Aha!!! Playing with bits again

 Today I opted to ride at home. It was a "bonus day" because for some reason, I didn't have to work! I was supposed to have a mammogram in the morning, since I had nothing scheduled for work, but then they called and said they were closed today so... it got moved, so... A whole free day!!!! I enjoyed it too. I slept in and spent some time with Mike. Then I caught up on a few chores and stayed inside while it was warming up. Then Mike and I went to Yesterday Cafe for lunch. And then I rode ponies! 

I rode Danomite first and then went to get Lyric. This morning after I pulled her blanket I went to put a lighter one on her and she walked away. So, okay...fine... no blanket for you. It wasn't that cold. So then when I went to catch her to ride... I was a little afraid she was going to run. She thought about it too. But she didn't and after she walked a tiny bit she sort of circled back and came towards me. She let me catch her and love on her and halter her. I felt bad because I was out of cookies! Whoops. But she got them at the trailer. She also got some bemer time, which she enjoyed and I did a tiny bit of fascial work on her poll. Then we tacked up and headed to the arena. I took two bits that Kelli had loaned me. 

We did our little bit of pillar work to warm up and then I got on. We started at the walk and tried to focus on a good steady connection, even in both reins. And... it was okay. But it just wasn't a good ride. She kept getting hollow and above the bit. And yes, she does this in general, but she doesn't quite feel this unbroke usually. But she did have quite a few days off and we haven't been having good dressage rides in a bit. So I toughed it out and we were able to make a tiny bit of process. I tried doing the homework from Samantha, from what I could remember. We did some teeny "lengthenings" on one arc of the circle. We tried some leg yields. It was just not any fun. So I finally gave up and figured I'd try the other bit. While she did go well in it originally yesterday, I do think that she was a bit more high in her neck carriage even yesterday too. So we swapped from the single joint one to the double jointed loose ring - the Emil. (It's so weird how they name them, so confusing for random people). And we started off again at the walk. She almost immediately went softer in her neck and lowered her head. Ahhhh.. okay! And then we proceeded to have a quite lovely ride! It wasn't perfect and there were lots of struggles, but it was definitely a productive ride. We did our homework but I also focused on riding her shoulders. I hope I'm not wrong, but when I just pay attention to her and me... it feels like her right shoulder is always being thrown out and she is tipping in to the left. So she is laying on my left leg. She typically doesn't want to go into the right rein but is fairly happy to hang on the left. So, in my little brain, if I try to ride her straight in the shoulders it helps! So when we track to the right, I ride fairly normally. I open my outside rein a little bit and almost leg yield her into the left/outside rein. I tried again to do Aubrey's triangle thing. And I do think it helps. But then when we track left...I have to really look left with my head and shoulders and I really have to think about posting to the left. I almost need to twist my body because I think I also throw my shoulders to the right. And I almost have to keep my right/outside rein up against her neck and almost ride her to the inside. Like a spiral in a little bit. She does fall in with her haunches but we're not quite capable of doing shoulder in on a circle yet. Not even really capable of doing it on a straight line even, but we did try today. And maybe were successful some! Or maybe we just got straight, but... still! But yeah, that way I almost can't open my outside rein because that shoulder just flies right into that open hole! 

 

So I focused mostly on that and riding to the light and giving the heavy. And it was tough. When we started she was not in the right/outside rein and was hanging on the left/inside rein. I had to fiddle with it a lot but I tried very hard to keep dropping it to. It's a bad habit for both of us. But we ended up with a fair amount of steady and even connection in both reins with a fairly straight (or at least upright) horse a good chunk of our ride. Wahooo!!! We did a little bit of canter too and worked on the same thing. 

And three times Jeans interns rode around her perimeter and came out of the woods. The first time was as we had our backs to them so it was extra alarming. The second and third time weren't quite as scary but still distracting. And even with that, she was still softer and happier. So yay! I think this may be the bit for her. Although I would like to try it in a fixed ring or a baby fulmer to see if that helps with some of the wigglies and even keeping her shoulders straighter. 

Towards the end we started unraveling a little bit so I got two lovely circles, one each way, and got a lovely downward to the walk and we called it quits! Then we hacked back via the pasture. 

Good pony!!!