back in business (maybe)

I actually had a half decent ride yesterday, and in the indoor to boot. I knew Lucy was feeling better when I got there because she greeted me with soft eyes and pricked ears, not crazy dragon eyes and pinned ears. She was still kind of a maniac under saddle but it wasn't homicidal, more "I feel GREAT and I just want to bop around and PLAY!" I got nice work from her both directions and then let her go over the teeniest of tiny crossrails, maybe 6" off the ground. We even walked over it in both directions first. Upon our first trot-in approach, she did what I like to call a "lock and load" about three strides out and tucked her butt under herself and RAN at the jump. I was like, good lord, someone put this horse in jumpers, but preferably not me!!! haha.

Of course that meant that we had to go back and learn how to not jump a 6" crossrail at mach 3. She just gets so excited, it's ridiculous, and then once she's on the other side it's instant softness, arched neck, and she's so proud of herself. The last time I jumped her was ages ago and we ended on a really nice soft and rhythmic approach to another tiny crossrail but evidently she has forgotten all about softness and rhythm. We jumped it five times and on the last try she actually waited, so we ended on that. I cooled her out and untacked her in the indoor and immediately she took off bucking and playing around the ring, which continued for about ten minutes as I was putting everything away in the barn. I would be walking to the tack room to put something away and all of a sudden a freight train, aka Lucy , would thunder past in the indoor, and then there would be a second of silence as she flew through the air doing some wild and crazy maneuver, and then thunder again as she landed. She is NUTS but I do appreciate that she held all of that nonsense back while I was riding her...

And then it took me close to an hour to cool her out from that little extravaganza (I am really thinking about clipping her this winter, at least a trace clip, because spending an hour cooling her out every time I ride is getting old fast). We did some carrot stretches and called it a night.