Winter Music

  Ugh... so, I was supposed to go XC schooling with Beth and Jamie today with Lyric. It's a schooling show at Stableview and they have schooling today and the show tomorrow. I have been hemming and hawing about it for a few days but finally decided to just go and do it. And then... I realized it was $106 to do it! Not counting fuel and coaching fees. Man!! That seems steep!! But I guess it's because it's an "all phase" schooling. So I can school in the dressage arena and the stadium course. Except, I don't need to. Or really want to. So... after thinking I decided that since I cross country schooled Thursday in the humidity and then hauled to Aiken for her vet visit, maybe hauling to Aiken to school cross country again two days later isn't fair. Not to mention that my vet visit was super expensive because we got ALL the x-rays. And I had to buy new bridles. Cheap bridles, but still. So... I decided not to. But then panicked again because I got to thinking ...

  Today was a day! I'm a bit emotional because I'm stressing about Dan. And it's so hot. And sooooo humid. And I'm over it! So... I've not been on my best behavior. So... we had a XC lesson this morning. At 7:30 am. Which, ugh, but also yay! Although I'm not so sure that it's much cooler that early because the humidity is so much higher! You can't win either way. It was only 74 degrees but was like 89% humidity so... the sweat was just rolling off of all of us. And Lyric was hot and steamy just standing at the trailer before we even rode. Not sweaty yet, but you could just feel her body heat already. Guess I should have hosed her off before I loaded. But it was quite pleasant when I first got up. It just didn't last long.  Anyways... we got to Ashland and tacked up and headed to the XC field. It was me, Laura on Kid, Audrey on Tom, and Jacel on Llama. The OTTB brigade! And they were all ridiculous!! Like, even Tom, the steady eddy! He was a turd too....

 Lyric wasn't feeling it this morning. She walked away from me when I went to catch her. Oh man... sigh. But you have shoes on now girly!!   We had an okay ride. We did our pillar work and got some good releases and she was really good and soft walking up to the arena. But our ride was just.. .meh. She was fussy in the contact and got quick. But she did seem more straight in her body and less tipped over. And our canters were much improved. So... you know.. not a bad ride at all. We hacked back to the barn and she got rinsed and turned out. She was looking for her cookies. Yes.. you earned them! 

Lyric's such a good girl. She put on her big girl panties and womaned up! She could have (and probably should have) gotten the day off after horse showing in the heat and humidity yesterday. BUT... Kelly Eaton was at Ashland and I didn't want to miss out. And Danny is still lame, so... we went to our lesson. It was at noon also. Poor gal! Poor me! Although today was a bit less miserable than yesterday. There was at least a breeze today.  I hosed her off before I put her on the trailer and let her drip dry to help keep her cool before we started. We got to Ashland and she was mostly dry. I got her all tacked up and since her scoot boots were rubbing her raw, we went naked. I did not give her bute this am. Whoops. But, maybe not. I don't want her to get an ulcer. So I was being nice and walked her across the gravel before I got on. Unfortunately while I was trying to check her girth, she put her head down to snack and ended up stepping on the reins. And of course she threw he...

    Who's the best girl!?!? :) I'm so impressed with her. We ended up showing in ameoba again after our last XC lesson. And that was the right choice. She was a good girl and we had fun! We got to the show with plenty of time and she was like "Yep, been here, done that" and was pretty chill and relaxed. HUGE difference from her first show! I did give her 1 gram of bute because she still didn't have shoes and I didn't want to put her scoot boots back on. Plus I don't think she can use them for dressage, even though it's a schooling show. And she was pretty good. She felt fine in the grass and the arenas although she was definitely sore on the gravel. I put the thorowgood saddle on her for dressage and we went to warm up. We were in the grass area and she started out a bit squirrely and runny and braced and stiff. Jacel magically showed up and got us working nicely. Like.. she was bending around my leg and soft and not inverted and even soft in the conta...

Today was HOT... so hot. Already so hot and humid. Both Lyric and I were dripping when we finished our very short ride. Which was partly short because it was so hot and partly because we had to get done in time for me to meet Missy at the lake with Funny!    But Lyric was soooo good. We haven't been able to ride as much because of her abscess but she was super. She just... went to work! I did ride with the baby spurs which seem to help keep her off my leg easier. I know... she needs to get reactive, but... she also needs to understand what I want first. So.. maybe that's me justifying it but... we had a good ride. :) Her canter is getting straighter already. We focused on straighter lines vs circles and keeping her in the outside rein. And we even had good trots after our canters! Yay!   Hi Sir Gregory!     Good baby girl! We did hack home via Jean's driveway and then we went into the dog pen pasture to check out the pool. She was brave! She had a good roll afte...