Winter Music

 Literally... she was the best girl today! Funny was kind of awful! Ha ha!   I rode Lyric at home and she was so good. She was even brave up there all by herself because it's so hot and the horses have puffed up with their winter coats coming in that they all hung out in the stalls while we rode. There was a nice breeze at least.    We hacked up to the arena via the driveway and she let me get in and out through the gate without getting off. We had a great ride. She stayed mostly soft and in the outside rein. She was softer in her barrel today. And we worked a little bit on trot walk trot transitions to help strengthen her hiney. We trotted the poles a few times too. And we played with the canter shallow serpentine again and even did a few 15 and 12 meter canter circles.    Overall just a really nice ride! So then we hacked to the lake and back. She was definitely slower getting to the lake than coming home but she stayed mostly chill and calm and straight! Huge improvements from t

 Today we packed a lot in. ;) Which was rather silly as it was SOOO hot again. Ugh. But oh well. We all survived. Lyric and I loaded up and headed to Ashland to ride with Kelli and Marvin. We went to the arenas and did some dressage.    Lyric was pretty darn good! She was forward and fairly relaxed today, although she had a few moments of tension. She was also twisting a tiny bit in the poll tracking right. But we had a good ride. We played with shoulder in at the trot, baby lengthenings, leg yields at the trot, and shallow counter canter serpentines. She was so good!    Then we went for a hack. I mentioned to Kelli that I had told myself I wanted to jump fences every time I was out at Ashland because she gets so nutted up in her brain, so she told me to do it. So.. we did. Except it was awful. I picked up the trot and jumped a handful of jumps but she want all squirrely and threw her shoulders around and was bulging and sideways. Then she tried to run at them. I finally got a few good

    So I really do think she feels better with her high heels! She's not as reactive in her rump when I brush her and she felt pretty good today! We rode at home and had a good ride. We just dressaged and worked on even contact, going into the outside rein, staying soft in your body and barrel, and not being a slug. She's definitely not as lazy as she had been. Maybe it really was the muscle relaxers??    We played with the left lead canter depart as it's a bit sluggish. I'm sure it's me, but I had to work on myself too. We also played with a tiny baby counter canter to help strengthen her. We played with a tiny baby lengthen at the trot and a little bit of leg yielding at the trot.  Then when we were done we hacked home in the pasture and we trotted over the little log. Then we did the medium one! Which is not that big but it also had a "tree" sprouting out from the middle of it. And she jumped it! Good girl!  

In an efforts to be good and get my errands done and study... (except I could only handle one lecture tonight and now I need a brain break... so hopefully I'll get back to studying soon)... I lunged Lyric today. I figured it was a good thing and would only help her and certainly saved me time. Plus, she worked hard last weekend so, I figured today was a good day to lunge.    She was good. She seems a bit stiffer lunging to the right.... she wants to lean instead of stepping out into the left shoulder. Which fits... she's always leaning in on that right shoulder. But at the end we got some nice work. We also cantered a little bit. And did the trot poles. Good pony. She's so goofy! She's become ONE OF US!!!! :) I love it!    

Well... we did it! We got to another horse show. And despite the weather, we actually finished! As opposed to not even starting last time we were at Poplar. (that was the show that we went to warm up for it and she was practically 3 legged lame. She ended up having a pebble stuck in her shoe, but then was still lame... and it was raining... and I had that horrible eye ulcer, so we just went home the next morning).    I was smart and had taken the Friday off so we got to go school and have fun. I rode Dan Friday morning before we left as I had spent a good chunk of Thursday packing and prepping. I gave Lyric a bath since I had warm water, although she wasn't that dirty. Then I loaded her up and we headed out. We made good time and despite the forecast predicting rain ALL day Friday, we got lucky. No rain other than a little bit of drizzle here and there on the way there. We got unloaded and set up and parked and still no rain. And.. it's kind of nice. I can leave a stall chain u