Danimal!!! And Miss Piggy

 Big Cheese Haunted Horse Trials

SUPER STAR

what a trooper

Oh Glorious Day

 XC lesson cancelled, but went with laura and jumped anyways. did core activation and mobilization stuff first. 

Dan was awesome. I was still riding backwards and picking. Forward. Final jump felt perfect! Count my strides and I'm less likely to pick and ride backwards. No issues without studs

then hacked with laura and then went alone because it was so pretty and I wanted photos. Saw the heron twice. thanks God

Love this boy. feeling grateful and happy and joyous!

Good Fancy pony

Today was a great day! I got to ride all 3 ponies!

I started with Danomite. We walked up to the arena and did a little bit of pillar work on our way up there. I didn't lunge him today so we got on and did our walk warm up and our stretchy work. Jean and the interns were riding when I first got in there but they left after about 10 minutes and were jumping in the far end of the arena. I still had the small dressage arena set up and wanted to practice my test so it worked out well. 

After a brief warm up we ran through the test. It wasn't bad considering. We've kind of lost our medium trot and our canter lengthen on a circle was a little chaotic. So then we went back to work and worked on getting him to not be so strung out and sit more. And I think it helped because we then were able to get a good medium trot (or at least a lengthen) and our canter lengthens got much better. I need to make sure I set the canter up first though. His working canter needs to be an actual working canter instead of a slightly strung out canter. Then it's easier to show a difference. And he's much more balanced. We then played with our canter itself and he's getting so nice and collected in it. We got a few good canters to walks. Not perfect yet, but getting closer. To accomplish that we did some 12 meter canter circles into the walk. Helpful. Then we played with the trot halfpass and he was so good we called it quits! 

 

I'm trying really hard to not push him past his fitness level and get him to a fatigue state. So today, he was great and then he started to get a little fatigued so we did one more thing and quit. We hacked back to the barn and because I wanted to ride the others and we had Dr. Febles coming to do teeth, we just untacked vs going around the neighborhood. 

He got a good report card on his teeth.. minus the wear. I know... he scrapes them on the stall bars, the concrete posts, etc. I even told her that when he does it I tell him that he's "going to piss of Dr. Febles!". Hee hee. And after he was done, I finished clipping him. He still has lines and it's still not as good as I would like, but it'll have to do. I tidied up the blade marks from the bum drive blade thingy as best as I could. 

Games and fun

Lunged this am.

it's just a game... once I left the arena he pouted and came to the gate and then lunged properly. mostly. ;) 

then went to ashland for a ride later. only felt a few steps of NQR in the beginning. kelli couldn't see anything. but still feels weak in the canter but he's actually sitting. kelli said i was sitting too!!! Maybe that's why he's falling out of it so easily? Not used to me sitting? did some nice trot half passes! worked on canter to walk to canter, hard... still getting trot steps. 

then short walk about to the lake and back

Weirdo!

 Vet visit

heathens... so much chaos. Lyric screaming, Dan trying to escape

opted to not scope.. still coughing a little bit and still sounds wet so will do another 2 weeks of doxy and then rescope

rads improved! 

quick lameness.. now lame on front right on circle.. flexed unhappy but sound on jog on straight. OH.... BUT MAYBE IT"S NOT A STRAIGHT LAMENESS. I wonder if jogging him in a circle would exacerbate the lameness after a flexion???

after shoeing, not lame on RF, but now lame on LF. UGHHHh.. suspected from pour in and told me to give him a day or two to settle.

Non-sweaty ride

 The weather was glorious today! And because Dan was clipped (albeit the worst clip of his life!!), he didn't even get that sweaty! Just on his face, which isn't clipped yet. ;) We had a pretty good ride. 

This morning the farrier came for Fleck and Funny and then I had to go to the grocery store. And then I had lunch with Peri and Liz and Kelli so by the time I got home, it was 4:30. So I just rode at home. Which, is amazing! I love that I have an arena! With good footing!

We walked up there and did our pillar walking and the lateral side step. Then I hopped on and we did our reaching for the bit stretchy walk and trot. And then we went to work. I still feel like I feel something every once in a blue moon with him. And now it almost feels like the front end...Ugh. But I don't know. It's so hard to tell. And it's so inconsistent. And very shortlived. So yay for that I guess. We played with leg yields and half pass at the trot and even got a really nice lovely flowing half pass one way! We played with canter transitions. And again, his canter feels very collected and up and through! He just can't hold it long. And then we had an awesome medium trot that started out of a shoulder in. Good boy! We then worked on our sitting trot and then he started to get a little tired and got a bit heavy on the forehand and rushy. I did a bit more because... sadly, I'm me. But we finished on a good note. Good boy! I am wondering if I should pull out the equicore and start warming up with that. (Just don't forget to take it off after our warm up!). 

The ritetrak came today too so we started that. It'll be interesting to see if that helps his crankiness with being groomed and stuff. If not, maybe I should do another round of gabapentin?? Or maybe it's just him?? I don't know. I'm starting to panic again a bit. 

But tomorrow we go get his feet xrayed and then reshod. Oh, and we're supposed to scope him again. His cough is SOOOO much better under saddle. The last few rides he didn't cough at all. And today it was only 3 times and only in the beginning. I have heard him cough when eating though and it still sounds mucousy. Hmmmm...

Grid Day: Feeling good

 Today was lesson day with Jacel! We opted to do some grid work because then we could ride with Laura and I figured that he didn't need to jump super big and we always can work on our footwork. It was a good choice. We had fun!

He was FILTHY from yesterday still and added in some orange clay from today, so... I had just enough time to give him a bath before we left for our lesson. I figured I would get him clean, ride, quick rinse, then come home and clip. :) He's SOOOO fuzzy too. Which is making him harder to keep clean. So we did just that. He was still a little damp for our lesson but that's okay. It warmed up enough that it was fine. 

We warmed up and I felt two or three steps of funky warming up. But that was it. And Jacel and Laura didn't see anything. And he was happy to jump and kept trying to break into the canter from the trot, so.. yay! We started off trotting some tight trot poles on the ground. She had me sit on my pockets and really get him to engage his hocks. 

 

Then we did a grid. It was a trot in, bounce to a two stride. But we started with just one single cross rail. Dan does NOT like to trot into fences but he did. Twice! And quite nice. Holy cow! So then she set up the full grid and Dan said "nope, now I canter".  ha ha. Turd! Oh well. He did trot in a time or two, but even when he cheated and cantered in, he still was having to reach for the two stride. Oh well. He made it. And he put in two instead of chipping in a third. 

Then we did that grid but circled around after to a one stride with a placing pole in the middle. Dan was much better to that because we could canter in. But I had to ride my circle well and leg yield him into the turn and support with the outside rein. Good boy!

 

Then we did the first grid again, then went through wider spaced trot poles, then a 90 degree turn to canter an oxer with placing poles on either side. And it was pretty cool because I did push him into my outside rein but I also held/picked on the inside rein. Jacel called me out on and told me to GIVE with my inside hand. And HOLY COW!!! Duh! When I did that, he could lengthen his neck and reach down and out. And his whole topline got soft and lifted. And he could reach with that inside hind leg. His trot got amazingly fancy and he felt super. And he jumped better. Huge difference!! 

So then we did the oxer with placing poles on either side the other way, back to trot over the trot poles, then back to the oxer. And again, when I released with my inside rein, he got so soft and pretty and lovely!

So yay! Great lesson. Mostly I just need to work on keeping him straight and coming but opening that inside rein and giving with it and he's lovely. Ah, it was so nice to be able to ride him. After my week with Lyric, it's nice to know that I can jump and stay with my horse. :) 

Then Laura and I walked to the lake and Dan had a little splashy splashy and then we headed back. I had to do a quick rinse and then bemered him on the way home. He was still a little damp but we managed to get him clipped. I did his whole body and even got his T-rex done. But it is such a bad clip job. The lighting was bad and we were both hungy so tomorrow I'm going to have to fix all the tiny lines! And tidy the edges. And maybe go ahead and do his legs and face too. But he was much better for his poll this time. I started with that and maybe that was the helpful part.