ain't easy being breezy

It's been a fairly quiet week around here. Mostly just hacking and light flat schools, after a series of scheduling snafus meant the horse was wayy overdue for a trim... womp.

unrelated photo from a little former barn mate reunion trip to a lovely local winery last week!

But hacking with friends is always lovely, esp this time of year! It was downright crispy over the weekend too!!! Tho stubbornly back into the 80s by midweek...

wandering in the woods!

And we got a few productive things checked off the list anyway --- first up, Doozy's saddle got a ~5 month check-up. Recall I picked up a lovely County monoflap last April. Doozy has obviously changed in weight and muscling significantly since then, so it was time for a reflock. 

hills were happy after a little rain

Then it was off again to another clinic ride!! Doozy travelled well and warmed up nicely, but was jussssst a tad spicy for this lesson. She's in season and feeling a little bit tight and distracted, and just everything is a little less accessible. 

related pic: bounces!

Plus, obvi, the last time she jumped was basically when she won the olympics got around the .70m at the local jumper show. So naturally she was **quite** impressed with herself and eager to pick up where we left off! 

 

bouncing the other way!

Which made for a slightly harder lesson for me, but ya know. This is the work. In particular, Dom observed that we were struggling quite a bit with the mare wanting to push out with her right shoulder, and collapse her neck to the left. This is not a new problem for us, per se, but I still don't quite have a grip on it. 

it was a hard lesson but this was a bright spot <3

So we worked through some turning exercises --- starting with a simple x-rail across the short end, and doing a figure eight over it until we could land in a somewhat civilized fashion. 

Then we put it together with a line of bounces: come down the bounce line, take the long route around to the earlier x-rail, then turn back immediately to the bounces. And then add a long straight outside line on at the end (omg). 

oh lawd, not gonna lie it was hard for me to trust letting her roll down this line!

Doozy really struggled with straightness in this ride, and it seems like my habit is to immediately try to ride the .... wrong side of her. Dom wanted my hands lower, and to really feel like I could push the right shoulder more to the left, and have more right bend. Particularly when tracking right, he wanted me sitting more to the left, and wanted me to be a bit more committed to getting my right leg onto the horse without her zipping off. 

she did it just fine tho <3

Interestingly, it'll surprise basically nobody to know that this is almost exactly what we've been working on in our dressage lessons too. Turns out it's just hard, I guess!

finishing with better flatwork than we started with

Anyway, Doozy kinda knocked me over with a feather when, after struggling through all the exercises, she somehow put together a pleasant final trip (in the video below!!).

trying to reinforce the learnings

Like obvi not perfect, but we were able to proceed directly from one exercise element to the next mostly without circling in between. Particularly she was able to land from the end jump and turn (still cantering!) toward the bounce line, which she did handily! Good girl!!

uh-oh, spaghettio! 

The outside line was still a bit hairy, tho. Not gonna lie. I have a hard time letting her roll on the true stride, vs wanting to bring her way back for the add. But we got it done fine enough, and then finished by reestablishing the flatwork just to help both of us really understand the homework. 

ugh, that last step's a doozy tho!

Bc it really does just boil down to flatwork, right? I'm so pleased with how well this mare is figuring things out, but it's still just not easy. We'll get there tho!

link to video here

Well. Eventually lol, poor mare pulled a shoe right as we were easing into walk and stepped on the clip, UGH! Hopefully by the time you read this she'll be reset and right as rain, but ugh it's so hard to stick to a program when we keep having issues like this!

anyway. praying mantis!

Oh well. That's horses, amirite. Anybody else having trouble keeping their shoes tied???