8 years and great lessons

Tomorrow marks 8 years. I think every year, I find myself pondering over the fact that another year has passed without Promise. I wonder how it's possible she's been gone so long. By this point, she would have been 26 and I likely would have been expecting to not have many more years with her. But man, I totally did expect to still have her with me! 

My mom on Promise at the Woodstock Fair Horse Show, parent lead line class
(c) Lori Taylor Photography

I find myself trying not to dwell on all of the things I wish I had done better with Promise, as I meander my way through this journey with T. I am confident that I did the absolute best I could with the knowledge I had then, and we all know that there is always something to be learned when it comes to horses.

One of my grandmother's rides on Promise. She LOVED her and the feeling was definitely mutual!

Before I make myself cry, I'll fast forward to my last few lessons. When I left off last post, I had a really great small course on Skylar. If we're being honest, riding twice a week has things blurring together a lot for me. I don't even know how I kept it straight when I was riding 5-6 days a week many moons ago. I guess that was before I started blogging!

Skylar looking absolutely thrilled before our class last week

My Tosh lesson on July 5 was AMAZING. I feel like I say this a lot (and that makes me so happy!) but it was seriously the best surcingle ride to date. That means I'm constantly improving and it's incredible. 

We started out on Jacob's ladder to warm-up and initially it was a struggle, but then all of a sudden, something clicked in both directions. When T told me to turn, I took a deep breath, stretched up, and turned my body. You know what? Tosh did exactly what I intended. It was effortless, no reins, just my body doing it's job and speaking horse fluently.

T asked what changed and I said, I breathed first! She laughed and laughed and said, oh, imagine that!

From there, we started trotting and doing figures and I tried to do the same thing before my figures: breathe, stretch up, turn. Turns out, I actually CAN circle at the trot AND canter. AND, it is usually pretty round when my get my 💩 together! Seriously, though. I did a 20 meter circle at E on the left lead canter and it was...legit my best circle ever. Probably in all 34 years of riding. I wobbled a little in the 3rd quarter of it (because stamina), but managed to get it back together to finish the last quarter.

Wild turkey roaming the farm on my way out

On Tuesday the 7th, I donated blood, so my group lesson was last night instead. T texted around 3 to tell me Skylar had lost a shoe and asked if I wanted to ride Eli or Tosh. I asked if she thought we'd be jumping and she said I could hack or jump. I opted to ride Eli, in case jumping was in the cards. 

Other than my persistent leaning to the right (which I at least can feel now, even if I can't fix it), it was a great class. I got a slight handle on the lean but wasn't able to consistently hold it. Need more stamina!

Eli and I jumped last. But I was thinking about it as we were cooling out and I realized, I didn't feel nervous at all as we were waiting! The 3 others in the class jumped before me and Eli and I just walked around outside the arena, waiting for our turn. I felt relaxed about the whole thing. This is HUGE!

Anyway, we did the triple 2x toward home and 2x away from home. Eli jumps way differently (feels rounder?) than Skylar (who feels like he jumps pretty flat), but I was proud of myself for staying back, folding when I was supposed to, giving a small release, AND getting my distances pretty well. Now if I could just get myself to breathe through my "course," I might not be huffing and puffing quite as much when we finish!

Oh, and the other big thing was being able to keep him on the rail tracking left. When I did my evaluation ride on him a year and a half ago, I couldn't for the life of me keep him on the rail to the left (because I was leaning and off balance)!

Eli seemed to enjoy himself despite his routine being messed up a little. He doesn't usually work in the evenings, or in the outdoor. I think I made it up to him when I stuffed him full of mints and turned him out with his buddies.

My step count from my ride last night