Trusting the Unknown

My normal Tues or Weds lesson was moved to Friday so trainer could take care of some personal business out of town. 

It was warm, quickly got into the  high 70's, I'm not quite ready for heat, conditioning wise. Lots of panting lol. Went down to outdoor and another older woman who trailers in with alternating horses each week joined us. She is great to ride with, she is polite and braver than me (jupms and rides sensitive horses) so gives me courage lol. 

Started with a nice relaxed but forward walk, until trainer realized I was slacking and told me to do a sitting trot. I worked hard at opening my always tense hips, which softened my bouncing on his back into following his motion. Novel

Blurry selfie. Go me.

Plenty of trotting, with more two-point than my flabby core could muster, and I admittedly snuck in posting whenever trainer looked away. Rarely does she not notice, sometimes she is just nice enough to call me on it, push me one more lap then let me rest.

Apparently I am leaning back behind the motion a bit to compensate for me having no core at the canter.  I really thought i was just sitting up properly, but alas another thing to work on.

Did a few lead changes. He is really nice, L to R he is crazy smooth. Reverse he rushes a bit. which gets me tense, expecting some sort of naughtiness. But it doesn't come. He just does it.

Then trainer asked if I wanted to jump a little with the other rider. I said sure. I still had some reserve energy and I have watched him enough to know he is VERY forgiving.

Trotted back and forth over a little 2ft cross rail. What eye I had is gone... well not gone totally, I could see the wrong distance, I just forgot what to do to fix it. Trotting we were mostly fine, I sat up, grabbed mane and tried not to collapse from lack of muscle tone.

Then we cantered. That's where he proved a gentleman. I felt him move up and got all grabby handed. Slowed him down and we got a weird distance. Folks its hard to mess up 2ft, but I did. Flopped on neck, bopped his mouth, prob grazed a spur to his side. He just slowed to a trot and side-eyed me like WTF, you seemed ok til now lady. Trainer told me to trust him, his eye is better than mine for distance. Got a couple more better jumps and proved there is some nerves still hiding in there about cantering fences.

After over a year, guess that's fair. Hoping I get my core back soon.

So excited for my lesson