Hack Day!

 And what a glorious day for a hack! 

 

It was chilly this am but not too bad. The sun finally came out around 1 pm and then it was lovely! Dan and I headed home early from the WE clinic (vs watching the other riders) so that I could ride Funny too. It was worth it. 

 

We got there as the show was ending so we tacked up and headed for the woods. I was torn on which saddle to use, but decided that we could do some trotting and cantering in the woods/fields and it was easier in the jump saddle. So that's what we did. She got a little strung out and hot but was maybe more balanced than previously. We had fun. 

 

Then we headed to the dressage arena because I needed her to give me a good trot and a good canter to make sure we still had it. And it took her a few minutes to settle, but not any worse than when we don't hit the trails first. She gave me some nice work and at first, she was stiff going to the left, but I made sure that I was tilting my upper body to the inside but staying in my outside seat bone and most importantly I had to not cross my inside hand over, and instead bring it straight back. And I had to keep her slightly counterbent, to keep that outside rein connection. But it definitely helped. We even had a pretty decent left lead canter today too. Yay! We didn't do much as we had already done a fair amount in the fields, but I wanted to get some good quality work. We had fun. 

 

Then we walked to the jump arena but the jumps were set too high to play on. Good thing too because Lucy showed up as we were walking back to the trailer and I got in "trouble" for not singing in to the arena. She explained that they like to know if there are footprints in there for dragging purposes. I did tell her that there already were footprints in there but apologized. She told me it was okay and I "could do no wrong" essentially. Thanks Lucy but I promise to behave!! 

 

Luckily Funny was sweet and well behaved so we didn't make things worse. :) We loaded up and headed home. Good pony!

 

Another ride at home

 Well, we got stuck riding at home again today! Sorry Funny, hopefully tomorrow we can hit the trails! I was so tired after working this week that I slept in til 9:45!!! holy cow! Whoops. The horses didn't wake me. Either they slept in too and stayed out or they came in and made noise and didn't get a reaction and left. I woke up a few times but kept falling back asleep so... guess I needed it. Apparently my M, W, Th schedule is harder on me than I thought. 

 

I did a few chores around the house and was supposed to go ride with Sharon and Jamie. We didn't have a set time but they just had to run a quick errand first, so... I kept waiting. Finally I realized that they were taking way longer than they should have and I was about to give up, but then they messaged. Luckily I had enough time at that point to go lunge Lyric. So I did that. Then I was done and they still hadn't left but once I grabbed Dan and was about to head to Ashland to ride by myself they messaged and said they were on the way. Phew! It was a fun ride, but by the time we got home, it was 4:15 pm. So, I didn't think I could take Funny to Ashland. Plus I was starving. So... I grabbed a quick snack and then we tacked up and headed to the arena. 

I told myself that I was going to do some pillar work with her because she's lost her chest muscling. So we walked up to the arena and we did some pillar work and shift backs on the way up there. But then the sky was so pretty! So I hopped on to get some photos between the ears, after taking ground photos. And then we got in the arena and just went to work. Whoops. I'll keep incorporating it into our rides though. And maybe throw in some lunge days and groundwork days as we go too. I've got to get all the ponies back on track. 

 

We had a pretty good ride. It started out quite good! She was soft and quiet and settled quickly. Tracking left is harder though and she wants to fall in and brace. I got a little annoyed and fell back into old habits so we struggled a bit. But it wasn't too bad. Then we cantered and the right lead was great but after we processed and I went to try the left lead, she got SUPER quick and runny and then unbalanced and then we just started to spiral into our old habits and spun around and then she was cantering and it was awful. We kind of fought for a bit. I finally got her pulled up and we took a breath. And then we sat for a minute. And then we started again and I went back to my new habits and focused on those and rode counterbent and she settled. And then I reminded myself that by riding counter bent, it throws her back upright instead of falling in and then she can balance. And when she can balance, she doesn't have to run. So, while it wasn't a nice pretty inside bend, it was a much better balanced trot. And it wouldn't have scored well, but neither would her falling in and unbalanced trot! We then managed to have a decent left lead canter following the same principles. phew!

We finished with the nice left lead canter and then a lovely left lead trot and then I let her have an even lovlier right trot and we quit. But we also had some good soft trot work earlier and got one nice trot lengthen. We also got some leg yields and even some shoulder fore in the trot! And we also finished on a fairly nice halt from the trot. 

 

We hacked back via the driveway and as we came out to the culdesac our neighbor was walking. Funny startled but was fine and didn't do more than slightly jump. The neighbor was sweet and we chatted briefly and carried on. Good pony!

  

Pivo ride

 pivo ride

Windy Ride

 I had a migraine last night so I took a pill and slept from about midnight til 8 something this morning and then I fell back asleep until 9:30! YAY! The ponies let me sleep too! So it took me a minute to get motivated this morning. Plus it was windy and getting chilly. I did some laundry, did the dishes, and ate breakfast after I fed ponies. And then I almost sat down on the couch and took a nap, but opted to get up and get moving. I picked up some of the blankets in the barn and blew out the aisle, which helped the barn look much cleaner! Then I decided to go do some work with Lyric. So I did that. Then I finally decided I was motivated enough to ride Funny! I debated riding at home, but... since Mike was out dirt biking and I might not have my trailer on Tuesday or Friday and I probably need to see if it's going to stop running well again or not, I decided to take her to Ashland. And lo and behold, no one was signed up. Odd.. although it is a high of 43 with the wind chill and 20 mph winds, so.. maybe that's why?! 

 

We loaded up and got there and tacked up. I took her for a short hack around pterydactyl lake to warm up. She was jumpy and scooted a few times at various noises. She was jumpy enough that I decided to wait til we were in the arena to adjust my stirrup. My right leg is definitely way longer becuause I felt like my right knee was way higher than my left and my left foot was reaching. Once we got to the arena, I hopped off because the wind had blown about 8 pieces of the arena rail into the arena. And it's easier to adjust her stirrups that way. It definitely looked shorter, so.. I have no idea what is happening. The saddle looked straight. Oh well. I fixed it and felt more symmetrical myself. 

 

We did a nice walk warm up getting a good walk on contact. Then we picked up the trot and she was really quite good. Then she got a little quick and a bit more inverted and leaning. But we managed to get some pretty decent work. And then I let her process at a halt. It took a good long bit. Although she was also distracted by all the things. Including the wind blowing the lower arena rails around! She jumped and scooted but then stared and held her ground. Good girl. We managed to have a decent ride. The canter got a little quick at first but then it got quite nice. And then we had struggles in the walk. I think she gets quick and jiggy and then I sort of "lock up" my back and pelvis which she perceives and gets super tight and wiggly. If I swung my pelvis forward, she would start marching forward again. So it's a fine line of keeping myself tight and dribbly, especially in the trot and canter, but not too tight and locked so I shut her down and make her feel confined and like she has to explode. But I sort of managed it and we got some really nice walk work too. Overall, we had some good work, including some semi-decent shoulder ins and one good working to lengthen to working trot! And some nice regular trot and canter too. We finished with a lovely trot both ways and then a nice centerline to halt. 

 

I quit with that and we headed back out to the woods. I decided to take a little more time and we went behind the stadium ring to where the deer attacked us before. She was a little on edge but no deer today! Then we went backwards up towards "hog heaven" and then down "sideways". Then we crossed the creek and did racoon loop. I was thinking about Mike and how he was making videos to show me the trail so I tried to make a video for him. But my phone won't let you swap from front to back mid video so I had to do a  dual screen. And as we picked up the canter up racoon loop, the pterydactyl swoooped off! It startled Funny and she broke to a trot but then she was fine. It was kinda cool!

 

Then we headed to the lake and headed back up alongside the lake. It was so windy that the lake actually had little whitecaps! Ha ha.. Never seen that before on this lake I don't think. 

We had a good ride and I'm glad we headed out. In the arena, protected by the wind, it was almost hot. But then in the woods and in the fields it was still fairly chilly. But not terrible. Especially compared to what tomorrow is gonna be! Which, I'll be working anyways, but still. I think Tuesday will be cool and then it'll rain Wednesday but by this weekend it's gonna be sunny and in the 70's again. 

 

FINALLY!!

 got my truck back last night. freakin' disaster!

drove fine home last night, so... tried to hitch up since it's the last pretty day... some coolant low light came on but blinked off quick, a few times. couldn't get hitched.. drove around neighborhood, still fine, and no more lights. tried again and hitched.. then took rig around the block. no issues...

grabbed Fun and headed to ashland. lovely hack. met eden (oops, i didn't lie i promise). went for a nice long hack... trotted... a little canter. super power trot but did settle a teeny bit. went to Xc and jumped. stopped at first jump... squirrely! then was fine. stopped at down bank into water. and took a minute but after we walked up it, she jumped up and down fine. played over a few of the bn/novice stuff.. maybe even a training line or two of the smaller fences but more technical. 

then hacked to lake. no swimming! but no playing either. hacked home. stopped at arena and got a really nice proper trot pretty darn quickly so did a few circles and quit. rewarded her!  hosed off. back home

good pony

photos: Finally... videos of crickets

Do less!

 Fabulous lesson with Liz today. Actually fabulous day with Liz today! I'm not even mad that I don't have my truck back yet. :) It didn't hurt that the weather was glorious! 

I got on a little early because Liz stopped at tractor supply first. Which was nice, because I was able to eat a quick sandwich too. But then they took forever getting her stuff so she was 15 minutes later than she expected, even on top of the 15 minutes later. So Funny and I had already been walking around the pasture and arena for a good 20-25 minutes. While we waited we did some lateral work and just worked on our free walk to working walk. It wasn't too bad. She was very chill. I did pick up the trot and got a decent trot... not quick and runny! So then we worked on straightness. That's hard. She wasn't as bad as I thought though and we managed to stay pretty darn straight the whole length of the arena. Yay! Although the girl randomly tucked her tail and scooted and almost scooted out from under me! WHY??? I have no idea.. never saw anything nor heard anything. Seriously though, I'm getting tired of almost getting yeeted off. Although it's better than actually getting yeeted off, last last week!! 

So Liz showed up shortly after that so we said hi and chatted briefly. I told her we were already pretty warmed up and we decided to not do too much walking since Funny gets bored easily. I did get a nice walk though before I trotted and our trot started pretty quick. Liz helped me think through it and I'm kinda proud of myself too, because I was already starting to do the things. And sure enough, Funny settled pretty quickly. It's just hard to slow my post when she's running, but if I lift my core and post up and down, instead of front to back, she starts to settle quickly. And I almost have to think of tipping my pelvis in front of my shoulders... like, I'm not leaning back... and I'm not shoving her spine down... but somehow I have to get behind her center of balance the teeniest tiniest bit. At least that's what it feels like. And then she slows down dramatically. I kind of wonder if it's similar to the lateral balancing. Like... if I'm just slightly in front of her (Probably, and probably not even slightly) she's running to catch up to me and get underneath me. But if I sit behind her motion... then she can slow down and come back to me. I don't think I'm explaining it right because I know I shouldn't be "behind the motion" but.. that's the best way I can describe it in my head. Then we played with me following her balance to stay "above her" so she can balance underneath me laterally. And that worked a lot. 

Tracking to the left Liz told me that I was doing too much. When she goes to the right, she is a little overbent and when she goes left, she's a little underbent. But I tend to want the same feel I'm getting to the right, so I'm asking for too much to the left too. And eventually we can ask for that much stepping under and over, but she doesn't need to do that yet and isn't ready. STRAIGHTNESS is key right now. So when we trot to the right, I really need to just keep her neck straight out of her withers and the tiniest bit of bend in her body. Just allow.. don't ask. She's naturally curved to the right. When we go to the left... I feel her barrel lean into my leg, so I want to push her barrel out to the right and pull her nose to the left. But what's actually happening is that she is slightly haunches in and falling in, so instead of overbending her and sending her laterally, I need to almost think counterbend, which will straighten up her shoulders and help her lift her chest and thus.. she stops spiraling out with her haunches and in with her withers. And then I can send her haunches out, but it's her haunches, not her barrel I need to send out. When I rode the outside rein, and then sort of thought about pushing her haunches out and lifting my inside shoulder, that straightened her front end and I could really feel her whole chest straighten and lift up. And then she didn't feel like she was falling in on me. She was carrying herself. AHHHHH!! That's nice. I need to bring my left shoulder back, but don't turn my head to the left. And sort of almost lift my left hand slightly. 

Then going to the right, I'm naturally turned right in my upper body, so don't try. Just... stay straight. Keep the outside rein, but I don't really even need to ask for inside bend, because she's already bent enough. 

We also talked about letting her process. I need to let her stop and really process.. marinate in her good deeds. She needs to "live in the moment" and relish what she just did and percolate on it. So let her stop. And let her breathe... and think... and when she's done and ready, she'll start processing the outer world again and offer to go back to work. She can't process in the walk. *I* prefer to process in the walk. And I prefer to pre-process and she needs to post-process. So... when we get some good work... come down to a nice walk and get a good walk and then stop and let her marinate. As long as it takes. Then we can start up again in the walk and I can prepare and pre-process while we walk. 

Oh, and I have an upward transition signal. And a downward transition signal. The downward transition signal is to close my upper thighs and tighten my core. And she is really getting good at coming down. I don't have to touch the reins! I almost have to add leg though now because she almost comes down to a halt. The upward transition is preceeded by a "warning" aid. We decided that my aid would be to lift my chest and square my shoulders, then take a small hold of the outside rein for a step or two, then release the outside aid, then ask for the upward. It's kind of like a half-halt... a "hey listen, I'm about to ask you to lift up". That order of go will help my position my body and then the outside rein half halt will help remind me not to hang on the inside rein. I hope anyways. 

So then we wanted to canter and Liz said she liked it better from the walk still. So we had to take a minute because she was a bit nutted up again. But we got a nice walk and then I asked for the right lead canter. It wasn't bad, but Liz said I asked at the wrong time. She said she didn't think I knew when to ask because I didn't know when her right hind was on the ground. Ah... I don't. I can't really feel it, or... I'm not really aware that I'm feeling it. So we got back to a nice walk and she told me to do my upward transition aid, but look over my left shoulder. When I felt her start to push off with that right hind (or was it left??) then ask. It was better but still a bit of a struggle. But then we did it a third time and I got the hang of it. I think that I can actually feel it better than I think, so when I think about asking at the right time, I sort of instinctually do it right. When I think about asking when that specific hind leg is on the ground, I get too bogged down on thinking and it doesn't quite get through my brain quick enough. And we got some really nice canter! Wide hands... outside rein connection.... think of cantering by lifting my seat vs "wiping my seat". Ha ha.. But dribble her and invite her back up into my crotch. Gross, but ... that's the best way to say it. 

We then tried the left lead. And ugh. It was a disaster. She got the wrong lead and then got a bit stressed about it. So she got all balled up and tense and tight. It took a few attempts and a few lead corrections behind before we got it. Liz pointed out that she always wants to start off on the one hind limb vs the correct one for the left lead. (My brain is tired and now I can't remember if they strike off with the outside hind or inside hind). And it's mostly because of our balance. So I had to put her on a smaller circle to get it. And I had to get it by asking with my inside leg more than my outside leg. But I think a lot of it was timing and trying too hard and focusing on one thing vs all the things, because we don't struggle this much on our own. BUT I did have an epiphany. Funny falls in with her left shoulder, so that makes her inclined to get the right lead instead of the left. I need to get her to sit back on her right hind, lift her left shoulder and chest, so that she can lift up into the left lead. I also tip. So it's not that I need to circle her in a 10 meter circle so much as I need to over bend her to the inside to push that left shoulder back out. It makes sense in my brain okay! :) I need to let her stretch that neck out straight instead of kinking it though and it's NOT about putting her nose to the inside and overbending it, so much as it is getting that left falling shoulder up and out. And then, like at the trot, once she's balanced and upright, I can ride the outside shoulder around in a slight shoulder fore because she's upright and square, instead of leaning. It's hard to explain but I think I've got the feel right. Now to hope I can remember it by Friday when I (hopefully) get to ride again. 

We finished with one on the buckle left lead canter depart because Liz wanted me to really understand that it's not about cranking her head in, but getting her to bend left, pushes that inside shoulder up and back. And we got a lovely transition and quite frankly, a lovely canter, even being on the buckle more or less. We finished with a great downward transition to trot and then a lovely trot and then a nice downward to the walk and a nice walk. GOOD PONY!

Lots of hard work today but lots of fun. It feels like good progress even though there's still some running and reverting back to feral. Liz did mention that she seemed happy still and enjoying her work. Yay! On our hack home I stopped to let her eat a little patch of grass in the yard and she suddenly yeeted backwards and almost dumped me again. And again.. I saw NOTHING. Doh. She put a big ol' divot in the grass too. Silly... 

Quicky

So.. I still don't have my truck. UGH... Which means poor Funny still doesn't get to go play and that means we keep staying in dressage bootcamp. Which, isn't the end of the world, but we could both really go for a nice long hack!

Luckily today Sharon offered to come get me and take us to Charlie Elliott. Except, I felt a little obligated to take Dan so poor Funny had to stay home. But since it's supposed to rain all day tomorrow I decided to hop on her real quick and sneak in a ride before Sharon came to get me. I figured I'd have about 40 minutes, which should have been plenty of time. So I speed tacked up and we headed to the arena. She was wanting to go exploring the neighborhood, but.. sorry girly! Soon.. I promise... As soon as we can! Except, if we get the truck back by Tuesday, we still can't go Tuesday because we have a Liz lesson, but Thursday for sure! (or Friday.. I can't remember which day I work this week). 

So anyways.. it was a good ride. She was a bit more feral again. I'm not sure if it's just timing... Liz not being there and sort of forcing us to just... be and chill... her forcing us to take longer walk breaks in between... or what? But even with that, we still had some good moments. It just took a bit in between. But we got there. And the longer I rode, the quicker we could get back there. Even after the canter. And our canter was actually quite nice. Not at first.. it was nice but big and quick. But then we settled and got some really nice canter! We went back to the trot again and got some more nice work. We played with shoulder in some and leg yield. And we even did a tiny bit of half-pass at the walk. Mostly because she was getting lateral in her walk. So I tried to ride shoulder in or haunches in, or both to keep her from getting stiff and lateral. We also had to work on our free walk to medium walk because she's gotten to where she wants to snatch the reins out of my hands. She gives me a LOVELY free walk but.. there's no contact. So when I try to take the tiniest bit of contact.. not to bring her up, but just to have a connection, she would throw her head up, invert, and start jigging. So... I took Liz's tactic to heart.. If I shorten up on the reins in a very tiny small amount and you immediately throw your head up and jig, then I'll take up the slack (you offered!) and we'll trot. BUT.. it's gonna be a nice trot. So.. that's what we did. And eventually I think she started to figure it out because she eventually let me have a soft contact and stayed down low and stretchy. We finished with a bit more trot and canter and at one point we even had a really nice working trot to trot lengthen and back to working trot. Whoo hooo!

I did ride in my shorter monostirrups. It's SOOOO weird to me. The XS ones are way too short, even on the longest hole. Like... they probably would be okay if my knee blocks weren't so big, but even still, I wanted them one hole longer. But then the medium ones are way too long, even on the highest hole. It's like literally 1.5" difference... it's the 1.5" that I REALLY WANT MY STIRRUP TO BE! Ugh... So I don't know. I guess I could go back to regular stirrups but this saddle doesn't have a keeper for them. I'm not sure I'm willing to buy a third pair of monoleathers from Bliss... because, they aren't cheap. And seriously though.. there should be a bit more wiggle room! It still doesn't make sense to my brain!

I probably could have ridden longer because Sharon texted that she would be another 30 minutes, but I figured it would be best to drag my arena before all the rain comes. And I wasn't sure if we would get back in time for me to do it after we went riding. And... I didn't want to drill Funny and she was good and we were at a good place to end. So we did. And I speed drug the arena and at least got it done. And we were ready for Sharon!

  

fast but not furious

We're still stuck riding at home in the arena because I'm still truckless. Ugh. But I am so grateful to God that I have an arena to ride in. Plus, Funny's getting fun in the flatwork. It's just... we've been doing a lot of it without any other trails to help break it up. But that's okay.. hopefully we'll get our wheels back soon!

 

We had a good ride. Nothing crazy. She was a bit fast again and not quite as soft and quiet as in my lessons with Liz, but... overall so much better than it has been. We got some nice moments and played with shoulder in. And although our first canter was pretty quick, we did manage a decent soft canter afterwards. 

 

Good pony!