I had every intention of fully documenting each of my lessons and I am not sure what happened. Let's do a short and quick review to get caught up and then I will try to be better. Lesson 14 was a dressage ride which went well, but short and easy. Mia was a bit stiff/sore and A was sick. She didn't even charge me for the lesson, despite my insistence to pay her, because it was such a short lesson.
Lesson 15 was a very good ride, we did some stadium jumping for A to see how we go. She loves Mia's jumping and she loves my jumping position. She had us do some super tight and controlled turns to test our abilities over height (3') and while it wasn't perfect, I was able to do everything she asked. Mia is also one of the most balanced, unbalanced horse A knows, apparently. We found the weaker areas are my not having flying changes over fences (worked on it), Mia can be heavy and fast at times, and A thinks I am using a slight crest release over larger fences versus an automatic release. The last one was surprising and I think I want some pics, as I haven't done crest releases in I don't know how long. I have always done automatic releases with Mia, so I am not sure.
Lesson 16 was the following week and we did some XC jumping around the farm. A really, really likes Mia's jumping and loves her "get it done" attitude. A had me practice "hailing the taxi" when going over a jump with a drop to really think about sitting back. We don't have any jumps with a serious drop, but by practicing over a jump with a small drop will help build muscle memory for when I face a jump that does. The other take away was A seeing Mia freight-training it. I am not sure if A had really ever seen Mia really freight train until that day! There was a lot of water-skiing as I fought for control, especially at the start of the ride lol.
A recommended doing more canter fitness with gallop sets to help remind Mia to come back when I ask without having to yank on her. She also wants me to change up Mia's bitting for cross country for extra brakes. I do have the wonder bit I used last year, however am trying a pelham bit for now so I still have the basic snaffle. The first day I did the gallop sets, Mia took off and wouldn't come back so I kept going around and around and around the hay field. After the 5th gallop set, Mia was absolutely exhausted so for the 6th lap I had her canter it. I had to really force her to canter, as she was begging to stop, but that is the risk one takes when wanting to take off. When I rode her a few days later in a a field, we cantered and the second I sat up, Mia dropped into a trot. Ha! I did it three times and each time Mia let me know that she will gladly stop when I ask, as she now remembers we may not stop.
The other takeaway we had in lesson 16 was that A agrees it may be time to do her hocks. We tried a round of Legend as a passive approach and while it worked, it only worked for about a month and now Mia is barely flexing her right hock. While I try to put off hock injections as long as possible, she is 13, we work regularly, and if it makes her comfortable, I will do it. Those happened last Tuesday and Mia had the week off. The vet confirmed while Mia had good joint space, her upper right hock joints were super dry so it was the right move. We went on a short, flat trail ride on Sunday and last night we did a short dressage ride. I may have to re-learn how to ride my horse, she has SPRINGS now! She felt like she had the bounce of when she is super geared up, but she was being incredibly lazy and uninterested in working after a full week off. I have a lesson tonight, I'm super excited to see how Mia performs with eyes on the ground!
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