Frustrating lesson

Spooky bolty braced Fleck... me fighting the urge to resort to my old methods. But finally made progress. leg yield to shoulder in to 10 meter circle.

The Fun Continues

Snuck in another ride despite the weather! Yay!

It was icky and humid and muggy and almost tornado like weather. Especially for December. But I got to ride Flecky after I played with Dan. We did a little warm up in the arena and then jumped a bit more. Just because I have to give my saddle back tomorrow. And that arena is the best footing wise. Fleck was much chiller today and wasn't bolting, so that was good. I set up a few fences for fun and we did some bigger stuff too. He was great!

And then it started raining so we headed in. Of course a few minutes after we untacked it stopped, but it started up again before I got home.

So... dressage lessons tomorrow and then I think even if the weather cooperates Wed, they'll get a day off anyways. Hopefully we can ride New Years Eve or New Years Day or both!

No pictures because of the weather. But he was as cute and adorable as ever. :)

Good Relaxing Day

Ahhhh.... what a nice Sunday. :) 

Nothing NOTHING to do today but ride my ponies. :) I got up and lounged around a bit and then headed to Ashland with both boys. It was a bit rainy this morning and even rained a little on Fleck and I, but then it cleared up. It was hot and muggy though. I rode in a t-shirt and was sweaty and almost had to hose Fleck off. And it's Dec 27th!! And he's fully clipped! But it was nice to not be freezing.

 We met Kelli and Arwyn and headed up to the jump arena where we did some flat work (in the jump saddle) and then Fleck and I did a little jumping. I wanted to see what Kelli thought of my position in the Conquest. The jumps were set so little but I figured "eh... why not? no reason to set them up". Except Fleck was a turd. He kept running at them. So we had a few discussions. And then I finally set one up to a decent size. He jumped it beautifully the first two times and then the next two I messed him up and they were awkward. So then we finished with another nice fence. :) 

But Kelli said that my leg looked awesome the entire ride, even the spazzy awkward fences. And that my upper body looked nice too. Alex joined us at the end and she thought my leg looked good too. So yay!! Fleck seemed happy in it also, so... we'll get them to make me one Tuesday when I see Cindy. Yay! 

Then we went on a 30 minute trail ride to keep Alex and Ti company since he's recovering from his tendon injury. It was a great day!

Christmas 2015

Merry Christmas Flecky!!

 
We had a good snuggle in the morning and then went to Searl/Cottingham family Christmas. We got home with just enough time for me to sneak in a ride. It was so wet all we could do was walk, but I was glad to be in the saddle and have some time with Fleck. :)

 

Christmas Eve Walk About.

Argh!! This weather has been insane. We had rolling thunder, near continuous lightning and torrential rain almost ALL day! And of course now I'm feeling better and want to ride. And it's Christmas Eve!
 

Finally it quit enough that I thought I could ride, but it was late enough and wet enough that I figured I would be better off just hopping on bareback at home. So that's what we did. We decided to do a short walk about and check fence lines, look for Dan's missing hood, and generally just get my butt in the saddle. :)

It was so worth it! I felt much better afterwards. :)

That's not Rudolph!

Photo fun on a boring day

Quick lazy ride, but a ride

 Well.... It's a good thing I rode Saturday. I was feeling a little puny but had a fun little hack on Fleck and Dan. I rode Fleck first because it was CROWDED! And windy! A smidge chilly too finally! I figured Dan might do better if I avoided so much commotion since it had been a few days.

So Fleck and I hit the trails. I wanted to work on my two point and play in the Conquest while I had it. And I knew it was supposed to start raining. But the jump rings were all booked and I didn't have company. So we just hacked. It wasn't a fitness ride in the sense that I wasn't clocking anything or had a goal, but we did work on our fitness. We looked for hills. We did lots of trotting. We cantered a good bit. And I did some two point. Still hard to hold it as my legs are weak but easier to balance and the burn didn't hit nearly as quick. Interestingly it was in a different spot. Anyways... we were cantering along twix and tween. Or maybe it was possum trot. Regardless, we were cantering happily along the way and I saw a mucky patch coming up. So I tried to get Fleck to trot so we could walk through it instead of cantering through it. But yeah.. What ended up happening was that Fleck broke into a long strung out trot right as we hit the muck. We flantered and floundered through it... feeling like an octupus with legs a flying! He kept getting sucked into the mud and tripping himself. I'm sure it wasn't quite the spectacle it felt like, but perhaps. So once we extricated ourselves, I looked up and saw the sweet lady and her daughter on their horses just staring at us like we were idiots. Which we were! ha! I managed to check to make sure we had all four feet and then excused myself and embarassingly walked away. Doh! I'm glad we didn't run them over though. Man...

Anyways.... we carried on and ran into Beau and Jeff across the stream. And as we were finishing we ran into Gail and her mare and joined them in a little canter up the hill. :)

So we got in some decent work.

Fitness Day

Fleck is feeling good!! Couldn't keep him down today.

walked some,
trot intervals...not timed, but 10 minutes or so when we could. I also did 2 + minutes of two point and egads!! The burn!

Then 2 minute canter though the woods, then a 2.5 min canter through the woods. Then a little trotting and then a legit 3 minute canter in the XC field. Fleck was making his roaring noise but it wasn't quite coinciding with his striding (which.. doesn't that coincide with their breathing?!) and when we finished, he wasn't even blowing. His resp rate was normal. So we rested 2 minutes and did another 3 minutes and he still wasn't even blowing. Then he insisted on trotting to the lake. and then trotted home. ;)

Dressage

The cone... turn on the haunches... move BOTH seat bones... don't lock, allow him to brace. Almost wiggle side to side... don't block with the other leg.

Beth lesson

In the new saddle, thanks to Cindy.

no grunting or groaning... i could focus on my hands not my legs. beth liked it. fleck liked it. I liked it.

Saddle trials

flecky "bolting"

saddle fitting

We just might be getting it!

Fun lesson today. We just might be getting it!  It's hard, but my body is cooperating more with what I want it to do and Fleck is responding. We're getting some bigger loftier trot and straighter canters. :) 

We worked on straightness, throughness and roundness today. I rode more with my core up and that seemed to make a big difference. I was riding for BIG and UPHILL with my belly button and... for whatever reason, that helps Fleck go big and uphill. 

Good stuff

Kelly Lesson

Prelim speed, not intermediate speed.

Work on counting... 1, 2, 3, is what works for my brain, not 1,2, 1, 2. Be confident about counting.

Opening rein to turn and land on the right lead.

HOmework...

slow it down

count confidently

maybe wear spurs... shock and awe a few times in between fences, but wrestle it back down

give it a month with this, and then decide if he needs to take off farther back or not.

Sat ride

Today was a nice chill day. We rode with Kelli and started with a quick little loop around the lake to warm up. Then we headed to the arena for some dressage. Fleck felt pretty darn good today! There was no wobbliness. Yay! We got some nice work and mostly just played with connection and roundness and focused on me not using my outside leg to straighten him and instead using my inside leg to outside rein with a shortened outside shoulder to keep the bend. It worked. He was nice and we even got lots of lip foam.

After that we went on a nice long walk hack. It was lovely out although it's starting to get cold once the sun starts setting.