Two Times a Lady

First off, my phone ate my almost completed post. Which is frustrating and probably means I'll do a craptastic job of trying to recreate it on my phone. Again. Humph.

Secondly, the mare was sooooo good! And! We did it all by ourselves!! (giant self congratulatory pat).

Pia was definitely a bit tuckered out from Sunday, so I wasn't worried about energy levels, but a pouring rainstorm renders the noise in the arena to a loud roar and essentially makes it impossible for the ponies to hear anything coming/ going and they end up a bit (understandably) spooky.

P held it together until she didn't notice a trailer pull into the driveway until it was right in front of her face. That warranted a large freakout. A Snort. And a squeal (really?).

But, she calmed almost the whole way down pretty quickly and managed to mostly pay attention again. Since I knew two other horses were tacking up, I tried to lunge until they got there (didn't want a mystery horse spook as they magically appeared at the gate), but P was clearly over it.

So I got over myself and pulled her up and threw my leg over.

She was... Tense. But not crazy. The ears were glued forward, but there was no threat of stickiness and my biggest issue was simply trying to talk her neck down to a somewhat less checked up frame.

We trotted. We trotted bigger. I had to tap her a few times on the open side of the circle, but that was it for corrections. We popped up to the canter and did lengthenings, figure eights and small circles. We came back to the trot and spiraled in and out, we put our nose on the ground. We did NOT spook when the other horses came in and we did not buck.

I couldn't have asked for much more than that...

We zoomed around for about 35 minutes before I called it a day and gave the mare huge pats. Big, huge, smooshy pats.

I informed her that since she was good, she got to keep all her new toys and she even got a cookie.


It was a good ride.

So, now it's time to think about why.

Supermom strategy? Yes
Regumate? Maybe
Shoes on our toes? Maybe.

Usually I have about 6 variables that have changed, so a short list of three seems more manageable/ slightly less ridiculous.

For the time being we're sticking with all three. I'm down in LA for a couple days, but when I'm back Thursday we'll nail a few more rides (I hope) and look forward to Supermom Sunday again. (new holiday!).



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