It Must Be Rolex

True confession time: I didn't get out of bed this morning. At all. I tuned into Rolex cross country day on my laptop via the USEF Network, and that was that. By the time it was over at 1:30 my time I was about equal parts starving, running late to get to my lesson, and totally inspired. Amazing horses, amazing riders. What I wouldn't give to be a tenth that talented and fearless!

Even with my late start, I still made it to my lesson with time to spare. This guy was waiting for me:

We'll never go to Rolex, but there must be some kind of ultimate cute pony competition he'd be a shoe in for :)
 Sorry for the lack of picture variety, we're still riding in the dark, non photo friendly indoor because the ground isn't dry enough to be outdoors in the sun quite yet.

This was my third time on Splash. You'll probably remember him as the one who is always ever so slightly behind your leg, something I find truly annoying. At any rate, off we went, me still motivated by Rolex videos and Splash motivated by nothing. The tipping point was the bazillion laps of two point we worked on. Two point is a workout, and Mr Splash has it all figured, slowing to a creep the instant you get your butt out of the saddle- surely no one can balance in two point AND kick him forward, right? That's where you're wrong, little buddy. I'm just as lazy as you, so you need to keep up your end of the bargain. I got seriously irritated, and while he may not have been on the Rolex program with me, he at least decided to wake up and attend today's lesson program :)

Then, on to the jumping. Today was a little different in that rather than riding courses, we just rode specific lines and worked on playing with striding. I'll admit I was a little apprehensive about Splash's ability to make a 6 stride in anything less than a 7, so I chased him fairly aggressively the first time. From then on he was totally with me and on his A game. We played with adding and leaving strides, then moved on to a 6 stride bending line. Would you believe we nailed it in a 5, 6 and 7 the first tries? And then a 4. I know that's not a big deal to some, but for me it's basically unheard of that I would attack a fence (on an angle even) to get a 4 when I could just as easily do it in a safe and  lazy 7 :) We moved on to some other lines and strides with out issue and then the lesson was over all to quickly. Even Splash seemed a little surprised to be having quite so much fun and threw in a couple of cheeky, 'feelin good' bucks towards the end of the lesson.

I feel like I rode a lot better today than last week. Probably a typical rider thing in that if you give me enough to do I'll forget to get caught up in the little things and just get on with it and get it done!

Ultimate best part of the lesson though, was on my way out of the ring when the little barn girls ran up and gave him treats and were like "Splash! You were SO awesome! I want to ride you next time!" and he really seemed so proud of himself :) I'm not sure Splash is used to being the object of anyone's admiration LOL

I know I've sort of mentioned he's not my favorite ride, but I have to admit the little dude's growing on me.