Bareback

 Today Kelli came and rode with me at the house because there was the jumper show at Ashland and we wanted some peace and quiet. And... it was actually peaceful and quiet here. Minus the wind. It was quite gusty. 

Kelli had some saddle struggles so... we ended up playing musical saddles. I rode in mine and she rode in hers but Marvin was clearly unhappy. So.. she got off and waited while I rode and then she used my saddle. So it was a quick ride. Lyric was a pretty good girl. She was chomping and chewing and doing her rooting thing again. I don't know what that means. I did sucralfate before I rode today. She did have a few weak moments where her hind end gave out. And a few steps here and there that felt lame. But she didn't go three legged again. But it's a little concerning that it's maybe getting worse again. Sigh. But we did some nice work today. She went into the outside rein a bit more than the last ride and seemed a bit more willing to open the right side of her body. Her left lead canter was quite nice too and weirdly, more upright. She leans in hard going left at the trot but was quite upright cantering on the left lead. Weird.. but nice for the canter. 

I finished with a decent amount of tracking left and outside rein contact so we quit while we were ahead. And we let Kelli ride and just hung out. Lyric was still rooting even just standing there. Sigh.. I did raise the bit up one hole on each side because it seemed to be hanging kind of low. Then... Marvin was still fussy so... I told her to ride bareback. So... I did too. I hopped on and Lyric didn't care. We even trotted a bit. Good thing she has the western pleasure jog trot. :) 

And... tomorrow she turns 5!