Pole lunging

The ponies were FERAL today!! Feral! 

I fed them and then it was time to go to the farrier so I managed to catch Lyric and Dan together. I started to pull Lyrics blanket... and Dan's lead rope is short and he was migrating to eat hay... so I just let go of it. As soon as I did I knew that was a bad idea. He took off at a gallop... which meant Lyric wanted to take off. Thank goodness I had all of her straps undone so her blanket just slid off her rump instead of getting tangled. But then she was like a kite at the end of the lead rope, being all silly. And Dan kept running like a fool. He'd come flying back, then take off again. UGHHHH.... I managed to keep Lyric attached to me and not get kicked or reared on and finally Dan realized no one was joining him and he let me catch him. Fools! So then we hauled to the vet clinic for the farrier and of course, they were fools. Actually, Lyric was better than usual. She was fidgety but wasn't screaming at least. Phew! Dan kept pawing and being annoying but eventually he settled too. Jeesh. So, Lyric got her shoe back on and we talked about her stifles and her grabbing her heel again. 

When we got home I turned them out and ate lunch and then took Dan to go ride at Ashland. That took longer than I thought. I was planning to ride Lyric at home but... I don't know. I was still a little bummed about Dan I guess and it was getting later and really, I felt like she just needs some long trail rides. So I lunged her. But I did set up four poles on the ground, at noon, 3, 6 and 9 o clock. 

  

So we did our pillar work and then we lunged. She was quite lovely. She started with her little western pleasure jog but once I asked her to trot on she opened up and I didn't have to stay after her. She managed to trot the poles mostly well. She has a few where her hind end don't quite fall the same way and she scrambles over them, but mostly, she figured out her feet. I never did see her catch a stifle, so... maybe the growth spurt is over and evened back out again??? 

 

We did a fair amount of trotting, sometimes with the poles and sometimes without. So I felt like it was a good start back. The poles were literally just poles, not even lifted so I don't think I overdid it. 

Tomorrow we'll go for a long hack! And then hopefully we can ride before the rain Sunday because Mon, Tues, and Wed she gets off because of work and then Dan and I are gone Sat through Tuesday again, so... more time off. But that's probably good timing.