Lovely Ride and Lovely Weather

 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 her mess after they hacked and then realized... oh wait.. that was probably Lyric! Whoops!). We got to Ashland and had the place to ourselves. The weather was glorious!!!

 

I decided to go ahead and do some dressage so... I tacked up and we headed to the arena. I wanted to do some pillar work first and figured it would be easier to dressage first and then hack vs hack, get off, do pillar work, get back on... So we did just that. We walked a few laps doing pillar 1, 2 and 3. And then I got on. We did some more pillar 1 and 2 at the walk and then... I picked up the trot. I practiced my Liz homework... and it's getting easier to remember it all. I posted up and down instead of forward... I kept my head on straight... I tried to not cross over with my left arm and instead bent my elbow and rode from my elbows. We had a decent ride. It started out a little braced but we both settled into it. I did the counter flexion to true flexion tracking right... and we did shoulder fore tracking left. We played with the shoulder in and then the half pass again. And I'm getting better at getting my body to cooperate. I especially liked the concept of take and release to get the inside flexion in the half pass - but time my pull when her leg goes forward and release when it comes back. It's hard to do, but.. it did seem to really work! And it keeps my left hand more cooperative. It's definitely still a work in progress but it's good training. We also cantered and she was good. It's already so much better than it has been. And again, overall, she was more even in the contact and not hanging on me as much. So yay! 

 

We ended on a nice stretchy trot and then got a regular trot to a lovely walk to a lovely halt. And then we headed to the lake. We didn't canter that much so when we got to the botton of the field in the cross country course, I let her have a canter. I was videoing so I was only riding with one hand. And... she didn't want to stop! ha ha. She wasn't running away with me, but she also was ignoring my attempts to halt her. Hee hee. Of course she did stop. It was fun though. 

 
 

Then we had a quick splash in the lake and then we headed home. But we decided to take a little detour and take the scenic route because it was such a nice evening! And we saw the big buck, who wasn't really afraid of us. It was a nice hack with a lot more hills than I was thinking, so bonus!

 

When we got back, she met Dan and peed, so... guess she's in heat again!

 



 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Well damn... just damn....

Image
  Sigh... I want to cry. I did cry. Sigh... my poor beautiful girl.  We had the saddle fitter come today to assess the disaster dressage saddle. It's not the original fitter but someone she recommended who was traveling past us to go to her other clients. So yay! Maybe I can finally decide one way or another with this saddle. But nope...  Since she was coming I had her check the other saddles and horses too. And Kelli came and brought Marvin. She looked at Lyric and thought that the dressage saddle fit her pretty decently, it just needed flocking because the wool was completely squashed and not much in there. She was going to flock it and have me ride in it but then I mentioned that I was also using it on Funny and wanted her to check it on her first. She did mention she wanted me to try riding her in it to see it. I told her about the rehab stuff and lameness but then honestly, I sort of thought it might be worth seeing how she felt, especially given the vet visit tomorr...
Read more

Tomorrow is another day

Image
  And today was a better day. I still was sad and even cried this morning, mostly because of hormones. But... Dr. DeClue called me as I was pulling into Barrows for my vet appt. She told me not to worry about working up the lameness, but to hold steady. She said that the shockwave changes how things feel and that's probably why she looked worse yesterday. And she said that she needed her neck facets done. And then I was like "Can I bring her to you again?" and she said yes. Phew. So, she'll send me dates soon. So that helped. Just... stay the course Holly. And then I adore Dr. Barrow too. I basically told her the whole story and she listened and didn't blow me off. She didn't dismiss anything and she was smart and had good ideas! We checked her front feet with hoof testers and she was negative so she didn't think it was her feet. She said she agreed that it wouldn't be wrong to do her hocks and stifles because sometimes veterinary medicine is "a d...
Read more

Racehorse

Image
Another lunge... filthy girl. Still ouchy and fussy and not wanting to go.  NExt day: So... originally was going to walk the pasture with Lyric, but then got curious/lazy/who knows and went into arena to see. did pillar and sling work... getting good and stepping sideways and turn on haunches and forehands. even did a little bit of shoulder in tracking left. then lunged to see. Still short and mincy... so then started running with her and she perked up and got bigger strided. Okay... if it works, it works. So I ran with her. Apparently I'm way more out of shape so I only did 6 minutes of trotting of the 20, so... she definitely worked harder than me. But this is good for me too. And more straight lines vs circles. So ...we'll do this. And she definitely looked sounder. But also day 3 or 4 on previcox and 8 days into ulcer meds and decoquinate/levamisole.  Also coughing and a deep throaty cough. Like dan's a little bit. allergies? neuromuscular? maybe that's the respirat...
Read more