Winter Music

  Lots of goodness today! Thank you God!   This afternoon I went out and grabbed Lyric. The rest of the gang followed us down to the barn and so Lyric was super chill in the cross ties. I even left her while I went inside to grab my phone and use the restroom! I put the fluffy half pad on her today instead of the one with the front end shims. I figured we'd see what she liked better. I think she liked this one better. But I also think I'm going to try my dressage saddle on her next ride. The jump one seems to fit too far forward on her and I'm worried it's jamming into her shoulder blades. I can't quite get it to set farther back. Hopefully those withers will pop up soon so I don't need a crupper! ;)  We walked up to the arena and bless Dan.. he came with us. And then so did Funny and Fleck. Dan and Funny hung out at the gate for most of the ride. Such good heathens. We did a tiny bit of pillar work, but it was starting to drizzle heavily and my saddle was getti...

  Well, not new. Stolen from her sister. ;) Ha ha. And her brother. So... the bit Dan and I have been borrowing from Kelli is really too big for him. Kelli mentioned that she was hoping it would fit because she could sell it to me super cheap as she shouldn't have bought one that big. I mentioned that it might fit Lyric because she has a potato head like Fleck. But then this morning her and Dan were snuggling and her muzzle actually looked smaller than his, so...  But I tried it on this evening and.. it actaully looks like it fits pretty perfectly. So, she may get to have her own bit. But she also looked pretty snazzy in Funny's pink brownband and Dan's brown bridle. :)  I haven't done much with her this week because I had taken Dan to Ashland so much. And because.. quite frankly... I'm frustrated. I'm sad. I don't know what to do next. So... I've just kind of not done much. But I figured today I could do something. I was tempted to ride. And probably sh...

  We "cheated" a little bit today but that's okay. After I rode Dan I put him on the trailer with a full bag of fresh alfalfa and had a fresh bag waiting for Lyric. And my unicorn fanny pack full of treats. It started off good. She wasn't nervous and only pooped once. She got her front feet on pretty immediately and would almost get a hind foot on the ramp. She kept slamming her foot on the ramp but wouldn't actually stand on it. I started rewarding anything, but then got a bit more picky. She finally got both hind feet on the ramp and got a good cookie and some hay. Then it was like she realized the hay net was there. She walked all the way on and started munching. Good girl!!!! I let her sit calmly and munch for a good 5 minutes or so, and then I backed her off. She got off calmly and then I asked her to get back on and she went right in. Yay! We hung out while she munched for another 5-10 minutes or so. Then I backed her off and she almost acted like she wanted...

  Today Lyric and I did arena work. We did our pillar homework and then I added alittle bit of baby lunging to see. She's still not ready. I mean, she's lunging better, but she's still not relaxing in pillar 1 while lunging. I can almost get it at the walk though, so progress. We had some good work though.  Then we headed back to the barn and practiced trailer loading. She's getting much better about it. There was no separation anxiety tension today and she was much braver about getting her front feet on. She even got the hind feet on the ramp some today, so yay! We quit when we ran out of treats. :)  Then I adjusted her. She was mostly good although she had a moment of panic. Jean was walking in her pasture and her dogs were out and the mare was running and Lyric about lost her mind. It was unfortunately, right as I had unclipped her to adjust her head and neck. Or maybe fortunately as maybe she would have flipped. But she kept trying to spin and go the other way and t...

  So, today at least, as I'm allowed to change my mind... Lyric and I are going back to ground work and not going to ride for a bit. I am so tempted, but... really, she's not ready. As much as my brain is panicking that we've got to prepare for RRP (um... it's October.. of next year... you've got time darling!) and that we need to ride or people will think I'm scared of her (so what?! and.. who really? Do you care? really?) and... despite the fact that really I just want to ride her! The point was to have another horse that I could do things on and not push Dan and Funny... but, that's not really fair to push her instead of them, so... for now.. We do groundwork. I just think her body is not unwound yet from the track. She's so crammed in her scapulas and downhill and underdeveloped in her sling. She has no clue how to use her body effectively. And to be fair, she's so green! So it's hard to help her from the saddle because my cues are not really...

I couldn't help myself. I wanted to ride today. I had all the horses in the middle pasture because Jean had her guys come over and get some sand and they were making multiple trips, so I left them in the middle so they didn't escape. When they had finished I decided to ride Lyric first because that way, the horses would be in the middle pasture and thus, in theory, up by the arena. Plus I wanted to take Dan on a cool down hack and figured I could pony Funny too. So, I went out and grabbed Lyric and we headed back to the barn.   She was mostly good although she had a few panicky moments. She did try to walk through me a time or two so we had to have words. But after a few cookies, she settled down. And she only got cookies when she softened and did pillar 1 and was relaxed. So for the most part, we did okay. She did poop like... 4 times, but... she was mostly settled. Ha ha! And she did try to leave when I took the halter off to put the bridle on. Um... no! I thought for a secon...