Chaotic Ride

 Today was a work day but I only had 2 horses at Pascova, so... I didn't have to leave til 11:45. Well, earlier because I had to get gas, my medicine and go to the bank, but still. I had the morning free. I slept in a little bit and then it wasn't too terribly hot outside. I debated not riding since I also have Friday off but then figured maybe I should since it wasn't too hot and Lyric had her vet appointment tomorrow and may not be up for being ridden. So I figured I should ride her. Of course before I thought about her appointment I was thinking I would ride Dan because I rode Lyric yesterday afternoon and Dan went XC schooling so in theory he needed the dressage school more. But... with Lyrics appointment she got the short end of the stick. :) Ha!

Jean had messaged and was wanting to ride this morning too but didn't communicate a time so unfortunately we both picked the same time. Oh well. I figured that they would be quick so I thought I could walk her around the pasture some and do some hills as our warm up. Except.. they weren't quick. Turns out two of the interns were in the arena just walking around waiting on Jean and the third intern. And then when Jean and the third intern got there they had one of them set up jumps while they were chatting. So... I could have gotten a nice good solid ride in had I just gone in and ridden. Oh well. It was good for us. Except... it wasn't! We started off walking the hills and then Dan decided he was frisky and kept galloping up to us and then galloping off. Then Funny got in on it and was bouncing around, but at least not dive bombing us. Lyric kept her cool though and was really really good considering! So then we went to the far corner of the pasture and Dan came barreling up behind us and then took off again and Lyric had enough. She went to bouncing and trying to buck. I had to yell at her. But luckily she compressed and bounced more in place so I didn't feel like I was going to come off. I got her contained and then we jigged back to where the others were. sigh.. After that though, maybe cause I yelled at him, Dan stopped dive bombing us and contained himself. Although he did pull his fly boot off and come at us shaking it. He's a menace! 

So we did a little more walking in the field and then when I realized that they were taking their sweet time in the arena, I figured I might as well just ride, so we did some trot. She was pretty good and we got some nice work in. It was not ideal for dressaging but probably a good thing for her to get some terrain work. I did want to run through the test and by now I realized that it was going to be awhile before they actually rode and that they weren't even warming up while the one guy put up jumps, so I asked if they cared if I came in to canter for a minute. They were cool with it and just kept talking in the shaded corner so Lyric and I practiced our test. As best as we could without the actual arena confinement but we guessed. We at least got to run through the pattern some. It's a weird test. I almost hate the ones that have you make your gait changes "between F and B" or whatever.. because then it's harder for me to remember. But we did our canters and she was pretty good. So then they were still putting up jumps so I did two more little bits of canter and then it looked like he was getting back on the horse so I left the arena. We went back into the field and I decided to do a little bit more cantering. She wasn't as balanced and we lacked some steering at points but we managed to keep it somewhat manageable and non-feral. Good girl. 

So then we called it quits. I thought about hacking her to the lake but... meh. It was getting hot and I wanted to get her cooled off and me cooled off. Plus I remembered that I needed to get gas and my meds, etc. 

So... maybe not ideal, but hey, we got in a ride and it was pretty productive!