and was like "oh cool, another show... I know what this is"... and just sat there chowing down on her hay. Okay... off to a great start! I got her tacked up and hopped on and headed down the row of trailers. She was totally fine! Not even slightly on edge. Alright!!! I ran into Beth and Jamie and stopped to chat with them. Then I got a phone call from Kim... to order my saddle. Dangit! I knew that was going to happen. I was able to take the call and steer Lyric back to the side field in front of cross country. She was a little wiggly but I had one hand and she was trying to avoid the rocky parts. We managed to get my saddle ordered (YAY!!!) and then I tried to circle back to say hi to Jenn but she was walking up to stadium, so we turned back around and headed back to the trails. I decided that I had wanted to go to the small dam and that way I would avoid much of the chaos and cross country drama. So we did. She kept trying to stay off the rocks and was sideswiping me into tree branches. Doh! I get it girl, but... gah! She was good though and marched off on her own. We ended up doing up the big hill next to the pasture and she was working hard. So hard that she tried to trot the final bit. We then meandered past the horses and headed through the woods. We then flushed out a momma deer and a fawn. Lyric saw them but she didn't get upset. Good girl! I tried to video the fawn but lost him pretty quick. Then we came up to the dry creek bed. She tried to turn around and we had to have a discussion, but she did go over it fairly quickly. Then we headed down the road and go to the fields at Halfshire. I did have her new purple bonnet on but the bugs were still bad. Or she was being tickled by the bonnet because she kept shaking her head and almost shook it off a few times. 

 

When we got to the field, we picked up a trot. She was so polite and we just trotted around the field. As we hit the corner we realized that Jeff and Beau were heading out to ride. We said hi and then Jeff turned to head towards the creek. I asked if he minded company for a bit and he said he didn't so we followed behind. Unfortunately Beau is a slower walked and Lyric was walking up his hiney. I had to zig zag her a little. But the good news is that Beau walked right over the little creek and Lyric followed right along with only the slightest bit of hesitation. Yay! Good girl. And she didn't even jump it. So then Jeff wanted to trot so we did. Poor Lyric... she was practically trotting on top of Beau. He just doesn't have a big trot anymore. So... we sort of half trotted, half walked the little bit. We did a little bit of trotting and a little bit of walking and then when we got to the place where Dan and I saw the raccoon... Lyric shook her bonnet right off! Doh! I hopped off and grabbed it and she was super and actually parallel parked up to a stump for me to get back on! (Much better than she did earlier today at the trailer!). We carried on and when we got to the bridge, I told Jeff we were going to head the other way. I didn't want to hold him up, but mostly... Lyric was trotting on top of him and it was hard. So he went back behind the creek and we went the other way. Lyric was brave and went but screamed loudly for Beau a few times. We did manage to trot the little trail and she was quite happy. I briefly tried to get her to cross the waterfall creek crossing but she said no. I got her to the creek though and much quicker than before. And I probably could have gotten after her enough to get her over it, or gotten off and led her over, but... meh.. it's okay. I just had her stand for a moment then I asked her to turn and go back. We headed towards the lake and I gave her the opportunity to get a sip but didn't push it. She said no. Ha ha.. Definitely not related to Funny and Dan! So we headed back towards the barn. We managed to get her tail stuck on some vine that attached itself and followed her for a few steps! She didn't panic though. She thought about it and might have had it not come off after a few steps. Good girl! As we were starting to notice the XC riders (there were cheers!) I saw a pager/beeper/garage door opener type item on the ground. Sigh... So I got off and got it. But then she was getting a hair nervous and I couldn't find a place to get on. So we walked down to the bridge, crossed it, and looked for the mounting block that I thought lived there. I'm not sure where it was, but I ended up having to get on via a fallen log. But I did. And then she screamed a bunch because she could hear the other horses. And then we passed a giant pile of that electric tape, which honestly looked like a big pile of snakes. But she didn't even give it a second glance. But she was still screaming so we went the long way around but I opted to let her go back to the XC field. She was good and didn't get upset, just wanted to look. So then we headed back. I stopped at the "lost and found" tree to put that beeper there and she stood, happy as a clam while I talked to a bunch of friends. She even let Jennifers small child rub her face and even snuggled slightly with her. Awwww... what a good girl. We did manage to run into Jenn and Kelly and say hi. She even got a cookie from Kelly. Oh, and she loaded right up this morning despite not having gone anywhere in at least two weeks and she loaded right up to head home, even with all the show drama. 

 

I'm soooo proud! She did all those hard things today AND she was walking chill, flat footed, on the buckle or with light contact and... a nice body position instead of inverted or braced!