Well... I'm not sure what to think! Yesterday was soooo much fun and Dan felt soooo good. I was so optimistic. Sigh..
Today we had lessons with Kelly at Ashland. I took Lyric first this morning to give Dan a bit more recovery time. Plus, I wanted to make sure I could catch her. ;) I did bemer him this morning though. His back and stifles. We got to Ashland early and I did a little bit of his wither lifts, weight shifts, and pillar work. Then I got on. Kelly was running a bit behind so I was able to do a nice long stretchy warm up. We started off at the walk and got a lot of good stretching into contact. Then we picekd up the trot. He started out okay at first, but then he felt a bit wonky. It felt like hind end. Sort of like a flat tire. Maybe the left hind. He didn't really work out of it, so... we went back to the walk for a bit. Then I picked up the trot again and asked him to do a stretchy canter both ways. After that... he was sound. I didn't really feel it again. I also stopped and waited for Kelly at that point. I told her what I felt but he felt good the whole rest of the ride until the very end. She even said that he looked wonderful and great and she didn't see anything. Which was especially exciting given that he worked as hard as he did yesterday.
We had a great lesson. We started off with a nice marching walk. A 2nd level walk. He had to be in front of my leg. Marching!! We had to do a little bit of reminding him. We were laughing though because pretty much as Kelly was saying "make sure that he doesn't suck you in to working harder... he needs to give you the correct answer every time" I just sort of realized that he had sucked me in by giving me JUST enough that he was technically doing what I asked but not quite. Ha ha. He gives me just enough to not make it obvious that he's being disobedient but that doesn't make him have to work as hard. Ha ha. So we had to do a few minutes of getting him to be a bit more obedient. Which honestly, didn't take much today. He was ready to go and felt really good. We worked on getting a nice trot with an even connection. And he was carrying himself. Then we worked on shoulder in on the rail, right out of the corner. I had to ride into my corners and set myself up more as we came out of them, but not ride so hard that I lost his hind end and let it fishtail. Aha! My body position had to stay upright and correct, with my sternum up and out. And I had to not get tight in the pelvis, so sit on my pockets. But we got it. I was proud of both of us actually. I did tend to collapse in my right side though, but when I focused on sinking my weight into my right leg and keeping that leg long, it helped. When we went to the left I had to work a little harder to keep his nose bent to the inside. He wanted to be on four tracks with his body but not bend through his neck and barrel as much. So I had to close the tracks up but ask for more flexion. Aha!! When i could see his inside eyeball, we had it. It was hard but we got it. Going to the right was easier as he wants to naturally bend that way.
Then we went to the canter and worked on our walk to canter departs. NO TALLYHO HOLLY! Ha ha.. Keep my butt in the saddle. No two pointing into the canter. It helped to think about rocking back before I lifted my hip. (Like Dawn's trick about starting the lawnmower with the pull cord). We had some really nice canters today! Nice and collected. At least it felt collected to me. And I was sitting nicely too. But I still had to remember to keep my sternum up and lifted and sit on my pockets. Then we went to do a shallow serpentine. Kelly had me only go to quarterline because she said that it was a good strengthening exercise for him. He was happy to do it but was cheating a little in his form, so... stick with this shallow one for now and do it a few times to help build his strength. Every ride! The shallow serpentine still gives us the benefits of the deep serpentines. And as with all things... doing it correctly is more important than the degree of difficulty. So tracking right, we got it. It was hard, but we were able to do it. Then we went to the left. And that's when things fell apart. We got through one attempt but he cheated and counterbent. When I really held him in the true left bend, he couldn't do it. He got upset and his tongue came out. And then he started to get rushy and quick and animated and bracey. We talked through it. I told her I was panicking because that's his "pain" signal to me. In my mind..that means pain, not just "this is hard". She told me basically to ignore it unless there was a second piece. Like... if he just put his tongue out... ignore and keep riding. If he put his tongue out but was also chomping... or also lame... or also quick and rushing... then that's the signal to back off. So we tried again and his tongue came out again and then he got quick and runny, so.. she heard me and we went back to walk. We gave him a minute to settle down and then we did the exercise at the walk. And he still got worried and his tongue came out. But then he settled down and we were able to accomplish the exercise at the walk. He was just very resistant to maintaining the left flexion. He was happy to swap the flexion and go back to the rail. He was not happy to move his shoulders right while keeping the left flexion. So.... that got me thinking... that was the problem in our shoulder in work too, just not as glaringly so. Is it his neck bothering him? I always thought it was worse on the right because that's where he snatches at, but... maybe he doesn't want to close the cervicals on the left side at his neck base... hence the resistance I felt today. Sigh... So.. now what???!! Oh, and... after we got it at the walk, we picked up the trot and went through it once. We got it, but.. he had multiple lame steps when I first picked him back up. Kelly saw it too. So... okay, but if it's his neck... why is he lame behind again?
So... we had this amazing wonderful weekend... with an amazing lesson until the very end. And now I'm just... so confused. Do I need to inject his neck? Is that why his tongue is coming out? But why is he lame behind? We already injected his right stifle... is it his left stifle? His hocks? Is he just sore from the day before and the tongue is related to his neck? I feel like when his stifle bothers him... well, it has been his tongue. But usually he stops at the jumps before I noticed the tongue.. And most recently the tongue issue seemed to be related to his neck. ARGH!!!! Maybe I just need to not ask him for that level of collection? Maybe this is his "stop point". He cannot do that level. So far, everytime we get here... we get the tongue. Sadness. Because he's brilliant at it. Well.. I think he's brilliant at it. Sigh... I don't know what to do . I don't know if I should inject his neck and see what we've got. If I should get him worked up again... by another vet? Dr. Barrow? Dr Kate again? Keelin again? Should I just.. back off and accept it. Sigh.. and now... we were planning to do training at Stableview again in two weekends. Now I'm not sure. Poor Dan. He tries so hard! And he was trying.. he just panicked... Kelly suggested I inject his neck and see what happens. And I'm guessing that's what I'll do. It hasn't been a year, but I think 9 months. Only 3 months since the serapin, but...9 months since the biologics and steroids.
After we did a quick trail ride. Just a quick one because Mike was waiting on me for lunch and I was hungry. Plus, we had done a short hack yesterday too. He felt good on the trails, but we only walked.
