Long day in the saddle

It was a beautiful day today! A little hot, but gorgeous!

Liz and I had planned to ride together and I guess I was a little confused at her plans.. or maybe not, but... regardless... Dan and I had a nice long day together! I got there before Liz and I knew she was going to come a little later so that I could do my dressage first. So we did. 

We started with a quick hack.. then we did some walk work and I tried to do my homework... keeping him in my rein triangle and keeping him straight. I got him oscillating in his head through the walk and I felt like he was pretty good to my aids. I kept him straight and upright. So then we started trotting and had some good trot. It wasn't quite as consistent but it was much better than before. And I feel like I actually got some outside rein connection without having to have Kelly get it for me. Yay! So then we cantered. And... the left canter felt kind of awful. Just... slammy. Like... he was slapping his feet down rather than flowing. And he wouldn't relax his neck and hang. He kept bracing no matter what I did or didn't do. It got a little bit but not great. The left lead canter was actually fairly nice. He picked it up pretty quickly for me and didn't give me a bunch of grief so yay! We didn't try the counter canter. Not today... Good for me. I'm actually fairly proud of myself for that! 

We did try the shoulder in to half pass trick with moving my shoulders and HOLY CRAP IT WORKS! Like it actually felt like a legit trot half pass. :) :) :) Whoo hoo. We also got a decent lengthen across the diagonal. 

So.. just as I was done... Liz pulled up. So.. we hung out and Dan grazed while I sat on him while we waited for Liz to tack up and ride. She didn't ride too terribly long and Dan was happy to graze in the shade. 

Then we went for a long hack and just chatted. The boys splashed in the lake and had fun. Danny was making us laugh because he started towards G as he was splashing and then looked at him like "ughh... you splashed me!". Hee hee. Then as we were finishing our ride and heading back home... on the narrow trail on the other side of the lake... there was a truck on the path. But it was trying to back down the trail for some reason. Dan got scared and stood there for a minute... his little heart was pounding. He finally spun and just about knocked himself and G out as their heads collided! Luckily he spun and got behind G and then stood his ground, with Uncle G protecting him. Hee hee. The guy backed around and poor Dan spooked and spun again, again putting G between him and the truck. Then he half bolted down the trail for a step or two... and then he was fine. And then... later the truck was in the big field, albeit driving the correct direction this time, and Dan barely glanced at it. Goober!


So yep.. a nice long relaxing ride with two splash sessions in the lake.