I didn't ride Friday/Saturday because Craig and I went to my parents house for my grandma's birthday. Plus I thought it would be good for Sophie to have a couple of days to "forget". I knew I had to ride today though, because I did want to get a lesson in this week and didn't want Sophie going into a lesson cold. I was pretty nervous though. So I talked my husband into going to the barn with me under the guise of taking pictures and putting the new sticker on the trailer plates.
So he went with me and put a new smack light in the trailer and the sticker on the plates while I got Sophie ready. He also played with the barn kittens and seriously fought the urge to take one home. He opened the arena door for me (the scary one) and got ready to take pictures while I walked Sophie around. We try to do a lot of walking warm up, asking her to lower her head and reach for the bit rather than keep her nose in the air. However, toward the beginning of the warm up the new boarder and her husband headed off on a trail or road ride, right past the open arena door and Sophie *did not* like that. We were just walking and her front feet left the ground a couple of times in protest before I got her up into a trot. It was the biggest rear she's done with me (though she did much worse of Friday, and for longer during one fit). As soon as we were trotting she was great though, on the bit and calm, trotting forward but not rushing.
Craig started taking pictures once we were trotting and she was great, we did some spiral circles but mainly just worked on a big 20 meter circle, looking for consistency in the bridle and in bend. She only whinnied once in the beginning (when she almost did her full blown rear) and otherwise would just come above the bit when the new pony that is in isolation would whinny. She wouldn't do it every time and it wasn't as bad of a head flip as what she was doing on Friday, and it was really in one spot on the circle in both directions. She tends to pick a spot and that's where she falls apart momentarily and then allows herself to be put back together just a step after that spot.
There was another moment when she lost momentum and that was when we were walking over to talk to Craig when he was on his way to change lenses and at that time we hadn't been working long and the pony whinnied and Sophie whinnied and got a little distracted and got stuck in stop/hop but went into a trot right away when I asked.
We did a little work on large figure eights and after 3 circles in the scary end of the arena there was almost no change between her before and during the going past the open door. Even after we figure 8ed back and forth again. So I was proud of her for that. Then we had another walk break (with no issues) and tried cantering in each direction. The first time she was flawless in her transition, as far as cantering, she did raise her head a bit, but all I had to do was sit and squeeze and she picked it up. The next direction she took a few more strides but wasn't too bad.
Then we were done, walked a bit, and I scrubbed down her legs and she got lots of treats. She has some weird kind of fungus on her legs so I've been scrubbing them with Iodine solution every time I'm out. I think it's getting better, but it's not gone yet. Overall I thought she was a very good girl today. Other than the two incidents she was very good and I think she's getting a lot more consistent in not coming above the bit as often. She does seem to come behind the bit a little in the canter though, I'll be able to tell better in the pictures, but I think that I probably get nervous when she canters because she has a nice canter, but it's very forward and can sometimes have a lot of jump to it. She has bucked once, but only once in the canter so I just need to trust her (and myself more) and push her forward.
I do try to give the inside rein a lot, which I think helps too. So, that's my update, I'll try to post pictures tomorrow if any of them turned out, unfortunately the new camera is smarter than me and my husband in the indoor right now, so there may not be many good pictures. And I have a feeling I was probably leaning foward too much, riding defensively after the way she was behaving last time she was ridden. I doubt that helps her keep off the forehand when cantering either.
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