Tuesday! Lesson day! Except not today. ;) But that's okay because it was ICKY! It rained allllllll day and most of the night before that yesterday and has been misty and dreary all day today. The arena's at Ashland are closed although my arena held up great! But... Jacel had to cancel lessons anyways, and it was cold too! Wind chill of 48 but so damp and chilly. I did end up pulling clothes but left the girls in 100 grams. I let Daniel be naked. I was hoping to jump in my lesson today as Funny and I are dressaged out. And Laura had mentioned me coming over to her new farm to jump, but... that's just a long drive and with the weather.. I figured Funny might be extra feral. And I was sort of leaning towards a long hack... so I ended up postponing with Laura. I ran errands this morning and then ate lunch. And then Nancy messaged me that she could come check my saddles this afternoon, so it was good I cancelled with Laura.
So... after I ate I snagged Funny and we headed to Ashland for a nice long hack. I figured that it would be best to take her out and do a nice long walk and maybe even some trotting to work off some energy before our saddle fitting. So we did. And I timed it just about perfect. We got to Ashland I put the jump saddle on and we headed out.
I sort of let her pick the way and we ended up over in the magical lane. And then I saw Lucy's dog... and then Lucy. She was chatting on the phone so we just hung out for a bit. I almost turned and went up the hill but figured it would be nice to say hi. She got off the phone and we chatted. She told me that they were contemplating making the Jake's hay field into a pollinator field. Oooooh, that would be soooo pretty! Funny was great and just stood there quietly while we chatted. And then Adam came up with about 8 people behind him. Funny just stood quietly and bravely and they all walked past her... a few petted her nose. It was nice. :) We could NOT have done that with Dan. ;) Then Lucy mentioned that she was contemplating opening up the covered arena to members! OOOOOH yes please! So we chatted about that for a bit. Then we both headed back our respective ways and Lucy made the comment that Funny "could be quite patients at times". ha ha. I laughed at her clarification of "at times" because... yep, she was certainly correct!
We headed up the hill and then did some trotting in the fields. Then I decided to do some cantering and figured I"d let her gallop if she wanted to. She opened up nicely and we had fun. So then we went the other way and did it again and she really opened up!! I think she did swap to the left lead when she really opened up and let it rip. Like Dan. But it was sooooo fun. I had tears streaming down my face (This time from the speed vs sadness). She had fun too. We ended up hitting 30 mph! So... super fast! But not as fast as Dan. Although, honestly, she opened up and reached, but I'm not sure I felt that "drop" you get when they really kick it into another gear. Which... maybe she did and it's just not as obvious as with Dan, or.. maybe she's still got another gear in there! Wheeee!! She came back pretty nicely though. She got sweaty! Oops, sorry girl. One of these days I will get you clipped.
We went back to walking and trotting and then headed back up to the hills behind cross country. I kept myself from jumping the one smaller tree branch alongside the creek because the ground was full of leaves and I wasn't sure how slippery it would be. But I thought we'd go jump that half fallen tree that we did the other day. So we headed that way. Except... the darn tree had fallen all the way down. And it was small enough that it was no fun. Boo. So we carried on and then shortly after that.. there was a bigger tree trunk that had fallen. Oooh, not as cool since it wasn't angled but still fun. So we jumped that. Hee hee. We then headed to XC and I debated popping over a few jumps for fun, but... didn't want to slip and make her extra hot and sweaty again. And I realized that I needed to get back to meet Nancy!
Good thing we headed in because once I got untacked and got her sponged off (she was so sweaty!), Nancy texted that she was on her way. I managed to make it home right at 4 pm and Nancy got there at 4:15. Which was perfect. I put Funny in her stall and had grabbed my saddles and bridle and helmet and had just enough time to pee.
So...I told Nancy what had happened so we looked at Funny's jump, the ryder dressage and then the peter horrobin dressage. Nancy immediately noticed how much more narrow Funny was. Yeah.... the potato unpotatoed. The jump one was easy... a hair too narrow, but fixable with flocking! So Yay! The Ryder... just really didn't seem to fit her. She did think she could make it workable with flocking but admitted it was too curvy and too wide. Then we put the Peter Horrobin on her and... Nancy just didn't like it. Never has. Which is understandable. But she did think that with front shims it would be workable. So then... she asked about Lyrics dressage saddle.. the loxley. I did mention that Funny's jump saddle, the loxley, also had the same gullet plate in it, so... we tossed it on her for funsies... and it actually fit quite nice. Like... Funny really got narrow and angled in her back...she's more of a typical A frame now.
So... since the Ryder was flocked I asked Nancy if she would mind watching me ride in it because of all the chatter I was worried about. So we headed up to the arena and I got on. And... Funny was naughty... fussy, a bit behind my leg while also being quick... and fish tailing. Which... I told Nancy... that was kind of normal. But then she just... seemed kind of worse than usual. So I hopped off and we put the shims up front and I got back on. And she was worse! In fact, she started kicking out and throwing in a few baby bucks and props. Okay... this is definitely not her normal behavior. Though I did mention that I was not sure how much was unhappiness with the saddle or annoyance that I didn't have cookies (She was expecting one when I got on and I had forgotten) or being in heat or annoyed since she had already been ridden once today... So then Nancy suggested we try the Peter Horrobin on her and offered to go get it. I told her she might as well grab the loxley and she could drive back up, so she did that. I tried to ride Funny a bit longer to see but the longer I rode the worse she got. Okay... so we then put the Loxley on her. And aside from the stirrups feeling really long... she was actually quite nice. Like... she was still her usual sass but... not nearly as quick while also balky... she was still fussy in the bridle but she felt better in her back and neck base. And... she didn't offer to buck up or kick out. I even cantered her and oh thank goodness I can sit down in the canter again!!! I even got a flying change out of her!! I didn't really ask but shifted myself and she swapped so I went with it and changed directions. Wheee! So then, to be thorough, I put the peter horrobin on her and... she wasn't as bad as she was with the ryder, but she wasn't quite as nice as in the loxley. And I was a hot mess in the ryder. Nancy pointed out that it was so shifty and busy up there... maybe that flex tree...
So... very helpful!!! Frustrating... that the stupid ryder doesn't fit her at all anymore... nor does the peter horrobin. And kind of frustrating that she's stealing Lyrics saddle again!! But yay for at least having something that fits her. Nancy did point out that she's likely to change again and might go back to fitting into the ryder again... So... I guess my plan is to ride her in the loxley for a bit. And see what happens. It'll be interesting to see if she really likes it and settles and our dressage becomes less feral or if it's not as big of a change as I'm hoping for. I guess I'll hold onto the other saddles for the moment. Not like either of them are gonna be easy to sell. And who knows.. maybe I can put the Peter Horrobin on Lyric?? I don't know. At this point, I'm not even sure Lyric is going to be sound enough. Ugh.. I hope so, I really don't think she's that broken, but... ugh.
So yeah... Poor Funny... she was such a good girl today. And note to self... listen to her when she throws in bucks and squeals. She's not just being a sass... she's trying to tell me something.
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