Twitchy!

 Funny was cracking me up today! She's on crack!

 

We went to Charlie Elliot to ride today because I wanted to do some fitness and have it be quick, since work took longer than I was thinking it would and then I had to wait for Mike to get done with meetings to go get my truck. And then I had to hitch up. And it's still stupid hot and humid. But, I figured rather than driving to Ashland, I could drive half the distance and ride in the woods at Charlie Elliot. So that's what we did. And it was a good plan. Especially because it made me not put the dressage saddle on and try to do some dressage too. I figured it might be good for Funny to just go and let loose. 

 

And boy did she!! We got there and were just about done tacking up with a "kidnapper van" pulled in. Eeeks. But they stayed in the car playing their music loudly until we were well into the trail. Then I heard the dogs barking happily. Oh... super sweet kidnappers. Ha ha! I'm pretty sure they were nice dog owners who were patiently waiting for me and Funny to get out of sight so they could let their dogs out. Nice people! 

 

Funny and I headed out and she was a bit looky. We walked a good ten minutes and then I picked up the trot. She was cracking me up. She was so busy slinging her head side to side to look at ALL THE THINGs that she was bouncing side to side on the trail. And she was so twitchy! She kept jumping in place at every tiny little thing. And when we were trotting, she was on power trot mode and was BOOKING IT! So the twitches and startles were a bit unnerving. I only almost came off once. But that was legit. We were cantering along towards where Dan and I saw the dementors, and... Funny was paying attention to the woods on the left and I saw the little armadillo on the right. "Hey Funs, there's an armadillo... hey Funs... FUNNY!"... as the armadillo decides to run RIGHT AT FUNNYS FEET as we got close. Of course she saw him then and squirted sideways and stopped short. I was bracing for impact so I was able to stay on, but barely. Good grief. She was less twitchy at the canter in general though, so we did a good bit of cantering. I think there was like 70 microspooks! Do you have Turrets? A seizure disorder? Hee hee.  

We had fun though. We mostly trotted or cantered the entire 8 miles other than a few stretches where I was letting her catch her breath or the rocks were too rolly and big or it was a steep downhill. She was good... albeit very quick and running, very distracted and on alert and very twitchy. She did reach down and stretch some though and while she was quick, she mostly felt balanced. We even trotted down some hills. 

 

Luckily I still had enough water to sponge her down. Although I felt bad because the water was rather warm. Sorry chicky! She recovered quickly though. So... all in all, a fun ride and a good fitness day. The ground was maybe a little hard but not as bad as it has been before. 

 

Tomorrow we'll go to Ashland and hack and do some dressage. Hopefully. And then I think I might take her to my lesson with Kelly Eaton on Sunday instead of Lyric. We'll see.