Silly Horse Lips

I had a fantastic lesson on Divine!  We were very in sync!  I barely had to do much to keep her nice and collected, a few times I had to work her onto the bit but for the most part she just went along perfectly.  Laurie had me work the whole riding ring and ride into the corners of the arena but do a nice arc into the corners without breaking stride.  We were doing pretty good aside from one corner since it was after one long stretch of straight rail, I had my mind on the idea of not wanting to hit the fence with my leg so I was a bit distracted.  Divine and I then crossed the arena in the middle to work on the circle again but this time she ignored my one leg (or I didn't use it hard enough) so we veered left instead of right.

Because of that Laurie had us work on lateral movements, where I was walking Divine forward but turning her head slightly left and pressing with my left leg while keeping her collected.  This made her cross over to the right in a lateral pass.  It was a work out for sure!   Not too much else to report except that I felt really great, my hands were doing what they should, and I felt pretty secure in the seat though I lost my stirrups a few times at the trot (still trying to relax into the longer length).  I love it when lessons go like that!

Before the lesson while I was tacking up Divine she was really cute with the baby wipes I use to clean out her nostrils.  Divine kept lifting her upper lip trying to grab a hold of the cloth, it was just too silly!  It really doesn't matter how regal a horse is, their breed or breeding...when they make silly faces like that they are just too cute for words!  I completely forgot to bring a camera with me, I've realized that the pictures I have of Divine are from winter time when she was still pretty fuzzy from the cold.  I need to get some more recent pictures of her!

Another silly horse lip event occurred when I was untacking and grooming Divine after the lesson.  I heard Laurie laughing from outside the barn.  She brought Silk into the barn and cupped her hand on her muzzle.  Psylk wiggled her upper lip from side to side.  I can't explain how funny it was to watch her cute soft muzzle wrinkle up and wiggle back and forth.  Horses can be so ridiculous sometimes!  I can't wait to have one of my own that I can get to know all their idiosyncrasies.  After releasing Divine I went into the arena to love on the mares at their respective pile of hay.  I snuggled Pstar, then Sala, Divine and then Psylky.  Poor Brownie was in the barn since she had a slight fever and a dribble-ridden nose that Laurie was trying to determine the treatment for or I guess whether it warranted a vet visit.  I went back into the barn to grab my purse and gave Brownie a goodbye stroke on her soft neck.  I told her I hoped she felt better soon, having a cold is no fun.  I could have stayed so much longer but I had to meet Steve, my hubby, and some of his colleagues from work.  Sorry no pictures this time but check out Laurie's web page with the new pictures and video she took of Eksodus!  What a beauty!  http://www.quintessentialarabians.com/eksodus.html