Positive Ride

I rode last night still feeling frustrated and discouraged with my ride the day before. But you can't improve if you don't try, so I put a smile on my face and got back to work.

Real smiles and fun on Saturday

Or lesson was a jump lesson, with a twisty, windy, tricky course. Fence heights stayed small, the challenge was all in finding and keeping your line, as well as keeping a forward, consistent pace. Midge and I both showed up on our best game and it rode nicely for us. She moved up when I needed her to, and was super about staying straight.

The angled two stride had me worried for no reason

EC suggested more xc lessons with our coach from last weekend - not only did we have the most fun ever, but she's thinking it helped us immensely in finding the powerful, forward "attacking" canter we need for show jumping. I love my EC lessons, but the other coach definitely had me feeling very positive, relaxed, and confident out there...something I don't always feel with EC's more technical, boot camp approach. It totally works for me on the flat and is genius for keeping me motivated and on plan in general. It's just I am often far too hard on myself, so sometimes it's nice to have someone who teaches less and cheerleads more :)  Anyway, love that she always wants whats best for her riders and is happy to have us XC school with someone else. It's a great feeling to know your coach always has your back and genuinely wants you to succeed.  No clue if we can head back up for another XC lesson anytime soon, as she's only there part time and I'm only around part time too, but certainly something to ponder if the opportunity arises. I need my own trailer, I think!

My jumping confidence chart  to date :)

Sorry for the tangent - back to the lesson recap! We rode the course a second time to prove it wasn't a fluke, then were told to end early and head out for a nice hack up the hills, since we both needed and deserved one. The woman is psychic sometimes, I swear...trail rides are always our happy place and B and I definitely came back feeling better about life. I suspect I am more of an open book than I think - funny that we always have a super encouraging ride or lesson after the really tough days when I'm half inclined to give up and find a new hobby :)

Shiny pony, also from Saturday. My media truly sucks....proof we were outside and dressed to go xc at least? I so wish I could share the pics of Midge hanging out with G, all sleepy and head resting against his chest while he sat in his camping chair watching the lessons. So adorable, but he's not big on having his pic on the internet, which is cool and  means you'll have to take my word for it that it was pretty much the sweetest thing ever. She also stole/ate part of his lunch, namely half a turkey sandwich. but we don't need to dwell on that lol

Speaking of giving up and finding a new hobby...I did check my scores from the dressage day and they're not THAT bad. Not good, and nothing I'm proud of beyond "I survived being held hostage by a pony", but I think a 62 and a 61...so likely not the worst of the day since I think the best was a 65 or so. We had a number of 5's but some 7's and even an 8 or two scattered in. The pair with the best score at First happened to be the ever lovely Q mare and best working student! Well deserved and love them! Short recap of test scores and comments coming once I can be more objective about it and less "I'm shopping for a new pony/quitting my day job and learning to ride". For now we focus on our most recent ride, which was a positive one :)