Finally another ride

 Dan lost a shoe after our last ride but luckily Patrick came two days later and got it back on. I never did find it though. Or Lyrics missing shoe, but at least hers was at Ashland. I looked for Dan's for three days and never found it. But we got to ride today because it's back on!

 

I rode Funny first and when we finished it was rumbling almost non-stop. The skies were a little dark so I sat for a few and had a popsicle. But then.... nothing happened. And nothing kept happening. So I checked the radar and it showed a big bad storm in a little less than an hour. But, I decided to go for it. I was hoping that we could do a quick ride and beat the storm vs wait it out and then maybe lose my momentum and not ride. So I said a quick prayer and went to get Dan.

 

We tacked up super speedily and headed to the arena. We did a tiny bit of walking but then picked up the trot pretty quickly since he had been in the field and I didn't want to get rained out before we did anything. But we lucked out. It barely sprinkled a tiny bit and we were able to get in a full ride. In fact, it didn't end up doing anything so we could have ridden as long as we wanted. Which, we kind of did. 

 

We had a decent ride. He felt a little bit wobbly/weak in his hind end and didn't want to load that right hind. But he was a good boy and we had a decent ride. We did some trotting and cantering in general and then we played with the obstacles too. He wasn't as good as he was the other day, but he was still quite good. His canter was good too. And he didn't fall out of it at all, so yay. 

 

 

He's BACK!

 As much as he can be. :) 

   

Today was Dan's day to go to Ashland. He got in big trouble though before we even got there. He stalled on the way to the trailer but at least he peed pretty quickly when he stopped and didn't stop multiple times. But when I went to put the trailer camera up, he smacked me with his mouth in the shoulder. Dude.. that hurts!! I know he didn't bite me... but still.. watch your giant head and quit slinging it at me! I yelled at him and then told him to stop being such a butt! Grrrr. 

   

But then by the time we got to Ashland we had both forgotten and he was decent for being tacked up. It helped that we were chatting to Amanda who was there, so I was distracted and didn't pay too much attention to his snarky faces. If there were any. :) 

   

We headed out and had a great time. He still feels a bit weak/wobbly/sticky in his hind end at the walk. But he was game and walking forward, abeit not as fast as he used to. We trotted a good bit and he feels perfectly fine when he trots. And then, because I wanted to get some cantering in, we cantered. And then we cantered some more. So, we had a lovely hack all through Ashland, aiming for some hills, and we trotted and cantered and walked. I kept the canter bits short and pulled him up as soon as he gave an inclination of wanting to pull up or starting to think about faltering. And his hind end behaved! He even got a little wild hair in one of the fields and took off with me! Not a full out gallop but fast enough that it was a tiny bit intimidating in the bosal! Especially because he put his head down and contemplated bucking. Once I got over the "shock" of it and the split second of "please don't hurt yourself or trip" I relaxed and we had fun and then I was able to pull him up. Glad you've still got it in you sir!

 

  

We went to the lake and splashed but I told him NO SWIMMING. Not with the saddle. And then we walked back. Well, we trotted a tiny bit to make sure he wasn't sore from the gallop, but he wasn't. 

  

Good pony! You've redeemed yourself from earlier. And you're so cute!

 

 

Super Pony

Oh, somebody was FABULOUS today!!!

 

We rode at home and had a good time. I tacked him up with the felt liner pad and the turquoise and black saddle blanket and meh... I don't think it's gonna work. There wasn't any space between the horn and his wither. I don't know if I need shims.. a thicker pad... or it's just not gonna work. So I took it off and put the brown with turquoise pad I bought from Sharon on him. That one seemed to fit him well and he seemed happy in it, so... maybe I just need a thicker pad? I think Sharon has one she's gonna let me try on to see. 

 

We headed up to the arena and warmed up and got to work. He felt pretty good and was fantastic! We did our obstacles and he nailed them perfectly! The livestock pen was marchy and since we had warmed up with some turn on the haunches (and I realized turning left is his happy turn direction) we did a turn on the haunches to go back in and he was lovely! So if we can pull that off it might get us a higher score at regionals. We'll keep playing with it to see. (And hopefully Polly will add Friday to her clinic that filled and I can do that and ask her advice on it). Then we did the switch cup reinback thing and he was perfect! Maybe he could have had a little more march to his reinback, but he stopped square and right on target, back straight and smoothly, and I didn't drop the cup. Good pony! He got a cookie for that. Then we ran through the single slalom and he was lovely. And then we jumped the jump and he trotted it and wasn't stupid. Although he didn't really "jump" it so much as trot it, but... the lesser of two evils I think. We also ran through the drums and he was pretty darn smooth! Another cookie for that! And then he did the gate and the reverse gate quite lovely! Good pony! I do think I need to add some other fun obstacles that maybe are new and different so he doesn't get bored with the same ones. Like maybe some more interactive ones that he can play with. 

 

I also played with the canter. He canters from a smooch consistently now! It's awesome. I also sit back onto his outside hind which helps him lift off too. Since his canter felt pretty decent we played with cantering between obstacles. We did a few walk to canters but I didn't ask for canter to walk yet. But we had fun playing with it. Once he lost his right hind.. it just got hung up behind him. But only once!

 

We also did some leg yields and some regular dressage work at the trot. He felt pretty darn good. Yay!