Four shoes and Fabulous

Oh what a glorious day!! I got in a ride this morning, and while it was still hot, there was a lovely breeze and it wasn't quite so humid. We had a good ride too! She was sound! Whoo hooo. Patrick put her shoe back on yesterday and added some glue to help it stay on. I was a little worried she was going to be tender. 

 

We walked in hand up to the arena and did some turn on the forehands - non-claustrophobic style. :) In other words, I encouraged her to put her haunches slightly out. Then we jogged a circle or two and I got on. We started with shoulder in at the walk, which is really really hard tracking left. That right shoulder just wants to jut out and her neck wants to crank in. Trying to keep her more straight in her body is harder. Then we practiced our small walk to a big swingy free walk (but not nose to the ground) walk and back to the small walk. Then we did some trotting. I had placed four poles on the ground and had measured her front foot to back foot and placed them at that distance. She was able to trot through them beautifully without tripping or getting tangled. We played with our homework... riding the haunches slightly out. It's definitely harder going to the left but if I sat on my inside seat bone and made sure my posture was more correct - angled my sternum in instead of out, it was easier for her. I would say that overall though, it was one of our better rides! We had a lot of very good moments and she felt less tight and bracing and more lifted in her back. We had some big stretches of self carriage too!

We only cantered a tiny bit because we really didn't need to. She was so good and we had already been riding long enough that I just wanted to quit and reward her good work. But the canter was nice and we even played a little bit with shallow serpentines. She was much better balanced than previously, although she did get a little careening back to the rail. But they all do. We finished with a lovely trot both directions and then headed back to the house for a bath.  

 

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