One cold day a year...

So I was attacked by a massive throat infection during the week between Christmas and New Year's, and ended up spending 3 days straight in bed, weak, feverish, and barely able to swallow. After dragging myself to the doctor's office a second time when I wasn't getting better, the doctor changed my antibiotics and within 2 days, I was feeling alive again. It was scary there for a minute-I felt so awful I thought Charles was going to have to take me to the hospital.

This, of course, meant no riding for almost a week, during which a lot of changes ocurred at the barn, including Rose's arrival. After colicking 3 times in a month at the Parkland barn, Judy decided to bring Rose over to the ranch to have her closer to home. This was wonderful news for Lily, who immediately remembered her paddock buddy. Rose and Lily started to stand next to each other for hours on end, separated only by the fence between walkouts.

I was finally able to work with Lily on Saturday. I could already tell she was "up" before taking her out of her stall. Judy was working with Christa on trailer loading (Christa is very stubborn, and had a very bad trailer loading experience when she was younger, in which she flipped over backwards) and so far none of us had been able to get her to load in Mark's trailer. Elizabeth is dying to take Christa to a dressage show or to one of the horse parks in Davie with us, but both things require trailering. Judy was bent on getting Christa on that trailer, and had already been working with her for a week using only natural horsemanship methods and lots of patience.

I took Lily to the yard in front of the house to longe her, away from Christa so she wouldn't be distracted, and also to take her away from Rose for the first time in a week. Lily was explosive initially, then settled into a long canter at the end of the longe line. She cantered endlessly, it seemed, in both directions, and I allowed her to get all of that extra energy out. She eventually settled into a nice, long, extended trot, and when she was finally asking to slow down to a walk, I took her back to the barn, tacked her up, and took her into the arena for a ride.

Walking around the arena, my position felt strange. A good kind of strange, but unfamiliar nonetheless. I looked down at my leg, and realized my ankle, hip and shoulder were all in a perfect line.

Kind of like this. You could've drawn a straight line from my shoulder to hip to heel.

I rode Paso Finos for such a long time, that even when I used to hike my stirrups up to the last hole for the jumper arena, I tended to sit in more of a chair seat, with my lower leg further forward. This automatically forced me to lean forwards to balance. Which is common in the hunter/jumpers, but is unheard of in dressage. I have been fighting with this bad habit for the last year! But all of a sudden on Saturday, everything suddenly fell into place. I felt like I was standing straight in my stirrups, all my weight evenly distributed in both heels (I realized recently that I have a tendency to sit to the right, which is why Lily was having such a hard time relaxing when we went to the left!), and Lily between my knees. I focused on staying in this position the rest of the ride, whether it be posting, walking or cantering. It was wonderful! Lily responded fabulously to this new, balanced seat, relaxing over her topline and reaching for the bit. It is amazing how well our horses respond when we're not constantly getting in their way!

By the time we were done, Judy had finished the session with Christa (both front feet in the trailer, but Christa had been completely relaxed!) and I asked Mark if he wanted to go for a ride. We all ended up going: Elizabeth, Judy, Mark, and myself. I led the way through the trails on Lily, giving Judy the tour, as she had not been on the trails often. We had a great time, and the horses did great! Lily and Rose each only startled once (they are the same age and almost equally green); it was a very good ride.

Judy behind me on Rose, and Mark and Elizabeth bringing up the rear on Beau and Christa respectively.

On Sunday, I rode Lily again, and again, it was easy for me to maintain this new seat. Judy rode Rose in the arena with me. I felt like I kept getting in their way, and since Judy only gets to ride Rose about twice a week due to her work schedule and early nightfall, I ended up taking Lily out of the arena and riding her in the "track" around the dressage arena, working on transitions. I've started reading "The Natural Rider" by Mary Wanless, and in one of the sections in the book, she describes creating impulsion by placing your legs in such a position as to allow the horse's front end to bulge out in front of them. I understood what she meant: if I sat with this in mind, Lily's front end would lift and she would engage her hind end better, especially at the canter. It was a very good ride, and after about a half hour of work, I took Lily on our first solo ride to the park since October. The only thing she spooked at were the sprinklers on the street on the way to the park, and tried to whirl around to return to the barn once. But I was able to get her through the sprinklers without having to get off and lead her, and afterwards, we were home free. We did one trotting lap around the park, slowing to a walk a couple of times so Lily could look at scary things (such as the picnic area BBQ grills covered with plastic trash bags), and she made me proud by walking up to these things that she wasn't sure of all by herself, to have a closer look.  Eventually we came out at the power lines. We trotted towards the horse gate, all the way down, then turned around and and cantered back up. Lily gave me a nice easy canter, and then we turned around again and power-walked all the way home. I was soooo happy to have her back to her normal self! It was a great first day of the new year!

I worked Monday. The high temperature for the day was 81. Overnight, it dropped down to 38 degrees...a 42 degree drop in less than 12 hours. Lily was blanketed with her Thermo Manager stable blanket, and her Weatherbeata turnout sheet on top. It had been cloudy all day, so all the horses stayed in their stalls to have access to cover if it rained.

Tuesday morning, the sun rose to a bright, cold and very windy day. The high temperature for the day was 55. We only get 1 day like this out of the entire year, and I took complete advantage of it.

When I arrived at the barn, the wind was tearing at the trees and lifting up clouds of dust. All of the horses were running in and out of their stalls into their walkouts. I turned out Christa, Pink and Bo, all still in their sheets, then took Lily's blankets off, put her rope halter on, and took her out to the arena, where I set her free and had her run around to get all of the excitement and excess energy out before expecting her to settle down and pay attention. She had a grand ole time galloping around the arena like a racehorse.

She was flagging her tail the entire time. :)

Her fabulous floaty trot. It has been improving at liberty; now I just need her to do it under saddle!

After letting her run around, I put her on the longe, and had her work at mostly trot and canter for 20 minutes. I let her walk to cool down, and since the wind was still whipping through the treetops, I put her back in her stall with her cooler, and brought Rose out to longe her.

Judy had been concerned during her last ride with her that Rose was having issues with her right hind, as she was reluctant to pick up the right lead canter. I had her do a long walk warmup, then a nice loose trot, and then I clipped the side reins on and put her to really work. We did up and down transitions at walk and trot, and also trot-halt, and halt-trot transitions, all on the longe. Rose did wonderfully! No silliness, no challenging authority, very attentive the entire time. I noticed that unlike in the past, however, she never once offered to canter. I did not push her.

That afternoon it was considerably less windy, though still in the low 50's and dropping. I tacked up Lily and rode. She was very spunky and was giving me a great workout, with a relaxed trot, and a wonderful left lead canter, up until the moment we changed directions and I asked for the right lead canter. She took off and bucked, leaping over the dressage arena rail in one bound and scaring me shitless. I had NOT expected that! She was very "up" after that, inverting her neck and getting above the bit with her pogo-stick trot. I sighed. 2 more turns around the arena and Lily had relaxed again. Left lead canter-fine. Then right lead canter. I rose into 3-point this time, staying off her back with hands quiet. Fine. She was so forward I decided to do some canter-halt transitions. This was new for her, but after attempting it twice, she handled the canter-halt transitions fairly well. We tried halt-canter transitions, with a change of direction after each halt. She was dominating this surprisingly well, with only 2 or 3 trot strides before picking up the canter. Then, going to the right, she exploded again. I think she spooked at some people loading up a truck on the other side of the fence, but God knows; this happens all the time and it's never bothered her before. I stopped her before she could go over the rail again.

We finished the exercise by cantering to the right for a good 5 minutes. I was exhausted by then, but Lily's energy was never-ending. It's amazing what a little cold weather can do for a horse's endurance!

I walked her out for a long time before putting her back in her stall with her cooler. This morning I was sore. My lower back has been bothering me when I ride, and today it was flaring up considerably. I rode Rose first, mostly walk and trot, and saw what Judy meant when cantering to the right-Rose's entire hind end swung and dropped to the right. Her right hind hitched once while trotting in that direction, too. I think it's her stifles, which makes sense, since she has not had much work at all for the last 2 years. She has very little muscle development in her haunches and she toes out considerably while standing-2 signs of weak stifles. I rode her like you would a stifle horse-lots of straight lines at a trot, with up and down transitions, getting her to engage from behind, and only doing large circles occassionally. She did beautifully and was a very good girl.

I only walked and trotted Lily. After yesterday, she was very relaxed today, trotting around with neck extended like a hunter, which is progress for her! We did not canter, because I wasn't in the mood to be bucked around again, what with my sore back. I did call the chiropractor when I got home; I'm hoping to go sometime next week. It sucks-I had NEVER had this issue before; I've always had a really strong core, but with my job and the barn, it is very hard to find time to exercise while still getting time to rest the body.