I love my pony

I ended up riding last night, but heeded Amanda's warning about Lucy's attitude over the weekend, and gave her a small dose of Ace. I rode in the indoor with Maddy and Brantley. Lucy started out so quiet and just wanted to follow Brantley around the ring. The two horses walked side by side, Lucy on the inside track and Brantley on the rail. When Lucy got ahead of Brantley, she slowed down by herself to let him catch up. It was pretty cute!

We warmed up at the trot and she was happy to cruise around on a long rein. She moved off my leg well and didn't get fresh at all.

Then I picked up a bit of contact and she wasn't pleased. She swished her tail and popped her shoulder to the inside, while her nose went to the outside. I corrected her and then immediately released when she straightened out again. She tried this several times but after each correction, seemed a little more cooperative, until she finally gave up and went straight.

She also got pretty tense with the contact but I remained light and steady with my hands, and pushed her forward with my seat. She immediately relaxed through her body and into the contact. Good girl!

After I was confident that she was feeling ok and wasn't going to launch me, I asked her to pick up a little canter. She felt great!! She is so out of shape but did not motorcycle around at all, even through the turns. I could tell a huge difference between the way she felt last night and the way she felt before she had the time off to heal. She did not get upset or have a tantrum when she got heavy on the forehand and I asked her to sit back a little bit (basically a half-halt, which would have probably ended in a full-on hissy fit before). She came back nicely and listened really well. We cantered in each direction for a few minutes and I figured that was probably plenty for one ride.

I was pretty pleased with how the ride went, given my general lack of riding muscles. I tried really, really hard to stay light in my seat and hands, and balanced in the saddle.

She will have acupuncture today, lucky girl!