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!