Womaning Up

Lyric's such a good girl. She put on her big girl panties and womaned up! She could have (and probably should have) gotten the day off after horse showing in the heat and humidity yesterday. BUT... Kelly Eaton was at Ashland and I didn't want to miss out. And Danny is still lame, so... we went to our lesson. It was at noon also. Poor gal! Poor me! Although today was a bit less miserable than yesterday. There was at least a breeze today. 

I hosed her off before I put her on the trailer and let her drip dry to help keep her cool before we started. We got to Ashland and she was mostly dry. I got her all tacked up and since her scoot boots were rubbing her raw, we went naked. I did not give her bute this am. Whoops. But, maybe not. I don't want her to get an ulcer. So I was being nice and walked her across the gravel before I got on. Unfortunately while I was trying to check her girth, she put her head down to snack and ended up stepping on the reins. And of course she threw her head up... and destroyed her bridle and reins. She basically ripped both cheek pieces at the attachment to the headstall, so... my headstall is non-repairable. Although the cheek pieces themselves are still good. And then the reins ended up being broke at the buckle as she ripped the buckle through the rein end. Sigh.. Ugh. Now I don't have any dressage bridles left since she also broke the cavesson/bridle combo and then Dan broke the PS of sweden. So... I didn't know what else to do so we walked back to the trailer and I put the jump bridle on. It had the rubber mullen mouth but I did put the reins back on the snaffle ring vs the gag ring. So... we headed back to the arena. 

I was hoping to do some pillar work but Kelly was waiting on me since we had to do the bridle swap. So we hopped on and I told her what had been going on. She LOVED my spurs :) So anyways.. we started off walking and Lyric was a teeny bit mincy but worked out of it pretty quickly. Kelly was impressed with how much better she was in the contact though I did tell her that whenever anything changed, she inverted again. But, baby steps. So then we trotted and Kelly asked if I had done any leg yielding. I told her no, which.. maybe we played very briefly with it once or twice but not really. So.. she told me to try it. And holy cow if Lyric didn't just leg yield as pretty as you could from quarter line to the rail! Ha ha. I LOVE these spurs too! So we did that a few times and then we went the other way. And that way was much harder - tracking left. When we went right, she would go into the left rein  and be soft on the right rein, but when we went left, she wanted to hang on the left rein, wouldn't go into the right rein, and was tilting her head to the inside. I kept wanting to bring my inside hand across her neck, and sadly... rolling my inside hand in towards her neck did help. So we talked through it. It's stemming from her stepping in to the left with her inside foreleg. So she had me ride her with both hands slightly to the right, with my left/inside hand against her neck. But NOT crossing the neck. Then we went back to the other side and she had me leg yield and then when we hit the rail, do a 15 meter circle. This would keep her from hanging on the outside rein and realize that she needs to be in it, but not hanging. So then we went back to the other direction and she had me ride a shoulder fore to help encourage her to not dump onto the left shoulder and fall in. It helped! She actually went into my outside rein properly!! Yay!

We also discussed me. I was crooked. Thank goodness someone could help me figure it out!! She said that I needed to lower my left shoulder and bring it back and bring my left leg slightly back. OKAY!!! See, here I was thinking it was the other way around. And sure enough when I do that, Lyric goes straighter! Yahooo!

So then we went to the canter. Kelly noticed that she's still diving to the inside in the canter, so she had me think leg yield into the canter and then leg yield into the downward from the canter. Aha! Very helpful. Even if it's ugly at first... keep doing it. She did mention that it may end up creating an issue by leg yielding into the canter and encouraging her to get the wrong lead. So if that happens, then stop. But leg yielding from the canter to trot is my ace in the hole! We played with that a few times and it was very helpful. 

Yahooo!!! After that we called it quits. Kelly mentioned that when I let her have the reins and she stretched down that I should take that as a compliment and it means that I'm doing it right! YAY! She also mentioned that she really liked Lyric and when I first told her about my chestnut OTTB mare she was like "oh gracious", but now... now she's team Lyric! She really likes her :) Then I told her about Funny and riding her bareback to the lake and she was like "girl.. I need some mylanta now!! Don't tell me that stuff"! ha ha... 

It was a great lesson. :) And since Lyric was so good and it was hot and she was foot sore.. we just walked back to the trailer and headed home. No reason to make her trail ride, especially barefoot and especially since she doesn't splash in the lake anyways. But she is getting shoes tomorrow, so she should feel better.