Of MIA and Angel's Singing.

Again I am MIA... So sorry. We are in the midst of doing electrical, plumbing, exterior... erm well, let me just say we are in the middle of doing everything at the new house.
While things are really plugging along it seems all my, slightly, spare time along with my not so spare time, ie riding and sleepy time, are being contributed to house work.
No, I, myself, am not doing those above laborious things. Given I know the process, give or take, I do not trust myself to do any of it, plus, I do not do ladders. Thus, I am appointed as errand lady, scheduler, caller/callee, payor, banker and cleaning crew.
I know what you are all thinking, the simple, basic jobs, right? Well let me tell you it ain't easy!
I have to say, flatly, that I am anointing myself the 'things are all just f***ed up fixer-upper' because that is what I do.
When companies and contractors mess the whole lot up, I call, I write.. eckham, politically correct emails dictating the deficiencies and my demand... err... proposed fix it's, I make visits, I am sweet and I am plain nasty if I must be.


When I get really stressed out, luckily, the barn is there to welcome me with many open hooves, or mouths more like.
On the barn subject, I am going to have to begin keeping a better log or just get my hiney on here more often because I am completely blanking at everything but my ride on Saturday. Which went pretty great mind you.


Saturday, in one word, was sopping. After our Friday monsoon, or so it seemed, everything was soaked to the bone so all hopes for outdoor ride was out the window again.
But as I was saying last week, we have new sand, so that is a plus!


I really didn't have a plan in mind today which is very unusual for me. I knew flatwork was in order since all jumps are now outside but I didn't know what I wanted to work one. Thankfully, I listened to dear pony and she quickly told me what we needed to address. Haunches.


Paloma is getting more advanced in her flatwork but we still need refining of movements and attention span. While she knows how to use her haunches correctly, she knows she can often get away with giving me a little just to shut me up and then adjusting the volume, ie me, down to virtually 'mute' thereafter.
So as I have said many times, I don't have to completely change my approach, I just have to make it harder. The harder the work, the more I get out of her.


Lately, I have been playing a lot with transitioning out of some sort of lateral work, mainly leg yield into a transition, but also shoulder-in into a transition.
Properly holding shoulder-in and getting a prompt transition is beyond hard for both of us. I have to accurate and balanced and I must also time my request correctly to enable the transition to come through. Not to mention I have to tell Paloma, not ask. Otherwise we bobble...


Saturday's ride was one of those lack luster days. I was struggling for forward, let alone forward responses. I started working on shoulder-in since I just couldn't feel the inside hind really taking weight in either direction, though notably worse to the left. Paloma performed beautifully in both directions, breakthrough! I started losing her attention again, so I amped it up and came up with this exercise which did numbers for her already good, trot-canter transition.


Exercise- Working trot, 10m circle coming out of the corner, sitting trot, prep for shoulder-in. Shoulder-in down the long side (roughly 20m in my indoor), then half-halt, ask for canter. Not in five seconds, canter now!
After a couple tries, the improvement was remarkable. No hint of head toss, no hint of dumping the shoulder, no flattening, just pure uphill thrust. *angels sing*.
This only occurred twice before I couldn't help but drop myself on her neck laughing with lots of pets and praise.


Yup, definitely want that again!