Back in the (quite literal) Saddle

Last night I rode my mare!

And, all things considered, it was pretty good.  The BO put a ride on her on Sunday, and I lunged her lightly on Monday, so she wasn't over the top fresh, but she has been spookier than usual which is a bit odd.

I decided to Ace the beast (just barely a tick), which in actuality was probably more of Dumbo's Magic Feather for me, as we didn't give her anywhere near a dose that actually dulled her.  It's possible that the baby cocktail calmed her down a bit, but since she wasn't even heavy in my hand... it couldn't have had that big an impact on her.

I got on, and got right to busy.  Forward trot and a bit of canter, without MAJOR conflict.  She was surprisingly sticky (grrr), but I was pretty aggressive with how quickly I was correcting her and I made sure that she was spinning in a circle to avoid any repetition of the whole rear/buck/dump sequence that I experienced two weeks ago.  I think I was mad enough at her stickiness that I had a smidgen of Supermom in me so I wasn't scared when she hunched her back and threatened a baby hop.

The bucks never materialized (even with extensive cantering and lots of small circles - something she considered buck worthy in the past..).  The stickiness dissipated, but never totally went away.  We got good work done, but I was using my stick quite a bit... Basically my emotional state during the ride flucuated between something like "wheeeee! I'm riding and we're trotting FAST" and "god damnit horse, why are you still doing this!"  

Also, I didn't realize how messed up my back still is from crunching down on my shoulder blades.  I've felt pretty normal in my day to day activities, but riding and keeping my core tight was borderline painful.  I guess that means I actually should go see a chiro for myself (and stop letting P hog all the bodywork..).  Also, the BO pointed out that my right hip is now stuck in front of my left one... whoops! that's not awesome for trying to stay balanced/centered....

All in all. I was happy.  I felt confident, P was better than she's been and I think I made my point re: going forward. 

Slight downsides were that she was sticky and my body hurt like a mother.

Overall, I have to be pretty happy with that ride though, especially considering I had been "grounded" for the last two weeks and I'm SURE that I wasn't as smooth and fluid as I pretend to usually be.

I'm back out to the barn tonight for another ride, then another ride on Thursday, then another on Friday and another on Saturday and hopefully another on Sunday (maybe with Supermom as a witness?).  I'm down in California for a chunk of next week and the BO is leaving for AZ, so I sorta want to roll with some rides in a row if I can manage it.

Pia has been quite the lover on the ground.  Very affectionate, very soft and not pushy at all.  Maybe all my snapping and refusing to let her chew on anything fun at all is actually having an impact....

Tired mare thinks she deserves endless cookies..