Fancy Pants

 We braved the heat and humidity today. I probably should have waited til after dinner as it was fairly nice out (comparatively) tonight but oh well. We survived! I had ridden Lyric at Ashland this morning and came home and changed underwear.. it's humid y'all! Then I ate lunch and cooled off. Then I worked Funny and sweated through those shorts and underwear. So I came back inside and cooled off again. And this time I put on my bathing suit and my breeches. I hacked up to the arena and no one was around so I took my tank top off and rode in my bathing suit top. Much better! Still miserably hot though. So we took lots of walk breaks and did a lot of walk work. 

 

We started with some pillar work under saddle. Then we did some square turns focusing on soft aids. Then we did some lateral work at the walk. Then we picked up the stretchy trot and then after he warmed up another walk break. Then we did our trot work, with some walk breaks. We did our "collected trot" to our working trot to trot lengthens. We played with some shoulder in to E/B and then lengthen across the short diagonal. We are much better at it after the first time or two. Then we played a tiny bit with halfpass. Then we walked again. Then we did our canter work. We played with canter lengthenings, canter serpentines, and some walk to canters. We also played with getting his canter collected via only my seat and leg aids. But I had my spurs on so I had to use my half halts too! Although I think I did in my lesson too, but they were harder half halts today. We'll do no spurs the next ride or two. He was super!!!

 

We had a lot of fun and despite trying to keep it short, we rode about 40 minutes! Although a lot of walk breaks. He was so dirty and crusty that I had to hose him off before our ride! But he was definitely hot and sweaty and still dirty after too. He got a nice long rinse because WE HAVE WATER NOW!!!!!!! Good pony!! 

Oh I'm so grateful for all the fun we're getting to have again! I think he enjoys "working" too! Thanks God!!

 

Storm Shenanigans

 So... this is a little out of order because I can't remember what day it was actually...but earlier... we had a massive storm roll in. And it came on quick! Oh, it was Sunday....because Dan and I did Ashland that morning and then I rode Lyric that evening. 

Anyways.... When I was leading Lyric back to the barn (because she was foot sore not because I knew it was about to storm) Dan was all riled up because Jean's horses were all riled up. He had his tail flagged and was power trotting. I wasn't sure why but then by the time I untacked Lyric, the skies were pretty black so.. ooohhhhhh... 

Of course they were all hooligans and took off and then the wind picked up. It was actually a bit scary... I thought that we might get a little microtornado! They were all hunkered down by the hay shed so.... I just waited it out. After the winds hit, then came the rain. It was pretty fierce for about an hour and then it passed. And the sunset was glorious!!! I went out to take photos and the horses were crazy! Hee hee... Goobers!

 

I was laughing because in my lesson Kelli had said how I was a "worker" and she could always tell I had done my homework and was working hard on things. I was a doer. Apparently Dan is also a worker bee, because he was practicing loading his hind end and elevating his forehand! Oh Dan! 

 

I had crawled through the pasture and was under their little tree area and I surprised him! hee hee... 

BEST DAY ever!

 Well, maybe not ever, but certainly a BEST DAY for Danny. And me too. :) 

We had a XC lesson with Kelly Eaton at Ashland today and rode with Allisa and Ardanza. The boys liked each other even though Dan was making faces at him. (That's how you know he likes you!). It was great!! Both ponies were super. Dan showed off and did his usual "ho hum... I can do this in my sleep" over the ditches, banks, and in the water. Well, maybe not the water. She asked us to canter through the water and Dan practically cannonballed in. Ha ha... He was definitely in front of my leg for that! And Ardanza was super brave for his scary stuff and was jumping so nicely. 

We worked on lots of simple stuff, but not easy stuff. My biggest thing for today was...well, two big things... One was to keep him in front of my leg. He cheats! He's a sneaky little bastard. Ha! He's so compliant and does his job that he convinces me that it's okay for him to be blase about it. We just kind of loped around some things, but when he's not really in front of my leg, he gets to a funky spot and sort of has to heave himself over. And the jumps are small, so it's okay, but... not ideal. So I have to be as adamant that he's in front of my leg and SHARP off my aids over the stick on the ground as I am over the skinny training level chevron! He has to be hot to my aids... When I close my leg... he needs to rocket out! So... there was lots of shock and awe. I also need to remember to use my stick where my leg is. Dan gets the point with the spankings, but... it'll be more effective and crystal clear if I use it behind my leg, not in his flank or gut. The other thing is that I need to land in my landing gear! I'm not pinching with my knee, but I'm not landing in my heels. I'm landing on my stirrup leathers. So I had to "shine my flashlights", "Kick my soccerballs" and "wipe my hiney" all morning. Ha ha. It took some doing. It's definitely WAY easier when Dan is in front of my leg as he sort of takes my leg with him. When he's not, it's so much easier for me to jump off my stirrup and land in my footbed instead of in my ankle. And this makes me get a tiny bit tipped forward. So... We lengthened my stirrups a hole and I tried my best to keep my butt in the saddle and not even slide my seat back.... but tuck my tailbone. Almost the opposite of sliding my butt back. Although I may have to try that too and see which works better. But she had my sling my tailbone foward with the saddle when the saddle comes forward. This also brings my toes up I think... So I land more in my landing gear. It did work. It's just hard to do all the things at once! But when I focused on it, I managed to accomplish it some of the times and most of the way. :) We jumped mostly BN and some novice stuff. Nothing too big of scary. But we were working on specifics. 

I also had to work on releasing by following instead of bending my elbows. I would throw my elbows at him, but when I did that, I'd end up pulling my hands back. Which defeats the purpose! And what else...? Mostly that was pretty much it. It was a great lesson and lots of fun. 

So then we were done and talking and Dan looked up and saw Indi hiding in the woods! He was like "YES... let's go!". But we finished talking and then we went back to the trailers where I pulled off all his tack and my boots and we put the bareback pad on and the halter and headed to the lake. Missy had been waiting a while so we pretty much cantered the whole XC field to the lake. He was fine! And game. :) 

Then we said hi and the pool party commenced! The boys were hilarious. They were quite rowdy today. We even both got to swim a tiny bit and cooled off. Then the boys both simultaneously decided they were done with the water and walked out and started on the trails. Okay then! Ha ha. We're just along for the ride I guess. They kept playing bitey butt on the trails too. Goobers. But we had fun. We sat for a few minutes at the field behind halfshire and chatted while the boys grazed. Then Missy and Indi headed home and so did we. 

Ahhhh... happy day. Lots of fun and giggling!

Dressage Lesson and hack

Dressage lesson: Much happier and not at all fussy even when we asked for more again. Yay... we hit the plateau and stablized and now are moving on again.

Focus more on training, not helping. Make sure my aids are very consistent and very particular. Ie.. don't assist him by asking with more leg... make him obedient to the leg. sharp! worked on the turn on the haunches, need to move my leg back a bit more than i think... still more. 

lovely trot and great positioning. make him go lower when bee bopping around. But not just nose out... 

canter: focus on keeping his straight laterally, now that we've got longitudinally. outside rein, and tracking right, move both hands in... tracking left, move both hands out. use my inside leg as a pulse, when my seat comes forward. Don't clamp with my outside leg. use my aids individually and with a purpose rather than just using them. 

awesome job. very pleased!

then hacked bareback with Baylor and Sharon. trotted even and posted!