Brilliant

 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 getting stronger and more correct, or both. OR... I'm delusional and have no clue and it's not as nice as it feels. But hopefully the first one. She felt quite balanced, quite soft in the contact, willing to move forward of her own free will... I didn't have to nag every step. And she was soft and reaching for even contact. Our canter departs were better than they have been and her canters were great too. We had some good downwards too. We also played with some square turns at the trot and then we did the trot poles. She was quite good. I even did the double slalom with her and she was really quite good at it!! Surprisingly good! We got a bit more trotting in and she stayed lovely so I decided to just call it quits! 

 

I hopped off and cleaned up the poop the neighbors had left in the arena. It drives me bananas! Mostly because my horses insist of stopping and sniffing it. There was also a loose bellboot. And I wanted to replace the "garocha" pole that Liz had moved to the ground for our lesson. So I did. And then I got back on and Lyric and I did the gate. She did it great!! Which is impressive because she doesn't open my actual arena gate nearly that well. Then we did the livestock pen and she was marching nicely!! We walked to the "jug" and she let me pick it up and scrape it along the table top and make noise and didn't even care. So then we walked back over to the garocha pole and she was much braver today. Brave enough that I even bounced it around and then even picked it up! I was able to punch the ground next to her, so then I decided to lift it up near her head. She sniffed it but was not scared! GOOD GIRL! So then I walked a small circle with it and waved it around a little bit. I even accidentally hit her in the bum (at least not her eyeballs, like poor Dan) and she didn't mind. She sniffed it and was curious but not alarmed. Then we put it back in the barrel. She didn't want to walk past the barrel once I put it back in at first, but she did. What a good girly! I noticed Dan had wondered up and was watching like "wait a minute.. that's MY JOB!". I told him not to worry because he was WAY better than the girls at this job. Although I did make the whole "I'm watching you" finger motions to him and told him that Lyric was much marchier through the livestock pen though, so he best be marching! hee hee. 

 

We hacked back to the barn and she got a rinse before dinner. Good girl! Tomorrow we'll do our jump lesson at Barbaras, and then Wednesday I'll probably dressage her at Ashland and practice our test. And then Thursday she might get the day off because Friday is a XC lesson and then Saturday is the show. I also have a lesson with Kelly Eaton on Sunday but I may end up taking Funny instead. That's a lot of days in a row for Lyric, especially hauling and honestly.. I feel like Lyric and I are going well enough on the flat at the moment.. I might get some more help with Funny. But I'm also a little concerned about adding too many cooks in the kitchen with Funny and don't want to mess up what Liz and I have going, so we'll see.