I'm still sad about Emma. I miss her... much more than I sort of expected.
I rode Lyric at home and then met Laura at Ashland with Dan. She wanted to jump around the course. I got Dan and we headed to Ashland. When we got there it was busy!!! Practically as soon as I unloaded him and got him tied up... people started coming from every direction! He was already staring up at the jump arena, convinced there were monsters up there. And then some horses came in from cross country... and then some parents on foot. Then someone came in from the jump arena... and another group down the driveway by the jump arena. Then someone came around the trailers from the other direction. And normally... Dan wouldn't have cared. But he was on edge today. He's been so spooky lately. EPM? The mares? Pain? Lack of pain? I even untied him a few times because I was thinking he might pull back. But he didn't... and I ended up just tying him to the hay string instead. We got tacked up and Laura had hacked over, so I got on. So much for pillar work. Oh well. I did manage a few steps coming in from the pasture (Which meant I noticed his big fat left knee... there was a crusty cut on it, so I'm assuming Funny kicked him. Sigh.. but he was sound at the walk so...). We headed up to the jump arena. I had him in his dressage tack. We did our walk warm up and I didn't focus as much on getting him to sit on his butt but more just stay forward and loose. And I did have my spurs back on. He felt good so we picked up the trot. And he was sound. Yay! I figured as much. It wasn't that bad of a puffy knee. I also thought the ride might help reduce the swelling some. We did a shorter ride... trotting and I tried to fit in a fair amount of cantering too. We did some transitions. He's definitely still feeling MUCH better! I even had him canter a cross rail and he took a flyer the first time. The second time was much more civilized. And... no tongue today!! I do think he felt more willing to reach for the contact today and was more "out" in his neck. I don't know if that's because he was more willing to go there today or because I wasn't "riding his head" today. I gave him previcox last night (and this morning to "load" him) so maybe that was it??? Maybe it's because he was amped up because of the atmosphere and then add in the jump arena??? Maybe it's because I wasn't riding him so short?? Maybe it was just a bad day yesterday? I have no idea. But I'm grateful that he felt good today. We did a tiny bit more and then Laura had finished jumping so we went for a trail ride.
(Ha ha.. that big ol' IRISH HEAD!!)
Dan gets mad because Smarty walks SOOO Fast that he gets behind him. So there were a tiny bit of shenanigans. But we managed to stay in the open enough that he wasn't too bad. We did find the gallop track too that Lucy had mowed so we opted to trot it. Now Dan was leaving Smarty in the dust. Laura commented on how big Dan's trot was. Right?!? She said Smarty was almost having to canter to keep up. Ha ha. I know... Dan can power trot all day long too! At one point though Smarty got in front and... Dan got MAD! He went to cantering and bucking and then got his head down and got next to Smarty and then it turned into a little bit of a race for a few seconds. Twits! We managed to get them back and then they were polite again after that. It's a fun little mile! I can't wait to get out there by myself and do some fitness work and some cantering and galloping! But... we've got to get fit again first. I noticed today that Danny's flabby and tubby again. Me too buddy, me too!
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