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!
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