Winter Music

  Well, this morning may have been sad and depressing, but this afternoon was a good, hopeful day! I posted on the nobacknohorse facebook page about Lyric and a handful of people commented and basically said it sounded like I should just retire her. Um, cool... thanks for the advice and moral support... NOT! Ugh. Luckily the moderator sent me a private message saying they thought they could help and they would get back to me. So... whatever.    Anyways... they all got their teeth done this morning too. Lyric did have some sharp points on the right, so hopefully this will help with some of the fussiness with the bit. Although to be honest, I suspect it's more anxiety than anything else. Whether that anxiety is from pain... (although not sure what else it would be)??? She got cleared to go a whole year before her next visit. yay!   After they recovered, I took Dan to Ashland for a hack and some dressage. And then when I got home, I grabbed Lyric and got her groomed and...

 did our homework.  good groundwork... but fussy in the bit. fussy in the bit when i got off too. Not so much when i was on, but harder to tell. but rooty and stiff bending left under saddle. did our homework though of walk to trot to walk. more contact but... still didn't feel as good as the other day. hmmmm photos: 3-26 homework

  Today was great! I've put three 10 minute walk rides on Lyric and so I figured it was a good time to get Liz to teach us. Plus, Liz had time for all three today, so yay! I'm soooo grateful that God worked it out for us to get to lesson together! She's been so helpful and amazing! So I groomed Lyric real quick and tacked her up in the jump saddle and we headed up to the arena. Liz did some reiki/energy work with her and said she felt pretty good. We started off with some of our in hand work. The backing... the leg yields... and then the keep your nose right but stay off your right shoulder. Liz did some more work and reminded me to really be adamant that she doesn't just shift to the left but she doesn't keep bouncing back to the right. And then she said when we do our leg yields... when we're tracking left, it's super easy for her because she gets to dump on the right front. So instead of leg yielding traditionally... she wants me to do the leg yield but b...

 nickered at me. :) Awwww walked up jeans driveway and did some groundwork, then lunged 10 minutes at trot. then rode 10 min. chompy on the lunge.. the bit??? vs the saddle? not as noticeably chompy under saddle. worked on bend and leg yield. leg yields nice! walked home photos: 3-26 ride three

 parked on trough after ride.. and also this am i think. much more frequently it seems. or i'm seeing it more. not as good as yesterday but still not bad today. left bend hard photos: 3-26 another ride

straddling trough this am though,  ten minutes, but still. walk only, but still seemed happy too  good posture still photos: we rode, beautiful sunset, and yet again

 had christy coming so decided to work them first this morning.  did postural work... leg yield... backing up... shoulder in... more shoulder in... then let her stand there while I did dan, then ponied over poles. she kicked dan in his left stifle hard. but was so close that luckily i think he's fine. But i was so mad.. then so sad... i whacked her and then after i made sure dan was okay i lunged her. she looked pretty good actually... not quite tracking up but closer than usual.  turned her loose. christy came. loved her. so sweet and good girl. was tight and had some major restrictions but christy got a lot accomplished and seemed to make good progress with her. may go ahead and start walking her under saddle. christy said as bad as she is, she's not that bad. if that makes sense. and it does. oddly. ;) So.. maybe tomorrow we'll start with 10 min of walking as many days as we can and then add 5 minutes every week. 

  Maybe a little TOOOO much fun. ;)  Lyric's had a few days off... I think it's been at least since Tuesday since I worked her because I worked Wed and Thurs, ran out of time Fri, was gone for the weekend, and worked yesterday... So whoops! And ugh.. this morning when I went out to grab Funny for our ride... she was doing it again. Sigh... I came home around 5 pm from my neuro appt today and headed out to the pasture armed with stuff to do some work. I caught her and we headed to the arena. I took her blanket off and put the figure 8 polo wrap on and we did a short lap and then I did her scapula stretches. Then we marched around the arena at the walk, nice and forward, with a slight right shift in her neck to help her balance and stay straight. We went both directions. Then I played with leg yielding down the long side both ways and she did great. We did turn on the forehand and turn on the haunches. And then we backed up. She's getting really good at backing! Then we did t...

 shockwaved wednesday. stifles, right elbow, and back thursday night did a quick session in the arena today... straddling the trough this am. didn't get to work today

 got shoe back on this am, did bemer and neck red light.  Groundwork: did wide pole serpentine, backing, marching walk, turn on the forehand/spins, and backing the hill. Did shoulder osteopathy stretches (hard on me!) and then fascial work on shoulder boobs. then did marching walk... more forward and reaching.  then lunged in pasture. still not tracking up but seemed bouncier. still can't get her to unbrace in her neck other than moments. but did offer a left lead canter, with bucks in the depart. good pony photos: pasture lunge, flirt, spa day

 soggy, drizzling, did some bodywork (logan technique and scapula osteopathy stretches). then widened and raised serpentine. then backing. then double lunged with equicore both ways. meh... soft a good chunk of the time but won't quite leg go and lift her back. then trotted through the raised poles a few times. then backed again and then backed up the hill. good pony

  Today was gorgeous!! It was soooooo hard to NOT toss Lyric in the trailer and take her to Ashland. I probably would have had I been hitched and thought about even hand-walking her vs riding her. It was just such a gorgeous day. HOT! Like.. I sweated a lot! For the first time in months. Ugh. This does not bode well for Summer. But the clouds were so pretty.. the sky was so pretty. My horses are so pretty! I had lessons with Liz on Dan and Funny, so no one went to Ashland today. Thus the pull was real! But I stayed home and we did our groundwork.   We headed to the arena in just the halter and once I got her in I started with the Logan technique and then did her scapula stretches. She was already moving a bit more after Kim worked on her. But I wanted to keep it up and see if I could get better movement. She still seems to "catch" a bit when watching her lunge. It's definitely harder by yourself but we managed to get two good stretches forward and two good stretches backw...