Just chugging along

Vet had an emergency yesterday, so never made it out to our barn. Hope she got there today/gets there tomorrow but regardless, Fawkes seems fine now.  He certainly didn't feel stiff yesterday.

We had a great lesson last night.  As dumb as this sounds, I feel like the saddle, horse, and I are finding a rhythm.  Fawkes is still a bit slow off the leg, but that is something we will work on tomorrow.  We worked on cantering a line of 8ish poles set up as a bounce, then the same exercise was set up with two crossrails in there.  We cantered it in both directions.

Not from the lesson.  Sadly stuck in the indoor due to Seattle...errr, Colorado rains.

Our forever battle against straightness continues.  It starts to sound so repetitive and boring, but Fawkes is a major shoulder bulger and getting that under control is clearly critical to our journey to something resembling a straight line.  One of the things I love about my trainer is when I explain to her how my brain processes something, she changes how she says it to work with my (super crazy) brain.

So when I mentioned I noticed our turns are better when...wait for it.....it is a pretty big revelation.....I start using outside leg before we start turning, she has started reminding me to do that.  It really helps as I require an immense amount of repetition to train my body.

Given that I naturally lack things like body awareness and flexibility, it was recommended I try yoga.  I do plank regularly but have never taken a yoga class so maybe it is time to remedy that?

My friend's handsome gelding

The weather was all sorts of crazy - wind, dumping rain, hail, then sun, then repeat.  Fawkes was a filthy mess when I got there.  Freaking pigpen.  Scraped the worst off to make my lesson on time.  Had a laugh with my trainer about barns who insist horse and rider are spotless for lessons.  I get the idea of respect, and admire people who can do that, but my horse loves mud and I have a job that often keeps me late. Sometimes we are excited just to make it to the lesson, much less get fully clean.

Is it the long weekend yet?!?!