Breakthrough!

Today the sun rose to a particularly chilly day, with highs in the 60's. The horses love this kind of weather, and Lily tends to be at her silliest.

We had planned a trail ride between Elizabeth, Pink's new leasor, and myself, but I arrived at the barn early to tack up and longe Lily before heading out. She was predictably goofy on the longe, wanting to gallop, bucking and kicking during the warmup without side reins. By the time I clipped the side reins on, she was ready to trot and listen, and she gave me a really good workout. It is the first time I really see her use the correct muscles in her neck on the longe with side reins clipped on, for any length of time. She would stretch into the contact before, but for brief periods. Most of the time she was trotting on the longe today, she was like this:

Note how the muscles on the TOP of her neck are lengthened correctly, with the muscles on the underside of her neck relaxed. Prior to this, she would achieve this same position incorrectly by contracting the muscles on the underside of her neck, contributing to their hypertrophy.

Compare to this photo, taken about 2 weeks ago:

Note how the muscles on the underside of her neck are bulging, despite her overall relaxed attitude about the side reins-this kind of muscle engagement is incorrect, but she needed to go through this intermediate phase before she could do what she did today, in the photo above

After about 20 minutes on the longe, I mounted up. It was as if she had not been longed at all. Lily was dynamite underneath me. She jumped when I tried to adjust my stirrups, so I took her into a trot with my stirrups too long, and ended up having to take her back into the barn to switch out the stirrup leathers entirely so I could have a better grip on her with my legs (I'm still riding in Judy's saddle, and her back is so much better!) I mounted up again, and she was not as reactive, but she was PUMPED when I asked her to trot. She felt like an OTTB. My reaction to her behavior was automatic-having had years of experience riding OTTBs, every time she threw her head up, I instantly gently see-sawed on the reins alternately, and she would immediately drop her head, arch her neck, and lift her back. GORGEOUS!! She has never reacted like this to anything I've ever done before with the reins-I think I've accidentally stumbled upon the key to finally solve her "inverting."

I ended up working her for about half an hour while Elizabeth and Pink's leasor waited. At the trot she was lovely-prancy and goofy, but listening about 90% and engaging beautifully. I asked her to canter to the left and she was perfect, but when we changed directions and cantered to the right, as we approached the far left corner of the arena, she threw her head up, switched leads, and tried to bolt. She proceeded to do this 4 times, no matter what I did prior-trotting, circling, cantering from a walk. Even circling to the right at the canter, she'd still half-pass towards that corner no matter what I did, and proceed to attempt to bolt. I couldn't figure it out. After the 5th attempt, we transitioned straight into a trot, changed directions, and cantered to the left. She was calm, collected, listening. I decided to end it there, trotted one more time around, and announced that we should be able to survive the trail ride now.

It was a great day for a trail ride. The sky was overcast, the temperature was cool, and there was no one else on the trails. We took Pink's leasor through the main trails, down the powerlines, and into the skinny trails. All 3 mares behaved perfectly, even my silly girl, who insisted on being in the lead as soon as we hit the skinny trails.

Christa & Pink lead the way down the main trails. It did not feel nor look as if we were in South FL with today's weather.

Afterwards, we made our way back to the barn, where I decided to take Lily back into the arena and work a little more. I was glad I did, because now that she was calmer and listening, she gave me this:

Stretching into the contact. I needed to push her forward more to get her to lengthen her stride and use herself better. But here we got it:

Accepting, forward, and engaging! And no, I have NOT used draw reins to help achieve this!

It is the best she has ever been. She only "inverted" when I asked Dianne to take these photos! The rest of the time she was consistently working like in the above pictures, or in a lengthened hunter frame. Alternately massaging the reins makes her reach into the contact.

Afterwards, we walked to cool down for a good 10 minutes, during which she was like this:

Nose to the ground, back swinging, overtracking for the entire 10 minutes of our cooldown.

In the end, it was a really good day, with a really good ride, and the greatest breakthrough so far!