Today was a good day!! I went to Jacel's farm to help her ride Drago for the first time. And I took Funny for a lesson and a trail ride. It was only 45 minutes away and a beautiful drive! There was no one on the road and it's out in the country. We got there and I was able to toss her out in the pasture while we played with Drago. She was a good girl. A little silly but not too bad. And it was sooo nice to get to help Jacel ride her boy! He was so good. I seriously am considering breeding Funny to his daddy, Bodie, at some point. I've been so impressed with all his kids. And especially Drago. Anyways... it was successful and fun.
Funny let me catch her although she was enamored with Drago. :) I tacked up and headed to the arena. Jacel was on Moose and just walked her around while she taught me. And her arena is kind of spooky... woods on 3 sides and her dogs running in and out of the woods. Funny was a little distracted but not too bad considering it was a brand new place and the dogs blended in with the leaves.
Jacel had me ride her in a square at the trot, haunches out in the corners. And then if she was distracted and looking, a slight wiggle with the inside rein to get her attention and inside leg. She said that eventually the slight wiggle would turn into a slight squeeze of the ring finger and slight inside leg and that's all it would take. And, she's not wrong. Even by the middle of my lesson she was going soft and round and sitting with just a slight squeeze of the inside hand and my inside leg. We also did some 10 meter circles when she was distracted and worked on getting a more collected trot (Ie... a true working trot for us) by using my thighs. She had me close my thighs and squeeze both hands every time I sat on the post. And wow!! It really did work. Funny got more and more through, more and more balanced, and more and more sitting on her hind end. I wasn't being pulled forward and tipped onto the withers anymore. And she stopped kicking out at my inside leg. She stopped slinging her head around and was more accepting of the contact, yet it was still a super soft contact. And it was self-carriage! I could give my inside rein and nothing changed. Whooo hooo!!! It was awesome. She really felt incredible. We tried for a few "lengthens" which were harder because instead of allowing, I started asking and that threw her off balance. But I'll get the hang of it and she'll appreciate that and be smoother. We did have one really nice upward transition but then she couldn't hold it. But it was so cool how responsive she is to my seat and thigh and core aids and how I can be so quiet and soft and she's so much more willing that way. FUN!!!
Then we tried the canter. And yep.. there's the feral! ha ha! Honestly though, she's not even feral... she's just soooo big in her canter. Sitting and shortening is not her thing. So we tried to shorten it by squeezing my thighs and then instead of swinging my hips, more lifting my hips up and down to help pick her back up into the saddle. And by golly, it works! It's very hard for her. Much harder than at the trot. But she was trying. There was some change. Not enough for a horse show, but... for where she's at, a big improvement! She's trying! And we got a few steps of amazing bouncy lifted round canter! And then she'd fall out of it and break to the trot. That's okay girl! It's hard and I know it. It's hard for me too. She was getting pretty tired so we didn't spend a lot of time at the canter. We just got a few good steps both ways and called it. GOOD PONY!!!
Then we went for a trail ride down the road. Poor Funny was tired. But she was game. She was so sweaty even with her half clip as it was 75 degrees today!! But we started off and a minute or two into the ride Moose slammed on the breaks, spun 90 degrees and spooked. Funny was like "what!? I don't see anything" and just waited for Moose to get her act together. Moose kept doing that and eventually Funny just ignored her. Ha ha! She had to march ahead a few times because Moose was not having it. Hee hee. Poor Moose. She has had 2 weeks off and is herdbound. Whereas Funny was not herdbound and had just spent 40 minutes working her butt off. So we got to a section where we went up a tiny little red dirt hill to hit the dirtbike trail section (vs the road) and Moose said no. Funny was like "It's cool girl, I'll go first, follow me" and nonchalanty walked up it. She only jumped once and it was when there was a big squirrel or something making noise and Moose jumped too. But then we came up on two dead hog carcasses. Apparently they hunt that area a lot and toss out the carcasses on the side of the road. Moose was losing it and Funny was good for a bit but then smelled the death and wanted to spin and go home too. Luckily she was tired enough that I was able to encourage her forward and once she got past a certain spot (not sure what since it was the smell and we had already passed the hog bodies) she breathed and marched on. It was funny though because she was snorting like a warthog. Ha ha! There's a pretty church that Jacel wanted to show me so we were fighting to get them that last little bit so we could see it. Totally worth it! Such a pretty little church. Then we headed back home. And Moose was better but still a little goofy. Funny was such a trooper. She literally just walked on the buckle with her ears pricked and didn't flinch at Moose's shenanigans. Even when Moose sort of bumped into us. I'm so proud of her! She really is turning into such a rockstar!
I hosed her off and then we loaded up and headed home. How crazy that I'm hosing her off December 27th!! And not even with warm water! Well water! Although it wasn't that cold. I didn't even put her back on track on for the ride home as it was so warm.
I'm so excited about her. She's really getting to be so ridable and so much fun. And such a professional about her work too. Well.. ha ha! Maybe professional isn't the right word... I did spend a good bit of time getting her to settle. ha ha. But for her... she is settling. :)
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