Winter Music

  I was torn on which horse to take for my lesson but since Laura was out (Smarty is still healing from his abscess) I thought I might do a flat lesson with Jacel. But then while I was riding Funny she texted asking if it was okay to cancel. Of course! And honestly... I was sort of wanting to flat her on my own for the day anyways, so it worked out just fine. Saved me some gas money too!    So after I had lunch I got Lyric and we headed up to the arena. She was a good girl and we did our warm up and then we trotted. And she felt great!! Back to her normal good self. No more speed mode. I was able to get her bouncing and lifting in her back again and on her hind end and soft. She felt so good I was wondering how much more I should do. We played a little bit with lengthening across the diagonal and did the trot poles.    Then we cantered. And it felt very heavy on the forehand. Like, you could hear her slapping onto the ground. I tried to ride her up with my core ...

  I'm so proud of Lyric!! And me too, a little bit. :) We womaned up! We put on our big girl panties. And we had FUN!!! I say it all the time, but I really do thank God for putting Jacel into my life. She has been so instrumental in so many things, including helping me become the horsewomen my horse's each need me to be. I was freaking out a few days ago when I saw this course. And Lyric and I were doing okay but our last cross country school wasn't exactly what I wanted it to be. So when I hacked the course the other day with Funny and saw that it was basically shared with Novice for 80% of the course and had a good chunk of big fences on it (thankfully NOT the sharksteeth or the table) I was freaking out. Especially because the first three fences had some serious terrain and I know how Lyric's big shoulders tend to take over. But, thanks to our BIG jump lesson on Tuesday, I was feeling a bit braver. And then, that gave us the confidence to have a good and confidence b...

 So brave. XC lesson at ashland missing shoe on at 10 pm, patrick saves the day! photos: 9-26 so brave, videos

 Weirdo! ha ha. adjusted and she felt really good. did the femoral nerve glide and adjusted and got tons of good yawns and releases. felt much better than I expected honestly. then she was jealous after when i did dan. Or wanted dinner ;) photos: 9-26 weirdo

 test riding at home.. as best as possible in my arena with obstacles. easy enough test, but memorizing the in betweens is hard. just let me do it at a letter...  not lame... but a bit more weak/neuro/wobbly again. not bad, but losing her balance. bracing a bit on the left rein. let go holly!! it's half me. but had some good stuff photos: 9-26 test practice

 jump lesson at barbaras falling hard when tracking right. motorcycling. but game and forward and BOLD photos: 9-26 big sticks videos

  Okay girl!! Way to woman up!   I rode Lyric at home today. I wanted to do a quick ride to make sure she would be sound for our lesson tomorrow. And she was! Yay! And her leg looked better before our ride and normal after our ride. Yay!   And despite it being stupid hot today... it was quite pleasant this morning and by the time I got on, the arena was shaded and there was a tiny bit of a breeze and there was a hint of coolness to the breeze. Plus the humidity had gone down a bit. So it was still hot enough that we were both sweating but it wasn't miserable.    We did a quick ride, mostly because she was so good! We warmed up and then did a little bit of lateral work. Can you move your shoulders off my outside rein? Yes! Can you move your haunches off my inside leg? Yes! Not as nicely as her shoulders, but not bad. Good girl. Then we trotted and she pretty much started off quite nice and stayed quite nice. I'm either getting better at riding her or she's gettin...

Today we had a XC lesson with Jacel. And it wasn't great. I got in my head and was riding backwards and then jumping up her neck. I fell off over the tiny little roll top.. like the first jump I jumped. Doh! She added and I didn't and went up her neck. She slammed on the breaks and went sideways and spun me and then I swear I felt like I helicoptered two full circles around her head before I got slung off. I landed on my butt/feet/back so no big deal. Other than jamming my thumb on the way down. She stuck around, horrified! We got back on and came again and I waited and didn't creep up her neck and she jumped it fine.    We jumped a few more and I got a little better about waiting but she was doing that "process" hesitation again, which.. bothers me. It doesn't feel smooth and it doesn't feel confident. I couldn't get out of my head and kept riding backwards. We moved over to the ditches and Jacel had me jump the lincoln log stack down hill and as soon...

  I debated going back to Ashland today because it was so hot! And the woods sounded inviting, but... I was tired and just didn't want to haul yet again. Plus I wanted time to ride both girls, so... I drug the arena and moved some obstacles around and then chilled out in the air conditioned house for a little bit. Finally at 5ish I decided I needed to just get on and get over it. It was either that or run out of time. It was supposed to storm and cool things off, but I figured the storm was going to blow around us. And it did. BUT... we did get a little nice breeze and some cloud cover for a little bit. Yay.    Lyric was a good girl. We had a really good ride. I let her investigate the barrel with my "garrocha pole" and she was spooked at first! She did go up and investigate it but was jumpy and when I made it moved, she almost spun out from under me. She stayed calm enough to invesigate it and smell it and eventually I was able to jiggle it a tiny bit. But only a tiny bi...

  Today was a fun day! I got up early for Patrick. He got everyone done and when we went to do Lyric I mentioned that she seems to be sliding forward off her shoes. And he noticed that she is pressing hard laterally, so much that her lateral side clips are almost "burned" into her hoof wall compared to the medial side clips. And I was telling him about how she still buckled her hind end once or twice but it was soooo much better. So he thought long and hard and then he added some trailers to her hind shoes. Which worries me a tad because she interferes, but... I figured we'd see. Maybe it'll give her enough support that she will track more straight.  After he left, I turned them out to get some water and grass and made myself some toast and then went back and got Lyric and we headed to Ashland to meet Jessica for our knowledge swap. Flatted. lyric was amazing!!!! So soft and willing and had energy on her own. SOft and floaty and even in the connection.  tracking Left,...

  After I rode Dan this morning... I stalled. I was hot and sweaty. It's hot and humid out. And ugh... But finally I decided I should just go get Lyric and "get it over with".  ha ha. It was actually good timing though. It's still hot, but there was a tiny bit of cloud cover and a bit of a breeze, so it was almost nicer than when I had ridden Dan. Maybe.  ha ha. I guess I'm just finally getting used to this stupid ridiculous weather. But poor Lyric was sweaty before I even got on. Granted that may have been because her and Funny were running like fools earlier this morning because Dan got loose from me and took off. I picked her feet out, used a soft brush to make sure there wasn't any "chunks" on her and tacked up. Sorry girl, but it's only gonna get sweatier and you'll get a good rinse when we're done.    We tacked up and headed to the arena via the field. She was good and we warmed up. She was a bit sluggish at the walk and our stretch...