Consistency is key

Maddy, Amanda, and I have all been working together to keep Lucy in consistent work so that she doesn't go through another episode like she did after Christmas. Maddy has been riding a few nights a week and trying new (and IMO insane) things like letting Lucy trot around with the reins looped over the horn of the saddle. Brave girl!! Amazingly, Lucy really responded to this and Maddy reported that she trotted around with her head down just cruising along.

Amanda has been doing a ton of GREAT groundwork with Lucy and then switching it off with under saddle work. One thing she has done that I think has helped Lucy a lot is to start off with groundwork, then ride for 20 minutes, then get off and do some more groundwork, then get back on and ride some more. Without meaning to, I had Lucy conditioned to think that 30 minutes of work was the absolute MAX she could handle, and god forbid you stood in the middle of the ring with her to let someone jump a course or something; she thought she was done and if you tried to make her go back to work, she was very unhappy about it!

All of these issues are slowly resolving themselves and Lucy is a much happier horse when she has a consistent job so I am very grateful that Amanda and Maddy are both putting in so much time and effort to keep her going.

Last night Maddy organized a trail/versatility training night at the barn. She set up a whole bunch of different obstacles and everyone got to try them out. Lucy and Amanda did so well! Lucy had seen a lot of the same obstacles before, but not for a long time, so I was pleased she remembered them and behaved herself.

She even wore a hat!

Going over the tarp: no problem!

Going over the dark cloth rug caused all of the horses to take pause and
Lucy was quite scared of it at first. Once she got to sniff it all over and
look at it from every angle, she walked on it, and then Amanda was able
to ride her over it.

It was a fun night!