Changing it up!

 Today was a fun day! Lessons got moved to Thursday so I met Kimberly and Charlie at the Dabneys to play on the obstacles.  I caught Dan this morning and halfway to the barn he reared up and spun and got loose and galloped back to the girls! Daniel!!! Jean was hauling somewhere and I guess her horses got riled up and then riled up the girls and then... Dan couldn't help himself. I did manage to catch him again and despite him being a bit "up" I kept him in line and got him loaded on the trailer. 

 

We got to the Dabneys and Dan was fine. A little on alert because it was a new place but he settled quickly. Kimberly decided to start in hand and said she doubted she would get on. I tacked Dan up and started him in hand. He didn't care about the things. Except the things he cared about... ha! He was not a fan of the water box but did splash his nose through it. He just didn't want to walk in it. But it's a hard obstacle. And he didn't want to walk in the long skinny puddle. Daniel.. it's WATER!!! You love water you weirdo! He was pretty nonchalant about the other things. Except he got excited when he walked on the teeter totter and when he landed on the grass after he exploded and I almost lost him! So I decided it was time to get on! 

 

He did great. He just marched through the hanging tarps and pool noodles. He didn't mind the mailbox. And he even let me manuever him to do the gate. Although he did "help" me by shutting it the first time. Good boy... it's what I trained him to do! We walked through the zig zag fine but when I tried to back him through it he got all stressed out and his tongue came out. And their zig zag was huge logs, not low groundpoles so he got a little scrambly so... I just opted to not do that backwards today. He walked into the tire, over the pick up sticks, and up and down the bank. He even walked the teeter totter straight on and off, from the down side and the up side! At one point I got him to stop mid teeter totter and was going to see if he would rock it, and.. he kind of did. He started to paw it to try to get it to move and it did for a minute. Good boy! However, he would NOT go into the water box and wouldn't get into the long skinny puddle, although I did get him down the bank almost to the puddle. And he started to stress so... I just let it go after a bit. Oh, and they had stairs.. he did those too. He did the tire pedestal and hung out there watching Charlie for a bit. 

It was fun! So then Kimberly was going to help me tape him so we headed back to the trailers. I did want to show her how he was moving to get her opinion on why he wasn't cantering to the right, so we went into the arena for a few. Their footing is rather deep and then very shallow in one section. He started off hollowed and on alert and before I could get him settled, she was onto us. She told me to try to do "stirrup stepping", which is a Ritter dressage thing. You step softly into each stirrup as that limb comes down. And that creates a soft half halt, in addition to your reins softly half halting. So I did that and it really helped! She did point out that he needed to be a little slower to get better connection. Yep. I know! But we got some nice trot work. So then I picked up the left lead and he was quite lovely, considering we haven't cantered much in a long time. She did say he was dragging that right hind a little. So then I picked up the right lead and... it was actually quite nice compared to the last few times! Like... he didn't feel peg leggy... just weak. And he fatigued and fell out of it pretty quickly. But honestly, I was kind of pleased with that! Kimberly said he looked weak behind, and especially in the right hind. But she also thought his right shoulder was a problem. So... I hopped off and Dan desperately wanted to roll in that arena! Charlie did!! So why couldn't he? Because sir, you have a saddle on! And we're going to Ktape you so you can't be all gritty!

    

But then he was so sweaty and even after rubbing him down with alcohol, the tape would NOT stick to him at all. So I should have let him roll. Oh well. Sorry bubs. I did manage to get him taped when we got home after I had lunch and he had been chilling in the stall under the fans. He was pretty good about it. Although by dinner the tape had gotten tangled in his mane some and pulled off a bit. Whoops! We'll see how much is left by morning. 

Good and Bad

 Ooof, maybe I should have not ridden today. But it was a half day at work... and the weather was really quite pleasant for late August... I got home around 3 and rode Funny first. It did not go well, so I thought perhaps I could make myself feel better by riding Dan. 

 

We walked to the arena and did pillar work on the way. Although, maybe I should have done more pillar 1 and not just pillar 3. Although I feel like he lives in Pillar 1 more frequently now, so.. I sort of assume he's in pillar 1. But maybe not. Anyways... I made a 90 degree turn between ground poles for us to practice for the ranch class. In case I decide/get to do it. 

 

We got on and did some walk work and lateral work. We side passed the pole and then we walked forward through the 90 degree turn. Then we backed through it. Both directions. He definitely struggles backing on the left bend vs the right bend, but... I was actually quite impressed with him! It was hard and we probably wouldn't score beautifully, but... he did it! And didn't get too frazzled. Cool!

So then we went and trotted and he was a bit sluggish at first. But he got more motivated and we had some nice work. We even had some decent half pass work at the trot. Then I did a walk to canter on the left lead and he was lovely. I kept it short. We tried on the right lead and he didn't get it from the walk, so I let him trot and balanced him and then asked and he picked it up but it felt awful again. So we came out of it pretty quick. And then we went back to our trot work and did some more lateral work. But then his tongue came out. Sigh... Like... a lot. And then we did the backing the turn again and his tongue came out again. So I quit doing lateral work and went back to just trotting and let him do a lengthen and called it quits. 

 

So... while he was a good boy and we had some good stuff, the tongue has me more depressed again. 

 

Good Choice

 The weather has not been conducive to riding this Summer. It's been hot and humid and wet. The forecast showed rain pretty much all weekend so when Caroline posted that she needed an emergency scribe for the show today, I agreed to do it. The weather wasn't cooperative anyways, so why not? Except... it would have been so nice to sleep in on this dark, damp, rainy morning. Luckily I didn't have to get up that early. Just... didn't get to sleep in. But it was a good day to scribe. The weather was damp but mostly it didn't rain until the last 6 riders or so. Which was sort of a bummer because I probably would have shown had I realized it was going to be cooler and not so hot and miserable. Although it was still humid and damp. Regardless, it was educational and fun and I got to cheer on some friends. 

 

When I got home I took a nap on the couch. Or... closed my eyes and maybe dozed off for a tiny bit. Which is unusual for me. And then it rained again. And then it stopped. And then it drizzled for 10 minutes. And then it stopped. Argh! I was torn... should I just relax... catch up on chores? Ride? I was annoyed because I didn't accomplish much today but also annoyed because I was feeling lazy and didn't want to do much. So finally I just decided to go ride Dan at Ashland. I figured worst case scenario.. I got a little damp. Not like I was going to be wearing my boots or using a saddle. So... no real worries about everything getting wet and soggy. I almost changed my mind because as soon as I had decided that... it was really getting dark outside and the wind had picked up. Ugh. But... we got lucky and it only drizzled a little bit on our way to Ashland. 

 

We got to Ashland and it wasn't raining and wasn't as dark out, so... he got a quick brush and I hopped on. We hit the trails and he was motoring! He was all anxious because they were dragging the upper arena. It MIGHT be sprinklers!!! But he settled pretty quick. We did have a giant tree branch fall that gave us a pause but nothing worse. Good boy. We saw a few deer. And... just had a good time. 

 

We did some trotting in the fields and then trotted up the hill at cross country. Then we headed to the jump arena. The course from the show looked fun. We trotted a little bit but there were no ground poles, so.. we headed down to the dressage arena. I just wanted to play a little since I had watched some second level tests today. :) So we did. And he felt soooo good. We did shoulder in, haunches in, leg yield and half pass. And our half passes were even pretty decent!! Then we did some serpentines and some turn on the haunches. And then I tested the canter again. The left lead feels good. The right lead is awful. Ugh... I don't know what the problem is. Sigh... But we did a bit more trot work and he felt good, so yay for that. 

 

Then we went back to the cross country field to watch the sunset. It was lovely! I'm glad I went. 

 

 

 

 

Hack with Baylor and western contemplations