Well poo

 Today was a make up work day for the snow day. Sigh... so, I had to work. A;though at least God gave me a beautiful sunrise and an (apparently) rare morning rainbow!

 

I finished work and was home by 2 pm. I should have had time to ride too but I really wanted to inject Dan and Lyric, so I did. I thought I was going to have time to inject them both, ride Funny, drag the arena and spread manure. Ha! I barely had time to lunge her for 15 minutes before we ran out of daylight. after injecting the other two. And that was with me not picking up my injection stuff until after I lunged her. Oh well. We at least got a nice lunge in. Which was probably not a bad thing. She needs to carry herself better and slow her roll and it's sometimes easier to get her to do in the lunge pen vs under saddle. Plus, she is still young. 

 

We did some trotting, had one ground pole, and then did some trot to walk to trot transitions to help her rock back. She went around quite nice in her frame but was still a hair too quick. Although we had some moments with some nice lift and suspension. We also cantered a bit and she was pretty chill after the canter when we trotted, which is nice. I do think some of the tension under saddle with cantering is the anxiety about getting the left lead when I'm on board messing it up. 

She was a good girl though and only slightly feral. She had the peanut gallery watching her. 

Dressage Dragon

 Rode dressage at home

fast but not feral. had some good moments but still needs to sit and load

Dragon Taming

Well... since I didn't get to ride Funny yesterday I sort of expected her to be a little wild. So, I met up with Sharon and Baylor for a long walk hack before my lesson. Surely that would help! Ha ha.. Doh! Disclaimer.. it didn't... But we had a fun hack. She was good and we did an hours walk. She led most of the way but got a little distracted sniffing the ground a bunch. Hee hee. She's a bloodhound too!

   

 

Sharon and Baylor left us in the XC field where Jacel was, but not Julia and Laura and Player and Smarty yet. Funny was feral and quite upset that Baylor left. I tried to trot and warm her up but she was a nut. I finally gave up and just figured I'd wait til Player and Smarty showed up. Once they got there she was a hair better but not really. I told Jacel that I probably needed to just start jumping. She agreed.

 

She set up trot poles to the lincoln log stacking antler jump thing and had us trot it. Funny didn't care and was having fun. Then she changed them to canter poles and Funny also didn't care. Then we moved to the bank area and planned to work on multiple jumps in a row. She had us do up bank (baby) to the coop (BN I think) then around and up over the triple log stack. Funny trotted to the up bank and then cantered the coop. There were two horses heading towards us (but off to the side) but we kept going and I think Funny jumped it like it was 4' tall! Then we cantered down and around, in a very wide turn because she was flying and had what felt like a 17 foot stride) and jumped the triple stack happily out of stride. I felt like I was getting run away with. I had no brakes, no control.. was basically just a barnacle hanging on. Jacel did tell me that I needed to stop hanging on her face because she was just hanging back and getting heavy on the front end. So.. half halt/float her teeth/whatever needed.. but get in and get out. Okay... that's hard though when it feels like she's bolting! We discussed that she can be big, bold, and fast.. but she couldn't be bolty. No disrespect! ha ha. Okay.... And when I stopped hanging on her face, she balanced better and it wasn't quite as scary. But I still had to float her teeth once or twice. Which.. ugh, but... also... I don't want to die.  

 

Then we moved over to the water and by that point she had settled a little bit. We also did the BN cabin and she squirreled sideways to it but then once she realized I had pointed her at it, she jumped it. So then Jacel told us to do the coop, to the cabin, through the water and out over the hanging log. (She's done the hanging log before). I sort of suspected that she might be silly about the water but we gave it a whirl. She jumped the two coops/cabins fine and then came in hot to the water. At the last second she realized it and ducked left and slid a tiny bit. I stayed on. Ha ha. Jacel was laughing at us! Yes... she swims.. but she doesn't like to gallop in without checking it first. Once I got her in she was fine. So then we did it again and she went in hot again... I swear it felt like she skidded over the water in about 2 strides. It wasn't that bad but... girl did stretch through it. 

 

 

Then we played over the brush fences and... she stopped at the second one. Repeatedly. The first time was my fault.. I was just hanging on her face. But then she just took advantage and I let her get away with it. Jacel told me that I needed to set boundaries! I was being too nice. She was testing me and giving me the finger and I was letting her. So then I rode and she jumped it. We headed to the ditches and she was super. We jumped the other brush, to the hanging log and then the BN ditch and she just flew over it like it was nothing. We did the brush twice more and then called it a day. 

It was fun but... I was a little disappointed in myself. I didn't feel like I rode very well. I hung on her face, I wasn't brave. I just.. sort of wimped out. I do think that the blood thinners are in my head a little bit, but gah... Oh well. Hopefully we'll smooth it out soon. I'm rusty too. And she's a MUCH different ride than Lyric. Although she's the ride I like.. the ride I want... And we'll get there. 

 

 

Ryder Trial

 Rode at home. over a week off. cold. tacked up in ryder and rode to arena. Got into arena and decided it was wise to get off and lunge. Good choice. she was feral. Bucking, kicking out, cantered nonstop for a good long time. got some nice trot though eventually.

got on. Not a big fan of the saddle. seemed extra fussy.. backing into my leg some. chompier. tried to ride through it and she wasn't terrible. Hacked back to barn and put bliss on. happier pony. still feral. but normal feral vs unhappy feral. did a short quick ride and got some good moments and headed back in. 

photos: 1-25 ryder trial

Second Snow

More snow!
And she missed me

feral but clever

 blood clot in leg, so on blood thinners. told funny to cooperate... tried to dump me. 

feral!!! Spooky, jumpy. had to have a discussion or two

but then did great.

trot poles to canter placing poles, but had to trot becaus she was so naughty

ginally got her ridable

did the triple bounce and she was so clever

good pony

going to try Lryics dressage saddle on her

Snowy ride!

 Ish.. snowy-ish.  But hey.. it's still snow! 

 

I ended up working today because a good opportunity came up. And.. it's cold and icky. Although the sun came out and it was actually quite pleasant in the sun! But, I had committed, so... luckily I only worked til 3:30. I made it home in time so I grabbed Funny and we rode! Ashland was open but earlier today they had said they were closed because there were trees and wires down on the driveway... and then later they opened but said the trails and parking were soggy. Plus, it was already close to 4 pm. So we just rode at home. 

 

She was so good!! Especially because she hasn't been ridden since Tuesday. I didn't lunge her or anything. We tacked up and I got on at the trailer and we walked up to the arena. She did spook hard at Art's trashcan. Ha ha! Then stopped and stared hard at Jean's horses. Um... Funny.. they are horses!! I told her she was being a fool. Hee hee. Luckily, even though she's jumpy she's just jumpy. She does that spook in place thing and then is fine. Makes me a little jumpy too, but I appreciate the fact that she just jumps in place and is no longer actively trying to dump me. I suppose I have proven my worth. ;) 

 

We got to the arena and it is sloppy! But ridable! YAY! We did our walk warm up and then went to work. I used the polo wrap and started with it but transitioned to inside rein only holding the polo wrap and then letting it go with both hands but utilizing it as needed. And because it was there, it was a good reminder to ride as if I was holding it. And Funny was great! She was much more stable in the connection and I was more still in my hands. I rode more of my seat and legs and a little shifting of my hands, but not as much fidgeting. Also, she was reaching for the contact some but we were able to maintain a very soft contact. And her back was coming up and her neck was soft. Yay! We played with some leg yields too.

  

 

Then we cantered. She picked up the wrong lead the first time but I forgot to leg yield her into it. Once I waited until she was in the outside rein and then leg yielded her into it and asked with my outside leg, she got it. Twice! And our canters were nice. However, after we cantered, the trot got fast again. We did manage to get it nice but never quite the same slowish tempo as before we cantered. But, baby steps. We did get better and even got a few steps in a row of nice slow trot. We also practiced our halts, which were not bad at all today! Straight and still. Still tenuous and I fear not asking her to stand too much longer or she'll lose it, but... we had 4 good halts today. We finished up with a nice almost slow enough trot both ways and then hacked back down to the house. I decided to take her to the lake to see if there was still any snow although I figured there wouldn't be. It has pretty much all melted except for the shady spots. We did find snow, but not at the lake. I did cheat a little and put her almost in the woods to get the video to look like we were riding in a snowy winterland, instead of the last little patch of remaining snow! Ha ha! But we might not get this chance again :) 

She was a good pony! 

 

 

 

 

Pretty sunset and moon tonight!