Bestest Boy

 Okay.. I felt a little better after having lunch with Mike and buying flowers. So.. I decided to hop on Dan. I wanted to go ride at Ashland and just enjoy a nice long hack with him, but I'm hoping to get up early and do a Easter morning ride on him to enjoy God in my own little Heaven. But we'll see. And then, because I wanted time to drag the arena, spread manure, plant my flowers, and shockwave Lyric... I opted to ride at home. I only managed to drag the arena and plant my flowers, but... at least I did that. 

I just rode bareback and he was lovely! Jean had the interns pull all the jumps out of the arena since I had told her I wanted to drag it, so we were able to do some dressage schooling much more effectively. He did some nice turn on the forehand and haunches... he's getting more responsive with it. We did our trots... some transitions, some leg yields, some haunches in, some shoulder in, and even some trot half passes that were decent. I think my body has figured it out. I can even almost keep my head turned the correct way and my shoulder the opposite and correct way now! Mostly. We even played with some leg yield zig zags and some half pass zig zags. Baby... baby ones! And in a long neck frame.... so training level, maybe first level. BUT he did feel like he was getting "poppy" in his gaits... so like.. maybe more collected than his neck would lead one to believe. Yay! We also did some figure 8 serpentines in a 10 meter ish circle path. Then, I decided... what the heck.. what's the 3rd level test require? So I looked it up... and it's actually quite nice, and in theory, doable, minus the flying change. So we played with it. It's basically shoulder in down the long side, half 10 meter circle, then half pass back to the rail. And.. that's pretty easy as he's already set up in haunches in, which is easier for him to half pass that way. We played with our trot lengthens too. He's so much better down centerline vs the diagonal so I tried playing with halting on the diagonal so he would be encouraged like he is on centerline and it kind of worked!

I did have him canter both ways, from the walk. And we did one simple change. I tried to do some canter to walks, but... we're not there yet. I only did one circle and one long side in the canter each way, as technically.. we're not supposed to be cantering. But he's also probably not supposed to be fully turned out yet either. ;) Oh, and we did a nice half turn on the haunches too like in the test and... no tongue today! When we were done... we had only done like 11 minutes of trot, so I figured we could go out in the pasture and do a little bit of trotting to get the last bit, so that's what we did. We trotted up and down some of the hills. And ended up with 17 minutes of trot. Whoops. Oh well. ha! Clearly we don't really follow the rules. 

He was sweaty as it's so hot out, but he also had a nice small amount of lip foam and a fair amount of butt foam! I'm not sure how much is him working correctly vs it's just hot out, but... yay for butt foam!

Thanks for making my heart smile again today bubs. It does help to remind myself that a few years ago I was lamenting how wild and feral you were and wishing you were more like Fleck... and today... I'm lamenting how wild and feral Funny is and wishing she was more like you. So... thanks for that reminder. I know Funny will be amazing and fun and not awful again soon. And that both of you will still never lose that little bit of sassy streak that I love so much, but still are amazing wonderful kind dinos. 

saving grace

 hack after lyrics vet visit

lovely hack... in the ryder

then water treadmill. then arena work. lovely trot half passes, but tongue out once with shoulder in right??

good pony

photos: Saving grace

Saddles and bareback

 fitter came... thought that the ryder dressage and loxley jump should fit him pretty well, so will try riding in those. but running short on time today, so... walked out to pasture with bridle and bareback pad and a brush and grabbed him. hopped on and did arena work. Tried to do in hand stuff first and got annoyed with him for chewing the reins, but... got the lateral work done. 

hopped on and rode. pretty happy pony. forward... no tongue... happy to reach into a soft contact and even got jaunty! Almost half step feeling but i'm sure it's just a normal trot vs a strung out trot. did some leg yields, some half passes (getting decent but still not a lot of bend and one way still harder), and some ten meter circle serpentines. did two nice turn on the haunches... no tongue! cantered a bit.. did walk to canter and right lead getting better. trotted a few cross rails.. cantered one or two. 

while cantering right, tripped hard and almost faceplanted but recovered. slightly scary...

did trot poles (still 3 feet and alternating raised) but was quite good through them. 

good pony. hacked home in pasture

Hills, hills, and Magic!

 Oooh, we needed that! 

 

I had talked to two different friends about riding together, but honestly... I just sort of decided that I wanted to hack Dan alone. That way we could do our 15 minutes of trot and not have to do it in the arena or make circles in the field. And, my brain is tired. Too tired to coordinate or plan ahead. So I went with the flow. I woke up... acupunctured Funny... ate breakfast... sat for a few.. and then decided to go ride. 

 

Dan and I headed out to Ashland because... I wasn't quite in the mind space to try to figure out if it was hunting season for Charlie Elliot. Plus I think I've missed the smelly part of the wisteria bloom, although I'm sure it would still be pretty. Plus, since Funny has a swollen crotch from itching herself raw... she gets the day off so there wasn't as much of a time constraint. It was busy when we got there but I groomed him and put the bareback pad on. Well... I knocked off a layer of the filth. He was so dusty and dirty still! We headed out and did our usual "hill" trail to start. We enjoyed the magic and silence in our favorite section. We packed around a hitchhiking dragonfly for a little bit on the hooky trail. Then we did some trotting in the hay field area. He was power trotting today! I had to post, which isn't as easy bareback! I did manage to get him to settle just a bit so I didn't have to post because... I cannot post for 15 minutes bareback! He did settle and we got some nice trots. Then we splashed in the lake briefly and then headed towards cross country. They fixed the two pillars from The Never Ending Story! ha ha! I knew there was two groups XC schooling but when we hit the XC field the one group was at the ditches and the other group was jumping the logs, so Dan and I made a beeline for the water complex. Of course once we got 2 laps into our water therapy the ditch group started to head over. Argh! I hoped they wouldn't mind as I hurriedly finished 1 more lap to the left and then did 3 to the right. They didn't mind. It was Beth, so we chatted for a minute while the horses went in the water. Dan got a little annoyed as a bunch of them sort of crowded him for some reason. He was tempted to bite Kelda's horse on the butt to encourage him to get in the water. Ha ha!

 

We trotted up the hill and popped over two logs. Then we headed to the dressage arena to practice the half pass to see if I could get it better by moving my shoulder back. And it went way better!!! Still very shallow bend, but the best we've done so far. Yay! We also played with lengthens. He's much better lengthening down centerline. ha ha! Oh well. We also did some walk to canters. Just two each way and then we did a tiny bit of very shallow canter serpentines. He felt great!! And seemed quite happy. We finished with a turn on the haunches both ways and he was good. The left is harder and he wanted to brace in his neck, but not to the right. Good pony!!!

 

 

 

We both needed that! On the way home I had to pull over and fix his halter! Goober!

 

Bareback Dressage

 

So... I rode Dan at home today. And because I'm not sure if his saddle is fitting him, I rode bareback. The other day he had that weird serum-y scab on his right trapezius that he's developed before. And his topline is looking a bit more icky lately, which seems like it correlates with me putting the saddle back on. Of course it could also be because I'm trying to do more riding and thus more dressage and thus ruining him. But... I figured I'd go bareback again for awhile and see if his topline improves. 

 

We had a good ride though! He was pretty happy and I never saw his tongue. We did some turn on the haunches and forehand and leg yielding. And we practiced the half pass again and it's MUCH better when I turn my outside shoulder back. Even if I can't still figure out how to turn my head the right way. Ha ha! We did some trot walk trot transitions and did some lengthens. I even cantered a tiny bit. The right lead canter feels sort of disunted but the left one was better. We also popped over two cross rails. Because... well, because. 

 

He felt nice today! Rather jaunty and correct mostly. However he does feel like he's dragging that right front more and he suddenly looks more atrophied. I wonder if the shoulder injections aggravated things. Although with Lyric, it took a little longer than I expected to kick in. (Like... 5-7 days vs 1-3 days). So maybe he just needs another few days. 

 

We hacked home and trotted in the field and he was quite nice there too! Good pony! I really do wish I could show him bareback. He's so nice bareback! 

 

 I love how he sleeps!! He's so freakin' cute!

So Blessed

 The hormones are a little out of control but at least today they are in a good place. Today... I'm so grateful. I'm grateful and thankful that God has answered my prayers with Dan in so many ways. I prayed so hard that he "would just be happy and if all I could do was hack him around, that I would be thrilled". And... I can. I can just hack him around... bareback... in a saddle... ponying Lyric or Funny.... with my other friends... How amazing is that?! And while some days... I'm sad that his athletic career is cut short... that my goals of getting my bronze medal or doing the T3D on him seem to be dwindling... today, I'm still sad about that, but I'm more grateful that I can do what we are doing. He's happy walking, trotting, cantering, and popping over jumps. I bet that once we can gallop, he'll be happy galloping. We're having FUN. He's such a FUN horse. And for all of his "D-Rex" tendencies... he really is an amazing horse. I ponied Lyric off him today... with Marvin and Kelli tagging along. And Dan was lovely. We then split off and trotted around the cross country field and he was such a good babysitter. He has a sense of humor. He loves doing things. He's game for anything. I can probably go chase cows on him... do working equitation, do western dressage, or just beach ride. He's happy to do all of the things. He really is a good egg. And I love him so. And am so glad I can still enjoy his antics. 

    

 

Today was the first ride back after his shoulder girdle injections. I can't say if there was any improvement vs before as it's hard to assess when I'm ponying Lyric off him and trying to ride one handed. But also, Lyric's injections didn't seem to kick in immediately either. But he wasn't worse! I hauled them both to Ashland and had to groom them. They were wet before the temps dropped and then still kind of damp as it rained for 36 straight hours! And then Dan rolled in the red clay today. Luckily before I pulled his blanket so he wasn't quite as nasty as he could have been. Then I tacked him up and Lyric up and Kelli came to help me. We put her saddle on Lyric and I rode her to see how she felt. I knew Dan and her would not cooperate so Kelli walked Dan to the arena for me and hung out. He was a pest. She was trying to video for me but Dan kept chewing on the lead rope, dragging her away, trying to get in front of the camera, and playing tug of war on the lead rope. Ha ha. Sounds about right. Good news though... Lyric felt pretty darn sound!!

   

So then we went back to the trailers and untacked Lyric and I got on Dan and Kelli got on Marvin and we headed for the trails. We stopped at the lake and my two splashed around a bit. Then we made the loop around the lake. There were a couple of extra "creeks" we had to cross from all the rain. And the one by the beaver dam Dan jumped and really cracked his back over again. Again, I was not prepared. Ha ha. Poor Lyric didn't have a choice and had to follow. When we got to the XC field I asked Kelli if I could peel off and do a trot lap or two to feel Dan out. She agreed, so we trotted around. At first they were silly and cantered. Nope! Not doing that. Too easy to get kicky! They settled and we trotted around. We also walked down the bank, over the middle ditch, and into the water and up the bank out. Then we trotted a few logs... and accidentally cantered one! Whoops! I wanted to keep playing but they were being silly. Lyric kept trying to chomp on Dan's face and neck and Dan swung his hind end into her once. And I knew Kelli was waiting. She was going to have Lucy drive her over to get her dog and I offered to stay and make sure Marvin was okay in the trailer sitting and waiting. So I headed back in. It was still a fun ride even if it was shorter than I had wanted. 

   

While they went to get Rylie, I let Dan and Lyric graze since they had been good. It was a nice little breather. When they got back and Lucy was dropping Kelli off I was trying to put my trailer camera back in the trailer and Dan turned just hard enough that I ran out of lead rope. He started to trot off! Of course.... Lucy shows up and despite him being perfect ALL day... she saw him get loose! Doh! Luckily he didn't go very far and then turned back when I started to walk Lyric away. 

 

 

Oh, and on the way to Ashland Brooke was behind me and sent me a photo of their butts. And then when we left Ashland, Caroline was behind me and Kelli and sent us a photo. Ha ha. Kelli said Dan was messing with Lyric. I know! I've got the camera now! When we were almost home Dan was really getting into it. He had his whole head and neck practically upside down trying to chew on her jugular! And then he even double barrelled out! NO sir!! We do NOT do that in the trailer sir! At least he kept his halter on!