Half Halts and Funny saves the day!

 Funbuns!! You're the best. Literally.. the best pony of them all today. You are my favorite horse of the day!

The morning started off rough. I'm not feeling great... I think I'm getting the flu. Plus my hormones are still out of control. It is Lyrics birthday so I brought her to the barn to groom and shockwave and that was a disaster. I put the horses all out in the wellhouse field to enjoy the grass and sunshine and rest my big pasture. They were all silly and running amuck. But that meant that Lyric was alone in the barn... and her and Fleck panicked. She ended up pulling back on the cross-ties three times and one of the cross ties richocheted and walloped me in the forehead. It left a goose egg. And.. I'm just emotional... too much vet stuff to consider... too much to do on my to do list.. not enough time... stressing about friends horses... stressing about my horses... I just.. had a meltdown after Lyric had her meltdown. 

Anyways... I probably should have cancelled my lesson as I wasn't in the right mind but... I really didn't want to mess Jacel up. And I was hoping she could salvage my ride and that Funny and I would have a better ride than on Sunday. And... she is a God send. Literally! She listened while I poured my heart out about all the little things. And she understood. She commiserated briefly and then...we rode. 

It helped that it was quieter at Ashland today. Funny and I had already walked around the arenas in the cross country field so we were warmed up. We started off at the walk and then pretty quickly went to the trot. Funny was fussy and chompy. And bracing. So.. in order to unlock her.. Jacel had me overbend her to the inside, while pushing her barrel to the outside. Then once she unlocked and was able to lift her back and swing, I let her go back to straight. Then if she got locked again, I counterbent her and pushed her shoulders to the inside. This helped her stand up straight. And once she unlocked, I let her go straight again. (On a circle, but straight in her bend). We played with that a good bit and... it was awesome because she started out very inconsistent in her tempo. I had to slow my post, squeeze my thighs a bit, and half halt a good bit. But the more I did the overbend and counterbend she got slower and more rhythmical. It was awesome. Once we got her fairly straight... and more consistent without having to do the overbending and counterbending, we added some almost transitions. I would almost walk... but then go back to trot. And I had to sit upright. I couldn't let her pull me forward. She was sneaky about it. We did that quite a few times and it was basically... a half halt. A not very subtle and very crude half halt, but a half halt. Which... we don't have! So yay! And sure enough... after a few repetitions, she started stepping up and under with her hind end. And she stopped pulling me forward. And by the end of the session, she was moving lovely! She had a lift to her tail, her back was lifted, she was round, and she was soft in the bridle. She had an even connection in both reins. And she was much less chompy and fussy and rooty! It was awesome!

We went the other way. Tracking left is much harder because that right shoulder escapes so bad. So we did much more counterbending than overbending, but we still played with both. And she got quick again, but she recovered and we got some nice work. It also helps when I kept my outside thigh on and when I turned my sternum (Although that was helpful both ways). 

Then we went to the canter. We started on the left lead and she picked it up immediately! We played with the same stuff and then started doing almost transitions. We would almost trot, or trot and immediately back up to canter, and she got the correct lead most of the time. A few times we got the wrong one but the more balanced she got, the easier it was for her to get the left lead. Yay! We went to the right after and she was pretty good there too. We did get the left lead once. Whoops! And she tends to sling me more to outside this way. Which is interesting. And it was interesting that once Jacel showed up and we started doing that exercise... I never had to shift my saddle back to the correct spot on her back! Oh, but in our almost transitions she did swap behind a time or two on the right lead. But the more balanced she got, she stopped doing it. 

We quit after that because she was starting to get tired and fatigued. Of course... baby girl worked HARD today! But it was so much fun. She was engaged and trying to figure it out. She never backed into my leg, she didn't buck, she didn't swap randomly (just in the few downwards) and she even stopped chomping on the bit as much. Whooo hoooo!!! 

So yep... redemption! Of the day... of the last few dressage rides... of my mood. God bless Jacel! I'm ever so grateful she is in my life. For so many reasons. And so grateful for Funny too. She's been my shining star today. The boys are acting like fools and Dan is literally herding Lyric away from Fleck... Fleck is beating up on Dan trying to get to Lyric... Lyric is freaking out and losing her mind in the barn and causing me physical pain.... But Funny.. she just carries on. She doesn't care that she's a third wheel. She was having a blast this morning running and then had fun in our lesson. I love her so!

After the lesson we took a short walk to the lake and back. Baby girl was tired so I didn't do more than that. She was jumpy too! Every little squirrel that moved she would jump in place. She did go in the lake without rolling. But she was pawing and I don't quite trust her yet, so I pulled her out. We then walked down the bank (she had a fit and we had to go up it first and then she practically trotted down it on her own). We tried to walk to the water complex and she had a fit at the edge too, but then went in. Then we walked over the ditch and then trotted back over it and trotted through the water. Good pony!

Thanks for bringing back my smile fu!

Bit Lesson

Lesson with Kelly E, bit investigation

tried to hack after... spooked at XC schoolers , snorted like a dragon

went back to arena for a bit

then short hack around pterydactyl lake

Ridable Jumping Bean

 

Spice and Nice

 Today turned out to be a beautiful day! Around 5 am this morning we had tornado warnings and the storm that whipped through was intense! It sounded like the rain was swirling around the house! Luckily we didn't have any damage other than a lot of wet. The ponies all survived and seemed unfazed. The wind picked up and the clouds were moving fast and the sun came out. It was warm... until the wind blew! 

 

So... Mike and I slept in... then I caught up on dishes and laundry and then hooked up my new trailer camera. Then Mike and I took the Superduke to lunch. It wasn't too cold with proper gear. Just like riding horses!

 

When we got home I grabbed Funny and we headed to Ashland. The rings had just opened up so we were able to do our dressage in the dressage arena instead of the jump arena. yay! My new trailer camera is fantastic! Funny just looks around and goes under the chest bar and back up and back under and back up. No snacking. But now I can see if she really is "beating up the gray horse" next time we haul with Smarty! 

 

We rode in the rings first because Judy had booked them at 3 and I was running out of time, although I'm sure she would have shared or I could have gone to the lower dressage arena. But we managed to get in a whole hour before they got there so it worked out fine. We started out with our walk work and even played with shoulder in, haunches in, turn on the forehand and haunches and leg yield. She was super. (Not so much at the trot.. that's way harder). We then went into the trot and she was lovely! Slower tempo-ed and even a little lofty dare I say!? She was going quite nicely with a nice bend, forward and straight, and almost even reaching for the contact. Like... amazingly well!!! Then we did a little canter and it got a little spicy. Ha ha. Always. So today I tried to do a lot more canter. I thought that maybe if we did a lot of trot and a lot of canter and more trot and more canter and more trot and more canter.. .she'd eventually realize that cantering doesn't mean it's time to get spicy! So.. I tried it. And... it didn't really help. We got some nice work but nothing like what we had in the beginning. And there was a bit of spice and naughty. She started fishtailing and getting humpy behind. Which... almost makes me wonder if she's not so happy with the dressage saddle anymore. I should probably stop riding in it until I can have it fitted again. We did play with leg yield into the canter and that helped. And then we played with trot to walk to trot to walk to trot transitions as she started to get super sassy and inverted and bolty in the transitions. We even got a nice walk to canter on the right lead. Not so much on the left because we couldn't get a good walk to trot first. I did manage to get some nice work and we called it while we could. 

 

Then we went to take a short hack to the lake and back. As we hit the cross country field Devon was cantering up from the lake. She pulled up, but Funny didn't mind. I mentioned that it looked like so much fun I was tempted to do it too. Her and Blaze went to the arena's so... I let Funny have a canter. And then it turned into a gallop up the hill! And then she let out a big buck! Wheee. But kept going so it was fine. It did take me from almost the top of the hill to the cut through to the dressage arena's to get her stopped though. ha ha. Whooops. Maybe not the wisest of choices. So then after she settled a tiny bit I did make her trot somewhat politely for a bit. Then we hacked to the lake and then headed back home. It was a gorgeous day despite the wind. 

  

 

Good pony! It's exciting to see what she can do when we get it right, but dang girl... she makes it hard! But we'll get there. We're already making progress.