Quick Ride at home

 It was Lyrics turn to go hack, so she went this morning. Then I had my chiropractic appointment. Hopefully I'll be straighter now! I definitely have a shorter left leg. (Which is confusing as to why I want to shorten my right stirrup, but... who knows!). Anyways, when I got home I was debating on going to Ashland or just staying at home. I was leaning towards staying at home but... Kelli wanted company if she went and she wasn't sure if she could go or not. She was almost ready to go but then the weather showed some storms popping up and the kids came home and wanted dinner at the usual time, so.. .she bailed. Which was great because I was already on Funny at home. ;) My plan was to sneak in as quick of a ride as I could and then if and when she was ready, get off and swap out for Dan and meet her at Ashland. But I'm kind of glad she stayed home because I'm tired and it was much quicker to ride both at home than to haul to Ashland again. And then Mike and I got to go to dinner. 

 

So anyways.... I rode Dan at home. I almost didn't, because it's hot and ... it's hot. But I wanted to check the fit on a potential new breastcollar that one of my clients made. Sadly, it's a bit too snug and not quite the right color turquoise, but it was pretty! And then since I had him tacked up already, I figured I might as well ride. Even if it was a short one. So we did. We headed up to the arena and played a bit. He was a good boy. We worked on our downwards and using his core. We got a really really nice round canter too!! Especially to the left. The right canter wasn't bad, but wasn't exactly super round. But it wasn't bad. We ran through the first level dressage test too. And then we finished with the gate. We did the reverse gate... which took my brain a minute to figure out. So then we went back to the regular gate and then did the reverse gate again and he nailed it!! He's really getting the hang of the gates. And not touching them. I am trying to let him "close it" at my arena gates so maybe he learns the difference. Kind of like "free horse" in the water. :) He's smart.. I bet he figures it out. 

 

We hacked back and he got a nice long rinse because ... dude, it's hot!! No issues from the bridge incident. But he does seem a little more ouchy on his stifle today, so... I should have shockwaved him tonight but I was starving and Mike was waiting so I'll do it tomorrow after I volunteer at the show. And then it'll be perfect because he'll get his last one two weeks later, which will be good timing for the "maintenance" quarterly shockwave for Lyric and then I'll go ahead and do Funny's stifles too and they'll all be on the same page to go to quarterly shockwaves.