Pushing Too Hard...

Today went well. I had great plans for doing the next chapter of Lessons With Lendon. It's actually an exercise that Courtney King (or Courtney King-Dye) had a few riders do during the dressage demos at Equine Affaire in April. Courtney called it flexing and Lendong calls it bending though, extreme bending to the inside and the outside as you ride a circle. But we didn't really get to that. But, the chapter is called Active Hands, which is what I'd been playing with on my own, so it was good to read a more detailed account of what I should be doing. I was pretty much ok on my own, I'd realized after the first day that I needed to not pull my hand down when flexing my fingers because I didn't want to force her head down, I wanted her to feel safe putting it down, and just encourage it. Lendon emphasized that it's better to lift the hand, and away from the neck a bit while you do it to ensure you are effecting the lips, not the bars. So we did work on that section.

Sophie was trying *very* hard today, and she started out better than yesterday, we were doing stretchy circles after just a couple spiral circles at the trot. It was actually easier for her to do stretchy circles than to do the spiral circles. So we went large to trot past the scary end of the arena (where the light shines through the crack between the door and the wall) and did a few circles down there until her head didn't fly up when approaching the light. As soon as we were past the light, her head would come down and she would relax. Then up when approaching the light again. But she did start to relax and not counterbend on the circle, once she did that we moved on from the light.

We went to the left first, and then reversed and did the spiral circles and stretchy circles to the right after a walk break. Sophie was having a lot of trouble balancing though, even through the leg yield out, which is not normal for her at all. So we did a couple of circles by the light and then had another walk break. We finished up with a canter circle in each direction, which she was very good for. After I untacked her I went ahead and curried her really good. I always do her face with the soft side of the jelly brush first because she's always itchy and is always super and doesn't rub her head on me after we're done working now. Then I used the hard curry on her body and she was actually leaning into the curry comb. She never does that. She's normally pretty standoffish when it comes to brushing, doesn't dislike it, but doesn't really seem to like it either. Except for her face when she's sweaty, her chest curried, her mane brushed, and her udder cleaned. Those things she gets droopy eyed and lowers her head or leans as appropriate.

This leads me to the conclusion that riding four days in a row and really working these last couple of days was a little much for her. So I'm going to cut back to two days riding, one day off and see how that goes, while she gets legged up. She'll have tomorrow and Saturday off because I'm going home tomorrow. If the weather cooperates I'm going to take Jessie for a spin while home and see how he feels under saddle. At least get some new pictures of him!

Meanwhile, I've exchanged a couple of emails with Sophie's breeder, and her daddy's owner (her daddy is Advocate). They're both very nice and seemed to like getting the updates. I also sent an email to her old trainer with links to pictures and letting her know that everything's going well, I'm also hoping that she shares the email with Sophie's old owner. Tomorrow I'm dropping off two saddles at Equus Now to be sold on consignment, the money will be nice and I can't use either of them on the two horses I own (and the dressage saddle will never work for me).