Comeback #17!

Or whatever number we're on. ;) And... who knows if it'll stick. I always seem to get a little ahead of myself, but... feeling more optimistic this time. But also.... more at peace with whatever happens. Am I thrilled he seems to be making a full comeback? ABSOLUTELY!! BUT... I also... I also will be okay if he's like "you know what mum? Not so much.. let's just hack and snack". Because... he's so much fun to hack about. And we've got fun things planned regardless... We're going for a cow sorting/cutting lesson in a few weeks! We killed it at the obstacle course so we can go to the newton county shows and do some of the ranch classes. Maybe we can find some more legit obstacle classes like they used to do the trail ride/obstacle thing... Maybe we'll try western dressage. Who knows? Maybe we'll just fart around Ashland and other trails bareback and have fun. We may try bridleless riding.. but not on the trails as then he'll just graze. ha ha! Anyways, my point is... I'm okay with whatever happens as long as he's happy. And I'm so grateful to God for answering my prayers... that's what I prayed for... a happy Dan and a bonus if I could at least hack him. And... prayers answered! And even surpassed potentially! Thank you God for blessing me! And thank you for letting him stay with me for further apocolypse horse training. :) 

But also, if he's comfortable and happy to jump... we'll keep jumping. If he's happy to dressage and we can get a flying change, we'll try for our bronze. Because... he's also fun doing those things... not just fun on the trails. 

So back to today... we were supposed to have lessons at Ashland but this rain has been insane. SOOOO much rain. The arena's were all closed and apparently Jacel was coming to the farm to teach Jean's interns since Jean is out of town. Ohhhhh, convenient! So I asked her if she could teach me too. Then I asked if she could give me two lesssons... and maybe even 3. She agreed! Whooo hooo! My arena was wet and soggy but ridable! Although after my three lessons and Jean's two horses, it was a bit of a mess. Someone tore through to the base in two spots, but it'll be easily fixed once I get back out there. I'm so grateful that my arena is that ridable after THAT... MUCH... Rain! Again, soooo much rain! 

I rode Funny first because the weather was still so iffy and I wanted to make sure we didn't get rained out. Then I decided to do Lyric next because Jacel was riding Jean's horses and teaching the interns so I had more time. And since Lyric can sometimes be hard to catch, and I wanted to do her "prehab", I did her second. (even though the fool lost two shoes again!). And side note... while I was lessoning Lyric, Dan was cracking me up and distracting me. He found her fly mask in the pasture and was twirling it around. He whacked himself in the head a few times. Ha ha. I was giggling.  So then after I finished with Lyric, I had to get Dan. Jacel was just catching up on emails and texts while I swapped horses so I was trying to be quick. Dan was neon orange from earlier in the day. Doh! But luckily it hadn't rained more since early this morning and most of the red clay had dried. So I curried him but... he was still a mess. He was an orange pumpkin for our lesson. Ha ha. Oh well. 

We hurried up to the arena and did our walk warm up and our stretchy trot. I told Jacel that he was fully cleared for whatever and it was more just assessing what he was happy doing. I told her I did want to test him jumping because... he felt like he would be okay but with his shoulder atrophy, I wasn't sure. And I definitely wanted to test him out over stadium fences vs cross country solid fences. So... we jumped! But we also did some pole work first. 

Jacel had set up some trot poles and some canter poles. We started out riding the trot poles, then cantering over the canter poles, then back to the trot poles, the canter the canter poles, and carry on. I had a moment and basically.... gave up on him. He was doing that awful throwing his head up in the air canter and flailed over the poles. But I wasn't helping him at all. So Jacel told me to sit up and ride and kick him over them and see what happened. Yes ma'am. You're right... I just... sort of panicked. Again. So once I "held his hand" instead of just throwing him away and kicked and encouraged him to keep the canter, he did. And was fine. He didn't struggle and just... cantered through like a normal horse. Okay.... ha ha... Thank you!

So then Jacel had set up a small oxer. She had us jump it in a figure 8. From the trot. She told me not to touch his face... don't hold his head/neck in a position... just let him do his own thing. Except, try to make him trot it. Ha ha. The goal today wasn't "training" ... it was assessing. She wanted to see how he felt and what he was doing with his body. Which was perfect because it's exactly what I was thinking! So of course, he popped into the canter. But he jumped it fine multiple times. Okay cool! He was even landing on the correct alternating leads!! And before, he's tended to always land on a particular lead (left I think) no matter which direction we were going. So then she put a placing pole down and put the jump up a tiny bit. We cantered to it and ha ha... he launched me! He surprised himself and jumped so uphill! I almost fell off. Ha ha! But he actually jumped it well! Like... he pushed off with his hind end and jumped up and over vs just flinging himself flat over the top. Oooooh!!! So then Jacel had me do it another time or two correctly and then we added the canter cavalettis.  We cantered the jump, then we cantered a line of placing pole, cavaletti, placing pole, cavaletti. And he just popped through them like they were no big deal. Happy as a clam. He even set himself up a bit for them. GOOD BOY!!

So then, as another test... she had me jump the oxer badly. On purpose badly. She had me essentially run him at it... then come back around and pick at it. She wanted to see if he was able to recover if we came into a fence poorly. And good call because it's one thing if he can jump well if everything is perfect, but it's not going to be perfect. I'm going to mess us up, so if he can't get his shoulder up and out of the way if it's not perfect, then that's not good enough. So I ran him at it... he jumped it fine. Then I picked... he jumped it fine. Okay then!!!

 

We were going to be done with that and then Jacel looked at us and said "Do you want to jump one 3' fence... just for fun?". YES!!!! Oh very much YES!! I laughed and told her I was so grateful for her and that she "got" us. Like... she understands Dan and how to teach him, but she also gets me... and how to teach me. And as my friend, she was like... let's jump a big jump! You two have earned it! So she set it up to a 3' oxer and... we came up to it and he was brilliant! He didn't even fuss... react.... stress. Just... boink! She had me come a second time and he boinged on over it a second time. Ohhhh that was fun! I think he had a blast too! And... he looked pretty darn good! I mean... as good as he ever has I think! YAY. Thank you God!! Oh how grateful am I!

We chatted briefly with Jacel and... he was cracking us up. He was practically molesting her. He was licking her boobs, rubbing his head on her, grabbing her shirt with his teeth. Daniel!! ha ha.. I know you missed her but... simmer down boy. It makes both of our hearts happy that he loves her so much. She mentioned again that I had to put in my will that she gets him. Of course! And the others too! Except for Fleck... Karen gets Fleck.