More investigating

You can't say I'm not dedicated! BRRRRRR! We had a lesson this morning and in order to be able to fit both girls in, I had to ride one at 9:30 am. And because the second one (later in the day) was with Laura, I opted to bring Lyric to this one. The windchill at 9 am was 19 degrees!! But luckily it wasn't too bad in the arena. The trees blocked a lot of the wind. I wanted to get on and give her a nice long warm up but it was too early and too cold for that. So I tacked up quick and we hacked along the edge of XC to head towards to the arena. BRRRR!! The wind out there was brutal. My ears felt like they were gonna fall off! 

Once we got in the arena it was much better. I did lots of stretchy trot on the buckle to get her warmed up. She started out sluggish and bracy and lost her hind end at least 6 times. And hard! Like.. she made divots in the arena. Sadness. I picked up the canter and after that she only lost her hind end once (and that was after we went through the grid a few times). Once we cantered she felt more forward and happy too. 

Jacel watched us warm up and was the one who suggested the canter. So once we were really warmed up she set up some canter poles and had us canter trhough. They were set slightly long for Lyric so she had to reach a bit. And she was perfect through them. She reached! So then we slowly raised them to small jumps. And Lyric was game and happy. We went through it multiple times (slowly building the grid) and she was happy and forward and jumping nicely. We stopped and chatted and Jacel said that she really didn't think it was a hind end issue... She was jumping out of stride, pushing off evenly behind, sitting and pushing, jumping straight... all things that don't make you suspect hind end stuff. We did notice that she kept landing on the right lead. We both sort of had the thought at the same time... okay, what happens if we raise the jumps? Is it front end?? So we did and she struggled a little bit and pulled the rail with her front feet. So... is it front end?? 

 

Then Jacel had us ride a bendy line after the grid in both directions... It was like an s turn over two jumps. Lyric did the one on the right lead beautifully. Like... way better than I was expecting! But the one on the left lead was hard. She wasn't as smooth. And she made an abrupt turn and swung wide. But to be fair, Funny and Smarty both struggled with it too later in the day. And actually, Lyric jumped it better than Smarty did the first time. But still.. it definitely fits with her stiffness bending left. When we looked at the slow motion video, it does look like her left front is slower to swing forward. 

   

So... my current rule out list is muscle myopathy, kissing spine, stifles, craniothoracic issues, shoulder issues, still neck/neuro... or... was she just cold and tight because of the temperature??? Jacel feels like it's the left front leg up high, like in the shoulder area, but I'm leaning more towards left cervicothoracic area. 

  

Anyways... she was a very good girl and was trying hard. She was jumping out of stride and didn't get balky or nappy or stop, even when she could have. I worked on riding her barrel.. pushing the inside hind leg out to the outside rein but kept my reins super soft with my hands low. I never asked for a frame or any particular shape and just moved her barrel and body. Which, honeslty, isn't a bad way to ride anyways. 

 

After my lesson we went for a quick hack around the lake.  As we headed down there we passed two kids on electric bikes. They were with a big trainer with a huge group and had gotten to the XC field before the horses. I tried to avoid them but they were going the way I wanted to go. Lyric was a bit looky but brave, even when they whizzed down the path! I did ask them to wait for us to get across the dam before they came flying down again and they did. I was quite proud of how brave she was! We had a nice walk around the lake and then we headed home because BRRR. Plus I had to get Funny.