Winter Music

 opted to ride at home. rode lyric second. good girl. trying hard. lost left hind once in beginning of ride. First ride with 2 degree wedges with frog support (instead of no wedges or the mcclains). tried hard. maybe lame tracking right again but... rein lame? Bouncing in connection/head. but once good contact, sound. ???  still hanging on left rein and doesn't want to bend left but trying. Got more than just a few moments of lovely, lifted back, elastic, straight, good bend, even contact in both reins. But also lots of inconsistency.

 Rode at home. did dressage. practiced my homework but also with my twist.  good pony. not as harmonious but hopefully more correct. got some decent shoulder ins sitting trot. and maybe one teeny beginning lengthening. 

 Bright and early

 

 Great jump lesson found her missing a shoe this am. Doh. Patrick came and put it back on. (Well, made her a new one because I found Dan's missing hind from last week but not hers). So was able to make the lesson got there early and did a little hack first to stretch her out. Felt good and sound.  had a great lesson. Had to shorten the canter stride to collect her because otherwise she gets strung out and on the forehand. did canter poles.. and she figured them out. but.. I have to help her. I have to show her the way. She's such an emotional people pleaser that I need to be better about guiding her and showing her the right way.  Was able to get the canter shorter and more rocked back by closing my thighs, lifting "her back" with my seat and thighs, and half halting. Good girl! Then added more. added a bounce, which I had to push a little for. then a grid of just smaller canter poles and a vertical. Then added a v pole jump. then a vertical with a placing pole. Worke...

  So... while I'm super grateful to have been on a cruise during the hottest week of the year... and while i'm also glad that it's August 4th and the high was only 67 degrees today.... it's soooo much rain. Yay that my gardens stayed watered and yay that the grass is happy. And yay that it brought the cooler weather (false Fall). But, I want to ride!!!! I haven't ridden in 10 days and not that much prior to that. And it rained all day today. Like... ALL Day! And it rained most of last night and yesterday afternoon. And before that apparently although I haven't been home so... hard to say. And it looks like tomorrow it'll be more of the same. Guess it was sort of pointless to take today off. Except.. not really. Because I caught up on laundry, went grocery shopping, and got to finally sleep well and sleep in a little bit. And I picked up my truck and trailer after it got new tires, new breaks, the roof sealed, and some little things fixed. And my truck got de...

Oh what a glorious day!! I got in a ride this morning, and while it was still hot, there was a lovely breeze and it wasn't quite so humid. We had a good ride too! She was sound! Whoo hooo. Patrick put her shoe back on yesterday and added some glue to help it stay on. I was a little worried she was going to be tender.    We walked in hand up to the arena and did some turn on the forehands - non-claustrophobic style. :) In other words, I encouraged her to put her haunches slightly out. Then we jogged a circle or two and I got on. We started with shoulder in at the walk, which is really really hard tracking left. That right shoulder just wants to jut out and her neck wants to crank in. Trying to keep her more straight in her body is harder. Then we practiced our small walk to a big swingy free walk (but not nose to the ground) walk and back to the small walk. Then we did some trotting. I had placed four poles on the ground and had measured her front foot to back foot and placed t...