Bouncing, Flailing, and chilling

 Ahhh.... a day off!!! Finally! Of course it's raining and icky out, but... at least it was only drizzling. I managed to sleep in a little... did the dishes and the laundry and ate breakfast. Then it was time to go ride. :) We headed to Rana's for a lesson. Luckily it was still only misting/drizzling when I got there so I was able to get tacked up quick and stay fairly dry before we got to the covered arena. :) We warmed up and did our turn on the forehand, turn on the haunches, leg yield at the walk, half pass at the walk, and then a little bit of trotting. Our half passes at the walk are stunning y'all!! Like.. he's got some serious cross over and maintains the bend. :) :) We just can't do them at the trot. Doh! Oh well. We are getting baby steps. So the... we decided to do a little bit of trotting and leg yielding. And of course, now with Rana watching, we fell apart. I actually had better leg yields to the right this time... which is usually not the case. I just couldn't get him fully into the left rein today. But then she had us do some leg yields on the rail. So, like... tracking right, then bend left and leg yield on the rail, still tracking right, but counter bent to the rail. She said this would be a great exercise for him, especially this direction, to help strengthen that weak left hind. Yep boss! Forgot about that one. So then we moved on to the cavaletti lead change exercise again. 

It was.. interesting. :) We started with our simple changes and Rana said they were better, but... he was still bracing a little. So she had me really overbend him in the downward so that he stayed soft and supple. Aha!!! It really did work! And his downwards got less abrupt too! Yay! And yes... it's not the end goal, but it's explaining the end goal to him and helping his body figure it out. We got some really nice transitions. :) So then we moved on to the cavaletti. Ha ha... Oh my! It all fell apart. Something about him and me (or maybe just me) panicking about getting the distance and not being able to jump it out of stride... it was awful! So we regrouped and tried again and it was better but... we still struggled. I was trying. He was trying. Interestingly enough, we could track right, supple right, then supple left, and jump and land left. (I say interestingly... because I could have sworn that he wants to always land on the right lead... vs the left!... like even in my jump lesson the other day we mostly landed on the right lead!). But when we tried to track left, supple left, then supple right... he'd invert and hollow and then the jump would be awful and we would land left still or land in one lead in front and another in the back... or we'd slice the jump at an angle. It was just bizarre. I could NOT figure out how to ride the line. I even "cheated" and changed the side I was jumping from... thinking maybe if I had more "time" on the approach...??? We managed to get it maybe 3 times total... of like.. 30! Ugh. Maybe not 30.. I'm not that mean... and we had breaks. ;) So... yep, that's some homework! BUT... we did have something super cool happen. In an effort to get him supple, I somehow actually managed to get him supple because... suddenly his back came up, his thoracic sling started working, and holy moly!!! It was like being on a beach ball!! My core was sore, but.... it was a lovely lovely feeling!! Super cool! And we did get a most perfect jump over with the lead change and he about jumped me out of the tack in a good way. :) So yeah... super cool :) This should help his jumping form too!

So then we cooled him off, he had a snack on the lovely grass they have, and then we headed to Ashland to meet Amanda for his fascial work. She was running a bit late and I was suddenly cold, so... I pulled his clothes off (ha! I'm so mean) and threw on the bridle and we went for a bareback walk to the XC field and back. We also snacked... (cause I'm not mean). And then Amanda worked on him. She found something in his right knee, so hopefully that will help too. And then we headed home and he got to be turned out and chill with the other two. 

Playing with Sissy

 Today was a long tiring day.... and I'm a little cranky. My shoulder hurts. Not bad... like, the pain isn't bad. But it's worrisome because... it feels unstable. And my day off, wasn't a day off. And then I added a patient, and she was difficult. And then it was 4:30 before I got home... and it's getting dark. BUT.. I changed clothes and rode and the ponies made it better. 

I lunged Dan first and he was super! Like, he even cantered the poles some. He was more forward and ketp wanting to canter. Although he was also back to chewing on the side reins again, which made him duck behind the vertical and he wasn't as good about coming back up when I swung the whip or lines at him. But we had some nice work. In the beginning he made me giggle because he was walking so much on the edge of the round pen that he was almost stepping underneath the railing. I was so confused because normally he has egg shaped circles and falls in. Then he finally stopped to poop! OHhhhhhh.... Handsomest boy is classy and doesn't like to poop in the path! Sure enough, once he pooped, he was back to falling in. ha ha. Anyways...we then went to the arena and did some work. It wasn't a great ride. There was some good stuff for sure... the left rein trot was better. There were some really good canter to walks and more good walk to canters. But nothing felt stellar or spectacular. Well... that's not true. We actually got some pretty decent trot half passes! So... stellar for us. :) Granted I had on my XC spurs, but that's what I've been using at home because I'm too lazy to move boots from the trailer to the barn, so... my dressage boots have been in the trailer and my jump boots have been in the barn. Oh well. So yeah.. not a bad ride at all. 

Then I grabbed Funny and took her into the arena with us and led her around a bit. Fleck followed us in. And he was awful! He was all snorty and spooky and prancing with his tail up in the air. Funny followed suit a little bit... then she chewed on Dan... but, she stayed with us. We even walked over some poles on the ground and even a half raised pole. And she walked right over the liver pool! Twice! Turns out, Dan is a pretty darn good lead pony... even if his one handed steering isn't always great. :) Then we headed back to the barn and Fleck bolted and Funny tried... and Dan just sat there like it was no big deal. Maybe he would be a good roping horse too. :) Hee hee.... OH... AND... not only would he be a good roper, but apparently he'll make a good working equitation or trail horse or ranch horse because we were able to close the gate and do the snap and chain without me having to get off AND still keeping ahold of Funny AND not letting Fleck get either of them too worked up! Score one for Dan!

D is for Doctor!

 Today was jump day! We focused on our ABCs.. and even got to D today. :) I hauled over to Caroline's new farm in Danielsville for a jump lesson with Kelly Eaton. It's soooo pretty and peaceful there! So... we jumped. She had some fun fences and we basically did all the basics. I warmed up and Kelly said he looked good and forward and open in his throatlatch, like she had wanted. She said my elbows were good and flowing and matched my feet. Yay! So then we trotted a cross rail twice. I had told her about our inability to trot fences. Of course he made a liar out of me and trotted it happily. He even cantered on landing the first time, but not the second. So then we cantered. Then we added an oxer with cones underneath it on the rail. And... for some reason... he was drifting hard right. But it's not even as he jumps.. it's like before he jumps. Like 1 stride away he suddenly veers and aims for the standard! And then I was trying to keep him straight and he got behind my leg, so.. it wasn't pretty. We tried it again and again, it was an icky distance and he decided not to jump with his hind end and only the front so he knocked his fetlock hard on the rail. Like.. he landed on 3 legs and was limping badly for a few strides. Like when you hit your shin on the trailer hitch painful. Well... when I close my leg... I mean it buddy! So.. Kelly took the back rail down and we tried again and it was still pretty awful. I don't get it. The other fences I can fix it... but this particular fence.. was just... some weird magnetic trajectory! Although... towards the end.. I did notice that if I didn't panic and immediately start digging my right leg into him... if I just stayed quiet and even in the saddle and rode forward.. he went straight! But it only happened once so I couldn't be sure what I did to really make it work. At that particular fence. We had straight fences in other places most of the time. hee hee. So anyways.... back to the ABCs. 

A: Forward and happy and relaxed with an open throatlatch and topline, following elbows, and grabbing mane two strides out. 

B: In front of my leg. 

After the first few awkward jumps, Kelly had me pick up the trot and then go to canter and do a little shock and awe to get him forward thinking again. She said there should only be two answers when I close my leg. Either a smooth foward soft supple surge forward or... squealing like a stuck pig running away. ha ha... Dan's answer is "well, let's talk about this"... or "maybe later.. I"m doing a thing now". And no.... that's not acceptable. So.. we did shock and awe and got him moving again and sure enough... the leg now meant something and he went. It was a little in between the two acceptable answers, but at least it was now an acceptable answer. And man... the jumps where he responded nicely were amazing! So yes... along with B... we add some things. 

B: In front of my leg... with a quick response and a legit response. Not lackadaisical. And I keep a calm chill canter around... and then the last two or three strides, I can slowly increase the pace. Just ever so slightly. Not too much before. 

So then.. we added C. Straightness. 

C: Straightness. He must jump the center of the fence and land in the center of the fence. (well, on the ground, but you know what I mean). This requires me to close my right leg and open my left rein, and push my right hand into the withers. The right handed dab, if you will. I also need to watch my lines and make sure I'm approaching straight and not over bent. And going forward helps with the straight too!. 

So that wasn't too tricky, other than at the one fence. At this point we had strung together a couple of fences and made a small course. So then we added D... finessing it :) I was coming up to a fence and she said "Open the right rein". I was like... wait? What? Why? He drifts right? Are you confused? Ha ha... nope. She was right. She wanted me to open the right rein so that he landed on the right lead as we were going right to the next fence. Oh... duh! Finessing it. Making it pretty. :) ha ha. I honestly don't know that I ever managed to do it, but... I did manage to grab mane and sit pretty and lo and behold he kept landing on the right lead. Whether that's because that's his favorite lead to land on... I don't know. He did get a few of the left lead canter landings :) So yay for that. 

But yep.. pretty fun day. I always enjoy my Kelly lessons! Hopefully we can play again soon!

And sadly, I didn't grab my phone... so no photos of the beautiful day. I didn't even get a selfie later... shame on me... shame on me. 

But.. here's a cute photo from another day just because. :)

Amazing skies!

 Today was such a PRETTY day!! It was cold as heck, but it was worth it. I slept in a little and then after I fed the ponies, I went ahead and adjusted Dan. It wasn't too cold this morning... and he was good. He's actually feeling better and better lately! Which is awesome! Then I went and got hay. Sigh... Sidenote... I spent $80 on hay (alfalfa) last Saturday... and I've only got about 5 flakes left. And... that's only feeding Dan and Funny, since Fleck is eating soaked hay cubes. Sigh.. But I got some rye today so hopefully that will help. Then I rehitched the truck... grabbed some grapes and carrots... and had to walk to the feeder to get the ponies. And ... now it's cold!! And windy! So windy that it seemed like the wind blew my contact partially out of place because my eye got blurry all of a sudden. Ha ha! So I got Dan and then Funny and Fleck went cavorting around, but Dan behaved, so yay! 

We hauled to Taylors barn and Kathleen massaged him. Good gravy it's hard work entertaining the Dan and keeping him someone confined so Kathleen can work on him. He's exhausting! He managed to chew on the cross ties, his lead rope, the whip, the blanket bar, the corner of the wall!, almost pulled the poster off the wall... me... kathleen... ha ha. Thank goodness she loves him. Hee hee. He is entertaining, albeit exhausting. But she was very pleased with what she was finding! Yay! Then I put him in the trailer, where he was quiet as a church mouse while I worked on Taylors dog. Weirdo!

 

After that, we hauled to Ashland and met Kelli for a ride. We did some dresssage. It wasn't the best ride, but not terrible. Our trot half pass to the right was decent but to the left it's a struggle. I can't get him to move that pelvis over. But considering he had double body work this morning.... I didn't push it. We did lots of transitions and some serpentines. Then we did some canter work and had a few REALLY nice downward transitions. And then we were ready for a trail ride. The skies were beckoning!

It was warm while I was dressaging but once we hit the trails it got chilly quick! Luckily I had my new riding coat, which kept me toasty!! So it was fun. :) We had a nice ride and great scenery! God is an amazing artist!

SUNSHINE!

 Oh happy day! The sun came out! It was warm, although still a bit chilly. I ended up riding fairly early so that I could spend the rest of the day unloading the storage shed. (That's wasting a lot of money we don't need to spend!). Except...by the time I got there, it wasn't that early and then I was having too much fun, so I didn't get home that early. Ha ha. Barn time. ;) BUT... I did manage to get one trip to the storage unit and unload it and even unpacked some boxes. So yay! 

I started in the dressage arena and Dan and I did our walk warm up... then we trotted. Today we worked on maintaining suppleness during changes of direction and gait. We did trot serpentines and they were actually better than I expected! We also did some half passes and they feel like they are getting better too. Then we went to canter. Our upwards feel like they are getting good but those darn downwards... I can't find the fine line of getting him to break gait but not be so dramatic about it. It's like he either slams into it... or just... trots too much. But it's hard to not get after him because he is trying. He's just putting too much flair into it. However, we had a few good ones. Then he got all puffed up and we had some really nice trot work... and one legit (it felt like) medium trot across the diagonal. :) We also nailed a halt! Kelli saw it and said it was a 10! We actually got the promtness with suppleness and softness!! But of course... trot to halt is easiest. Trot to walk is so much harder. But still. Good pony.

Then we went for a nice long walk and enjoyed the day. 

Sloppy Dressage

 Today was a fun day. And a sloppy day. I slept in... by a lot! Seriously.... I don't know what it is about this house and this weather.... well, I guess I know exactly what... when it's chilly and cold... and my bed is super soft and super warm and the heat vent is right above me and... it makes it so hard to get up! I swear I've gotten more sleep since we've moved in then I have in 3 years! ha ha. Like.. I think I slept for 9 hours! Maybe it's the cold weather making me sleepy, but I've been exhausted. Anyways... I slept in... ate breakfast.. cleaned the house (which doesn't take much time since it's tiny!), and then ate some lunch and did some invoices. Then I was going to go ride at Ashland and then work on Sky. It was going to be "take your pony to work day". BUT... Ashland was closed! oh no! They were doing repairs to the parking lot, so.... dang! Guess I'll have to ride at home. :) Yahooo that I can actually do that! :) Hopefully my arena wasn't too sloppy as it rained the last 36 hours or so. Luckily it didn't rain hard, but it's not been super dry to begin with, so... I figured it was worth a shot. 

I lunged first and he was so cute! He did great today. I put down two poles for him to trot and canter over, so that he could learn to stay in a "frame" while going over poles. Eventually we'll progress to cavaletti's. Anyways... we had some nice trot and he's looking fancy! He was doing well trotting over the poles, although there was some egg shaped lunging going on, so we didn't hit the poles every time. Sigh. Sadly, it has gotten better. So then we cantered and hee hee.. Poor Dan. It was like he got a funky stride to it every time and kept having to break to the trot. He managed to canter over it once maybe... I didn't get mad, because... it's hard! And new. So I just let him break to the trot. Well... mr smarty pants... saw the pole coming up and even though I had him in the trot, he saw it, sized it up, and picked up the canter and canter over it like a rock star, then looked at me like... "See... I CAN do it!". Hee hee. I laughed and told him how amazing he was and gave him a cookie. :) 

 

We then headed up to the arena which was not as sloppy as I thought it might be, but it was pretty wet in spots. We were able to ride though. Yay! I was a little rushed and a little.... I don't know... goofy/giddy/silly feeling, so... we didn't really do all of our homework like we should have. We practiced our canter to walk to canter on the figure 8s but obviously not enough. And looking back at the video.. there is definitely more trot steps than I think. Oops. But we were getting the bend right. So then we jumped a little too quickly to trying to get the change over a small fence. The placement of the fence wasn't ideal... because of all the other jumps in the arena and the mucky spots... and I didn't prep him well enough... so... it wasn't great. In fact, I think we only got the correct lead on landing (front and back) once each way. Ooops. then he knocked it down, so we gave up. But we did have some nice work... and I think we're starting to get the trot half passes! He's not crossing over like a fiend but it's a nice start. :) He makes me giggle though. He gets so fired up doing the canter work, especially the simple changes and it makes me happy. We had fun and even played a little with canter lengthens. I think I may have hinted at one canter half pass, which... was about all we got of it, but... still. Oh, and... at one point... I half halted in the canter and he .... propped (for lack of a better word) and kept going, but... it made me think that he was almost anticipating me asking for a change. :) Who knows?! Maybe not... and maybe I'm messing him up, but... we had fun today. And my pivo mostly cooperated too. 

Some of our ride today

Jump and Run Day

 Today was jump and run day! I am trying to make sure I don't drill dressage too many days in a row. So.... we jumped! We almost ran out of time because I spent the first part of the day painting the fence. But we made it to Ashland and watched a tiny bit of Kelli's ride. They looked great! Then she came up and set fences for me.  Dan was super. He was a bit behind my leg when we first started but then he got rolling and even got a little fired up. :) YAY! We kept the fences tiny but we had fun. There was nothing spectacular, but... nothing awful. So yay. Unfortunately Kelli had to go home but Dan and I went for a hack. We also did a little trotting, cantering, and even a little casual gallop out in the field. :) It was a good day. 

We managed to get our hack in during the Golden Hour!

 

Look at the water! It was rainbow pollen!