Pony up Monkey!! Sigh... at the moment, she is my only rideable horse. So... it's GO TIME! Ha ha. I do worry a bit about me pushing her now because I'm bored. But, hopefully Dan will be feeling awesome after his hock injections and I'll have him back to ride. And.. in some ways, I do think it's probably time to put some serious rides on her as she'll be hitting the horrible 4's. Liz reminded me that 4 is often the age that they get extra sassy because they're more balanced now, the novelty of riding has worn off, and they are just at that age. GREAAAAATTTTTT.... because it's not like she's been a perfect little angel so far. But still.. she is only (almost) 4, so there's part of me that doesn't want to push her.
But... I wanted to ride, so... we did a short one. Plus, it's suddenly summer. I rode at home just because I had spent most of the day doing errands and was running low on time. We tacked up and headed to the arena. Dan was nice and came when I called so she had company.
We did our pillar warm up and then I got on. She was a bit fresh feeling and quick and a hair more tense than usual but she didn't misbehave. We walked a long time to help her settle. We worked on steering and figure 8's and using my body more than my hands. Although we also tried to get a very soft nice connection. She was a bit fussy in the bridle... chomping and tossing her head. But the gnats have arrived and they are soooo aggravating. Once she got over the gnats, she settled down with her head flinging but there was still some chewing on the bit. We did some trotting too and she's definitely getting a better trot with more of a lifted back. We even got a tiny bit of moving into the outside rein. Although tracking left is harder for her. I'm guessing this is a ME issue as it seems to be the case with both mares for sure... and probably Dan too. We did some figure 8's at the trot and worked on steering and it's definitely getting better. Everything is getting better! Yay!!
She wanted to go out Jean's gate so I obliged and we went for a walk. She was good so we headed to the lake. My original plan was to go to the lake and back but then the frog jumped at the stop sign and scared her. She just jumped in place and then marched on but then she was a little more animated. And given the fact that Lyric had tried to dump me Tuesday... she had bucked me off last week....I just decided to go to the neighbors with the kennels driveway and then head home. She was good though.
Afterwards she got a rinse with apple cider and the coat spray and then I turned her back out for a good roll. But I don't think she did roll!
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