Sissy's Birthday Party

So... today kind of turned into a cluster, and then stayed a cluster, and then.. it got fun. Because... Danny and Funny! 

We were supposed to have a XC lesson with Jacel today, which we were sooooo looking forward to. Plus I need to figure out what to enter him in for chatt. But she had to cancel, which is totally understandable. So... I was trying to decide what to do. It's Funny's birthday today too. So I figured that since I would be riding by myself today... and could ride with Kelli later... I would just take Funny and pony her for her birthday and then I could school XC on Dan later with support. Plus that gave Dan another day to accustom to being barefoot behind!! So yep.. this morning we had Sara do their feet and she said that Dan's hinds looked so good she thought it was time to pull his hind shoes! Eeeekkks!! Yay but also scary! So this seemed like a lovely plan. Funny definitely agreed!

So... we got there and Kelli was still there so we chatted briefly. I'm so sad I didn't ask for her to get a photo of us. Oh well. I also forgot to fly spray the ponies. And pee. Ha ha... Oh well. By the time I realized it we were far enough that while I debated turning back... I just figured we'd tough it out. Bad choice. 

 

We started out and the ponies were good but the bugs were awful so they were a bit fussy. And they were not cooperating for photos! I wanted both of them in the photo and Funny wouldn't come up close enough and when she did Dan got fussy or they both had pinned ears. Ha ha. Come on guys... I want photos!! We made it to the Halfshire hay field and I tried (and succeeded) in a lovely photo and then as we were proceeding... Dan snatched his head down to rub a horse fly off... and snatched the reins with him. The flung to his poll. Which was at the ground as he was grazing. And I still had my phone in one hand and Funny's lead in the other. And.. before I could do anything, Dan took a step forward, stepped on his reins and broke his bridle. It broke at the buckle for the cheek piece so his bit fell out of his mouth on the one side. Sigh... dangit kids!!! Luckily they are sane so I just.. .hopped off and tried to figure out how to fix it. Luckily, thank goodness!!!!... I had just put Dan's bit on the PS of sweden bridle. I figured that he liked that crownpiece better and since he was the one who was always splashing in the lake... Lyric could have the nicer bridle since she was nicer to our nice stuff. Hee hee. So thank goodness Dan broke the bridle we didn't really like anymore. And luckily I had attached the throatlatch. Which, I'm honestly not sure why I had, as it's sort of an extra piece that you don't really need except for showing. But I'm so glad I did because I was unable to fix his bridle without it. I had to take it off and use it as the cheekpiece to hold his bit. It was either that or do what Kelly had mentioned in my last lesson... riding with just the bit and reins. Ha! That would teach me to keep a soft steady contact. But you know... now is not the time for that! Not with Funny also attached to us and in the wide open fields. Ha ha! So I fixed the bridle.. and while I was down there.. had a pee. :) Then I was able to sidle up to a concrete block and hop back on and off we went. 

 

After that... my mood was substantially more relaxed and the bugs got a bit less crazy so we had a lovely ride after that. It also helped that we took a nice little trot for them both to stretch their legs. Of course we ended up at the lake and had a pool party. Dan splashed a lot. Funny rolled a lot. Dan thought about a swim but didn't, which was nice as I was in my good saddle. And Funny thought about taking a swim too but chickened out at the last minute. We played for a bit and then headed back to the XC field and did the hills twice. Then we headed home. They both got rinsed off and were well behaved. So yay! Good day. And Funny was so happy! And Danny and I were glad we were able to help her celebrate!

Fancy Pants and a gorgeous day

 Danny and I went to ride at Ashland today! It was such a pretty day. We've been having the BEST SPRING this year! It was a high of like..74 today with no humidity and a lovely breeze but warm sunshine. Ahhhhhhhh.... this is like PERFECT weather! 

 

We took a quick hack to warm up around the small lake and then headed to the dressage arena. Then we did our few minutes of stretchy trot. Then we went to work. We had a great ride. We did our turn on the haunches with the softest touch of my leg. I didn't even have to shock and awe him.. he just did it! Then we did our transitions within the gaits (even at the canter too!). We did some trot to walk to trots and he was okay with them. He got a hair fussy but just going to his shoulder. No tongue. So we backed off and went the other way and then came back to it and did a few more. We also did walk to canter and shallow loop serpentines. We also played with shoulder in at the trot and then trot and canter half passes. He was quite lovely! We did some trot lengthenings and he busted out this massive bouncy one at the end. It was too much, but it was fun. Oh, we also worked on our "piaffy" trot and getting more bounce. It wasn't as good as in our lesson but it was a start. I'm so proud of him for coming back to "work" so gentlemanly.

 

So then we went for a hack. He was kind of lazy and we just moseyed around. We did see some friends across the lake and to Dan's great delight, we met up with them at the cross country field and got to hack back in together. Dan made new friends with Beau. He was even sweet and polite and only chewed on his face very politely. :) 

 

It was a great day! And tomorrow.... XC schooling!! At ashland, but still!

 

Feral to Fancy

Crazy beasties!! Today was show morning for Lyric. Her first show! At Ashland. And it was also a bit chilly first thing this morning. Which is GLORIOUS!!! I'm loving Spring this year! Thank you God! Anyways... I guess the chilly air got to the ponies.. or Dan was mad he wasn't the one showing, because.... Feral! ha ha

But he got ridden later that afternoon! Lyric was done showing by lunch time so since Mike came and cheered us on AND took videos... we went for ice cream on the bike after that. But then, I rode Danimal. 

 

He was a super good boy. We had some nice work including a lovely half pass at the trot one direction and decent the other direction. Baby half passes, but still! We also played with the shallow counter canter serpentines and worked on our homework. He was starting to get fatigued by the end. And for one moment in the left lead canter, his tongue came out. But it was just once and that was it. So... I'm not sure what to make of that. We did some stretchy work and called it a day. Well... we did a stretch and then I let him lengthen down centerline since it's his favorite! I'm trying my best to listen to him. 

 

He wanted to go out on Jean's side so we did and hacked down the driveway. But then Art (the neighbor across the street) had his sprinkler going in the garden. Dan stopped and was staring. I got off, mostly because I was hoping to not add more to his fatigue since he had stuck his tongue out, not because he was going to spook. If he was, I'm much happier on top than underneath him! But he was alert..not freaking out. So yay! Maybe I can use those to help desensitize him to the Ashland ones. :)