aaaaahhh validation is nice!

 Today was a good day!

I had a lesson with Kelly Eaton again at Ashland. Because it had poured hard all night I got to ride in the covered arena. That's really nice footing! And we had mirrors. Which, I forgot to use. But Dan enjoyed. Kelly and I were laughing at him because everytime he came towards himself in the mirror his ears went flat against his head. Ha ha. "I think he's snarling at himself... he is!". Yep. That would be Dan. 

 

I parked at the showgrounds and we hacked up to the arena. That's a nice little but work out going that way. It's all uphill. So we got a good warm up. Then while we waited for our turn we walked around the field in front of the arena which was full of clover. Dan was snacking every chance he could. Goober. Then we went in for our lesson and in the beginning he was a bit distracted and looky. But he settled. I told Kelly that we had his hocks done and we had been doing our homework and I was still just worried about whether I was doing it right or just letting him plod along on the forehand. So we got started. She said right from the start he looked stronger and good. She was quite pleased! So we did our trot and she had me take a shorter rein. But only if he was taking it. In other words... kind of what I had been doing. I wasn't lifting him up... I was allowing him to come up. And he was coming up because he's stronger. Whoo hoo! So we worked on that. She noticed that tracking right he was a bit tipped. She had me do a tiny bit of counter flexion. And she warned me that every fiber of me being would want to do the opposite. And she was correct! He felt very stiff on the left side and like he couldn't stretch out that side. I kept asking him to move his barrel over with my right leg (and whip), which is correct, but... to help ourselves... Kelly wanted me to try counterflexion. But DON'T use my outside leg to push him into the right rein because the point of the counterflexion was to get him actually IN the outside rein. Because he is cheating and not really in the outside rein which is why I keep wanting to use my inside leg. And I kept wanting to use my inside rein too, but that's not the answer. Ride to the light, give to the heavy. Ahhhh yeah. So I tried it and it's magic! I asked for more connection on the outside rein creating an outside flexion, keeping my outside leg off. Then once he straightened up and was more even in both reins, I could add my inside leg and turn my shoulders to the inside and allow him to go back to straight while keeping that outside rein connection. It worked!!! And much quicker after the first time or two. He's getting it! And it's a true outside rein connection. Awesome!!! 

 

So then to touch on the "on the forehand" stuff. She explained that he has to go towards the bit first and foremost. And because of his neck arthritis, he has to keep his neck long. And as he gets stronger he will lift his withers and shoulders up on his own. I can't lift him with the reins. And to be strong like that, he has to be strong behind so that he can take the weight. And that takes times. Months Holly months!! BUT.... she said 6 and we're already a month in, so only 5 more. Ha ha. So we played a little bit with some strengthening exercises. She had me pick up the trot and get him happy and in the soft connection. Then she had me slow him down by using my core and seat and slowing my post. Ah!!! Except that once he started to dive down, push him forward again. And don't push him forward like I'm shooting him out of a cannon... let him ease back into forward. The changes within the gait build strength. And the slower tempo builds strength. And when he starts to fall/tip, asking him to go forward builds strength. And all of these things will help him stay off his forehand. It was fun! I did wonder if by sending him forward again when he got low in his neck would teach him to cheat and just go low to get out of work. She said that by sending him forward, in that moment, he had to push, so it is still work. So cool. We can play with that. My timing of my aids is getting better at this kind of thing too!

 

So then we went into the canter. I told her how his upward transition is just... icky. He braces and throws his head up and the only way I could figure out how to get him to not do that is to hold a much heavier contact and basically "hold his head down", but I knew that was wrong. So she watched us do one and figured it out. She's brilliant. She said that the head flinging up is just a result of earlier steps and to not focus on his head. In his upwards (even a little bit in the trot but I'm better at realizing and catching it) he throws his shoulders out, his haunches in, and completely goes out of balance. Then he has to throw his head up in the air to canter. So... rather than trying to catch the train once it's off the rails, let's keep it on track. So what I need to do is AS I'M ASKING FOR THE UPWARD, not before, ride a shoulder in. Basically as my outside leg goes back and my hips swing forward, I need to move both my hands to the inside to keep his nose between his shoulders. This keeps him straight and then he can use himself to go into the canter. And.. it's hard, but it works! We got one really nice transition! And then I'm not cranking on his face or holding him (which is not ideal for many reasons the least of being him not in self carriage and definitely not being relaxed and unbraced). He's in self carriage and he's then going to build better muscling. Whoo hoo. We had to do it both ways though it's easier going to the right I think. But yay! He had a nice canter although he fell out of it a few times. At least even when he fell out of it he was still in a much more balanced trot that he has been. Yay! We got some good downwards on purpose too. Oh, and speaking of downwards, our big trot to small trot is also a good way to go from trot to walk. :) 

 

Anyways... we quit with that. I was super pleased and Kelly was thrilled. She said he definitely looked stronger and I had done a great job with getting his neck where it needed to be. He was reaching for the contact so now that we had that piece... and I had the tool that when things got rough, I could ask for forward, down and out, and get it.. I could start shortening my reins just a tiny bit. Again, I'm not lifting him or shortening him.. but he's stronger so he's lifting himself, so I can go with him. Yay!! It's so nice to have such a good ride and have her validate that my thoughts were correct. And to know that I had been doing my homework effectively. And it was just a fun ride! He seriously is a fun horse to ride. I'm getting excited again. And, on that note... last night I was listening to a webinar by Dr. Gerd Heusschman, trying to be a good student before the clinic. And trying to educate myself. And he was talking about how horses in balance are happy horses. And how they aren't spooky or silly. And how you should be able to take your grand prix horse over a jump or out on the trails. Or ride it on the beach. Hee hee.. YES!!!! And then he was talking about how the best thing for stuck lumbosacral joints is a good gallop out in the field. Yes!!! It was just nice... and again, somewhat validating. And for sure... I'm listening to stuff that resonates with me and I'm sure I could find things proving me wrong. But it was just a nice little "hey, you're on the right path" reassurance that I sort have been needing to hear recently. Like... I know. But the self-doubt sometimes is hard. And it's hard to be patient. Kelly and I were laughing about that today. She said she knew how hard the patience was for me and was basically proud of me and that my ride today was proof of my patience. YES!!!

 

So yep.. and if that wasn't a great enough morning... I hacked Dan around for another hour and 15 minutes in the sunshine. It was a glorious day. The rain had stopped pretty much as we left the house this morning and by the time my lesson was over the sun was out and the sky was full of big fluffy white clouds. The greens and blues are just poppin' right now! And it was nice and breezy, although a hair humid. God has blessed us with pretty amazing weather this Spring. We had a great ride. We mostly walked around. We went to the magical place and ..... I just prayed and listened (or tried to listen). We then went to the hayfields and did a little cantering. And maybe a tiny bit of gallop because "Hey, Dr. Gerd said to gallop"!.  Ha ha. We finally headed home but it was hard to get off we were having so much fun!

 

I had to laugh because it's the last day of April and thus my April riding challenge on equilab. That challenge was to ride 50 miles... which I did, and then I upped it to 100. I had hit 96.3 miles with today being the last day. Ha ha! I suppose I could have ridden Lyric and gotten it in. And in reality, there were at least two rides where I used the pivo so I didn't track it, so I actually did do 100 miles in 1 month, but.. no proof. Hee hee. I'm so lucky! 

 

 

 

He deserved it after today :) 

Fun day with this goober

 Today I was supposed to meet a friend to jump. She was wanting to jump, and.. I knew if I took Dan I would be tempted and probably do too much, so I took Lyric instead. Plus he has a lesson at Ashland tomorrow so he'll get to hack tomorrow. (weather pending). So... I opted to ride him at home. It was so pretty this morning I was tempted to take him to Ashland too, but that's a lot of diesel and time. And after I got home and had lunch it started to cloud up and it was still nice, but not as glorious of a day. So I decided to drag the arena first.. before the rain... and then set up a grid. I've been wanting to do some grids to help him use himself better for jumping and ease our way back into jumping. And now, not only is the arena drug before the rains, but it's also drug before the grid got set up, so I won't have to drag again for a few days and can leave the grid out for Jean. I can't find my grid book but did find one online that was good for "pushing power". So I set that up. And I'm a terribly mean mother because instead of letting him build through it incrementally, I just... set it up and expected him to figure it out. Doh! It's really hard to do grids by yourself! And he's educated. And it was basically a cavaletti, three strides to a 2' vertical, then three bounce poles to a 2'6" vertical. So I figured it would be fine. And it was.

 

We did a tiny bit of pillar 3 work and then hacked up to the arena. We did our walk work... and then our trot work.. and then some canter work. We focused on our transitions in all gaits and everything is getting better. I also focused on not nagging with my leg and keeping the contact even in the reins. We worked on keeping his neck in line with his withers and not going too low but not cheating and inverting his neck. And we got some really nice trot! It felt pretty springy! His canters are definitely SOOOO much better now that his hocks were injected. And he's able to build his strength too. Yay!

 

I decided to trot him over the caveletti first a time or two so he knew we were jumping. See, I'm not super mean!! He was happy and was like "oooooh, we're jumping!". So we turned down to the grid and trotted to it. Ha! He broke into the canter two or three strides out and went for it! He was super game but very quick and big and bold. But yay!! It makes me happy that he's excited. He got through it pretty well despite being quite strong and having to shorten a hair to make the final fence. And while we were hugging the right side of the line, he stayed straight throughout. We did it a total of 3 times I think and then I decided I wanted to pivo it. But I had left the pivo pod at the trailer. Whoops. So I just put my phone on the fence and hit record. Hee hee. My position is Awful!!! Good gravy I'm so out of jumping shape. I'm all over the place. So we did it a second time so that I could improve myself. I worked at sitting up better and not throwing myself at the fence. It helped a little bit I think. Good boy. So we quit with that as tempting as it was to do more. He got less aggressive to it the last two times and was quite soft on the final one. 

 

Then we went back to some flat work and did a bit more trot and canter. We played with the shallow serpentine loops at the canter and that went pretty well. We did a walk to canter each way and then we finished with a nice happy trot! Good pony!

We were going to hack to the lake but... meh. Neighborhood riding isn't as exciting or beneficial, so we just headed bcak to the trailer. Good pony!

Fingers crossed that we don't get rained out tomorrow and can do a nice long hack after our lesson. 

hee hee... Oh D-Rex.. why do you have to eat my reins!?.. my expensive fancy reins!!

God provides!

 Ask and you shall receive. Except... we often forget, if it's His will. Today was a good day and I passed the prayer mile at least twice. And because I was in the car for a long time, I ended up doing lots of short little prayers. But I remembered to include myself today. I know that God knows that I want Him to heal Dan.. and that I want to be a better person and let my light shine more and I want to praise Him even in my dark times. But I often forget to say that. And I don't know if it matters, but... regardless, I prayed today for Dan. And Lyric and Funny and Fleck. And me. I prayed that He heals Dan but... I also know that if He doesn't, it's okay. I'm still grateful (and praying for continued gratefullness and to not get greedy or selfish or ungrateful) that I can do the things I can do and I know that it'll be okay. Even if it's not how I currently want things to be or end up. So I was feeling kind of peaceful about it. 

And then I got home and it was a beautiful day and I still have plenty of daylight left to ride and Mike is out of town so there's no rush to get back inside for dinner (other than me getting hungry), so I rode! I grabbed Dan and groomed him and then put the Bemer on him. I put the boots on the hind legs and then his back on tracks on his front legs. I did some fascial work on his neck and then his stifle isometrics and also some rock backs while we bemered. And then I got my boots on and then the bemer was done. We got tacked up and I took him into the field and hopped on. And it was great! He felt good at the walk, although he was trying hard to stay with the girls! And I just enjoyed it for a bit. We made two laps of the field, enjoying the sunshine and the big puffy clouds in the sky and the green green green grass and trees. And the fact that I was on my pony. So then we went into the arena and did our walk homework - forward, down and out, not nagging, self propelled and self carrying. He started a little behind the vertical again but it didn't seem like a discomfort thing today. So we kept at it and he settled into a nice stretch pretty quickly. I was praising God and just... had a feeling that he was going to be fine. And we picked up the trot and he was sound!!!! Thank you God!!! Thank you for having mercy on me and showering me with goodness, when I definitely don't deserve it. Ahhhhhh.... 

We had a lovely ride. We did our trot homework and focused on slowing the pace a tiny bit and attempting to keep my core and my body upright so he could stay off his forehand better. We focused on a soft connection with a reaching nose but with slightly shorter reins because he felt like he could hold himself without tensing. We did some leg yield and even some half pass. And then we cantered. And his upward transitions were soooo much better today! We then played with some shallow serpentines. He's definitely stronger one way vs the other, but... we'll build on it. I probably was a little too greedy, but he's the same way! He got "big" and "fluffed up" and wanting to go and do, so... we did. We played a little longer and got a nice trot and then a lovely trot to walk. We added a little walk to canter and tried canter to walk, which... got us a nice simple transition but not a canter to walk. But again, baby steps! I'm just so grateful he's cantering again! And is sound. And we're able to do these things in a loose noseband with no tongue out or stress! Again, Thank you God!

 

We exited the side of the arena in the short gate and Dan was careful to not step on the drag! Then we were going to head to the lake but I thought that he felt the teensiest bit cautious on the asphalt and didn't want to make him sore. So we just walked back to the trailer and quit. I think he wanted to see his ladies too. Good pony!!

 

He got a rinse and then immediately rolled. Of course. But that's okay. 

Ahhhhhh.... :) 

Sadness.... still sadness

 And crankies... on my end. I'm actually more cranky than Dan today, although... he's a little cranky too. Sigh... I'm trying hard to remain grateful and enjoy the moments and praise God because I know, I KNOW, that He is good. And I do have so much to be grateful for. Yet.... I also am frustrated. Dan looked much happier today and back to his normal self. And it's my day off! I had a dentist visit in the morning, that got moved from 9 to 10 am. No biggie.. that still gives me plenty of time to ride. And Jacel rescheduled our lessons from Tuesday to today, so yay! But then I added a patient because he couldn't bend and they were showing soon and... I had to go out that way to get feed anyways because they charged me for 8 bags (which I wanted) but only had 5, so.. no biggie.. still time to get to my lesson on time. And maybe even hack a bit before hand and them maybe ride Lyric after at home. And then the dentist went long... I spent a little bit of time talking after adjusting the horse... the feed store seemed to take forever....and then the weather. I am so grateful that it's not been hot and humid and steamy yet. And I'm so grateful that we're getting rain and even spaced out rain. I haven't had to water my garden and the pastures are about ready for bush hogging! But... why does it keep having to be on my days off?!?! Or maybe it's not. Maybe it's just today.. and because I haven't been able to ride Dan in almost a week (a week tomorrow), it seems like it's always raining on my ride days. So anyways... at least the forecast changed to rain later in the day, so.. maybe, maybe, maybe I'd get my lesson. NOPE! The radar then changed to storms, including possible hail, starting at 3pm and going through til 9 pm. And my lesson was at 3:30. So... we got cancelled. But okay, fine... I'll just ride anyways and try to get on earlier. But by the time I got home and changed and ate a tiny bit (so I didn't get a migraine) it was 2 pm. And it had been spitting and misting on and off all day. It's fine.. it's fine... I have the fake leather saddle I can ride in. It's not freezing...my arena is fine and then if it starts storming, I'm already home. And the radar was showing no real rain til 3:30 ish still. We've got this!

So I grab Dan and we get tacked up and it starts raining. Sigh... okay, maybe it'll just be a short shower and then go away. So we hacked up to the arena and he felt okay at the walk. Maybe I could still feel something. But maybe not. So we do our walk warm up... and he's reaching but curling at the same time. We manage to get a little bit of a good reach forward. But I'm wondering why he's being different and not really reaching. So I decided to trot and see. That way if he's lame... there's no sense in us staying out in the rain as now it was coming down fairly steadily. And if he's not, then we can go back to walking and get him going nicely before we trot again. But... alas, he's still lame. He's not so sore he barely wants to move anymore, but... pretty lame. Like.. legit lame. I can't tell but it feels like a back leg and he's super crooked and traveling very haunches in. Sigh... well, screw it then. No sense staying out in the rain for walk work. I mean... I suppose maybe we could do some pillar work but it's raining and he's trying but he's obviously hurting and... now I'm extra sad and cranky. 

So we headed in. I turned him back out and he didn't immediately run up to join the others. When he finally did, he only walked and you can see the short step. I think it's left hind, but.. then he's been resting the right hind today, so... who knows? I suck at lameness. But he's definitely lame. Sigh.. it's frustrating. I just want him to feel better and stay feeling better. And I think he does too. I think he's gotten depressed about it. Kind of like me... the migraines were a fact of life. But then they went away and my whole world changed. So now, when they come back, it's extra depressing. I think he feels the same way. Sigh.. I'm so sorry buddy. I'm doing my very best sir!!!

I couldn't even bemer him because Mike had to come grab my car and took the bemer with it. Oh well. I'll bemer him tomorrow. And maybe by Saturday he'll be sound. If not.. I'm gonna cry. Because also... tomorrow I have a half day, so could ride. But it is supposed to rain. And then Sat and Sun Mike is out of town so I can play with ponies all weekend without any guilt. And we've got a lesson Sunday. But of course... it's supposed to rain Sunday and maybe Saturday. Sigh.. And I'm sure I'm also stressing about being ready for the Gerd clinic. Oh well. 

(I forgot to turn it off! ha ha... much of that time was me sitting on the couch pouting). 

I'm glad that Danny was willing to try and feeling better than yesterday at least. I'm grateful I have him still and riding him is even an option. I'm grateful that I have my arena so on days like today, I can hop on when the weather breaks and sneak in a ride and not risk getting stuck in severe weather. 

Bless Him

Got new shoes... pleased with his progress. grew a ton of toe

super sore after his trim/shoes

tried really hard but just couldn't do it. 

even stood at the arena for awhile after i untacked

flirted with girls. funny is in LOVE with him