Self Sabotage.... doh!

Today was a decent day. Although I tried to sabotage myself. Good grief. 

Anyways... more on that in a few. The weather was supposed to turn ugly this afternoon, anywhere from 1 pm to 4 pm and then rain basically all the rest of the day and night and then tomorrow morning, it will stop raining but the temps will plummet. Oh goody! So, I got up and Mike said he didn't mind if I got a ride in, so after I fed horses and ate breakfast and got the stalls cleaned, I went and rode. The arena was too wet to drag, but not too wet to ride. (Not so after tonights rain!!!). I turned Fleck and Dan out together this morning so that Fleck doesn't forget and get to where he can't go out with him and they were peaceful enough. I let Fleck and Funny out together while I rode Dan though. Which made Dan sad... and Funny and Fleck happy. Although I still think Funny has a big crush on Dan and prefers him to Fleck... Anyways... I still haven't found my lunge line or my other side rein and my new side reins haven't come in yet, so... we just went to the arena. I started with the equicube.... ah, such a good torture device. I really need to use it more as it makes it fairly impossible to ride with your hands and it really helps me keep my elbows at my side. BUT... it also makes it hard to give a rein to test self carriage and it makes it hard to work on getting Dan into the outside rein. And sure, maybe not for a professional, but for me, I still have to use my hands to feel and get the connection. I'm working on it, but... it is what it is. But anyways, we did a good bit of work at the walk with the cube and then a little trot. We did our homework with the turn on the haunches and then turn on the forehand. We even played with walking halfpasses. And then right about the time I picked up the trot with the cube Danny decided that he needed to call for Funny and got a little inverted and I decided it was just time to put the cube down. We had a pretty good ride. There was some ugly in it... there was a lot of tongue flying around. I'm not sure what's going on with that. I'm terrified that he's painful and that's why he's sticking his tongue out, except... he started almost as soon as I got on. Even with just the cube. It's definitely worse the last few rides though. Maybe it is just another evasion tactic. I don't quite know what to do other than ignore it and carry on. And assume it'll go away if it's an evasion... and if it's pain, I'll eventually be able to figure out the source of pain. Because at this point... he's feeling better behind and the front end issue is resolving, so... it's either a bone scan or an MRI and... ??? He is due for his dental soon though, so maybe that's part of it?? There was a couple of battles with him not going forward and sucking back and then going backwards and even popping up a bit. But we got through it. And I think.... think.... think... I'm starting to ride better. I feel like my timing is getting better... When he got stuck and wouldn't go forward, I kept the connection (it's an evasion to connection) and thumped with my legs until he went forward and then immediately went back to trying to not use any leg. No nagging! I felt like I was better with my leg and not using it every step of the way. (we didn't even do shock and awe today!) I felt like I was better at keeping my elbows by my side and meeting resistance with resistance and softening when he did. I feel like I was much better at giving my hand forward when I could. And the difference in the give is that if my elbow is at my waist, my hand can go forward a lot to give. If my elbow is forward, then there is only so far I can give my hand... And he felt pretty good too. There was a little head tilting... so I know he wasn't 100% straight but at least he felt like his neck was coming evenly out of his shoulders. He felt more on the bit, although maybe the connection was too heavy??? It's so hard to tell with him sometimes. So yeah.. I was pretty pleased with our ride. I thought our canter was better too. He felt more connected and more collected and less huntery. And I felt like I was mostly sitting better to it and not bouncing out of the saddle. So yay! We finished with that. Then I was letting him catch his breath and say hi to Funny and Fleck who came up to say hi, and... I figured I'd peak at the video. Well, my dumb self... I opened the video from two weeks ago instead of today. To be fair, I was wearing the same outfit just without the vest. But I glanced at the video and was disappointed. The canter just looked like he was loping on the buckle. So then I almost made him go back to work and get a better canter, but I decided not too. And I'm so glad I didn't. Because while my pivo lost me and I barely got any canter in the video, what I did get was WAY better than the canter from two weeks ago, so... doh! And overall, I feel like it was a better ride. Again, it's hard to say. Maybe I was too handsy... maybe I wasn't doing my homework like I thought, but... I think we were doing a little better. 

Then I put Dan back with Fleck and Mike and I went to Home Depot. We went for a bathroom vanity but that's a lot more complicated than we thought. But we ended up with two cute little Christmas trees for the front porch and a cute little fir tree for the house. No fire pit.. guess we'll have to order it because they didn't have the one we wanted in stock anymore. And when we got back from Home Depot, Dan was flat out on his side of the fence and Funny was sleeping on her side. Fleck was standing guard for a bit, but then he went down too. Hee hee. Guess I finally tired Dan out. He was out cold for a good bit. :) Then they got rained on and now everyone is in, except for Dan. Because he's too good to stay in a stall and paws on the gate and I'm tired of having him paw his shoes off, so.. he can come and go. And he chooses to go out in the rain. At least he's covered up. Because if he's wet, he's gonna freeze tomorrow!