Exciting Day

 Today was a day! I'm a bit emotional because I'm stressing about Dan. And it's so hot. And sooooo humid. And I'm over it! So... I've not been on my best behavior. So... we had a XC lesson this morning. At 7:30 am. Which, ugh, but also yay! Although I'm not so sure that it's much cooler that early because the humidity is so much higher! You can't win either way. It was only 74 degrees but was like 89% humidity so... the sweat was just rolling off of all of us. And Lyric was hot and steamy just standing at the trailer before we even rode. Not sweaty yet, but you could just feel her body heat already. Guess I should have hosed her off before I loaded. But it was quite pleasant when I first got up. It just didn't last long. 

Anyways... we got to Ashland and tacked up and headed to the XC field. It was me, Laura on Kid, Audrey on Tom, and Jacel on Llama. The OTTB brigade! And they were all ridiculous!! Like, even Tom, the steady eddy! He was a turd too. It was like every last one of us (except for Audrey.. she's so sweet and smiley and happy) were like "Eff this weather, this is stupid, life is stupid.. today is stupid" and therefore it was chaos. We started warming up and Lyric was crazy. Well.. not crazy but she was all fired up and throwing her shoulder around, and feeling explosive but also behind my leg. Sigh. She gets me all bunched up and tight and then I get ahead of her and tippy and that bothers me and makes me more nervous. I knew I needed to kick her on and send her, but she felt so explosive it was hard. And because she was flinging all over the place, it was hard to send her forward without hanging on her face. sigh. But we managed to get through it and she didn't actually do any bucking or bolting. Just bounced around a good bit. Jacel told me to ride her shoulders because she's throwing her shoulder out and then I have no control of her laterally and then she's "got me". So.. counter bend... move both of my hands to the other side of where her shoulder is going, use my spur on the side the shoulder is being thrown... And also, because I've taught her to bend around my inside leg and off my outside rein, if I close my other leg and that rein, she does bring her shoulder back a hair sometimes. So.. yeah. It was NOT pretty and admittedly, I was a little bit scared. Not in a big way, but... I was worried and thus not really able to send her forward like I would Dan. Sigh. I don't like that. But I guess we'll figure it out. And like I said, I could send her forward (once I did) without her doing anythign more stupid, so maybe I'll gain confidence in her too. 

 

So then we started jumping. And ugh... she got wiggly and stopped because I got tipped. Well, it's hard to stay behind the motion when she's flinging me all over the place side to side and behind my leg. Sigh. But I have to because otherwise she won't do it. She won't jump if I'm flailing around up there. So it is kind of a vicious cycle. And it's up to me to fix it because I'm the experienced one. So, we did eventually fix it. But there was a lot of stopping and a lot of shoulders being thrown around. I also am not sure if my saddle is helping me or not. Which sucks because... yeah. But it's hard to tell because we're all over the place. We got over a few logs and a coop and made marginal progress and then went to the water. She trotted right in and through and then we tried to go up the bank and she said NOPE! Sigh.. She also wouldn't go down it. Of course then Llama wouldn't either... then Kid wouldn't and then even Tom had an epic meltdown and was rearing and backing up to avoid it. What is happening?!? Ha ha. We decided to just... pick that fight another day because clearly today was just not a good day for that. So we headed back to the jumps on grass and the banks. And we were still struggling but getting a hair better. At this point I almost started crying because I'm just emotionally fried. Not just from today.. from everything. And I went "I Miss DAN!!!". Sigh. That's part of the issue. I was supposed to be cross country schooling him this morning. Jumping big stuff. Out of stride. And not being ping ponged around on top. Jacel was a bit salty today and told me to suck it up. She's NOT Dan and it's not fair to expect her to be. She's green! And of course she's not jumping out of stride.. she's still processing! I know.. I know. So then we did the banks and... Lyric was so good. She actually went up and down the bank at a trot like a rock star and even jumped up the next bigger bank from a trot without hesitation. And she's not done that one before! Then we jumped the hogsback, which took a second attempt but we got it done. So then we did a course and some of it were slightly bigger fences, including one fairly bigger one. She jumped up the bank and cantered the hogsback and then happily cantered the roll top and cabin almost out of stride!!! Then we did another jump with a slight peek and then stopped at the triple stack. And it was a fairly big triple stack. But after 3 times she got over it and then we did it a few more times. We finished with it once more and then the starter cabin which she jumped great! So yay! Okay... now I'm feeling better. We did make progress today. Maybe not what I was hoping... but you know, it's still progress. And she settled and wasn't so explosive feeling. Of course she was also soooo sweaty that her body looked liver chestnut against her mane. I was pouring sweat too! 

So then Laura and Audrey said they were going to the lake and Jacel wanted to too, so.. why not? I figured we would just stand there and not have fun but... I had time. So we did. Well.. either the gabillion percent humidity and million degree heat got to her, or the fact that her three OTTB friends were in there did, because... I got her in!!! She got all four feet in and was even pawing and splashing!! GOOD GIRL!! And then.. hee hee... I guess a fish touched her hind foot because she kicked out like 7 times rapid fire with a hind foot. Hee hee. We all giggled at her. I think she had fun. Then we hacked home and she led or followed Kid and was a good girl.

     

So then.... poor baby! She had a short little breather at home. Maybe 2 hours. Then I grabbed her and Dan and we hauled to Aiken for a vet appt. I did hose them off before I put them in the trailer because at this point it was stifling!!! It was so stagnant and just heavy. I opened all the windows in the trailer and with the hosing off, they weren't too bad when we got to Keelins.

We started with Lyric and took her out for jogs. Other than screaming for Dan (who was screaming back) she was a good girl. She was a little wiggly when asked to stand still and not super great about picking up her hind feet but she did it. And we got her jogging and did a small lunge. She looked very tight behind but also swinging her whole haunches out to the left to avoid stepping up and under with the left hind. So we flexed her and she was positive on the left hind. So then we took her in for rads. We did sedate her because she was not being cooperative. Ha! She drinks the juice. I think it was 2cc zylazine and then 2.5 ace IV and she was cooperative but woke back up pretty quick. We got foot rads of all 4 and her feet look great! Great angles, great toe length, great balance! Just thin soles. Then we x-rayed her hock as that's where Keelin thinks the soreness is stemming from. She had some decreased joint space in the distal hock joint, which Keelin said is the first symptom on rads of hock arthritis. Sigh. But she said to just do adequan at this point. Nothing else exciting. And then her fat fetlock got rads too. Nothing exciting there either. A tiny cyst I think (or maybe that was on the talus of the hock... ) but so far up that unless she was "jumping the normandy bank" she wasn't going to create pressure on that part of the joint and then a tiny osseous piece on the fetlock that again, unless she's doing upper level piaffe and really sitting, she won't hit that part of the joint. So yay!

Then she got to hang out and scream while we worked Dan. 

So... she gets tomorrow off. Today was a big day and then hopefully we'll haul back to Aiken early Saturday morning to school XC at Stableview with Beth and Jamie! Poor gal!