Dressage and a hack

worked on flying changes. good canter serpentines

So... just cross the diagonal and do a flying change

Ha ha... No big deal, right?!  Jeesh... sometimes I think Cindy thinks better of me than she should. Heck, a LOT of times I think she thinks better of me than she should. :)

So....

worked on cantering upright and keeping the right side of Fleck's body collected. Worked on the canter and getting the left lead with the right hind loading and not slinging to the inside. Which is the exact problem with the change. He wants to lean and fall in. So... plan is to ask for simple changes and work on me getting the aids and timing while keeping him upright and then gradually ask for less of the walk and aim for just the half-halt and the elusive flying change. 

 

Puzzle Pieces

Hacked... jumped in the field... no studs, pads, not raining but sloshy
jumped in arena... got deep but still jumped out

Darn this weather!

Windridge. Sigh...

Jump School

Jumping with Peri... Swedish X
more forward

Another Wet Ride

But we managed to get in our fitness work. I don't know how, as it rained hard all night last night. But it stopped at some point overnight and the wind picked up, so maybe that's why. 

 Playing with the camera settings. :)

 

 

Ha ha...He cracks me up in this photo...

The trails were pretty decent and only had a few slick spots. Fleck and I just avoided the treacherous areas, walked when we needed to, and got it done. We managed a 20 minute walk, a 25 minute trot, and then three 4 minute canter sets roughly. (I forgot my watch so I used my phone alarms... and so it may have been 4+ minutes). Fleck felt great and was cracking me up. Whenever he heard my phone go off, he would take off. Hee hee. He was actually ready to go long before his "breather" in between was over. We didn't go all out because I wanted to make sure he wasn't going to slip and I didn't want to tear up the footing. We also did each set in a different field so that we didn't tear up the footing. It actually held up pretty well. 

Then we did another 20 minute hack to get back. And to take pictures. :) 

Ahhhh..... feeling better. I think its about time to clip Fleck though. It wasn't hot today by any means but mid 60's. And granted it was misting, but Fleck is getting fluffy. He didn't get quite sweaty enough to rinse off, but close. So I think I'll bathe him Tuesday after our lesson and then try to get him clipped soon after that. 

Making the best of the weather

So... wahhhhh..... The weather has been wretched all week. Even if I had not been working all darn week, I probably wouldn't have been able to get much more riding in before the show this weekend. And then... the show became an issue. The weather is horrible with Tropical Storm Juaqim on the horizon. Basically, we decided not to go to Windridge because they were expecting 2-8" of rain between Friday and Sunday morning, they are mostly grass and hilly, stadium is in the grass with the bowl terrain, it was our first prelim back, and it was temporary stables. I decided it just wasn't worth it. Which is a damn shame because Fleck feels amazing and we were so ready. I was so looking forward to a fun weekend with Caroline and Karen and Fleck. I felt prepared and ready. Sigh.... But it just wasn't worth risking my horse in the footing. And it's not just the XC footing... I was actually more worried about stadium. Heck, even dressage was a little worrisome. Plus I didn't want to get the trailer stuck. So... we ended up scratching on Friday but by Saturday morning, they had cancelled it. So... that sucks. I was super bummed. I was really hoping to see how he felt after that to help decide what else to do show wise. But so is life.

So.. the current plan is to do the schooling show at Full Gallop in 2 weeks and then run the recognized show at Full Gallop Halloween weekend. I know it's sort of cheating by schooling the facility before. BUT... it's okay. My horse is 18. We haven't had the best track record to begin with. It's our comeback. I'm okay with making darn sure it's going to be a happy positive experience. That way I can see how it goes and decide if he's good to keep playing at prelim or if we need to back down to training. Or if we need to stop eventing overall. And for my confidence, I need a good ride. I'm pretty sure that a good bit of our issues were pain related and I'm also pretty sure that he feels really good right now! But... for me... I need to make sure. So whatever, we'll school 2 weeks before. It'll probably be a slightly different course, but only slightly. But so what. After that I will decide what to do next. Whether it's Poplar... Pine Top... ??

So anyways.. point is... I was a little bummed (or a lot bummed) about missing out, but... it was a good choice after all. I ended up being a bum most of the day yesterday so today Kelli and I got motivated and decided to go ride. Good thing I did too because Danny was getting to be a twit, I was getting grumpy and irritable and even Flecky was starting to lose his mind.

We headed out and I decided to ride Dan with Kelli. Peri was supposed to join me for the second horse but in case she decided not to, I wanted to be riding Dan with a friend and not all by my lonesome. So after Kelli and I rode, I hopped on Fleck and went for a hack with Peri. :) It was fun. It was really wet though. The footing was great on the trails for walking and probably areas would have been fine to trot, but not everywhere. So we walked. I aimed for lots of hills so that I could at least accomplish some LSD and hill work.

When we were finishing up, I asked Peri if she minded a little work in the field. She wanted to head back, so we walked her back to the trailer and then I went back out for a few. I wanted to do a teeny bit of trotting just so Fleck could stretch his legs. We trotted up the hill twice and then trotted around. And Fleck was so happy. He was ready to go and keep going and even canter. But even just trotting, I was leaving deep footprints. We didn't slip, but it was so squishy. I decided that it was rude to keep working in the field and was tempted to go out on the trails for a long power trot, but... it was starting to rain worse and my feet were wet from the holes in my boots. And Peri was back at the trailer waiting on me, so... I just headed in. I was starving too. I figured I'd do more tomorrow since I would probably be all alone.

 Goofball

But it was a good ride. It helped my mood immensely! And confirmed my decision to cancel.