Winter Music

Today was Kelly Lesson Day!! I did double duty so I rode Dan first in the morning and then came back for an 11-o-clock jump lesson with Lyric. I was a hair bummed as the two girls I was jumping with were doing cross rails. But it worked out well. It allowed me and Lyric to have a good confidence boosting ride. I hacked her out to the XC field before we started and we walked into the lake and up out of the bank. She wouldn't go down the drop into the water though. We tried two spots and she said no so we just went in during the regular part and then walked up and out again. Then we walked up the hill to get our hill work in. Then we headed to the arena for our lesson and got some trots in to warm up.    We started out the lesson with a canter and Kelly reminded me to ride Lyric's shoulders. She said not to let her ping pong around and not to worry about her head or hiney, but get her shoulders lined back up. And I practiced my leg yielding in and out in our transitions and it h...

  Lyric put on her big girl pants today and was super!! We had a lesson with Jessica Bortner-Harris at Falconwood. And this time, Jess didn't have to come to us!! We loaded right up and hauled to Falconwood. And Lyric was so good. The fire truck was parked next to where we parked, so she got to see that. And we tacked up and she heard the guinnea's but couldn't see them and got a bit nervous. I got on and we went to explore. She was a little jumpy but we ran into Blue and Kelda, who were just finishing their ride. (Which meant that Jess was running late and we still had about 45 minutes!) But luckily Kelda said she and Blue would be happy to walk around with us and give Lyric moral support. Yay! We hacked around the farm and Lyric met the mini's, saw the goats, saw the guinneas, and even saw the (thankfully contained) peacock. She liked Blue. She was cute though because she would follow him, then stop... then walk off on her own, but kind of expecting him to follow. :) ...

 Rode at home to "beat the heat" HA! Good girl. more and more steady in the contact but still a bit cheating and not quite letting go in her brachiocephalic I don't think. But at least level with her withers. Much better about staying upright and not leaning.  BUT... haunches are almost always left. which makes tracking right shoulder for easy. ;) Tracking left it's pretty much impossible. that right shoulder is flinging right hard core. Posting on the wrong diagonal when tracking left helped her straighten up. (At least it felt like it did).  Pretty decent ride. Short quick hack home via the pasture and did jump the small jump in the pasture. No attempts to stop. yay! Went to hose off and she was aiming for the gate. Decided she was probably thirsty so let her drink and she was grateful. Then hosed off and turned back out. Smart girl. Drink up it's hot as heck. 

 Photos; 7-23 flat and hack