Hard workout

 So after our last lesson Dan had two days off because of work. So, I rode him today to see how he felt. And he felt good! We met up with Sharon and Baylor at Ashland. She had a video consult with Mark to check her saddle fit and cinch sizing and options and then we were going to hack after. I was sort of thinking I'd get there early and do an arena ride first but then I didn't get there early enough. Partly because Dan was filthy and needed a good rinse first before we left and partly because I was just a slacker. She was pretty much done and mostly tacked up by the time I got there. Of course then I talked to Mark very briefly and showed him Dan's topline! And then Sharon had to show me about the cinch and then I had to show her my new purchases, but.. then we were ready to ride. So I decided I wouldn't do the arena ride or would do it after since she was ready and I was too. 

 

So we went for a nice long hack. We did the perimeter loop more or less and started with the small dam and then did behind Ashland and then behind the school, then to Oxford Manor, and then all the way around. It was a lovely ride. The spiders are out and I had a few get stuck on my whip/decobwebber. But I deposited them on the next tree. I also had the cutest little inchworm hitchhiker! I also deposited him on Ann Haller's lovely tree. 

 

After our ride, I did decide to go into the arena. I wanted to do a tiny bit of work just to feel him out and also run through the test. I ended up doing much more work than I had anticipated so I feel sort of bad, but he was up for it! Poor guy was so hot and sweaty though. It was so humid and he's already getting his winter coat in. I partially clipped him but definitely need to do more. He and I were both literally dripping! But it was a good ride. We warmed up briefly and then did our "squares" to practive revving and he's getting the hang of it. I also made sure that there was no sluggishness today. I had to be a bit adamant at first, but then he picked up on it and I didn't have to use my whip. We were prompt and marching, whether at the walk or trot. We played with canter too and he was quite good. I did have to use my inside leg and really keep using it to get some bend in the canter but that worked. We ran through the test a few times and practiced our prompt transitions. I also noticed our centerline tended to drift slightly right, so if I ride with an exaggerated inside bend to the left, tipping my sternum slightly left, and almost think of riding a left leg yield... he stays straight. Our first centerline was really drifty! 

 

We finished up and headed back to the trailers. Sorry buddy.. I didn't realize you were that sweaty! He got a nice long hosing off and then he got to get in the trailer with the fans and I drove fast. Ha ha.. I drive fast anyways. And he was fine by the time we loaded up. Good boy! I'll start his legend injections mid week next week to get the timing great for regionals. Now to just figure out my outfits ;) 

 

Revving and Rocking and Rolling

 Fun lesson with Liz.

When it was Funny's turn and I left with her to go tack up, he came up to brag to Liz about how good he felt! Yay! Just a little bit in his right neck - mid cervicals.

We tacked up and trotted up to the arena and then we went to work. We talked about the things i wanted to focus on for the show... prompt trots from the halt, square halts, the livestock pen, a marchy walk... 

so we started with square circles. Ride all four corners. Tracking left he wants to counter bend, so I have to ask for left flexion and then ride the square turn. Ride his right shoulder over... turn from the outside rein. But tracking right, he overbends so he almost turns more than 90 degrees so i have to hold the outside rein much more firmly. Still ride from the outside rein but I don't have to ask for flexion. It's already there. And he wants to run a little bit, so half halts to balance. But, the square turns helps him stand up and be straight. and if I rev him up in the corners and allow on the straight lines, he gets more "bounce" to his trot. (Think of the exercise Jessica Strott had me do... allow on the long sides, shorten and collect with leg on in the short sides). 

Then we did some trots from the halt becuase he walked off like a slug! Unfortunately, it's a bad habit, so I am going to trot from a halt an awful lot and I may have to remind him with the whip to be "sharp". But it worked because by the end of the lesson he was marching right off and even offering a trot when I asked for a walk. Smart boy. We did some halts to square turns to halts to square turns and then we did a square turn into the livestock pen. And same thing.. marching walk... don't let the walk be sluggish. Also, his turn on the haunches to the right is better. Which makes sense that he's leaning on the left hind vs the right hind. So we'll do that. It also sets us up better if we go right first, then right turn on the haunches and then we go left. 

Then we did some canters. Liz said that's the best canter he's EVER had!! It felt good. He did stumble once on the right lead but caught himself and kept going and had a nice canter. It's so uphill and round. Tracking to the left though he wants to counterbend so I can ride a square turn (think tiny turn, like my octagon) and then put my inside leg on to ask for bend. It works, but he can't hold it long. So baby steps. Then rev him up into the downward. He almost popped right back into the canter one time. :) 

Good pony!!! He's happier with his tiny haircut I gave him last night too.

photos: 9-26 liz lesson

Working hard

 Yesterday I managed to get the arena drug and moved some of the obstacles and added some. I added one barrel with a pole that was basically a long thin pvc pipe. Close enough! I'll hopefully get the top cut off another barrel soon so I can practice more accurately. Then I moved the single slalom to a double slalom and then added drums after the jump. I also made trot poles over two of the three jumps. So.. Dan and I played this morning. 

 

It was actually hotter this morning it appears. Sorry dude! The humidity was high and the sun was out, so even though it was a lot cooler than it has been, it was still hot! Later the clouds came out and a breeze picked up but when I rode Dan, it was still pretty humid and warm. Sorry buddy... it might be time for a haircut!

 

We walked up under saddle but then I had to get off to fix the double slalom poles. I made them way too tight. I let Dan wander around while I did that so he could weedeat for me. I'm not sure he did, but he did investigate the jump poles. He let me catch him easily and I got back on and we went to work. 

 

We had a good ride. He felt decent and we had some good work. We are getting better at the drums and the livestock pen. And we had some good gates. And he did the rounding posts perfectly! The double slalom wasn't actually too bad either. So yay. We played with the canter too and some leg yields. Good pony. He was puffing and huffing though. It's just so humid. We did a tiny bit more work and then did the gate once more and then we headed back for a shower!

 

Tomorrow is a Liz lesson! I did manage to give him a partial haircut tonight after dinner. Basically I just unzipped his neck and chest and did his belly and shoulders. It's probably going to look terrible as I did it in his stall just real quick. Oh well. Ha! It'll grow back. I'll give him a proper haircut soon. Soon enough that it has time to even out before regionals! But it's just too darn hot and humid for him to be hairy!

 

Beautiful Day

 Well, beautiful morning. It got HOT later today. I slept in and reveled in it. And it wasn't nearly as humid and miserable this morning and even late morning. So yay! After I got everyone fed and had cereal for myself, I loaded Dan up and we headed to Ashland to meet Sharon and Baylor. 

 

She wanted to lunge first which was awesome because I wanted to do a little flat work and was going to do it after, but before worked great too. So Dan and I headed to the arena to play. We were able to get a decent amount of work in so that was nice. He felt good. We played with the canter and he fell out the right lead on a circle once but only the one time. We did some leg yielding and played a little with some lengthenings (baby ones) and some 10 meter figure 8's. He was a good boy although he was a little resistant to bend left at the end. I'm not sure if it was more related to him wanting to go say hi to Baylor though or just being stiff. But we did get some nice left bends. 

 

We had a fun hack. We just walked, which was fine as Dan was maybe feeling a tiny bit fatigued after the ride yesterday and the dressage before our hack. He still feels better overall though in many ways. He felt like he was a bit quicker than lately, although definitely a little slower than yesterday. And he lost his hind end once and tripped up front once. We had a good ride though and found some flowers! 

 

 

Poor Dan is gonna need a haircut soon if this weather doesn't start cooperating! It's so miserable hot and humid and he's starting to grow his coat already. Poor guy. Later tonight when I rode the girls he came up to say hi and was making me laugh with his fly mask. He's been twirling it and now he looks silly!

  

 

 

Almost foiled

 Poor Danimal. He's been a little bit on the backburner because... well, it's too bloody hot and humid and I don't have three rides in me these days. But also because he knows his job and I don't want to drill him because of his stifle. And partly because the girls are doing some fun things and need to be worked for various reasons. But I finally got to sneak in a ride on him today. And it almost didn't happen!

Today was Mike day so we went to drop his ducati off at the Roswell store for it's maintenance. We were going to go to the lake after but... we ended up buying me an E-bike that goes 60 mph! So it's essentially a baby almost motorcycle. It doesn't even have pedals.. just foot pegs. But the one we wanted was at the Conyers store, so we ate lunch with his boss, then went to Conyers and bought the bike and then Mike rode it home while I followed in the truck. And then I practiced at home in the neighborhood. And jeepers.. it's kind of scary! I only got up to 32 mph on straight lines. And I almost crashed into the neighbors mailbox. Oops. But I didn't. And then I ran out of charge. Well, it was down to 5% so we brought it back home to charge. At that point, it was close to 5ish, so I asked Mike if he cared if I went to ride and he said no, so.. a friend and I met up at Ashland!

 

When I left the house it was still stupid hot and miserable. My truck actually said 100 degrees but then it dropped to 98. But then as I got closer to Ashland the sky started looking a little dark. Hmmmm. And when I pulled in to Ashland, it was thundering. The big rolling thunder... Jamie and I debated whether we should risk it... but we finally decided that we would, since we were already there. We tacked up super quick and headed out.

  

She was riding Jack, her leopard appaloosa and Dan was smitten! He's got a thing for leopards apparently. He was super friendly and then started kissing on him and nibbling his face. Jack was a good boy and just kind of sat there like "okay, weird.. but okay". Hee hee. We tried to stay in the woods in case it started to really rain and we didn't want to be an easy target for lightning. But we got lucky. It never did more than spit for a few seconds. We hacked to the lake and then it seemed safe enough that we headed across the dam to the hay fields. We trotted on the gallop track and as we were coming across the big hay fields we started to see some lightning in the sky. It looked like heat lightning, but... we decided to get back in the woods and head home. 

So it was a short ride. Only 45 minutes but it was still fun. It was nice to get out and the storm made the temps a bit mroe bearable! Actually a lot more bearable. Plus, it was getting dark which helps too. I still had to hose Dan off though. On the way home the sunset was lovely but there was a LOT of lightning. Not just heat lightning. Actual streaks too. So it was probably a good thing we headed in earlier and not tried to stay out longer. Dan felt good too and seemed to be walking faster. His trot felt good and apparently Jack had to canter some to keep up. Also, I've been noticing him running and playing in the pasture more so I do think he's feeling better! Yay!

 

I don't think I like this green pad on him. Maybe it's the "yellow" part to it...

Twirling....

 So maybe he is feeling good..

videos: twirling at sunset...

also his twirling weenie ;)

Feeling good???

I slept in this morning. It's my only morning til the weekend and I've been so tired as I'm not sleeping great. But last night I actually slept decently. After I fed ponies I went inside and ate breakfast and let them graze. But it was getting hot and only going to get hotter today and this week, so... I went back out and decided to ride Dan first. I caught him easily but then I was letting him follow me on the end of the lead rope and as we got close to the gate, he just took off! To be fair, it was easy... I was not paying attention and had a loose grip. He cantered off and went and stood by the hay shed. But he let me catch him easily enough again. Of course he set the girls off so they were running and bucking and carrying on. Which made him a little more animated but I did manage to keep him politely walking and we made it all the way to the trailer. Okay... I'm hoping this means you feel good and not you feel so bad it's worth taking off to avoid a ride. 

 

We tacked up and headed to the arena. He was good. We did our warm up, although not much because he's already cantered! ;) We started out pretty nice and had some nice trots and canters. We played with the obstacles but also focused on some dressage. We did our circles and got a nice soft and balanced trot. And canter. He held his canter the whole time I asked for it, which included a full 30 meter circle and a straight line, but he was starting to falter, so I asked him to come down out of it. I do think he's getting stronger though. He was a bit of a turd in the livestock pen.. just was dragging and not marching and when he did march, he was so haunches in that he was falling into the inner circle. So I had to do some leg yielding and haunches yielding to remind him how to move! And we did some rapid transitions to help get him a bit more responsive to my aids and bit more animated. It helped. We also got two nice turn on the haunches (I think at least) between our circles. He did the reinback switch cup decently and we had a few good goes at the gate. The single serpentine was nice too. We also did the jump twice and he is getting good about just trotting it. However, that makes me a little worried it's pain. But maybe not.. maybe he's just not as painful so he's not throwing himself over it??? I don't know. He did feel a bit weak behind today at times. I do think his stifle is bothering him. When I felt him "falter" a bit, I would go back to walk or some some less stifle stressing things. Like larger circles or straight lines. Oh, we also trotted some trot poles too and he was quite nice through those.

 

We finished up and headed to the field to hack home. But I kind of felt like I wanted to do a tiny bit more, so I asked him to trot a little and then do one canter circle. Well.. he tried to take off and head back to the girls. He knows he can put that big ol' head of his down and just power through my bosal aids. Bad boy!! So I finally got him turned back and back to the trot and then we tried again. And then he put his head down and went to crow hopping. Naughty!! We got a very nice trot and then I asked again and we finished with a nice canter circle both ways. He felt good out in the field... l didn't appreciate any weird stifle things. Maybe it's adrenaline? Maybe it's footing? Maybe it's me just being overly analytic? Or maybe he's just lame and it was harder to feel on terrain. 

He got a nice long bath because he was blowing hard. He was literally dripping sweat. It's sooo humid. But also...don't go crow hopping and you might not have to work as hard or long.