Grateful and Blessed!

 Oh Glorious Day!!

 

Dan and I had a blast today. He was spicy! We headed to Ashland and had the place to ourselves for most of our ride. It was a lovely spring day. Hot, but a nice cool breeze. And lovely in the shade. We hacked out and went to the Green lake after the steep hill. I heard dueling chain saws so I figured I would take Shadow Lane to cowpens instead of going to the Grass is Greener and Hooky trail. Good thing too because as we hit the Shadow Lane trail, they must have gotten sawed what they needed because it sounded like a giant tree fell! Luckily only I jumped. Dan didn't even flinch. Good pony. 

 

We went to the hayfields and then trotted the gallop track. Well, most of it. I let him have a little breather at the end because then we picked up the canter! It was fun. He came out of the one hay field and into the other and put his head down and started bucking! Yeeehaw!! Daniel Floyd Breaux!!! But then he carried on. We cantered around and he got a few partial changes. So.. maybe that's a good sign??? Or maybe a bad one since they were only partials?? Then we took another breather and walked around taking photos because it was so gorgeous out. We did a bit more trotting and then headed to the lake. 

 

He had a good bit of fun splashing about. It was refreshing. Then we walked up the path in the woods to the cross country field. On the way he stopped and started nosing the ground. Oh... he found the dropped "tulips" from the tulip tree and proceeded to suck them all down. Ha ha. Such a weird little hoover.  Then we did our water treadmill therapy. He cracked me up because as we were walking across the middle, I guess maybe a tadpole poked him... because he leapt up and bucked! Hee hee. And that water was deep! We then turned to go the other direction after our 3 or 4 laps and he did it again! Sir! ha ha. We had fun trotting in the water though. I do think it really helps him lift his back so I need to start doing that with the girls too!

Then we headed up the hill to the arenas because I wanted to do a tiny bit of dressage and work on collection. I tried in the field, but I just felt like I couldn't get as much sit. We did some shoulder in, haunches in, and leg yielding. And then we did some trot half pass and holy cow they were good!! They felt way better with true bend. But I'm sure they weren't as nice as they felt. But still, progress! We also played with some canter work. I did trot to canter and walk to canter and got one or two decent canter to walks but also some not so great canter to trot to walks. We did do the very shallow counter canter serpentine, although he swapped up front once tracking right. We also did a canter lengthen which he thought was fun. And then he threw in a massive trot extension, which was fun! I did get some good sit it felt like. But at the end, his tongue came out again. I think it was during the canter. But it went back in pretty quick and stayed in. Sigh... We finished with a nice leg yield and a nice trot. 

 

We headed up to the jump arena because Laura and Kelly were there so we said hi and chatted a bit. Dan and Smarty tried to say hi and ended up squealing at each other. And man.. it was so tempting to jump him. But I didn't. I was a good girl. So then I was going to go back to the trailer but we were talking and Dan kept following them and then picked up the trot to be in front, so.. I hacked back out to XC. He kept breaking into the trot. Dude! It's been almost 2 hours... are you not tired?? Hee hee. We did manage to leave them and trot up the hill and trot over one log. Good pony!

 

He got a big hose off as he was sweaty. Me too! 

 

Man... I love this horse though! We had so much fun today. And I'm so grateful to God for letting me have him still. I prayed to "Even just be able to hack him at Ashland comfortably... that would be enough"... And I got that. And not just hack him, but canter him! So thank you God for that! I'm sorry I'm being greedy and wanting more, but... he's so fun. But today... today was enough. Even without the dressage school. 

 

 

 

Overachievers!

 Whoops!!! ha ha.. Remember my conversation from Thursday? About how no one ever really canters for 5 minutes, so there's no need to time myself... ha! Doh!

This morning Dan and I went to the cavaletti clinic in Athens. We rolled up and I joked to Beth that Dan was a metaphor for my life.... he only had one bellboot on... his mane was a hot mess, he was filthy, and... he was making faces at everyone. Ha ha. At least we had a matching saddle pad and shirt. ;) We rode with Danielle, McKay and a nice lady named Barbi. And Dan was making faces at all the horses and we were all laughing at him. McKay's horse was being naughty and Dan was snarling and shaking his head at him. I told her that Dan disapproves! Ha. But he disapproves of everything. He's the bouncer! No one has fun but him. Ha ha. 

 

The clinic was great though. She had set up three low cavaletti's  on the rail around the short side... then a fan in the middle of one end... then a big giant x in a box in the middle.. then a cavaletti with two placing poles on the other short side. We started off just walking the fan. And, because we were walking... we were to stick towards the inside of the fan. Then we trotted and went more to the outside of the fan. She said it was our responsibility to pick and hold the path. But also that I had to keep Dan short! She said that he gets this nice big trot but he's just flinging himself around, not really sitting and pushing. And we talked about his neck and she said that shortening the stride doesn't mean I have to shorten his neck. In fact, she wants his neck long... but he can't be flinging. So.. shorten his stride by using my core, my tempo, and then encourage him to reach with his neck. However, she did say that I would do well to shorten my reins a hair, only because when they are too long, and he shortens and lifts I have to lift my hands so high to keep the contact, so.. shorten them a hair, and then keep my hands in front of me, rather than having to pull up and back. 

After we did the fan, we came off the circle and went across the giant X. She said that they could take a more normal step through there but for me especially, to not enourage too much. Of course... everyone else had to push a little but I still had to "hold" Dan to a smaller step. Interesting. But he got quite fancy and bouncy when I did. After we did that a few times we then added a canter. She had us do the fan, to the big x, then pick up the canter and canter the three poles (two poles with cavaletti in the middle). Then back to the trot, through the big x and then back to the fan. That was harder but fun. The canter poles are hard. I feel like his canter gets too small... but maybe it's too strung out. We struggled with the canter a bit. His tongue came out a good bit too. Ugh. I mentioned that when we were cantering small and round, he felt like he couldn't pick up that right front as easily. Which... if he's flinging it forward instead of lifting it, makes sense. But she also pointed out that he was throwing me to the outside and if I rode with my inside leg and pushing him out, he had an easier time lifting up his right front. Okay.. valid. 

We finished with a collected trot through the fan, then a canter over all 3 cavalettis on the short side... and then back to trot through the giant x, then the other canter lead over the placing pole and single cavaletti, then back to trot over the giant x and back to the fan. It was hard... it was hard for Dan especially and me. We struggled a bit but... we got some nice work. He was just getting tired at the end. But we managed to finish on a good note. I asked Beth about it and she said that she watched... and his tongue would come out when I first started insisting... but once he settled, it would go back in. So... she thought it was just because it was hard for him. So... okay... I can buy into that. This is hard work. And mentally taxing... and sometimes he sticks his tongue out when he's just anxious but we're just hacking. Although that hasn't happened in a long time. So... I guess we'll just see what happens. 

But... after we finished our ride... I looked at equilab. And holy cow... we cantered for 7 plus minutes!! Whooops!! I mean... the vet did tell us to start working on sit and collection and to start cantering, so.. mission accomplished! But dang.. no wonder his tongue came out. That was a lot at once. But, he manned up. So.. tomorrow he'll get a nice hack if we do anything at all. And then Tuesday we'll take it easy again. BUT.. he does need to sit like that. He felt fancy!!!

Legally Cantering

Today was another ultrasound recheck. Good gravy, the rechecks are going to end up costing me more than the surgery itself. But I guess it makes sense... although... frustrating as he's not got a lesion... but I'm just whining... cause these dang horses are costing me so much money! Thank goodness for Mike. 

 

I managed to ride Lyric before our appointment and when we went up the arena Dan followed us, and then proceeded to roll in the damp from the rain red clay. Doh! Both sides... of course. So... I brushed him... and as I told the clinic... "I tried... but Dan tried harder". He was still fairly orange. Oops. Oh well. Not where we were ultrasounding so all good. ;) 

His suspensories looked good. He said that the right one looked better than the left this time, which was good as last time the right was a bit edematous. So yay! We're cleared to canter. We laughed about how people always ask how long they can canter. Me included previously. Turns out... 5 minutes of cantering is a darn long time! Ask me and Dan how we know! (Flashback to the muscle tear and cantering at Hitchcock woods). He said that I can keep doing lateral work at the trot and start adding in some collection and getting him to sit and load the hind end. Add in the canter work, but.. no jumping yet. He wants another ultrasound in a month before we start cantering. Ooof... I gotta get your book written Dan... You is expensive! 

 

So then I asked him about his neck rads and if he had talked to Travis and he said they had talked a couple of times and kept getting distracted but he'd try to talk to him again about it. And then I asked him about Lyric, so... the tech offered to hold him while I pulled up her rads. And then Dan was being... well, Dan, so... she tried to put him in a stall.. and that didn't work.. so then she offered to take him outside to pee... and they disappeared for a good 15 minutes. I'm guessing he was dragging her around. Then she came back and he backed up into the wall and wouldn't walk forward. She called him weird. Ha! She's not wrong! 

So then we headed to Ashland to go do our "legal" canters. ;) I met Allissa there because her pony was so painful at his girth and she wanted me to look at him and was willing to drive from Athens to meet me there. I was later than I expected.. Oops! But she was so sweet and grateful. I left Dan on the trailer just because he's better behaved and... the weather was looking a little suspicious. I worked on her horse and hopefully made him better! But by the time I was done, which wasn't but 15 minutes or so, it was getting scary. Lots of thunder and some lightning and the wind picked up. So we loaded him up and we both headed home. Darnit! It poured on us til about halfway home and then it cleared up. 

So... I unloaded him and went inside... and checked the weather. It kept saying it was supposed to start raining any minute.... radar showed rain... but the skies didn't look too bad. I debated what to do.. hop on him? Hop on Funny? Argh.. I finally just decided to hop on Dan. It was probably a better choice if the weather picked up and then I wouldn't have to worry about Funny being feral and if she was... was it pain, ulcers, hormonal, or weather... and I figured I could throw the bareback pad on Dan and be on in 10 minutes vs having to tack Funny up and get her all tacked up and then have it start raining. So that's what I did. Plus, he was already brushed. So I ran the soft brush over him real quick, threw on the bareback pad and bridle and my helmet and hopped on. Mike came out so he let us in the pasture gate and we walked up to the arena. 

We did a little warm up work with some turn on the haunches and turn on the forehands... which were quite nice! Then we did some trot work... we did some lateral work and some figure 8 serpentines with 10 meter half circles. We did some trot to walk to trot and some trot to halt to trot. We did a little bit of half pass but not a ton because... Kelli is right.. I do need to work on more bend through his body vs just going through the motions. Then we did some canters. They are feeling better too! And today, I think his right lead was his better lead. Interesting! We played a little with walk to canter and tried some canter to walks. He was so game. He did pick up the left lead instead of the right a few times but then got the right lead when I paid attention. And the right lead felt better once he got it. We managed to ride about 30 minutes and only had a few sprinkles on us. But it was looking worse so we headed back in. I untacked him and then it started to drizzle the teeniest bit. I felt bad as I didn't even bother hosing him off, because... it's gonna rain. Then I felt extra bad because he had butt foam! Sorry bud... I'll scratch your cheeks later!

 

Mike and I headed to Lawrenceville to pick up some motorcycle pants for him and get dinner, so I fed the ponies when we got home. And on the way to Lawrenceville it poured, so.. good timing!    

Fun Day

 Dan and I had a fun ride today! We headed to Ashland and met Kelli and Marvin. She started in the arena and Dan and I headed to the XC field. I put on Lyrics dressage saddle (which I guess is now Funny and Dan's dressage saddle) with the rear shims and I liked it better that way. We walked to the lake and then trotted back to the XC field and up the hill. Then we did 4 laps each way in the water complex and then we did another trot around the field. That gave us about 11 minutes of our trot. 

 

So then we headed to the arena to meet Kelli and Marvin. I told her I wanted to show her our half pass as they were getting better thanks to her advice on my shoulders. I warmed him back up with some leg yields and then we did the third level haunches in down the long side, then half 10 meter circle and then half pass back to the rail. She agreed it was better and gave me some more hints. Half passing left he wants to overbend his neck and lead with his neck and going right he wants to lead with his haunches. She said overall it was much improved but to finesse it, he really just needed to bend his ribcage. He was kind of cheating and bending through his neck and putting his haunches in, instead of really bending his whole body. Okay.. we can work on that. 

I also did a tiny bit of walk to canter to walk. The walk to canter was decent but the canter to walk sucked. Ha ha! He did a nice lengthen too. Yay!  And oops... we had done 24 minutes of trot! Oh well. He should get cleared for full work on Thursday! 

 

Then we headed back on the trails and hacked to the lake again. Dan and I hopped over a few cross country logs. We even did the raised log down near the lake. He splashed in the lake and got rewarded for doing his right front pawing. Then we crossed the troll bridge and headed up "sideways' and took that to the back of the XC field. With the dreary sky, it felt like we were entering Narnia when we came out over the second bridge. 

  

It was a fun day. Dan felt like he was working nicely and using his neck appropriately. He didn't have the massive butt foam like the other day but it also wasn't as hot. He still felt good though and I do think his neck muscle is starting to build up again. So.. maybe he really doesn't like his peter horrobin??? Hopefully I can sell it!