And only a little feral!
Managed to get home with enough time to sneak in a ride! Whoo hoo! Used my rice heating pad to warm up her bit. Ha! But I at least remembered to grab the microwavable bit warmer to bring back to the house for the next time. :) I tacked her up fairly quickly and we headed up to the arena. She was a bit spooky because of the two does that live here...the two does that share the same pasture as them for months now... the two does that she sees EVERY SINGLE DAY.... including yesterday. Silly! But we made it up to the arena. And no spooks after that... oh no wait.. one more spook in the arena.
We tried to do a long walk warm up and she was good. We did shoulder in and some leg yields and we got a nice walk. Then we did some stretching walk.... good girl! We can do pillar one under saddle for sure! I probably could have walked more as chilly as it was but we were running out of daylight and... patience! ;) So we trotted. It was quite nice in the beginning. Really quite nice. She was a bit fussy in the bridle but in general, she's come such a long way. We had moments of connected softly, moments of her poll being the highest point, moments of engagement behind, and moments of a slight bit of suspension!!! And moments of a good tempo!! Of course we also had moments of behind the vertical and running and braced and off balance. But those are getting to be less and not the majority anymore. Whoo hoo! We cantered and she's still a bit more fussy in the contact in the canter. I haven't quite figured out how to soften and follow without abandoning her I guess. And maybe I haven't figured out how to ride her into the contact?? I don't know. We played with some things but I couldn't say with certainty that I found a magic thing that made her not fussy. Her left lead canter is still a bit harder and today she picked up the wrong lead a few times. I think it's me trying to hard though. I'm overthinking it and thus using too much aids. And she got a little quick in the canter in general. And then the trot after. BUT... we were able to get some nice trot after too.
We played with some leg yield and shoulder in too and even got a teeny tiny difference in our "trot lengthen" back to working. We also did some stretchy trot, which... was quick, but felt more balanced. So yay!! Overall, our whole ride is on the upward trajectory. We're slowly and incrementally building up moments in our ride of more balanced, a slower more consistent tempo, more connection, less fussiness, and more sit! She did let our a few bucks today... I'm not sure if she's still a little hormonal... just fresh.... I can't blame the saddle because it was just checked and flocked! (I mean.. ha, at this point.. I guess I can't even say that it fits for sure but... for the love... Master Saddlery certified saddler fixed it, so... let's hope!).
She got a little quick and I was able to get her back and settled so once we got some good work again, I quit. The sun was setting and it was chilly and I was getting hungry. And she was good, so... we called it! We hacked back home and I let her go graze in Art's great backyard a little bit. Good pony!
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