Lesson Recap: Transitions while Leg Yielding

Man, that lesson that my friend came to really set the bar high for media and sort of ruined me 😂😂😂 I had another lesson last Saturday and I was completely solo (DH had plans to make his first batch of moonshine and needed to babysit the still all day), and I didn't even bother to set the Pivo up because I was annoyed at how much time it spent staring at the arena walls last lesson once I had more time to review the footage. We were trying to fit the lesson in between some expected shitty winter weather, and managed to succeed, so yay for that. Of course, the weather had been super gross most of the week prior to the lesson, so I only managed one ride, and it was 80% walking - in the bands at least, so not a total waste, but also not terribly productive....womp womp. Good news, it's pushing me to accelerate my timeline to upgrade my arena footing 😂 but that's a post for another day! 

The days are getting longer because you can sort of see what I'm wearing vs just a shadow blob 😂

The side of the arena that doesn't get much sun still had snow on it. Sigh. 

Pretty sunset though!

That end was reasonably useful so we did some 20m circles.

My puppy was assembled incorrectly the night before my lesson. 

Regretting my life choices loading up at 25 degrees lol. 

Normally I tack up at my trailer but it was windy and gross so we grabbed an open stall. Ruby thought that was pretty cool and wanted me to leave her there after our ride 😂

The only riding media 😂 but yay for fitting in my Annie's "peek-a-blue" breeches again! 

The lesson before me ran a little long so we had plenty of time for a nice slow warm-up, and then we jumped right into some hard work! It was leg yield boot camp, incorporating not just leg yields off the wall then back to it, but also making transitions down to walk and back up to trot while maintaining the leg yields -- which, sort of scrambled the hamsters in Ruby's brain to start with. When we needed a brief break from that, we did a 20m circle in the middle of the arena but as we crossed centerline, a 10m circle the opposite direction, so sort of a figure 8 in each direction just one smaller circle? I'm not explaining it well and I'm typing this on my phone so I'm not illustrating it, #sorrynotsorry lol. The canter is also coming along. Transitions are (generally) getting far less exciting, and I'm able to feel when the canter is really really good and hold it for a few strides. Perpetually a work in progress! 

The weather this week is much nicer so I'm hoping to actually have a chance to work on our homework before our next lesson!