Gibbs Day 1

The struggle is real!! BUT WE MADE IT!!!!! YAY!!!!

But it all worked out in the end. I was originally scheduled to adjust Johnny on Friday, but Elisa was nice enough to move it Thursday so Dan and I could haul to Gibbs Friday morning and ride Friday. Unfortunately Elisa and Johnny were coming back from Ocala that day and so it ended up being late before I got home. I think I got home at 10:15 pm and when I brought the ponies in... I heard "Clip, Clop, Clip, Thump".... REALLY DAN!?!?! And of the course the missing shoe was on the right front foot. Ugh... 10:30 at night.. and the plan was to leave at 7:30 am. So... I texted Freddie apologetically.... And apparently his phone had died. BUT... he got the message in the morning and texted me right back and when I told him I was hoping to leave around 8, but was obviously very much at his mercy.. he showed up at 7:45!! Yahoo!!! So... while we were waiting, I hopped on Fleck bareback (because I'm a horrible mommy and left him on HIS BIRTHDAY!!! so we went for a nice little bareback hack to try to find Dan's shoe to make it easier on Freddie... and Danny was a goofball and went bucking and sliding around.... luckily he didn't lose another shoe!). So.. we never found it. But Freddie came and put another one on and then pulled the left front forward a tiny bit so he didn't pull that one too. Yay!!

So.... it took me a lot longer than I thought to get diesel in the truck, gas in the generators and generator cans, and then get the last little bit loaded up. So... we didn't make our 12:30 ride time, but Beth said that I could just ride with her as she was going to jump Mighty through the same exercises after the other group. So... yay! That meant I could get him settled and let him chill for a bit and watch the others and then ride with Beth. :)

So, we rode with Beth. It was fun. She had set up some grids in and out of the dressage arena. They were small and skinny but we worked on keeping them straight and connected. It was fun. We worked on keeping him forward and straight and between the aids and "on the bit" and it helped him jump better. We even did some angled stuff. Dan did better than I sort of thought he might given how long it's been for both of us. And I guess I did too. :)

We then had a skinny made out of the "blocks". It was a tiny 2' pole hovering on one of those blocks. We had wings to start and it was in the corner of the arena and dealt with terrain. The arena was flat (obviously) but the outside was on a slope with a bit of a tough line. In the sense that the line sort of teased you into cutting the corner off too much. So... since they are greenbeans, Beth said that we were going to be very nice and polite and help them figure it out. We walked them up to it and let them trot over it from the arena end first... so there was no terrain. It was a bit looky at first but with the wings attached they were pretty cool with it. Then we did it down the hill and they were both pretty fine with it. It was a tougher ride and Dan and I missed the distance a few times, but we figured it out. Then we took the wings away and only approached it from the flat side. That did not go as smoothly as I expected. Beth said that we are trainers... we are training them to understand the question. And it was clear that both horses were confused, not being naughty. So we tried once and they didn't understand. So then we put up the wings again, went back over, praised them, and then took one wing down. They got that pretty quickly so we did that a few times to put money in the bank. Then we tried once more without the wings and even though it wasn't perfect, they both went over it. Lots of praise and then we quit. I'm not going to lie.. It was kind of cool to have Beth teach me like I was "a trainer". I mean... I know in some ways I am Dan's trainer and I need to really think that way, but it was just a nice confidence boost the way she did it. :)

See!!! Skinny success!!

And then.... it hit me. We were here!! We were XC schooling all weekend!! YAY!!! It's been such a long 7 months and now... I was just so happy to be here and getting to play again! Danny was a good boy and settled into his stall and I settled into my new "bedroom" after some dinner. :) My cowboy shower worked pretty well, though I have some kinks to figure out. But not too bad. And I got the generator figured out and my bedroom was wonderful :) It was super comfy and the heater worked great. Although the light on it was super bright but once I covered it up, it was good. So yep. I'm digging my new digs. :) 

Tantrum Tuesday

Today was a tough day. We had a tough ride. There was some good moments and then.. there was a lot of bad moments. Well, really, I guess most of the ride was good but then Dan had a flat out full blown temper tantrum. I guess. I'm not even really sure what started it and why he was so mad. We were working on getting him to lift at the withers and use his back. Tickling him with the crop is the current aid for getting him to lift his back and leg means go forward. And we were doing fine. Then Cindy said that I had the bad habit of bracing against him when he inverted and got a little braced and then using my reins to get his head down. She said that I'm getting his head down but he's still braced and his not using his back that way. So... instead, try to tickle him and get him to lift his withers and that will in effect soften his head and get him on the bit. So that's what we were working on. And it sounded like I was making progress.

So then I had mentioned that I would love if we could work on the trot lengthens. Cindy had said that he tends to push from behind but isn't lifting the withers up and really pushing off the ground with his front feet. So the plan was to go across the diagonal and use my leg and the crop on his shoulders, in unison with the trot, to get him to lift and get fancy. I'm not sure if it started before I used the whip, because of the whip, or because of my leg, or because of something entirely different, but Dan bugged out! He went across the diagonal and turned into the flailing, bouncing, head flinging, tongue flinging from eyeball to eyeball to ear to ear, cantering in place creature. Cindy kept saying "Keep Posting... Keep the rhythm". ha ha... It was hard. And I was trying very hard to not touch his face when he did that but to push him forward with my seat and legs and whip if needed. And Cindy said I didn't, but... it was telling that it took multiple multiple times across the diagonal before he semi-settled. And it felt like it took 12 attempts across the diagonal. 12 times where he was a possessed demon child. Even Claire and Dagney pulled off into the corners to stare in horror. He would sort of settle in between, but as soon as we started across, he'd go into full blown tantrum mode. Sigh.. We eventually got a few good strides of lovely shoulder and wither lifted trot with his head on the bit, albeit not on contact. So we quit with that. Good grief!! I'm not sure where that came from, but... I hope it doesn't come back again anytime soon.

We did a cool down hack to enjoy the weather. :)

Monday sneaky ride

Holy cow I finished early enough to ride. :) Thanks to Daylight Savings and Spring. We did a little hack and did some dressage. :) We ended up doing 65 minutes, 4.2 miles, and only 5 minutes of canter, 18 minutes of trot, and 31 minutes of walk. But... 56% left and 43% right, so not terribly off. We ran through both dressage tests though and they weren't terrible. Our lengthens need help. And we're both not very fit.

Turning the Day Around

Today started out rough. Mike and I had a not so great morning and were fighting. But we managed to turn it around and headed to the Lake. It was great weather for sailing so we took Miss Mac out for about 2 hours and had fun. It was nice and windy and pretty warm. Then we had lunch on the way home and stopped for snowballs. Then he helped me do a "dry run" with the horse trailer. I hooked up the generators, plugged in the fridge and made sure the A/C worked. Everything worked great. And the generators are pretty quiet, although to be honest, the A/C is so loud, it doesn't matter. ;) Then we even filled up the water tank and turned on the water heater and tested the shower. I'm so excited!! It has enough pressure and got plenty warm enough. :) YAY!!! We didn't see how the spray projected with it on the wall, but worst case scenario I just do the hand held thing. It has a switch to turn it on and off at the handle so that should be just fine. Yay! Then I had enough daylight to go ride, so off we went!

I just ended up hacking Dan around since we had done dressage twice already this week and I was REALLY hoping that our jump lesson in the morning wouldn't get rained out. So we did some hills and just played. We did a little bit of trotting, a little bit of cantering, and then a little bit of standing around staring at the geese. ;) We ended up in the XC field and I just couldn't help myself. I really wanted to jump that "keyhole" jump that they put out back in the end near the ditch and wall. I wanted to jump the ditch and wall too again but decided to be smart and wait on that. So I hopped him over a few fences to warm him up and then took him to the roundtop in the alley with the trees coming over it. He came up to it, kind of backed off a stride, then surged forward like "Oh, got it now!". Yay! Good boy. We did it twice more, once each direction and then called it a day. :) 

Good ride! Oh, and we apparently scared up a turkey that flew off too. That's the first time I've seen one while riding there, but... it was neat. 

Making new Friends

Ahhh.... another great ride today! This morning I went to my chiropractor and got adjusted. Then I came home and adjusted Dan and then let them graze for a bit on the good grass. Then we went to High Point for my lesson (since he got shockwaved Tuesday and I had to miss my lesson). I adjusted a horse first but then I got to ride. Danny was super. I only felt the funkyness in the front a couple of strides here and there, so yay! I warmed him up and got in a turn on the forehand and turn on the haunches in each direction and then did a bit of trotting. Cindy stopped me and said that she wanted to address something that she didn't earlier because he was still a baby, but... now he's not really a baby anymore. She told me about "flipping the crest". So, at a halt, she had me tickle his croup with the whip. The goal was to get him to engage the trapezius muscles and lift his wither and soften the muscles on the top of his neck. It took a few minutes but he got the hang of it. So... then we went to work and when he started to hang on my hands or get bracey, I would tickle him with the whip and he'd almost arch his neck and soften. FUN!!! This could be handy. :) So then we went to work and I still had to focus on keeping my right side of my body from getting contracted. I had to focus on keeping his shoulders in the middle and not flinging to the right. But it was a nice ride, especially when I could get him to lift his withers and engage and be soft in the bridle. We worked on the canter too, which was tough, because we kept getting the wrong lead at first multiple times. Ugh. But we got it... I just need to remember to NOT cross his neck with my inside rein, especially tracking left, and keep it OUT to the side.. more to the side than I think... even more than that. ;) And we got a very nice canter. And when I had him going like this, he was much more in front of my leg and engaged. Yay!! We even got a really nice 3 loop canter serpentine. :)

It was a great ride! Danny was working hard and nice and the results were super! So after we went for a leisurely hack around the farm, meeting new friends. Then he had to hang out and wait while I adjusted one more horse down the road. And then he got to graze at home from 6 pm to 8:30 when he got dinner and turned back out. Not a bad day for him either ;) 

Thank Goodness!!

I needed a good dressage ride! And I got one!!!

Danny was super today!!! We worked on the first level tests and even the 3 loop canter serpentine and he was awesome!!! He was a hair sluggish but not bad and when I asked for more, he did give it. :) We were both tired but we had a great ride :)

And then we got great news from Dr. Grisel. He watched him lunge and aside from a little bolt where he sort of half attempted to run back to the barn.... he was great. Dr. Grisel thought he looked much improved, both in the front and the hind! So we shockwaved him again and his shoulder was still bouncy but not as bad. I asked if we needed to do another treatment and he said possibly. He said he thought we might have enough improvement without needing a third one, but we set up an appointment just in case. He also looked at Dan and said something along the lines of "You know... he's nicely put together and he's so uphill....if we can get his hind end muscled up... you two are going places"!. Yay! It's nice to hear that. Now to get that booty muscled up. :)