Great Pony, Great Views

 Lyric and I had a great ride today! We rode at home because it was too cold this morning and then my ride with Kelli and Dan was kind of smack in the middle of the day. So... I got home, ate a late lunch and then went and got Lyric. We hacked up to the arena and had a lovely ride. 

 

She was really good! She was less rooty... really, hardly rooted at all today. She was still chompy and did her lip thing but not quite as noticably. She was a little bucky though. Ha ha. She was NOT a happy camper when I used the whip to encourage her to move her hiney over. We did play around with haunches in and shoulder in at the walk. She's still stiffer to the left but... we got about 5 good steps of it without her twisting. And we got a few good steps of shoulder in at the trot too! We played a little bit with some trot lengthens, but mostly we just worked on straight and soft. She wants to throw that left shoulder out and overbend right, so I almost have to ride counterflexed tracking right to keep her upright. But after doing that for a little bit we were able to do some true bend. And we got some really spectacular trot at the end!! I did some transitions and focused on straight and soft and holy cow her back came up and she got powerful in the hind end! It was glorious!!!!

The canter still needs more work. It still feels a little heavy on the forehand and a little frantic. The transitions are still not crisp in the upwards and she still struggles to do even a 20 meter circle. But she is slower in her tempo and we got a few good strides of me lifting my seat and her back lifting up. And that slowed her tempo and lightened the front end, but it was hard for us both to hold it. We had some good trot after the canters though and our downward transitions are getting better. 

 

We finished our ride with 15 transitions and got some really nice trot work! We found that lifted back for a full circle each way, then I let her do a stretchy trot, which was nice and balanced, and then we walked a nice smooth uphill downward transition and quit! Such a good girl!

 

Yay!! Progress!! Maybe her injections are fully kicked in now. Maybe I won't even need to inject her brachial plexus! Or maybe I will ... and see if that helps even more. 

 

But later in the pasture, her posture still looks inverted and "goat on a rock" in appearance. So... I'll have to keep working on her posture and the balanced through movement method stuff to get her to let go at her shoulder and neck base and stay lifted in her back, not just under saddle. 






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