Second Lesson

As usually happens, Izzy pretended she had no idea how to trot in our lesson. It was really a little humorous. When I ride by myself, she's pretty responsive. Introduce and instructor, though, and the training goes out the window.

In her defense, we were making her think a bit harder than normal and she was pretty good. She tried to turn in again on the lunge line, but we just kept our circle small and worked through it. I tried not to make and issue of it, and just led her back to the center and started again. I guess that worked ok... so long as she understands that she does have to keep working.

In the lesson itself, we worked on keeping a steady contact with both reins, but especially the outside, as well as getting her to listen to my seat instead of just leaning on my hands and bracing against them. In addition, Cathy wants us to start riding to points in the arena, instead of just wandering around. It will make us more focused and teach her to listen. Oh, and I need to look up. I get nervous, so I stare at her ears and watch that they don't fix on to anything that might cause her to spook. It's silly of me, really. I know that I can ride her when she spooks now. She even spooked once in the lesson, and I stayed on with no trouble. I didn't even grab the neckstrap.

All in all, I'd say we're making progress. After we were done riding, I washed Izzy's tail and braided it. I don't like dirty, matted tails. Also, I want to get her gussied up and do pictures again. I'm going to try to submit a photo to a magazine for a conformation analysis, just to see if we get in... I'm bad at trying to figure that out on my own.