Today I opted to ride Lyric at Ashland because I figured it wouldn't be good to have an "audience" for my ride with her. I didn't need the pressure of having anyone watching or feeling like I was doing something wrong or unsolicited advice. Or the pressure of having to be on a time line. So I rode Funny at home. And it was a good choice! I was in a good mood after my ride with Lyric and I wasn't rushed.
I didn't mean to ride as long as I did, but I didn't feel like we drilled. Although... I guess I probably ought to do shorter rides. Luckily her new girth and bit came, so I figured I'd try them out. We LOVE the girth! It's memory foam, straight, and has elastic on both ends. I think she likes it! It didn't feel like it was too tight and we didn't slip around so yay! I also bought her a soft rubber D ring with slight tongue relief. It's a bit harder than the nathe but still fairly soft. A bit think in the ends. But it was cheap enough that if she chewed through it again... not as big of a deal. She's already chewed through both nathes! Ugh.. that's expensive! So we'll see. I took her fager bit up with us just in case but we stayed in the rubber one. Apple flavored incidentally. Ha ha. I don't think Funny cared, but... she didn't make any dents/chomps in it yet despite chomping pretty hard. And she had some mouth foam, so... ??
We had a good ride. I tried to remind myself that she really was trying... even if her try was different than Lyrics try. And I tried to remind myself to stay soft... to not get mad... no emotion... ride smarter, not harder. And I think it worked! We had a pretty good ride. She was quick... but not combative and not nearly as quick as she has been. She was falling left on me and flinging her haunches right a lot today and I couldn't quite figure out how to balance her, but we had some good moments. I tried riding haunches in whenever we tracked left... I tried to keep my inside (left) hand open instead of crossing her neck... I tried posting to the outside... I tried putting my weight in my inside leg... and my outside leg... I tried counter flexion... back to true flexion and alternating flexions. But... nothing seemed to work consistently. Oh, I also tried leg yielding in and out. But we did get some good moments. She seems to be bracing in her neck base especially bad tracking left which makes it hard to get her soft and not fling those haunches. But we got some good moments.
We had some decent trots, especially tracking right. Our canters were pretty decent. We had a good stretchy walk and trot some. And a few attempts at lengthen to collect to lengthen. We also did some shoulder in and leg yields. And... she was quite good! Oh, we also played with canter leg yields and serpentines and even a counter canter (but only the first level test part where you just canter back to the rail after the tear drop and hold the counter canter on the straight line for a few strides). And she did it! I think I forgot to do it both directions though. We also played with the halt some and the free walk and stretchy trot. She got a bit lateral and jiggy in her working walk. I tried to give her lots of praise when she was good and I really didn't get too frustrated today. I didn't get mad. Yay me!
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