Ahhh, today was lovely! It started with sleeping in... with the wind chimes a chiming! Then I managed to get the animals all fed and in stalls just before the storm hit! And I'm glad I put them in. It came down hard and the wind was whipping. But it let up around 11:30 and they got to go back out. I think they were grateful too!
I rode Lyric first at home and then met Kelli with Dan at Ashland at 3:45. We had a great day. We rode up in the jump arena because the dressage arena's were still too soupy. It was nice to be in that arena because it's so wide, so we didn't have to make as small circles. Although we did that too. Dan actually felt quite nice today!! Like, really nice. He was reaching and forward and kept his rhythm and I was even able to slow his tempo the tiniest bit to get a bit more bounce to him. Then we cantered and ... it actually felt nice. Like.... not just acceptable, but.. nice! I asked Kelli to watch and she was like "ummm... I see nothing to complain about that"!. :) We talked about how he was relaxed and soft and in a nice training level frame and using his back. Maybe he was a hair weak in the hind end, but that's fine... that's where he is right now. Then she watched us trot a little more and said that's as good as he's looked in a while, so yay!! We did a bit more canter and a bit more trot and then he started to get just a little behind the vertical and I could feel that he was starting to fatigue, so we walked.
After we chatted a bit more, I asked if Kelli was done or wanted to go hack and I think she wanted to do a bit more so she went back to work a little. So Dan and I played a little more. Because I sort of felt like maybe now that his canter is improving, maybe it is a fitness thing... so maybe I should keep slowly building the canter. So we did a tiny bit more. Oh, and... one of the jumps was set as a low crossrail and I couldn't help myself! We cantered up to it! Except it was in a grid with some ground blocks, so we had to swerve to it, which meant his striding was tight so he kind of plopped over it. Sorry son! Then I ended up moving one of the verticals to a cross rail and we cantered it both ways. Wheee!! He was game! I have no idea if I'm supposed to be jumping yet or not, but... meh! We did.
So then we went for a short walk down to the lake and Dan got to splash. Then we headed back up to the XC field. I was so tempted to canter over a fence but... I was trying to be good. And figured, I would be good. But then Marvin wanted to go sit in the water complex so... while he was doing that... Dan and I cantered the little triple log stack. I'm guessing it's maybe BN. And Dan was so happy! Wheee! He jumped it great! So then we hacked up the hill and headed back.
so yep.. good day!
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