Winter Music

 photos: 10-25 post shockwave also noticed not chewing on the chest bar 

  Well poo. Lyric is still lame, even with previcox on board now. I didn't ride yesterday because I spent the day unloading 317 bales of hay. So.. today, it rained this morning but then cleared up. So I grabbed a pony and we headed to Ashland. Lyric volunteered, so.... she got to go.    I put the back on track on for the trip there although it was starting to get sunny and warm. We tacked up and headed to the trails. We did some hills today. And we trotted and even had a nice long canter/gallop on the gallop track. Not the best choice in the dressage saddle with extra long stirrups. Ha ha. But we were fine. She felt very resistant to bending left at all today, even on the trails. And she maybe felt a little mincy overall. She tripped/stumbled a few times too. But we had a nice ride and mostly she was fine. She even walked over the creek without hesitating.  We ended up doing a little work in the arena when we were done hacking. And... she definitly feels lame trackin...

  I don't know if i'm losing my mind....  Lyric is sound.... yet.... I'm starting to really worry. Her topline isn't looking as good. She's starting to get some atrophy in her trapezius and also along her longissimus. She's doing that thing where she's sitting on the wall again... and the other day she sat on the wall, pushed into it, then bit at the wall. And then I noticed that on the last trailer ride, she was biting at the chest bar repeatedly and then licking and chewing. And then today... I saw her straddling the water trough. (which.. is extra weird because it's not tall enough for her to sit on). And she still looks almost pot bellied to me. Then, you combine all that with her exaggerated right front foreward grazing stance... and her inability to bend around my left leg... the fact that you can't pull her left leg in front of her right front to get her to stand/graze and instead have to push her right front back... really is making me start ...

Fun lesson tonight! Although it was sad to not be jumping with Julia and Laura. But it was nice... I got therapy too :) Ha ha... We joked about how Jacel was calling me out on things today but she does it out of love. She also said that she wouldn't have done it had I been in a group lesson. And honestly... I love it! She's like Liz... blessed with the ability to discipline or bring things to light without being judgy/condescending/mean... and without making you feel bad. If anything, she somehow manages to make you feel better about yourself and then want to try to heal more. I love her. And I'll say it again.. I'm so glad that God put her into my life.  Anyways... the main point was that today was fun... I mentioned that Lyric seemed to be having fun and she said it was fun because I was allowing it to be fun. I was not feeling quite as guitly about not having fun on Dan. And that Lyric was a generous horse, not unlike Fleck, and she was happy doing whatever as long a...

  This morning I rode Lyric before a friend came to do some bodywork. She was not a happy camper about it and was a tiny bit mad she had to leave her buds in the pasture but.. we did manage to walk up and down the pasture hill twice. Then she was fine once we got in the arena. (And Dan cantered by on the right lead!).  We did a long walk warm up and did some shoulder in and haunches in. She's actually quite good at moving her hips and shoulders in or out, but... she stays so straight in her body. Which, yay for not just overbending at the neck... but, girl... yah gotta bend that barrel and back some!    We had a decent ride. It wasn't as good as the other day. She felt a bit more braced and inverted again. And was a bit more tilted in her poll again. And she got scrambly a tiny bit and lost her hind end bad once. But, we also had some good moments and she was very happy to do a stretchy trot at the end. I still worry that she's just not comfortable with her neck in a...

 photos; lovely ride

  Today was Mike day. We slept in. Ha... I did. I slept in til almost 8:30! Glorious! Then we went to the Rennaisance Festival in Braselton... which wasn't the big Renn Fair. It was just a little one at the park. But it was fun. Then we stopped for lunch in Winder and then headed home. I repotted some plants, did some laundry (while he napped). Then he mentioned he wanted to go for a ride, so I went for one too! I was still spiraling about Dan and Funny, so I decided to take Lyric. I figured that I would adjust Funny tonight and could ride her tomorrow. Dan still looked sore and angry, so... not even sure riding him tomorrow is gonna be a good idea, but... I did k-tape him, so maybe that will help. So... Lyric (at this moment) seems to be the soundest/happiest one, so... she got to go.   We loaded up and headed out. (And apparently she pooped over the back of the ramp and left a couple of road piles on our street... I noticed on my way home and blamed Jean for not cleaning up ...