Lesson Recap

You're probably all sick of me saying I had another fantastic lesson, but there it is. I did. Again.

Don't worry, it's not all perfect - my life/luck is ridiculous sometimes! Someone, somewhere, stole some personal info of mine and this week made a bunch of very large charges to my credit card, all in a 24 hour span. Very annoying thing to happen in normal circumstances, but you will recall we are currently shopping around for the best mortgage rate for the dream farm, and so having my account frozen for a fraud investigation for the next two weeks isn't exactly making me feel warm and fuzzy. So, let's just say these fun weekly lessons are extra appreciated right now.

I haven't watched this movie, but when I got a call confirming the super expensive vacation tour I had apparently booked for someone, my coworkers suggested we try to intercept and meet the person a la this movie. I might actually find this funny...sometime later.

Moving onwards... to a happy lesson recap :)

Audrey had a bit more pep than normal since it's summer camp week and EC's been busy. Her new saddle is also helping - I would have said she was fantastic before, but now there is a whole extra level of softness and roundness on offer right off the bat.

We did all the normal things we do: Walk/trot/canter, collect and extend in each gait. Shoulder in, haunches in on the quarterline and on a 15m circle. 

The big breakthrough for me was that I'm really starting to be able to sit and collect the canter by degrees where before, the forward and back was a bit too dramatic and often I'd lose the quality of the canter (or even lose the canter altogether). Still a work in progress, but I'm starting to get a feel.

 Also, in general I'm getting much quicker about getting back to where I was before I made a mistake, and far better about correcting myself before the mistake actually happens. Haunches in on the circle was cause for me to ask for yet more inadvertent flying changes (I think I may never learn to fully contain that outside shoulder on the left lead), but I'm getting better about just adding a walk or trot step and getting back on track immediately.

Audrey is totally happy toodling along with me on board right now, and came walking up to meet me in the field, looking for a job to do. No visible anger when I brushed her too, which is somewhat new - she is a princess and doesn't have time for such things.  I'm also not sure there is a brush in existence she doesn't find either too hard or too soft. A happy, content Audrey feels nice since A has many opinions about a lot things. Most of the time I think her opinions regarding me are probably not flattering!