ABC's

 Lesson day! And what a good lesson!

 

I managed to get ready early enough that I was able to take her to the lower arena and do a pillar walk each long side with pillar 3. Then I lunged her. And she was mostly sound today. I saw a few little head bobs but only a few and once she relaxed, she looked sound again and the head bob disappeared. Yay! Then I was still early so we took a tiny little walk about until it was our turn. 

 

I chatted with Kelly about what had been happening since and we went to work. We started off with the trot and Lyric was so fussy and I was getting handsy so Kelly immediately stopped me and put the polo wrap on us too! Ha ha! But man, it works! We got rid of the "noise" and she was immediately better. It was the same as with Funny. I can move my hands to the left or to the right to help keep her shoulder lined up. I can use my inside leg for bend. I need to keep her slightly slower too. And the biggest aha with her today... is that she is good about seeking the connection, but she likes a heavier connection. And she tends to then convince me to let her pull me forward. So I had to keep my hands and elbows moving but rather than just pulling up on the polo wrap, she also had me think about pulling a cm backwards with each stride. Oh... okay. But then give. And it was crazy how much more balanced she got. She literally got off her forehand. And I could sit up straight and use my core instead of being tipped forward. It was wild. I didn't appreciate it until I felt her rock back. And I liked it!! So I'm going to have to remember that! 

 

We talked about how she is the same as Funny in many ways. I need to keep her body straight so that the water can flow freely. And she wants to almost overbend going to the right, so I have to be very mindful of that outside rein. So then we picked up the canter and I told Kelly that she immediately felt like she was falling in. She had flip flopped on me! So... she told me it was the same thing... focus on keeping her neck coming straight out from between her withers... use my hands side to side to guide her shoulders to keep her straight. And then, when she was straight, I could use my inside leg, slightly back, to push her haunches out. And it worked! We got some nice canter. But she warned me against getting greedy. And she warned herself. It worked so well, but... Lyric needs to spend some time getting her alignment first. We can't get bend without alignment first. So... Follow the ABC's... FIRST alignment. And honestly, she told me that I wanted her to almost feel as bad at the canter, as she did at the trot. Ha ha. Like..at the trot... she wants to fall in and lean on my inside leg. So I ride with my inside leg on pushing her to the outside rein with my hands both pushed to the outside. In the canter, she cheats the other way. She pops that shoulder out, but the overbends at the neck, and falls in with her hips. So, she's going different ways with the evasions instead of all of the evasions happening the same direction. So, first... I have to get her straight. And that means almost counterbending her. And that's what she meant by... I want to aim to get her straight so that her evasion is like her evasion at the trot... all going the right direction. Once she is consistently straight but falling in, then I can really be adamanent that she now moves off my inside leg and creates a bend. And I can ask with my inside leg in the canter now, as long as she's straight and unkinked. But I need to be very congizant that I MUST have alignment first.. otherwise I'll get carried away and we'll have a hole. 

 

We tried it again and Lyric went around inverted and hollow. Kelly said that it was her way of telling us she was fatigued and tired. So the answer was to get in and get out and praise the heck out of her. So, I asked again for a nice trot.. got the nice trot, then asked for the canter, got the canter and then got the alignment in the canter, then came back down to the trot and then the walk. It was only a stride or two of the canter being aligned, but that's all I needed now that she was fatigued. So we quit with that. 

She was much improved from our last lesson! Oh, and we also played with three loop serpentines and keeping her slow, me changing the direction of my sternum, and her staying connected. Yay! Success! And she felt sounder today too! 

At this point it was close to 4 pm and it had been misting on and off. I had planned on doing a nice long fitness hack, but... it was getting chilly and I still wanted to try to at least acupuncture Dan, if not ride him. So we took a quick walk around the small lake as a compromise. Good pony! She also got the back on track sheet on the way home and we had to make a pit stop at TSC for feed, so.. she got to wear it even longer. I also bemered her tonight as an extra reward! Good pony!