back in business!

After five days off, it was time to get back in the saddle. Lucy was wound up like a rubber band ball yesterday. I tossed her in the ring while I did her stall, but she did not want to run around at all. I put on my Tipperary vest and prayed for a good ride, and promptly got motorcycled around the ring for twenty minutes, at which time I got fed up of her crap. I got off, got the lunge line, and we had a lunging refresher, which was ugly but effective because she learned that fighting takes way more energy than just trotting in a circle.

Once she calmed down, I got back on and we had a surprisingly lovely ride. Sure, there were battles here and there and I had to work my ass off to get her going nicely, but the canters we had at the end made it all worthwhile.

The good thing for me is that she demands to be ridden correctly. I can't just sit there and be a passenger and la la la around the ring, especially at the canter. She is so ridiculously athletic and balanced that with even just a shift of my pelvis around a circle, she pops a little flying change and is on the "wrong" lead. I really have to ask her to bend around my inside leg and sit straight in the saddle or else we're doing flying changes left and right when all I want to do is canter in a circle.

I could tell when she started to get tired because she started trying to rush and toss her head and other fun things of that nature, so we ended on a good note and went for a hack down the road to my favourite field. To get to this field we have to go down a very steep dirt road. Of course there were three deer waiting for us at the bottom and if you remember correctly, last time we had a deer encounter, we both almost died. This time she did a little hop, and then just stood and stared like she was trying to blast them with laser beam eyes. I was very proud of her for not bolting, though. She watched the deer boing across the field to the woods, and then we had a nice walk around the field as the deer continued to frolic through the woods right next to the field (but she kept her cool!) and then I let her gallop up the hill back to the road, which we both LOVE :).

I can't decide if I'd want to see her event or do dressage more. I think teaching this horse tempi changes would be a breeze but when she gallops up that big hill and easily comes back to a walk at the top of it and arches her neck proudly, I can totally see her kicking butt at cross country.