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

 

Today I decided to pivo my ride. I reverted back to old habits because she was wanting to twist and throwing her right shoulder out. Ugh. But, I did eventually remember to correct myself and she got better! When I balance my body over the top of her (not leaning) and bring my inside hand back and to the outside, vs crossing the neck.. she gets better! We eventually got some nice trot work and eventually got some nice canters too. 

 

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!!

I finally got my truck back last night. But good golly what a disaster! Not only did they have my truck forever, they basically told me they had done all the recalls previously and they couldn't figure out what was wrong with it and it seemed to be driving fine. So... grrrrrr.  It was a long work week and we didn't get to the dealer til about 9 pm. So then on the way home, there was construction everywhere!! And cops with the lights going off everywhere. And then Mike took a wrong turn because of the cops and lights and construction so instead of hopping on the interestate almost immediately, we were on back roads. And then we got stuck behind a uhaul going about 20 mph below the speed limit for about 30 minutes. Finally we made it to the interstate but there was soooo much traffic because of construction and so much construction. It was so confusing. At that point I was over stimulated in all the ways. And we were trying to merge into one lane and somehow another giant truck next to me smacked my mirror with his mirror! Although before our mirrors hit he managed to slide his mirror down my hood! I honestly wasn't sure what had happened. I was in my lane... He must have drifted too far and just been high enough that he grazed me. By the time my brain processed what happened, I had to merge and then he got stuck multiple cars behind me. I just decided at that point I didn't care enough to do anything about it. There was so much traffic and I didn't know how to pull over in that construction. We finally made it home despite me not being able to use my right mirror because it had been flipped back into my window. The next morning, in daylight, I checked and luckily it was more of a rub where the plastic from his mirror left plastic on my hood. I was able to scrape it off. And I didn't have any other damage. Phew! And luckily, my truck drove home just fine. Although it usually does unhitched. Sigh...  

 

I was really wanting to go ride at Ashland though. It's been so long and today was the last pretty day! I turned it on and the low coolant light came on, but then blinked off. Wait... what?! Ugh. I couldn't get lined up to get hitched in about 10 tries so I got frustrated and drove it around the neighborhood. At that point I wanted to make sure I didn't go through all that trouble and have it not want to drive. Of course it was fine around the neighborhood and the light never came back on. So then I tried to hitch again and was able to accomplish it. So then I took the rig around the neighborhood and it was fine. So... I grabbed Funny and we headed to Ashland!

 

We pulled in and saw Eden coming back from the arenas. Ooops. Ha ha. I had told her I couldn't do a lesson with her clinician because my truck wasn't working and then... here I was. But I explained what happened. So then we tacked up and went for a nice long hack! Ahhhhhh... We trotted... did a little canter... and lots of walking. Her trot was very much a power trot but I did try to make it less giant. Then we went to the cross country field and were going to jump a few little jumps. The dingbat stopped at the first one. Funny!! But then she was fine. We did the down bank into the water but she stopped at that, so we had to try a few times and finally got it after I walked her up it. Dumb me... always walk up it first! Doh. But after that she jumped up and down it just fine. Then we played over a few of the beginner novice stuff and a handful of the novice fences. We even did some combinations. It was fun.

 

Then we hacked to the lake. I didn't let her roll but she wasn't real interested in playing in teh water either. So we headed home. When we got to the arenas I went in and asked for a nice proper trot. She was quite good and gave me a decent trot pretty quickly so we did a few circles and she got lots of praise and then we headed back to the trailer.