The heat has finally broken for a day, and it's a relief. Nikita has gotten the past 3 days off because of the heat and because she's seemed a little fried from the elasticity work we've been doing. Pooping in the aisle (something she's never done in the past 2 years I've known her) was the first clue. Trying to nail me with a hind leg was my 2nd. You gotta love the mares, and by now I can read 'em like a book. I know the work I've been doing is correct and I've been clear in what I want, but we've been doing a lot of collected work, and she's in that muscle-building phase, so she's probably sore.
She's also coming down from a "wardrobe malfunction" - the noseband on her double snapped mid-pirouette. She was perfect to the left, then freaked to the right, which is her difficult side. I thought I'd held the reins too much and created too much contact, but there the noseband was, swinging insolently. Even after I changed the noseband, she was still very hot to the right, and after performing the right pirouette correctly, the training was ended for the day. The next day, she was still very hot, which is when her mini-vacation began.
Here's some video to the left. She tries to turn by herself, or to do more than 1 rotation, which is why I've stopped her a couple times.
Nicole has been worked in the early AM, but even so, it's been hot and the air heavy. On Thursday, she was cooked after 15 minutes because the air quality was so bad. I've been working on the usual stuff, but focusing on making her really push to the bridle and swing her back while we do the usual stuff. More important than anything else, she has to focus on using her back. She wants to suck back, which is the worst thing she can do. It takes a lot of forward, forward, forward and reminding her to stay through to get her release that tension.
