Hacking with Peri and Kelli... and a sneaky canter

 What a beautiful day!!!

 

I met Kelli and Peri at Ashland for a hack. I rode in Kelli's bit again without a flash. We went straight to the trails today, although I did a bit of pillar work in hand before I got on while waiting on Kelli to tack up. He was pretty good. We hit the trails and he got to lead, so he was happy. But man, he was mellow! So mellow! Like... Kelli and Peri didn't have any troubles keeping up. And there was no shenanigans over the moguls. He didn't even bounce... just flat footed. Um, are you okay Dan?! hee hee. I guess he was taking his babysitting role super seriously today. 

  

We hacked for over an hour and then splashed a little bit in the lake. He was funny and just stood while Cuart splashed. Kind of like "You never get to play, so you do you buddy.. I'll wait". :) The girls let me and Dan take one loop around the open field behind the lake at the trot. Dan was coughing so bad he almost pulled me out of the saddle a few times. And he was really wanting to run at the trot today, despite being so sedate the rest of the day. Then when they headed in from cross country I stayed behind to do another trot set. Dan was mad! He really wanted to go hang with his friends. His trot was like a drunken sailor. Sigh. But we did our loop and I did manage some decent work in pillar 1. 

 

We went back to the arena and joined Kelli for a few minutes of pillar work in the arena. I also snuck in a canter. We started on the left lead and it was divine!!!! Like... ahhhhh! And it felt so good too, not just because we were cantering and it had been so long. It felt like a lovely round soft canter! I did like... 20 seconds worth and then pulled him back. Then we went to the right. Ugh. It felt awful. Like... broken. Like four beated and disjointed and just.. .icky! Yucky. I did a second circle so Kelli could see. She said it just looked four beat-y. Which... fine, but why is the other one so lovely?? Sigh. So.. who knows!? But technically I should in theory be waiting til Oct 11th to canter, so...  still disappointing and worrisome though. 

When we got back home I ended up going to get ice cream with Mike and then when we got back I adjusted Dan. Interestingly he was flip flopped in his pelvis restrictions. I got some good releases though and then I bemered him and his stifles. So... fingers crossed that helps.