Progress

 Today was a lovely day. It was a bit breezy but the sun was out. I rode Funny at home, because... I just needed a day at home. Plus, we're in dressage boot camp. ;) Well, til Tuesday. We should have a jump lesson Tuesday. I opted to try her in Lyrics bridle with the figure 8 type noseband and decided to put her back in her bit. I debated going back in the thicker black rubber loose ring, but will try that later. 

We had a pretty good ride overall! I opted to hack her to the lake for our warm up. And even though I had a very soft contact on her mouth, she wasn't chomping the bit until she got nervous and then once we got to the arena. So, I don't think it's the bit so much as contact/arena work. We had a good walk to the lake and then the neighbors dog came out and was sneaking up on us. It was annoying because the dog wouldn't come any closer when we were looking at her, but as soon as we turned and walked off, she would sneak up close behind us. I was worried she would try to bite and/or Funny would kick her. She completely ignored her owner too. So, we just carried on as best as we could. Then we had to stop and stare because there was a guy swinging on the swing at the beach. So we opted to just turn around and go back. And the dog got really close to us but eventually left us and headed back home. Thank goodness. 

 

 

So we headed to the arena. And she was really quite good today. She was chomping the bit pretty much the whole time. But she was slower in her tempo today in general. She was quicker to respond to my aids for downward transitions too. She did toss her head up in the air quite a bit, which is a new thing. I wonder if she's teething although later when I checked her gums I didn't feel anything and her teeth didn't look abnormal. We worked on our homework and actually had some good moments a fair amount of the time. At least it felt like that. She was a little bit on the muscle but was slower and less on the forehand it seemed. She was probably behind the vertical some but I was trying my best to push the bit to her and get her to stretch forward and down and out and lengthen her neck. And we got it some. We also had some nice canters and did some transitions there. We played with the leg yield a little bit and even did a tiny bit of shoulder fore and haunches in at the sitting trot. 

 

She also gave me a few good halts and was much less dramatic about halting at the gate and then standing after we closed the gate. We took a little leisurely stroll through the pasture and then even did a bit of trotting. And her trot was much less behind the vertical in the pasture, so.. I may need to play with that. But it may have also been because I didn't do more than a minute of trotting out there. 

 

 Good pony! She got a quick rinse off and carrots and then got turned back out.