Well.. change of plans FuFu! Sorry.... I know I told you that we would run and jump big things today, but... no XC lesson for us. Jacel had to cancel so... rather than jump on our own, which was tempting... I figured we should just hack and maybe do some dressage. Because honestly, at this point, Full Gallop is seeming to be quite the big effort. But we'll see. Maybe it'll still happen. The saving grace is that I have Monday off, so... even if I have to get up super early Sunday to drive to Aiken, at least I don't have to work Monday. So we'll see. But regardless, I think she's ready. I can always jump XC Tuesday or Friday if I decide to go. Although it looks like rain now too.
Anyways, I was hormonal and sad today so I figured a nice walk hack and a dressage school would be good, so that's what we did. We loaded up and headed to Ashland. We took a nice long walk and basically did the perimeter of the farm. We went through the windy cathedral path, which is my favorite. And it was exceptionally nice today. Then we picked up the canter through the hay fields. I figured a nice little breather would be nice. And it was! Then we did the hills up Hoot N Holler and then went back through the pines to the backside of stadium. We ended up by the jump barn and I asked her to walk through it. She was a bit nervous and tried to spin away twice but then got brave and marched right through. Good girl. Unfortunately I noticed that my equilab had quit working when I went to check and see how long we had gone already. Argh. Oh well. I restarted it and then we headed to the arenas.
She was pretty good. Overall, less quick and more balanced and more "on the bit" than typical. But lots of fussy moments too. She still feels stiffer to the left. I do wonder how much of that is me because... Lyric too.. Dan too... I tried changing my body position some to help and it did a bit. We had some good moments. We even did some leg yield and some half pass at the trot. Half passing to the right is pretty easy, but the left is hard! We did some lengthens too. Or attempts at lengthens. And we did the training 3 half serpentine thing, which.. she's pretty good at. We played with trot walk trot and it's definitely getting better! We also worked on the walk because... that's the hardest thing. She gets so tense and lateral. It helps if I lift my crotch up... to help ask her to bring her back up. I somehow seem to get stuck down in my crotch/abdomen/core which I don't think is helping her walk. And it did help when I lifted my core. But we also had to do some lateral work within the walk to get her unlateral. ha ha. Funny how that works. We also played with sitting trot and it's definitely becoming a tool, which is awesome!! Even if I don't have the trot I want to sit... sitting helps me get that trot. Cool! She definitely had more moments today of being "on the bit" than previously, so that's exciting!
We finished and did a tiny walk to cool down and then she got a rinse and we headed home. She's sooooo in heat and was stuck to Dan like glue the whole rest of the day. And then, she wouldn't even come in to eat dinner because they were in the dog pen pasture and Jean's horses were all on the fenceline on the other side of the driveway, so she was all up in their faces. Girl... come in and eat you hussy! But she came in willingly once I went out and summoned her. It does definitely seem like she's more bucky/cranky/stuck feeling when she's in heat, so... that makes me feel a little better that it's not some pain thing I need to deep dive for.
We'll see what happens tomorrow but I'm contemplating taking her to hard labor for a hack.
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