Fancy AND brave

 I slept in this morning because I was tired! Plus, it's so humid first thing in the morning it almost doesn't help. Of course, I regretted it because when I finally did get to ride, it was so freakin' hot and humid anyways. Poor Lyric runs so hot she was sweaty just tacking up. 

We got to the arena and Jean was having some work done on her driveway or gate. They had just pulled up and were shoveling mulch onto the tree islands so I let Lyric watch for a minute as she was a little concerned. She settled so we did some pillar walking. Then they started jack hammering the driveway or something!! Sigh.. so we had to watch again. But bless her, after a few more minutes I just... got on and put her to work and she was super. She looked once or twice but didn't bolt or spook. She was more just distracted for half a circle or so. And fair enough, because I don't know what they were doing but it was noisy!

We started out a bit fussy in the mouth, but she was happier in her back and softer in her neck. We got through a little bit of trot work and then cantered and it was a LOVELY canter. And after that, she was much quieter in the mouth. Her canter work today was really really nice. She was soft, slow, balanced, and felt lovely! Our trot work wasn't bad either. She was much happier to slow her rhythm and I almost had to get after her a bit to move out but she had a nice tempo and felt pretty balanced and soft and swingy. I had to half halt a few times and hold it a bit sometimes to get her to unlock her neck, but she spent a large portion of her ride in a nice soft hanging neck position. Yay! 

We trotted the poles a few times but I didn't drill them because I was a little paranoid after Funny. But in retrospect I could have done them more than the 3 or 4 times I did. We played around with some leg yields and she was pretty good to the left I think... the right was tougher, but once she got it, it got way better. 

It was such a good ride and so hot and humid that we ended fairly early. I was tempted to keep playing but I am working hard at being better at not "powering through" or drilling. So we did a stretchy trot and then got a nice lovely trot and then quit. I did hack her back through the pasture because I wasn't brave enough to make her go past the construction at Jeans. And she was great!

 

She got a nice long rinse to cool off and then she got to go hang out til Patrick came later to do her feet. She was good for him and was snuggly! She's such a sweet mare! I'm excited about her. We've got the XC clinic with Aubrey on Sunday... then XC schooling at Full Gallop the following Saturday.. and then we'll show BN at Ashland the 24th and then in mid September we'll do the schooling show at Poplar! Fun!!

  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Well damn... just damn....

Image
  Sigh... I want to cry. I did cry. Sigh... my poor beautiful girl.  We had the saddle fitter come today to assess the disaster dressage saddle. It's not the original fitter but someone she recommended who was traveling past us to go to her other clients. So yay! Maybe I can finally decide one way or another with this saddle. But nope...  Since she was coming I had her check the other saddles and horses too. And Kelli came and brought Marvin. She looked at Lyric and thought that the dressage saddle fit her pretty decently, it just needed flocking because the wool was completely squashed and not much in there. She was going to flock it and have me ride in it but then I mentioned that I was also using it on Funny and wanted her to check it on her first. She did mention she wanted me to try riding her in it to see it. I told her about the rehab stuff and lameness but then honestly, I sort of thought it might be worth seeing how she felt, especially given the vet visit tomorr...
Read more

Tomorrow is another day

Image
  And today was a better day. I still was sad and even cried this morning, mostly because of hormones. But... Dr. DeClue called me as I was pulling into Barrows for my vet appt. She told me not to worry about working up the lameness, but to hold steady. She said that the shockwave changes how things feel and that's probably why she looked worse yesterday. And she said that she needed her neck facets done. And then I was like "Can I bring her to you again?" and she said yes. Phew. So, she'll send me dates soon. So that helped. Just... stay the course Holly. And then I adore Dr. Barrow too. I basically told her the whole story and she listened and didn't blow me off. She didn't dismiss anything and she was smart and had good ideas! We checked her front feet with hoof testers and she was negative so she didn't think it was her feet. She said she agreed that it wouldn't be wrong to do her hocks and stifles because sometimes veterinary medicine is "a d...
Read more

Racehorse

Image
Another lunge... filthy girl. Still ouchy and fussy and not wanting to go.  NExt day: So... originally was going to walk the pasture with Lyric, but then got curious/lazy/who knows and went into arena to see. did pillar and sling work... getting good and stepping sideways and turn on haunches and forehands. even did a little bit of shoulder in tracking left. then lunged to see. Still short and mincy... so then started running with her and she perked up and got bigger strided. Okay... if it works, it works. So I ran with her. Apparently I'm way more out of shape so I only did 6 minutes of trotting of the 20, so... she definitely worked harder than me. But this is good for me too. And more straight lines vs circles. So ...we'll do this. And she definitely looked sounder. But also day 3 or 4 on previcox and 8 days into ulcer meds and decoquinate/levamisole.  Also coughing and a deep throaty cough. Like dan's a little bit. allergies? neuromuscular? maybe that's the respirat...
Read more