Good Girl

 Oh Funs! 

Today we rode at home because... oh, life... Today was a DAY! But we got to ride. We hacked up to the arena via the field and hit the hill behind the arena. Then we did a long walk warm up but focused on straight vs moving hips or shoulders. Then we trotted. And we did our cloverleaf. And we had a lovely ride! She was in the outside rein, soft, and bending correctly... with a pretty nice lift to her back. Beautiful girl!! Then we cantered. It was a lovely right lead canter... very soft, very round, very controlled. And then... we lost it. Ha! It's almost like she gets anxiety about the left lead canter and panics and over reacts before I even ask for anything. And so we picked up the wrong lead a few times, which makes her anxiety worse. Apparently, we're back to asking for the canter with the outside leg. I think... that perhaps, she's way more sensitive than I think and my aids are not refined/sutble enough for her. So I'm trying hard to be very precise and soft with my aids, but... it's hard! 

 

We finally got a decent left lead canter although it was still faster and more tense than I wanted. Then we spent the rest of the ride trying to calm back down! She just got so amped up. So then I tried to use it to my advantage and tried to do some regular trot and then a trot lengthen across the diagonal. It wasn't really a true lengthen... she's still too crooked and tense. But she did open up for a few strides and I did manage to finally get her straight. I thought that perhaps if I encouraged the "zoom", then perhaps she would be more willing to come back. Meh... not sure it really worked. But we did get to play with straightness and adjustability so.. not sure it didn't work. We did manage to get back to a really nice trot with nice bend and a nice tempo and float both directions, so we quit with that. Oh, and we played with the halts too. We headed back to the barn and I contemplated jumping one of my cross country jumps but I figured that might amp her back up again and I was on a time crunch, so... we didn't. 

 

Progress today though! We had a little bit of really lovely today and a lot of better than it has been. But I was laughing a bit. Sometimes, I really wish I could toss Kelli or someone... up there. Because... she's hard! Like... she's quick.. you can't hang on her... but you also can't let her run away with you... meanwhile she's flinging body parts every which way... going a million miles an hour in every direction but straight... ha ha. I likened it to trying to hold onto a fish! Of course, maybe someone else could ride her more effectively and not be as chaotic, so maybe I don't want someone else to hop on and prove my disability. But... sometimes... I think she's just hard. But we'll get there. We are making progress! And she was still a bit chompy today but she also had some nice foam.