No Dice

(I wrote this post last week and forgot to post it... oops. So it's all about last week!)

Well we didn't make it into the show this weekend, which is a little bit of a bummer, but it was rainy all weekend, so I'm not too upset about it. Even though we've had some really great work under saddle!

Misty was nearly foot perfect for our ride on Tuesday. I almost got off after 20 minutes, she was being too good! I've been having some crazy late, long, hectic days but the late sunsets are really helping make rides happen in the evening, usually at 7 or 8pm. Tuesday I was worried I'd have a little too much spunk for our ride since I hadn't touched her all weekend. But I didn't lunge and hopped on... and she was quiet. Very quiet. I think it was because it was so hot out and she is not a hot weather horse. Jetta shows no effects of heat and is just as fire-breathing as usual.

She was verging on lazy, but I didn't even bring my whip and with just a little extra leg she was perfect. Our transitions were soft and attentive, especially downwards. Her lengthenings felt AWESOME.

Since I have zero new media... freshly washed pony about to roll

Last week I set out some poles diagonally across centerline on a very large stride to attempt to get Misty to lengthen her stride a little bit extra. At first she was super excited about poles being out. We were finishing up our warm-up at the canter and apparently it is impossible to canter a nice circle when there are poles out. It ended up looking more like a square.

Misty - Poles! Look, there's poles!
Me - Yes Misty. Now can we bend please?
Misty - But look at the poles!
Me - And we're bending
Misty - Fine, I'm bending... Poles!

The first few times through the poles were fairly disastrous. I was trying to push Misty into her lengthened trot, but she was pulling back looking at the poles and trying to figure out where to put her feet, then halfway through the poles she'd start cantering awkwardly over them so I'd halt her and we'd try again. By the end though, we were able to trot through the poles perfectly so after a couple of times through we quit. 

I think it really paid off though! Misty's lengthenings this week felt like we'd unlocked a little bit extra and it felt really nice.

For some reason I decided to relist Misty on Dreamhorse. I'm not really sure why I decided to do it now instead of waiting for summer like I had originally planned. I guess I didn't think I'd have much interest in her again, but I've already had two sets of people come out to try her with more scheduled in the next week. I'm actually really, really sad at the thought of selling her. Not to mention I had our show season planned out and was really looking forward to it, but I'm going to miss my little roany paint pony so much!

At least I'll still have this dork