Good thing she's a patient and forgiving horse!

So I mentioned yesterday that my jumping saddle made me realize how out of shape I am!! It also makes me realize that if I feel that much more secure in my dressage saddle, maybe its time to purchase a more secure feeling jumping saddle... Sadly that will have to wait until grad school is done.

Tonight I was determined to work on getting my legs in shape. I mean I can't be very effective starting her over fences if I can't hold my position through all her green horse awkward take offs. So I set my timer on my phone and did 2 minutes of of staying up in two point while doing walk-trot-walk transitions. Then did another 2 minutes of trot poles back and forth. Then back to the two point position. Then we trotted over the tiny cross rail I set up. She was so good an patient about me holding on to her main and feeling a little off balance and tired. Some horses will take advantage of that, some green horses get spooked when you're out of balance, not her, she was patient and happy to just trot along and go where I pointed.

We had spent most of the ride working on the same things, bending on small circles, walk-halt-walk on a straight line, and trot-halt-trot. I figured theses were simple things, so I dropped my irons and finished the ride with some of the same exercises, just with no stirrups. We get the trot pretty pokey and collected since I was sitting the trot and focusing on keeping my balance square over both seat bones. I need a whole lot more work on myself! Funny how you forget these things are so important!

Overall it was a great night. She was good lunging in the beginning even though she was bothered by the sound of someone using some sort of skill saw in the garage by the arena. I also had my gelding Bear turned out in the arena with us and every so often he'd wander over until I chased him off with the dressage whip. She was good with that. Every so often he'd gallop across the arena bucking just because he's silly and it was windy. She was fine with that too! Such a good girl.

Tomorrow she gets a very well deserved day off! I'm hoping to get out at lunch to turn them out in the arena to have a change of scene from the pen, but I may have some other errands that can't wait until evening. Then I'm definitely looking forward to our dressage lesson on Thursday!