Go mode deactivated

 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 and it helped a tiny bit. We tried transitions. And she was running into the left lead canter too. So, we didn't make the canter much better today but maybe a teeny bit. But then when we came back to the trot, she was struggling to bend left. I was struggling to get her into the outside rein and not just hang on the left rein. But hanging on the left rein seemed like the only way to keep her bending left at all. And I tried. I even threw away (dropped entirely) the left rein and only rode off my outisde (right) rein and it did not work. She was just counterbent. Sigh.. I tried a bunch of things - single bridge, ride the haunches, ride the shoulders, softer reins, firmer reins, lifting the inside hand, lifting the outside hand. Nothing really made a big difference. So then I sat the trot... and oooooh, that helped. I tried to go back to posting and see if I could keep the same bend without changing anything else and.. kind of. I could post as long as my inner (left) thigh was flush up against her wither/my saddle. That seemed to keep her bent. So, we got a few good circles of alternating posting and sitting and maintained a nice bend even while posting, so we halted and quit. Before I could screw it up again! 

I debated shockwaving her too but honestly, she wandered off before I finished with Dan and I was getting hungry and I didn't think her back was bothering her, so.. I just let it go for today.