SUCCESS!!!

 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 building cross country school yesterday, which... she didn't have to do. She came and taught me and Jessica so we could practice all the hard things. So I went from freaking out and ready to vomit to actually kind of looking forward to it!!

I was still nervous this morning though, but more performance anxiety than "we're gonna fail and maybe get hurt" nerves. I didn't bother bathing because she had been hosed off last night and she's red. But I did show sheen her tail and groom her and she looked good. I opted to go with our "money green" shirt and the green paisley saddle pad. Which looks smashing on her. But I was cracking up because Mackenzie was like "Holly Breaux!!! Are you really going into the dressage arena in neon green???!!!" ha ha. Yes ma'am! We went to warm up and she was quick! Like running quick. Which is unusual for her. I embraced the forward, because it sure beat the "navicular shuffle" she used to do. And she was braced in the left rein again. Probably because I was hanging on it. And she's been leaning/motorcycling hard. I mentioned it to Jessica and she laughed and said that she heard I was into motorcycles now and we were "Mudflap and Road Rash". Ha ha!! But I think it's because she was rushing and a bit over tempo so she was falling onto the forehand instead of balancing on her hiney. Because there were quite a few moments where I could get her rocked back and then she got quite soft and lofty! But she was mostly just motoring and I was trying to ride her back to balance but not quite accomplishing that. Then I ran into Karen and we chatted a bit and then it was almost my time so I was maybe a hair more rushed than I would have been. Although I really don't think it would have mattered. 

We went in and did our test and it wasn't bad. It was just not great. She was just too quick and a bit on her forehand and I resorted to hanging instead of softening. I rode with my hands instead of my body. Darn. Oh well. She was still a good girl and we scored decently. A 32.9. Although I didn't read my test comments yet, I can imagine it was mostly "needs more balance and bend". Watching the video, she's way quicker than she looked! Dang, I wonder how Funny looks! Ha.

I hosed her off and let her chill in the shade and munch hay. Or nap. Ha ha. She went from eager beaver to nappy real quick. But yay. Good show horse! I walked up to stadium and watched the course and then hung out with Kelli who had come to watch. Then I tacked back up and we headed up to stadium. She warmed up quick and animated again but was jumping nicely. She's just getting motorcycle-y lately. I almost wonder (now) if it's that she's just too over tempo and on her forehand and that's making her lean instead of shifting her balance back and lifting those shoulders? We'll have to keep working on it. We ended up having to wait a good bit for them to finish with starter and then reset the course, so I trotted a bit more and picked up one more jump. But it was sticky, so we did it again and made it nice and smooth. Good girl.

Then we went to go do our round. And she was great!! She was in go mode again and was locking onto the jumps! She was slightly sticky to the first one because I rode too hesitantly. I was waiting for the ad but wasn't as supportive. Then I started riding more supportive and boldly and she started jumping nicely out of stride! She even locked onto one fence that we had already jumped and I had to pull her off the line. Not that one!! THIS one! But she was so good and she even got her changes! I was trying my best to ride my outside aids and keep her upright and balanced and not motorcycling. We jumped double clear and had fun! Whoo hooo!

Then down to XC and while I was slightly nervous, I was actually excited too! We started off pretty okay over the first fence but you can see her pulling hard right. Then we kept going hard right and I had to work REALLY hard to get her back down to a trot and to make the turn, but then she did the second fence (on terrain) quite nicely. Then we were able to mostly canter down the hill to fence three and despite the significant drift, I was able to get her over the correct fence. From then it got a little easier because we didn't have the massive hill working against us. But she was pulling like a freight train and I felt like I was hanging on her mouth the whole time. I tried to half halt and then release as I could, but... it was a bit of a rough ride. It looks smoother than it felt, which is nice. And it wasn't as chaotic or nerve wracking of a ride as it used to be. She actually jumped a good chunk of the fences out of stride and boldy! And I managed to stay back the entire time, which is probably why she was bold. And there were a few where her shoulders were ALMOST too far out to make the jump and in the past, she would have stopped. But she didn't! Although we did climb over the bench (I think at least one back foot stepped on it) and then she almost didn't make it up the up bank because of it. But the rest of the course was much smoother. And she jumped the ramp out of stride! Yay for us because I hate that jump. And she jumped the last two scary fences quite nicely. Whoo hooo!! Caroline told us we were the fastest ride of the day in all the divisions. ha ha! Oh, and coming out of the water and up over the little hanging log on the hill, we had to then turn left to go behind the ditches to the ramp. And she was throwing that right shoulder HARD!! and I was trying to turn left and slow her down. I was using my outside aids because if I had  pulled on the left rein it would have just jacknifed her more and sent that right shoulder farther right, but I had pulled so hard that she almost stopped in place and spun to the right super quick. Ha ha. We did a 360 and then I walked her and picked the trot and canter back up after we regrouped and got her shoulders back in line. Gracious! I really might need to put my reins on the pinwheel part of the bit instead of the snaffle. But I didn't want to have it be too much because her confidence is fairly delicate. Or at least it used to be. 

 

So WHOOO HOOO!! I"m so proud of her. We did it! We finished on our dressage score. And that ended up moving us up to first (second after dressage) and we won TIP for BN! Whoo hooo! Such a good girl. I'm so grateful... for so many reasons, but the fact that back in January I wasn't sure I would be able to rehab her enough to get her comfortable again under saddle due to the kissing spine and the weird neuro stuff and the front end hopping lameness stuff... the fact that she just jumped BOLDLY and cleanly around a fairly substantial (for Ashland) beginner novice course has made me so happy and proud and grateful!

And we kept our shoes on! I did add front bell boots today. Ha ha! Lesson learned. She'll get tomorrow off instead of a lesson because she deserves it!