Progress!

After two horrid and barn-less days, I skipped out of work this morning because I HAD to ride. (Ugh. Life sucks a lot sometimes.) Anyways. Izzy was a superstar. As always.

I lunged her first to see what she would be like. As usual, she wasn't super forward and didn't think she needed to respond to my voice commands for upward transitions. Grr. I told her to trot, and when she didn't, I jumped at her and yelled. She took off bucking, but also got the message. Much better pony after that.

I was actually nervous about getting on, partly because I haven't ridden for (gasp!) 2 days and partly because of other sucky stuff (that I will talk about in a future post when it is figured out) that is going on in my life. Fortunately, Izzy is now a pro and totally took care of me. She was quiet, relatively attentive, and so, I don't know, comfortable.

I could really feel a difference in my riding even with just two days of walking bareback. My thighs were loose and relaxed instead of clamped down. My aids were more clear and soft and I actually felt quiet secure. I was acle to distribute my weight through my body instead of just bracing against my irons.

We didn't do anything hard. We just w/t/c both ways and did some figure eights and then reinforced the halt/back without any hand that we'd worked on bareback. The most exciting part for me was that because I was actually able to relax my body, I had a great time and wasn't totally out of breath at the end like I've been lately. YAY!!

I needed that ride.