Good Day

 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 tacked up. We walked up to the arena and then we did our groundwork. We did turn on the forehand, backing up, walking straight, the "telephone pole serpentine", shoulder in on the rail, and then some walk to trot to walk transitions. And then I lunged her for 5 minutes both ways. She was really looking quite nice on the lunge... stretching down and not braced or inverted. She was neutral or stretched down for the majority of it. I still think when she's tracking left her outside hind is lateral, but it doesn't appear that way tracking right. And she's definitely not tracking up yet, but she is at least getting closer. She's maybe a hoofprint away instead of 4! 

 

So then I got on and we walked and let her settle. We focused on straightness and not dumping onto her right front. Then we did a little bit of bending. Then we did our straight line trot transitions, but I kept her in the trot a little bit more this time. And, she settled nicely! She wasn't as rooty and settled into a nice happy trot for a few good stretches. She was reaching into the contact, not braced, straight, and maybe even lifting her back a little. Yay! 

We finished with that and then did a tiny bit more bending with some serpentines. Bending left is still harder for her, but it's better when I push her haunches out/right. Then I decided to ride her back home. So we did the gate and then walked back down to the barn. She was sweaty so she got rinsed and her fly gear put back on. Good pony!!! Maybe there is still hope!

 

(we didnt' canter at all, not sure why it thinks so.. maybe because I was jogging while lunging her some?)

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