Lesson Recap: Canter Poles

I went to Sunday's lesson solo, so limited media - sorry! Definitely getting down to the nitty gritty since we have limited time left before the show. When TrainerB asked what I wanted to work on, I really wanted to hit the 15m canter circles and the leg yields - I feel like in the canter circles, to the right particularly, she can have a tendency of blowing through the outside aids which then makes my geometry... Awful 😂 a significant portion of it is also me sort of just sitting up there being a passenger going "la la la oh shit we should be turning ahhhhhh", so I also need to be better about riding ever stride not just carrying on on autopilot. 

Sunday morning shenanigans

She was PLASTERED IN MUD when I went out to get her so she got hosed off before I put her on the trailer - she was very unamused. 

We started off cantering to the left and Jesus Christ it's gotten SOOOOO nice. Ruby was actually really adjustable and the 15m circles were not nearly as difficult as they are at home. We worked on keeping her chest up a little more by raising my hands slightly (up, not back) for a stride or two, and then seeing how long she could carry that balance before she needed a reminder to rebalance. This is the portion of the lesson I'm super sad not to have video of, it felt amazing 😭 Things devolved a little to the right (as they've been doing with more regularity this calendar year), so eventually we took a walk break to talk through what TrainerB was seeing/what I was feeling. The consensus was that this isn't really normal behavior for Ruby - we were hoping that her dental checkup/float might address some of the head flinging, but it doesn't seem to have made a difference. Next guess was something else in the body - TrainerB said she has a horse in the barn who behaves similarly when they need a chiropractic adjustment/have a rib out of place, and conveniently enough the barn already has a chiropractor scheduled this week to make sure everyone is feeling their best before the show, so I was able to get Ruby on the list.

Literally living the dream. Had to stop and snap this pic to remind 30-whatever year old me that fifteen year old me would have DIED of happiness to know that my weekend consisted of packing up my very own rig and nonchalantly hauling out for a dressage lesson on my talented horse with an amazing trainer, you know, like I do every week. Preparing for a show 🤪🤪

We also did a little bit of work over a ground pole and I warned TrainerB that she hadn't met "enthusiastic jumping" Ruby but that she was about to 😂😂 true to form, Ruby LEAPED over the pole the first few attempts before chilling out enough to walk/trot/canter over it quietly. So obviously that got added to our homework, lol. I told TrainerB I had poles previously but DH absconded with all of them for landscaping projects and I hadn't gotten around to replacing them before lumber costs skyrocketed. I did pick up two more landscape timbers a few weeks ago to hang the second mirror, but looks like I'll be using them for schooling for the moment! 

The weather was beautiful and I was home early enough for some golf cart/noodle adventures! Cici is so endlessly over my shit 😂

The weather is rainy and gross most of this week, so I don't anticipate getting much done - I'm trying to be zen about that, because working her if something is out of whack in her body won't be productive anyway. Here's hoping the chiro helps her feel better Friday and then we'll be nose to the grindstone in the last week before the show 😬😬😬