Two Great Rides and One More Show Entry

The mare has been s-t-e-l-l-a-r this week.  Which is sort of surprising given that none of the traditional stars have been lining up... 

Gus says "Mares are silly, play with Gus!"

Prairie had two days off in a row over the weekend, leading me to fear for my life on Monday and lunge prior to my ride... but no need.  Even though it was cold, dinner time, and we were forced into the spooky indoor... she was quiet and soft and a peaceful little princess. 

Admittedly I didn't push things very hard, but I was so shocked/pleased with the calmness I quit on a high note and gave her cookies. 

Tuesday I was home on the couch under the weather, so she got no attention, so when I went out this morning and noticed the "careful, ice!" snowflake was on in my car I figured I was screwed again.  It was cold, and the mare had a few extra days of gerbils built up in her brainbox.

I snapped on the lunge (again, cautious) but when I could barely keep her in a trot I gave up, got on and was thrilled to find the same, relaxed, slowpoke I had seen on Monday. (wha happon??)

S is currently down for the count with a broken leg (um, yup) so we enjoyed a substitute teacher for our lesson and it ended up being super fun! Since she didn't have a ton of background on me or the mare, she focused on nit-picking my Eq which was appreciated and necessary!

Eventually we moved onto a fun exercise that was a little tricky in the teeny indoor, but really, really productive for both my bad habits and the mare's weak spots...

Basically it was two bending lines of poles, the one on the right was 4 strides, the one on the left was 3.  The tricky bit was that given the small ring we were pretty much always swapping our bend, either in the line or in the corner.  Therefore we were also always swapping our lead...

And with relatively little time between poles things had to stay balanced, balanced, balanced.  (as opposed to our normal, rushed, inverted and stressed).

We trotted through first, so that I really got a sense of how much time I didn't have... lol, and then moved on the to canter.

Basically, I had to make sure we were totally straight to each pole, otherwise I was screwed on the bend/lead change afterward.  That meant I had to be down in my heel, tall in my shoulders and straight myself.  (so hard!).

I was expecting total mayhem, but Prair was a pro, and worked through tidily and respectably each time.  My biggest challenge was keeping enough impulsion (even with a small stride) to keep the distances and lead changes easy...

Super fun.  Super exhausting.   omg.

Other fun things? We're entering one last B show this weekend.  I'm a little nervous because like I said, S is down for the count with her leg (sad), but I really want to go and we've been to the facility so many times I'm not overly worried. 

The really fun thing?  I'm mentally committed to moving up to the AA's and squeaking in one show at 3' before we run and hide for the winter. 

So, no coach, and moving up a division, what could possible go wrong!??? (grin).