Lily out in her new pasture. The pond is already gone, but isn't that pretty?
Not sure if you can see, but the back is 4" off her loins.
So, now that Lily is settled in her new barn and nearly over her lameness, it’s time to get back to work. Our next event is the NW Horse Fair & Expo in March. I had been considering taking Vin, since Lily is six months pregnant. He is happy being a pasture pony now. I would have needed to bring him in, clean him up and give him some more skills, like long lining, in order to make much of an impression.
That leaves Lily to do one last event before she just gets too large. After trying yet another western saddle, that didn’t fit (Sorry AJ, it just didn’t work), I am going back to my dressage basics. I took my Klimke-Miller saddle that I used to use with Paisano back to the barn. I’m still figuring out the best snaffle for her. I would really like to find a mullen mouth with a real curve to the mouthpiece, similar to the western bit that she likes, but not quite so thick. Most mullen mouth snaffles I could find on the web were fairly straight. I like the mouthpiece on glory driving bits, but I don’t think a butterfly bit would quite fly for ridden dressage. I do think that they are oh, so pretty though! I tried my low port Kimberwicke. She does okay with that, but I think the mouthpiece is too straight for her liking.
We had three rides last week, mostly at the walk. I am working at slowing her tempo down. She tends to get very quick with her feet, toward ambling. I think that the fact that she does gait, makes it a bit more challenging to have a good walk. It has always been this way with her, but is more pronounced, since she’s been gaiting more. The goal is a relaxed, swinging walk with extension and a slower tempo.
The other thing that has deteriorated is her ability to stand and whoa. Maybe I was sloppy about it or it was having other people ride her on and off for the last year. So standing while mounting and lining up at the mounting block are also issues that I’m working on. For those, I’m going back to clicker training. I have a bag of hay pellets for treats, that work very well. It has certainly gotten her attention! She did develop the nasty habit of backing up fast, as an evasion. Oh, I hate it! And hope to abolish it forever very soon!
My goal is four rides a week with one or two trail rides in there. I figure that should get her (and me) back in shape a bit and tune her up. She is still very sensitive to leg, which is nice. I just need to get her to understand when leg means bend, when it means move over and when it means go.
And on the shaping me up front…. I could definitely feel it after my first couple of rides, even at a walk! Boy those riding muscles can get out of shape pretty easily. They don’t seem to be used for a lot of every day sort of activities. I am also getting inspired to get back to some yoga and stretching. That can only be a good thing for my riding.
On a closing note: the new barn is quite a bit dryer (including the pastures) than the old one, which is really nice.
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