Confounding creature

I took a few days off after the fall to let my body heal.  I must have landed on the corner of something (flower box?) because I have a pretty nasty scrape and bruise on my back, and a giant bruise where my thigh landed on the jump standard base.

Took a jumping lesson today and it was great.  Fawkes was a flipping angel.

Possible bruise source

I let him take a run around the indoor before riding since his turn out time has been cancelled by the recent rain.  People from truly rainy places might laugh, but CO does not do rain.  Everything just floods about 30 minutes after it starts raining.  Fawkes seemed to appreciate his run time and it might have helped me because unseasonably cool and periodic downpours while in the indoor usually spell spookiness.

Not today.  He even jumped the boxes on the first try without really sucking back.  My personal opinion is that he is a survivor and knows that it is not in his best interest to overly misbehave multiple rides in a row.  Especially when you are a super sensitive, kind of pain in the ass, orange TB.

Finally summer shiny

We worked on small courses including a bending line, primary goal of straightness. I tend to rely on my inside rein when Fawkes bulges or gets crooked, when I really need more outside aids.  So my brain mantra for today was, if I think I need inside rein, instead apply outside aids.  And don't forget extra leg because whoo boy, if your horse is already crooked and you only use outside rein you will go straight alright, right into a jump standard.  Disclaimer: this did not actually happen today but it was close once.  However, if that outside leg is strong enough and that outside rein is steady, you no longer need to twist your poor horse's head around with the inside rein.

Yeah, I will be working on that for the next, um, eternity.  But it definitely was helping and scaredy cat horse is braver when straight!

It was nice to get a good right in after a crappy one, and it helped my mood on a dreary day.