Weekend update

I was going to split this into two posts, best laid plans and all, but circumstances changed, as they are wont to do.  I had planned to take two lessons this weekend, as my surgery is planned for tomorrow, but Marcy got sick Saturday afternoon, so I only got the one in.  I am not complaining, because I think she has only canceled 1 lesson due to sickness in the entire time I've trained with her.

And of course I have no actual media from my ride, so instead you get pictures of the pony and the farm instead.

Why hello there, Rocking Horse!

So I got there Saturday at noon for my 1pm lesson.  I again say that someone needs to remind Mother Nature that it is November, because it was HOT.  AccuWeather says it was only 89 degrees, but they lie.  I swear it was 92 with a feels like of about 115.  Either way, we are all over it.

Violet says she is over the heat.

We had our dressage lesson, working on throughness between the gaits.  My transitions are always an issue. Violet is one of those that you cannot have any bracing against, and the only way to keep from bracing during the transition and the next couple of steps for me is to move the bit.  Now, I'm not talking sawing it back and forth in her mouth, but a subtle movement that actually comes from my shoulder blades and core. I have to do this for every transition, as well as during the gait to keep her through.  We worked at this quite a bit in the walk-trot transition, and I think I finally got it down to one or two steps of resistance, which is a lot better than the 4 to 6 that I usually get.  Then we moved on to the canter.

Our ring of choice for Saturday's lesson

We also worked on me weighting the outside seatbone at the trot and canter to help influence the outside shoulder.  She bulges bad with the right shoulder, which makes left turns hard at the canter.  By weighting my seat to the outside, she stays up under me better and is much easier to turn.

And of course, she is a red-headed girl who wants to please and so she tries to anticipate everything that we say.  I don't know if she actually picks up on the verbal cues, or simply knows that when Marcy says something we are going on to the next thing, and the next thing after trot is canter, but she tries to get ahead, and then gets a little upset sometimes if I tell her no.  That is mostly when I am not calm about telling her no. She's not being bad, she just wants to do all the things.  If I stay calm and even in my tone, she's usually pretty good about it.  It also helps if I do not do the same thing twice.  So, if we do two canter transitions to the left in a row, when I bring her down to trot she gets all het up if we stay on the circle and tries to go into the canter.  So we may do a teardrop loop and go to the right once, then do a figure eight at the trot and then another right canter transition, then down to the walk and another teardrop back to the left before picking up the left lead again.  By the end, I got some nice canter both directions.  The kind that put a big grin on my face because I knew it was an improvement on what we've gotten in the past.

Green houses on the cross country field

What I look like on a hot day.  Sexy, I know.

At that, we stopped because it was HOT, and went for a walk.  I took her out to the cross country field, where I actually got off to take off her draw reins.  Mine have no buckle and are a thin rolled leather, and I worry that I might drop one, so I took them off.  Which means I had to use my friend green house to get back on.  Thankfully, Violet is actually pretty good about that kind of thing.  So then we walked around the field and took a little stroll through the water, which she doesn't even hesitate at any more.

Hot pony

Walking through the pretty water

Saturday night I stayed at Marcy's and Sunday morning we were up early, since I help her feed in the mornings on Sundays when I'm there.  That was when she asked if I was ok just hacking, because she was not feeling well, which I was.  Then I was to turn Violet out in her paddock next to the cutest pony that she is babysitting as he comes out of stall rest for an injury.

Violet's charge

We roamed the property, going up and down the mounds.  We walked, and she gave me her big girl field trot.  There may have been some shenanigans at the canter both directions, but we did trot-canter transitions until she no longer felt the need to put her head down and kick out in the back in both directions.  Then, just so we can say we did some jumping over the weekend, we hopped over a log a couple of times, she got a quick sponge off, and was turned out.

No, we didn't jump this.  This...this is the coop of death.  We will one day conquer this again.

This is what we jumped.

Cute pony friend

Violet says "Bye Mom!  See you in a few weeks!"

I got home to Jacksonville to rain, rain, and more rain.  We ran some errands, talked to family members on the phone, and got caught up on Scandal.  Areas of town had 11+ inches overnight, and we are flooding now.  Good thing Violet is somewhere that isn't getting this kind of rain.