Steamy

Ooof, that was a bad idea. It was still super hot today, but then a storm popped up and we got a little bit of rain. It dropped the temps dramatically, and was like... 87 degrees instead of 97. And there was a bit of a breeze and not quite so miserably humid. But, by the time I decided to actually ride and got Lyric and got tacked up... the humidity snuck back in and it was steamy and miserable. Ugh.... And I didn't even put a bra back on and my shirt was still soaking wet. 

But we were already tacked up, so I figured we'd keep it short. We hiked up there and did a tiny bit of in hand work. I tried the turn on the haunches left and kept her in left bend and she actually did it, so... that's good. I need to practice that more without me on her to help her realize she can do it. Then I hopped on. And realized I had forgotten the darn half pad again. Whooops! Sigh. Oh well. It actually didn't feel like it was sitting that low today.. maybe I had moved the saddle farther back? Or closer to the front? Anyways... we carried on. 

She was a good girl but a bit more braced today. Longitudinally... and laterally a bit. Although I do feel like she was a bit better laterally. And our left bend is definitely getting better, especially when I turn my belly button. I was trying hard not to hang on the left rein, and kept giving it, but she was so braced and counter flexed without it. But we eventually got some good moments. 

 

The right lead canter is quite nice and our departs were quite nice, but the left lead canter transition is still running into it. And the left lead feels more downhill and "slappy". But we did get some good trot immediately after our trot so that helped. And I did work on our homework of the very slow walk and the slower trot. Probably not quite slow enough in the trot though. I ended up riding longer than I intended and we were both hot and puffing, so we ended with some walk work. We did free to working walk to free walk and such. And then, I wanted to finish with the cavaletti's so we trotted them both directions and then cantered them both directions and then we really quit. She was a good girl and was trying. But I do think that perhaps she'll feel better after she gets her quarterly shockwave tomorrow. Hopefully quarterly will be enough, but if we have to do every 2 months we will.