After her big weekend, she had a day off and then today she had a dressage lesson with Missy Monson in the tack.  We did a lot of walk work and lateral work in walk and trot and ended with a bit of canter half pass!  Very good day.  Cold night tonight, she’s got her blanket on.

I rode her in the indoor and had a nice long walk warmup.  Then on to trot work, including lateral work.  Then on to canter and then some exercises to help her maintain balance in downward transitions from canter.  She produced some very nice work.  Her left hind was a little puffy when we started, but she was completely sound.  It was much less puffy after the ride.  Let’s keep an eye on that.

I rode Lexie in the arena while coaching Missy on Bravado. I had a long walk warm up with work on transitions, as I got into the arena before Missy did. We had some nice lateral work in trot and later, some stellar canter work. Great day.

We went on an evening hack around the harvested fields to the south.  We started out with a long walk warm up and then did about a mile in trot around the perimeter of Kenny’s big cornfield and then some canter work along the stream.  Nice walk warm down on the way home.

We went on an evening hack.  I rode Lexie and Missy rode Bravado.  A lot of the crops came out this week and the major deer hunting hasn’t started yet, so it was a rare window of opportunity to ride south of our place.  We worked in all gaits and Lexie was a star.  On the way home, we passed through the Beaver field and heard two owls, then we went a little further and heard and saw another one high in a tree.  It was getting dark and was a fitting spooky but awesome thing to see on Halloween night!

So Merlin arrived yesterday and he is sharing the paddock with Lexie.  They are getting along famously.

I brought her in and groomed her.  Lovely that her thrush is all cleared up and her frogs are now plump and healthy.  She only has a very few patches of scratches which I will keep an eye on.

I tacked her up and rode in the outdoor.  We had some very nice flatwork and relaxation.  After that, I took her for a hack around the (now harvested) bean field to our south.  We walked the whole way and she was relaxed and breathing and looking around and enjoying the trip.

I brought her in and groomed her and trimmed her bridle path and played with her, with special attention to brushing her face, which she liked.  Then I tacked up in the dressage saddle and we worked in the arena on relaxation and stretching in walk and trot, which progressed well.  When we got to canter, she was relaxed enough to share with me the softest canter I’ve ever ridden on her.  Lovely!

The front was going to come in in the afternoon, so I rode her right after breakfast.  We did a lot of walk work, focusing on relaxation, stretching and seat aids.  That went very well.  We did some trot and canter work, but this workout was mostly about walk.

We went on a hack across the road on the grassed waterway, working in all gaits.  She was happy to go out on an adventure and behaved well.

Lexie participated in a group flat lesson with Emma Fryauf.  She behaved very well and seemed to enjoy herself.  Emma learned a lot and enjoyed the treat of riding  Lexie.