Piasaurous!

Piasaur. That's what she is sometimes.  Giant, tall long necked goon who bounces around with absolutely no sense of how huge she is, or where her big monster feet are stomping. 

What a dork.  A cute dork, but a colossal, prehistoric dork. :)

Yesterday was GORGEOUS.  Like, 75-degrees-with-a-slight-breeze-gorgeous.  It was slightly cooler out at the barn, but still, it was amazing to be riding in a tank top and in the sunshine.  Of course, today the rainy doom has returned and its back to wearing 8 layers to prevent frostbite, but what can you do...

Anyway.  Yesterday, P's feet felt a little warm, which was odd since it had been 4 days since her trim, but she wasn't ouchy, or moving weird, so I made a note and figured I would just see if riding made it better or worse.

P got a nice free lunge in the morning (she hasn't learned that there's no LINE involved in that yet and she just circles you..) so she was nice and calm for our lesson.  I must say, whether its her new toes, or using S's tack, I'm not sure but her stride is about 8" longer and she's so fluid it feels like a different horse.  She's still testing the crap out of me, and since my current strategy is a super light contact and lots of leg she tries to squirt around quite a bit.  I'm not too worried, she has moments of reaching into the contact and lengthening her frame, but for the most part she's still holding herself upright and staying a little more tense than I would like long-term.

OK, so here's our vids from yesterday, first at the trot, and I'm doing ok.  My leg is still a little loose, and she's so sensitive I really have to remind myself to keep it on her and work her through it, rather than back off and hold my leg off of her.  but we're making strides (haHA). oh god. I need coffee...

(Oh, also, I'm in a fight with Quicktime and my movie clip formatting, so I'm still stuck with the "free" audio tracks from youtube.  I can't preview them, so I just pick a ridiculous ong title, and go with it.  It's sorta like playing russian roulette.  but without the dying...)

Trot:



Aaaaaaand our canter work.  We did lots today, and currently the (main) issue is that Pia hates my leg and kicks when you move her into the canter.  It's easy to sit down and push, but I'm trying to stay light on her back (hard when two point hasn't been in my vocab for oohhhh 6 years). So its a comprimise.  Also, my lower leg is swinging EVERYWHERE.  better work on that too...

Just a warning, there were better clips of our canter work, but this is the MOST embarrassing 3 minute section so I'm making myself post it so that in 2 months it looks like we've gotten even farther.  :)

Canter:



Today is another lesson, hopefully more of the same and maybe even a little less hops/bucking. 

PIASAUROUS!

ps- today P's feet are nice and cool... maybe she had just been baking them in the sunshine??