Good pony

 I didn't necessarily want to ride today. But I didn't necessarily not want to. It was a beautiful day and I had already ridden the other two. But I figured if I didn't ride Lyric today, then she wouldn't have been ridden much before our lesson. And, I kind of wanted to ride. I just kind of wanted to do other things too... in theory. But I didn't actually want to do them. I wanted to get them done, but not do them. Ha! So riding won out.

 

We rode at home and she was a good girl. We started out in hand and did some yielding the forehand and yielding the hindquarters and some bending through the barrel. Then we side passed the pole and then we trotted in hand. Then I got on. We did some lateral work at the walk. She still is not really able to bend her body around my left leg and put her haunches in without counterbending in the neck. I don't know why though! So we picked up the trot and did lots of figure 8's on ten meter circles to help stretch out her back/ribs/barrel/neck. It did seem to help. As did pushing her haunches out as we circled. We did some cantering. We did some leg yielding and trotted the poles. Then she wanted to do a long stretchy trot. And she felt nice so... I sort of wondered if maybe by shortening my reins I was cramming her into the contact... Because she's been bracing a bit more. So, I decided to try riding her on a long rein. And... it worked (Not like with Funny!). She was able to trot and canter on a fairly loose rein happily and comfortably. And I don't think she was too much on the forehand. I did have to take up a little bit more rein but I did try very hard to keep her neck long. It felt better than when I try to shorten my reins, but... now I'm in my head as to whether it feels better because she's actually more soft and through instead of just crammed OR.... she's just loping around on her forehand and strung out but that's her happy place so she feels harmonious. Sigh.. I really need to get my pivo back and going. I did at least remember to lift my left hip again today, which also helped to straighten her. Oh, but... when I rode with a shorter rein she kept wanting to twist, but on the longer rein she seemed straighter in her poll, so.... hmmmmm.  We quit with that and hacked home via the driveway. 


 

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