God provides!

 Ask and you shall receive. Except... we often forget, if it's His will. Today was a good day and I passed the prayer mile at least twice. And because I was in the car for a long time, I ended up doing lots of short little prayers. But I remembered to include myself today. I know that God knows that I want Him to heal Dan.. and that I want to be a better person and let my light shine more and I want to praise Him even in my dark times. But I often forget to say that. And I don't know if it matters, but... regardless, I prayed today for Dan. And Lyric and Funny and Fleck. And me. I prayed that He heals Dan but... I also know that if He doesn't, it's okay. I'm still grateful (and praying for continued gratefullness and to not get greedy or selfish or ungrateful) that I can do the things I can do and I know that it'll be okay. Even if it's not how I currently want things to be or end up. So I was feeling kind of peaceful about it. 

And then I got home and it was a beautiful day and I still have plenty of daylight left to ride and Mike is out of town so there's no rush to get back inside for dinner (other than me getting hungry), so I rode! I grabbed Dan and groomed him and then put the Bemer on him. I put the boots on the hind legs and then his back on tracks on his front legs. I did some fascial work on his neck and then his stifle isometrics and also some rock backs while we bemered. And then I got my boots on and then the bemer was done. We got tacked up and I took him into the field and hopped on. And it was great! He felt good at the walk, although he was trying hard to stay with the girls! And I just enjoyed it for a bit. We made two laps of the field, enjoying the sunshine and the big puffy clouds in the sky and the green green green grass and trees. And the fact that I was on my pony. So then we went into the arena and did our walk homework - forward, down and out, not nagging, self propelled and self carrying. He started a little behind the vertical again but it didn't seem like a discomfort thing today. So we kept at it and he settled into a nice stretch pretty quickly. I was praising God and just... had a feeling that he was going to be fine. And we picked up the trot and he was sound!!!! Thank you God!!! Thank you for having mercy on me and showering me with goodness, when I definitely don't deserve it. Ahhhhhh.... 

We had a lovely ride. We did our trot homework and focused on slowing the pace a tiny bit and attempting to keep my core and my body upright so he could stay off his forehand better. We focused on a soft connection with a reaching nose but with slightly shorter reins because he felt like he could hold himself without tensing. We did some leg yield and even some half pass. And then we cantered. And his upward transitions were soooo much better today! We then played with some shallow serpentines. He's definitely stronger one way vs the other, but... we'll build on it. I probably was a little too greedy, but he's the same way! He got "big" and "fluffed up" and wanting to go and do, so... we did. We played a little longer and got a nice trot and then a lovely trot to walk. We added a little walk to canter and tried canter to walk, which... got us a nice simple transition but not a canter to walk. But again, baby steps! I'm just so grateful he's cantering again! And is sound. And we're able to do these things in a loose noseband with no tongue out or stress! Again, Thank you God!

 

We exited the side of the arena in the short gate and Dan was careful to not step on the drag! Then we were going to head to the lake but I thought that he felt the teensiest bit cautious on the asphalt and didn't want to make him sore. So we just walked back to the trailer and quit. I think he wanted to see his ladies too. Good pony!!

 

He got a rinse and then immediately rolled. Of course. But that's okay. 

Ahhhhhh.... :)