Forward

We had another ride today, this time without lunging prior. Lily was moving fabulously, very forward. Even during our walk warmup she was forward-usually she'll suck back away from the contact when I initially pick up the reins to organize her, but today she just reached for the bit and moved on, back swinging. I had her do some weird crazy loops and circles around the arena, changing bend and from one direction to the other...it felt as smooth as ice skating. She even gave me a few steps of true walk half-pass! We've been playing around with this for awhile now, but the bend was never quite right before-her front end would be mostly straight, vs the leg yield where she is bent opposite the direction we are moving. Today we got it-she bent to face the direction we were going! We'd then finish each move with a real walk pirouette (BEAUTIFUL!) then flowed into a larger circle to change direction. Lily never paused, never complained, never hesitated-my cues were accurate, without the need to contort myself, and thus 100% clear. Since the powerlines incident I've been riding her in the pelham with double reins, but I've been very, very careful about using the "snaffle" reins for all of the cues, and just touching the shank reins if I want her to bring her nose down a bit. She has not tossed her head a single time with this method. I think it also helps that I'm not using the curb chain hook to attach the chain under her jaw-the chain that came with this bit was just long enough for Lily's jaw, but though I could get 2 fingers between her mandible and the chain, she would toss her head until the chain came off if she disagreed or my cues were too strong. Diana's kimberwicke came with one of these instead of curb chain hooks:

I can fix a lot of things and wield many power tools when I don't have a guy handy to do it for me (direct consequence of being a civil engineer's granddaughter!), but I have no idea what the names are for a lot of hardware, this thing included.

I found a giant one (about 2" long!) in Mark's tool and hardware collection, and I ghetto-rigged Lily's curb chain with it. Now it won't come off if she tosses her head, but it also gives her more room between her chin and the chain - a whole extra finger's worth of room. I think this has helped. *knock on wood!*

We did a few shoulder-ins at the trot, then straight lines with changes of direction across the diagonal and little 10 meter circles at C and A. I tried to repeat the haunches-in at the canter from yesterday, but even at the canter she was too forward to be able to organize her enough for this movement. She did give me canter shoulder-ins when asked, however, but then, on the right lead as we came around the corner of the arena by Bali's turnout, she hollowed her back, elevated her head, and I felt her back legs churn for a second-this is what she used to do when she was thinking about bolting. So I lowered my hands, she lowered her head, and I asked her to trot. We didn't canter again.

We zoomed around in her medium trot, and then I sat her trot to regroup for more lateral work. Her trot shoulder-ins were wonderful, as she wanted to GO, so even when crossing her legs she wasn't slowing down into a toe-dragging jog. I wish someone could've gotten video to see what it looked like! We also did some baby leg yields at the trot, which were a little wonky-she'd lead first with her front end, then over-correct when I tried to push her butt over, so she'd end up leading with her hind legs! One day we will get those trot leg yields...I'm still stunned by how much damage was done during those lessons where Judy insisted we do trot leg yields...without perfecting them at a walk first...and only in one direction. We did learn some cool exercises in those lessons, which I have posted about here extensively, but those leg yields almost ruined Lily for all lateral movements for awhile. I had to re-teach her.

After that, she wanted to extend, as she always does after collected/lateral work, so I let her. She gave me a ground-eating trot, with long snappy strides while staying light in the bridle. For awhile there she had been getting heavy on the bit when doing medium trot, but definetely not today-she arched her neck and powered forward, ears relaxed and happy. She never tried to get quick and choppy, she simply maintained, and I posted along to her beat, staying quiet so nothing in her carriage or rhythm would change. After that, we walked out on a loose rein-no more work; that was a grand finale for me. This was some of the best trot she's given me in a long time, if not ever.

She received a bath afterwards, and I pulled out the medicine boot. I had ordered one of these from Smartpak and it finally arrived. I dumped some epsom salts and warm water in the boot, and strapped it onto her foot. She was so confused by it, because she couldn't step out of it like she'd been doing with the rubber tub! I caught her looking back at her foot and the boot a couple of times. But it worked! I left her soaking for 30 minutes while Diana and I fed the horses and finished setting up our feed, and then applied the topical cream and cotton to the crevice in her frog and ichthammoled her abscess. She was completely and 100% tolerant of the whole procedure.

Can't wait to be able to turn her out and let her have access to her walkout and paddock as usual!