Faith and Perseverance

Monday- Met up with Karley at our deserted barn, and since it was 90F at 430pm (!) we decided to hack in the indoor arena. With both ends open it gets a pretty nice breeze, and had been watered fairly recently so it wasn't horridly dusty. After some weak attempts by Magic to spook at both open ends we came to an understanding that I am tired of it and we got to business ( I mean really, the 6 yr old OTTB isn't phased what's his problem?!... oh yeah me  lol)

I worked on maintaining a nice sitting trot with a tiny bit of no stirrup work. I'll work up to no-stirrup challenges like L does... someday. we did some ok canter departs and fairly forward cantering while a FedEx truck circles our barn, rattling as he rushed by with minor ear flicking. I really have to work at keeping my shoulder up and forward motion in the corners and when circling. Magic tends to drop his shoulder and slow, which it seems like I never catch ahead of time. We cooled the boys out and Magic got a decent rinse and groom job, poor shedding beast!

Karley and Henry in back of dirty view

he does look handsome in dark teal

Tuesday- (today) Morning lesson, just by my lonesome now. I woke up with nasty back pain, but took some meds and hauled myself out to the barn. I begged my trainer to be easy on me, not sure which part of the lesson that helped, prob why the jump stayed low.

Had to wait for the arena to be watered and dragged, so by the time it was done, we
did quick trot and canter work and moved to flying lead changes. Yay, I have never really practiced them outside of after a jump, it was nice getting to try them when I'm not hyperventilating about jumping. (Although he only does them one way, so it was practicing simple  (RtoL) and flying (LtoR).

Then we did some quick trot poles and then a teeny-tiny-why-do-I-get-bothered cross rail. I must admit as I get back in shape a bit more, I am starting to realize the annoyances of a push horse. If I didn't push enough he'd jump crummy or break canter, earning us 'one more' jump. My trainer is teased by other trainers for her notorious 'one more time', over and over again. I admit its good practice, we only end when its done right (or as close as we get). I finally got both of us over the jump, cantering to the wall and around the corner and got to quit, hallelujah.

As I was cooling him off my trainer informed me that she was not going to let me "chicken out" of jumping. Sigh. I really want to chicken out. I really want to get better. I said I didn't want to jump if I sucked on the flat, and she said I don't suck, I just need to get more aggressive, but she saw progress already. That's a big compliment lol.

Friday ride, then naught til next Monday. Guess I shouldn't combine posts, this is a bit wordy :)

Nom nom nom