Today was Beths' clinic day at Ashland. She did a XC grids one but also mentioned she had time to do a groundpole one in the arena if anyone was interested. I asked her if she could do the timing for me, I would ride in both. My original plan was to bring Lyric to the XC one and Funny to the arena one. And I was quite excited about it. BUT.... after Funny felt so bad Thursday, I decided it wasn't worth pushing her today so I brought Dan instead. And I figured it would be good for him anyways and fun for us both. I figured I could always bow out early if it got to be too hard for him. But, as usual, God saw ahead and it was a brilliant plan! It was a great outing for Dan and made my heart happy.
I had enough time to get Lyric hosed off and home and then luckily Dan was right there by the round pen so I was able to snag him. He was FILTHY though... like black caked dirt on him. So I sacrificed some time and "pressure washed" him with the hose. It was still pretty bad but I literally only had 30 minutes til we started when I loaded him on the trailer. And.. it takes 30 minutes to get to Ashland. Whoops. But Beth knew I might be a hair behind.
We got to Ashland and I threw tack on and put my helmet and gloves back on and we headed up! We actually made it on time as Kelli and Celeste were still walking their ponies around on foot. It was them and then Sarah, Judy's daughter. So a super fun group. Beth had set up two sets of 4 poles on a circle at 5 and 7 o clock roughly. Then in the middle of that circle, she had 3 single poles. So we warmed up by walking over the group of 4 a few times. She had me slow Dan's tempo so he had to reach rather than just run through them. Then we trotted them and it was the same thing. He had to sit in the hind end and reach with the front end. It was great because he needs to reach with that right front especially but he always has a tendency to run and pull himself along rather than sit and push.
So then, two at a time, we trotted around the circle hitting both sets of 4 and worked on cadence and balance. It was pretty good. Dan was a little worse going to the right, which actually surprised me at first. I figured because his right front would have to reach more on the outside it would be harder. But in retrospect, I think it was easier for him to fling it than it was to lift when he was bearing more weight on it. ahhhh.
So then we changed it up. She had us trot the four poles, then come inside to the smaller circle and do the 3 single poles, then finish over the second set of 4 poles. Ahhh... that made it more obvious that they were drifting through their outside shoulder. All four of them did it to some degree. So we worked on riding inside leg to outside rein and really holding them with the outside rein. It was great! Going to the left was easier but going right... hard! In the beginning Dan was sort of fighting me and overbent himself in the neck. Of course that made him upset so he stuck his tongue out and was fussy. After a bit, I got myself figured out and rode him straighter in the neck base by riding my inside leg and outside rein and focusing on the straighter neck and then... he was able to make the circle more correctly and his tongue quieted down and he was happy. Ugh.. that stresses me so much though. We did that a couple of times and Beth made the comment to me that just... helped my heart. She said that while he struggled, she honestly thought that was the best he's looked ever. She said that he was going more correct. And her thought was that in the beginning, when he was fighting me, he was overbent and he was creating pain or trauma or.. just difficulties for himself, and therefore his tongue came out. But when I got him using himself correctly and he was able to balance, he was able to focus on the job and do it comfortably and his tongue went back in and quieted down. She said that she also saw him fatigueing. She felt like he was really quite weak. She said that she suspected that he's been compensating for such a long time and now that he's finally able to move correctly.. he's just not used to using those muscles (and add in the atrophy) and therefore he's weak and it's hard. BUT... she said to keep doing this but be cognizant of his fatigue and to ride him up to it, but not push past it. Oh how I needed to hear all of that! Because, my brain was starting to panic about his tongue. And, I'm sure it will again. Maybe even it is now. And I'm sure that if it stays consistent, it'll panic me even more. BUT... for now, I'm agreeing that it is fatigue and it's hard work for him, so his tongue comes out. That doesn't mean he is broken still.. it doesn't mean I need to give up. It just means I need to be empathetic to him and kindly but effectively do his rehab work.
So we took a little break and then we added a little canter. We trotted the four poles, then cantered around and trotted before the second set of 4 poles and then kept the trot for the 3 center poles and then trotted the 4 poles out again, then cantered until we got back to the four poles and repeated. Dan did well with the canters. He was weak. So weak. And he picked up the left lead once instead of the right lead but only once. We quit after a few circles each way. Beth said that for the future, the next step would be to trot the four poles and then canter the rest of the exercise, but... Dan's not ready for that yet!
So yeah... it was really nice to get Beth's perspective and thoughts and it was fun to get back out on my best boy and let him play. And then most of us hacked to the lake for a little splashing. Dan did bottom out once or twice on the way to the lake so he was definitely tired. But he splashed and even pawed with his front right multiple times, so yay! We hacked back home through the woods so we got a tiny bit of hills. I was so tempted to do his water treadmill but figured that was enough hard work for the day.
Later that afternoon he came to say hi while I was fixing the bird feeder post and then snuggled a little bit after dinner, so... I think he's happy and I think he knows that we're both working hard to help him get better! I just adore him. He really does try his best. He's puts in the work with minimal complaints. He stuck his tongue out but he didn't quit.. he didn't buck... he didn't get naughty. He just... kept working at it. So much heart!
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