Fresh attitude

 Ugh.. I tried. I prayed for the Holy Spirit to get my funk gone and get me in a good mood and spirit to ride. So that I could be a good mom and rider. And it mostly worked. 

I got up this morning and drug (dragged??) the arena and set up the grid for RRP and a bounce. And then I added Jean's two rolltops but made them abut each other for a short squatty wide table. I did add the two blue blocks on each side to give it "wings" although in retrospect I think I need to do real wings/standards and then back down. 

I got Lyric and we tacked up in the jump saddle and headed up to the arena. I did a few minutes of pillars and let her look at the big scary wide roll top thing and then got on. I had a fresh attitude and was going to be soft and forgiving and kind and focus on relaxation and a soft back. And it worked... for a little bit. She was not soft and relaxed but I tried hard to not let it get to me. And it worked.. for a bit. We had some pretty good moments too. We got some nice soft trots and some decent canters. Oh, I did put boots on her so she didn't cut herself again and put a bell boot on her left hind only to help her proprioception, thinking maybe that would help her to not cut herself. And she was okay until we trotted and then she would randomly be like "SOMETHING TOUCHED MY FOOT" and stomp it and go lame for a stride or two. Hee hee. Luckily once we cantered she didn't do it or panic and then she eventually got over it. 

So then we went to jump. In retrospect... I should have made the bounce smaller to start out with, but... she's done a bounce before. And it was only 2' ish.. not like it was 2'7". And I didn't build her up to the grid either. Unfortunately there were no other fences set up, so... we just went to the grid. She trotted in and then basically almost trotted out but managed to heave herself over the oxer. I was kind of proud as she was not really prepared but she went instead of stopping. Good girl!!! We did it a few more times and she got braver. 

Then we went to the bounce and she said NOPE!! And slammed on the breaks. Repeatedly. Sigh... At one point, she propped so hard I had to hug her neck to stay on. Okay... seriously mare?! This is getting a little ridiculous. So, we came at a trot to let her look and I honestly can't remember if she trotted it or we had to come back at the canter but I did get her over and through it. And then she was fine and we did it a few times. So... at this point I didn't want to even try the rolltop thing because I knew it was not going to go well. But.. I'm also me... so I thought about it. We picked up the canter again and she was SOOOO Strong so we had to have words. We got a nice trot and she got soft again so then I trotted towards the rolltop just to see and she was veering away from it, so yeah... not gonna happen today. 

I thought about lunging her over it, but felt like I had already stressed her out a bunch today, so I decided not to. Maybe next time. We did a bit more trotting and practiced the trot, walk for 4-6 steps, then trot a few times. She takes a good bit to come down to the walk. And we got a nice trot and a nice halt and quit. 

We headed down the driveway to the trailer and untacked. And I checked her back. She was sore on the left side at the back of the saddle.. not so much at her wither or traps. Sigh.. So I have no idea! The jump saddle also sits a little low on her too. So yeah... what?!? I sent photos and videos to Kim and I think I'm going to send my dressage saddle back to her to be narrowed a bit as it's a bit wide on Dan too. This way it'll be a bit better for her. Although today when I tried it on her, without girthing up, it sat up much higher. Again, I have no idea anymore. sigh.. but Kim thinks that if we narrow it down a bit, it'll still be good for Dan and it'll be better for Lyric. She did say that she still thinks Lyric looks better and that part of the struggle is that she's using her thoracic sling more effectively and thus has lifted her sternum. "Positive changes in both horses". So... we'll see how that works. 

Peri came over this evening to pulse her and we kept it on low but Lyric enjoyed it. She got some really big releases with both hind fetlocks (Not surprising given the fatness of them) and her neck/poll and ribs and that left lower back area. But nothing super crazy.