Finally!

 Gorgeous weekend.... but spent it all painting... but snuck one in. Good in the arena, quick hack to lake

Destressing.... kind of

 What a day!! Shockwave in the am. Then Closing day.... almost lost 60K..... got it back because God is Amazing!

Finally snuck in a ride. Not great.... frustrated... went for a quick little short hack... that helped. Still a good day because I got to ride

More educating and a haircut

 Today was another lesson day. :) We worked on the figure 8's but keeping the bend throughout. Which, I had forgotten about that exercise. Oops! I mean, I did it once or twice but not like we did today. :) SOOOOO helpful in just pointing out things to me and helping me feel it. The repetitiveness of it was helpful. For Dan too I think. 

So we started at the walk and we started tracking right. Which, I thought would be the hard way, but nope. I was wrong! So, she wanted us to do an 8 meter circle... I'm pretty sure we were doing 12-15 meters, but... we tried. 

Tracking Right Figure 8 with No Change of Bend

• inside leg to outside rein
• don't let my outside rein slide/get pulled forward
• keep my elbows at my side and my elbows soft and giving
• haunches in (almost think half pass.. or do think half pass)
• sit to the right when on the right circle and sit to the left when on the left circle
• keep the haunches to the right when on the left circle still but push the shoulder around

Tracking Left Figure 8 with No Change of Bend

• inside leg to outside rein
• don't let my outside rein slide/get pulled forward
• keep my elbows at my side and my elbows soft and giving
• haunches in (which is SUPER HARD this way!)... almost impossible so far, but at least we are getting a correct bend
• sit to the right when traveling to the right and sit to the left when traveling to the left
• BUT... keep him straight. He can't collapse on the right shoulder, so I have to keep his nose between his withers

So then we upped it to the trot which was even harder and took a bigger circle going to the left. ha! 

But.. it's a great suppling and straightening exercise and it was super helpful to help me feel things. I could focus on one or two things... then realize the third thing fell apart... then realize I had gotten the 4th thing messed up, but.. because of the repetition of it.. I could go back and get them all and slowly but surely I'd get them all together. AND... even better... because I can now understand and logic it through... it's sinking in more. And I'm getting positive reinforcement because Danny really starting moving nicely. He starting getting soft and through and I got a real connection. And when we first started to the left, I felt the hitch, but within a circle or two, it got so much better! And then I never felt it again. SO... it's working!!!!! 

So more homework to work on, but it's fun. Danny is enjoying the "games" too. :) We're having fun and we're both getting positive feedback. I'm excited!!!!

I ended up giving him a bath when we were done, so he was dry when I got home. So I gave him a haircut finally. Man... his coat is so nice when he's clean. So soft and shiny, but damn!!! He's even shinier with his hair cut. And he looks GOOD!!! :) And he got a T-rex again. :) #becauseiam12. :) 

Witches and Dragons and Serpents Oh My!

 Today was a good day. Well, it ended good. I woke up with the migraine that I went to bed with.... despite 2 prescription pills and some otc pills. Sigh. I tried to sleep in but it wasn't helping, so I just got up and got the critters fed. Then Mike and I started to clean the walls in the house so we could paint them next weekend. We got two of the walls in the bedroom done and by then my headache had gone away. Thank goodness. Apparently motrin is the new helpful drug. We went for lunch and then came back and finished cleaning the walls in the bedroom and did the kitchen. Then we called it quits. The rest of the house is new enough and the bathroom will be gutted (hopefully sooner rather than later!) So then the weather was cooperating and actually not raining but it was so humid and the skies to the left were menacing, so.. I took Emma for a walk. Then Mike and I went to walmart and I made him go grocery shopping with me. When we got home, it was clearing and a bit less humid, so... I hopped on for a ride. It's been pouring on and off all night and all day (Thanks to the hurricane Delta.... we even had tornado watches here.. and probably why my head was killing me) so I wasn't sure how the ring would be. Turns out... not really rideable. Dang. But... we walked around a bit and practiced our straightness. We worked on the leg yields and the shoulder in to half pass at the walk. Then I trotted a smaller circle in the one area a couple of laps both ways. And then we quit. It was already deep in the one half and now it was very very boggy. Hopefully I can get that fixed soon. :) 

So then we walked around a bit and went to investigate Jean's halloween decor. Dan was not convinced about the dragon with the moving wings, but... he only spun once. He didn't get close though. Then we went out to the driveway and walked up to the serpent. He didn't have any movement so Dan was a lot braver with him. :) Hee hee... Maybe I can take him trick or treating on Halloween!

 Ha ha... His face... Um dude!! That's the face you make at me ALL THE TIME, so .... sush your piehole. 

Rainy day trail ride

 Today was a yucky rainy hurricaney day. Liz and I had planned to go to Hard Labor and trail ride together but the weather was just sketchy and it had rained hard overnight, so we opted out. But then once I got up and rolling, I decided I did want to go ride. Radar showed no rain for a bit, so... I took a chance! We loaded up and headed to Ashland just because I knew the footing there and figured walking the trails was our best bet for feeling accomplished. So we did. And it was lovely!

 

Clearly my app is no longer tracking appropriately. :( Good thing we already finished our 100 mile challenge. Sigh... frustrating though.