Getting into a rhythm

I don't have any photos from this week's lessons because I'm terrible at getting media of any kind, so I figured I'd litter it with photos of the projects I mentioned in my last post.

On Sunday, I rode Tosh in the surcingle. When I brought him into the arena, I tightened the surcingle, stretched his legs, and told him to whoa before leaving him ground tied to grab the fly spray, and he was fine. By the time I had sprayed him, he'd left me a pile, so I said whoa again and left him ground tied to grab the pitchfork and throw it out into the grass. As I came around the corner to come back into the arena, he watched me, and then he turned and trotted away. T laughed and said, by the way, he won't stand before you ride. Oops. I was like, crap, I thought it was too hot for him to want to free lunge. She said, noooope. So, I said, Tosh, whoa. He stopped and looked at me, and then politely waited for me to come get him. Oh brother. 

Polywood adirondack we used as a pattern, finally assembled
(with no directions because I couldn't find them)!

Painting in progress on the wood adirondack
my husband built for me from the Polywood version

After that excitement, I mounted as T was finishing up the class before me, and walked around to warm-up, doing some shoulder stretches and letting my legs swing. When she asked what I wanted to work on, I mentioned that I had found it hard to turn my body left the previous 2 rides, and that I wanted to do her crazy Jacob's ladder with circles warm-up exercise. So, off we went to the right first. Turning right to right wasn't too bad. Turning right to left was kind of meh, and turning left to left wasn't too bad. Interesting.

We started trotting left first, so I would have more stamina to work on my weaker side. Trotting actually went really well. And then T wanted to do a little experiment. She said, I know we haven't trotted right yet, but let's try cantering left before we change direction. It felt really amazing. Our departure was prompt and balanced. Overall, it was soft and organized. 

When we changed directions, the trot to the right was disorganized and tense. I didn't feel anxious or anything. I even tried counting the rhythm to try to regulate it a bit and to force myself to breathe. But I just could not get my body to relax and stop gripping! Eventually, T said, let's try a canter and see if it's any better. It was markedly better. 

All 3 chairs on the porch -- my husband built the navy one 2 years ago

We chatted for a while at the end of class and I mused about whether my difficulty turning my body to the left had been a stirrups issue vs a body issue. Since I felt looser in the surcingle, I'm thinking I was bracing on my right stirrup and therefore, unable to unlock my right side enough to turn left. It's a working theory.

Finally moved the flagpole to the front porch. It originally was
by the garage, behind a rather large holly bush.

On Tuesday, repeated the process from the week before, grooming Skylar and then cleaning my stall. T asked me to do Tosh's stall, since his normal Tuesday rider is out of town for a couple of weeks. Skylar's stall had been cleaned the day before and they had been out all night and day, so it was still clean other than a couple of piles. So, I cleaned Tosh's stall, piled his hay back up, and filled his water buckets, and then picked Skylar's stall before tacking him up a little after 6. We headed down to the arena a few minutes early and I did some stretches in the shade before mounting up when T got there. 

It was blazing hot and humid, with rain in sight but nothing that was going to affect our ride, so T determined we should just get down to business and power through. Class ended up being about 60 min with 4 of us, vs the previous week which was closer to 90 min with 6 of us. 

I was definitely having a problem leaning right. My GPS was a bit off in that it took me a while to feel it. Then I could feel it but couldn't do much about it (stamina!). But it all went reasonably well and Skylar was a good boy. 

Finished staining the new weight rack my husband built for me

Toward the end, she asked who wanted to jump and who wanted to go first. I debated in my head as I walked toward where everyone was standing and then said, I only want to do a few fences, so I'll go first. 

So, she sent me off to do a figure 8 with 1 fence in the middle, heading home so she could watch me coming at her. I reminded myself to stay up and back, keep my eyes up, look where I wanted him to go, and most importantly, let Skylar jump for me. I turned left with my body to quarter line and headed toward the fence again away from home.

Toy box we built for our cousin's 2-year-old birthday

Toy box with the lid closed

After doing that fence a few times in each direction, she had me go to the center fence of the triple I had jumped the week before and do a figure 8 around that one. Skylar stayed quiet and soft, and we navigated it successfully. Then she told me to canter and I guess I didn't ask hard enough going away from her, but we cantered on the way back and it was a lovely, soft jump within the striding. Just like it should be! I totally forgot to breathe, but was definitely smiling!

A laptop table we whipped up so I can work from the porch!
It's being painted to match the chair