Primeval

I guess I forgot to sacrifice to the weather gods. Just last last week, it rained Tuesday night, so we were forced to do a jump-free lesson indoors. Guess what? The same thing happened this week. Fortunately, Cathy went over while I was tacking up and watered the arena so it wouldn't be as dusty.

Unfortunately, while Izzy and I were lunging, Cathy pulled the long, green hose out of the bubble. Izzy almost sat down and said SNAKE!!!! It took us a while to work through being snorty about that.

I rode in Cathy's dressage saddle again, and it felt really good. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that dressage is so much easier with a saddle that's designed for it. (My saddle is due here on Monday!!) The focus of our lesson was on riding from the saddle instead of using my hands, which was excellent. We did a little baby shoulder-fore and leg yields in which I used my hands to soften Izzy only and moved her over from my seat. Once I got back in the hang of it, I could see a definite improvement in her way of going.

Cathy also had me work on controlling my body to regulate Izzy's rhythm. Instead of tensing up and overbending her when she gets quick, I need to pull my shoulders back, keep my seat back, and regulate my rhythm. I tend to let her pull me forward and get in a tug of war. In the canter, I need to hold the outside rein, then soften on the inside to let her go forward and carry herself. We had about 3 strides of lovely self-carriage before she lost her balance.

All in all, it was an excellent lesson and the weather is beautiful outside. I'm just hoping that it's warm enough to dry the arena for tomorrow.

Oh! And while I was cleaning this morning, I realized that I totally forgot to put one blog on my list yesterday, so here it is:

A Work in Progress
Shannon and Spider are into dressage. And good at it. Shannon talks about the challenges of life and horses and gives excellent feedback on dressage issues.

Sorry anyone else I left out...