Balanced

Sunday morning, I woke up with my right shoulder feeling like it was in a vice. I must have slept funny, based on the increasing nerve pain behind the right shoulder blade from Friday on. I took some Advil, stretched and rolled around on one of my dog's tennis balls for a while. Between that and mucking Tosh's stall, the pain lessened significantly, but I had some lingering soreness.

I started writing this post on Wednesday, so this fit then

As Tosh as I were walking our warm-up laps, I closed my eyes on the long sides of the arena to test my GPS. Tracking left, I immediately felt him turn left toward the middle. I opened my eyes, adjusted my seat, closed them again and felt him go right back to the rail. Interesting.

When T asked what I wanted to work on, I said, turning, straightness, and breathing. I told her about the veering left when I closed my eyes and that he moved back to the rail when I adjusted my seat so I think it was leaning vs seat bone. She had me track left and close my eyes on the long sides to test the theory. He stayed straight as an arrow on both long sides. We changed directions and tried it that way. Not as straight, but still relatively good!

We did some circles at the walk and right away, the soreness in my shoulder showed up in the form of trouble turning right, which is a new issue for me since normally I can't turn left (or at all, depending on the day)! 

Toshy waiting for me to bridle him

We trotted right, first, to preserve stamina on the good side and it actually went well! We did a few circles and then crossed the diagonal to change direction, did a few more circles and walked for a bit. Turning left was definitely WAY easier.

After our short break and some water, we went to the right again. The absolute game-changer was when T told me to try putting my left hand in front of my right around my turns. It was such a simple fix to help my body turn right and it worked like magic! She asked how it felt and all I said was, holy crap! 

I tried it to the left, too, although far less pronounced, it still worked! 

Our canter work was incredible. I feel like a broken record saying it is the best to date, but hot damn, if it wasn't seriously the best work yet, I'm a monkey. 🐒

We didn't do any figures at the canter other than 1 loop from E to B and vice versa, but it was so soft and lofty. In both directions, Tosh turned exactly where I told him to, and I didn't have to work super hard to get him to do it. 

We chatted for a few minutes before I started cooling out. T asked if I had been sore after riding Eli the Thursday before, since he has a totally different way of going than Skylar. I said I was sore on Friday but it was mostly gone by Saturday.

I said I am feeling strong and generally a lot more balanced in all of my rides. I have been holding onto the surcingle handles a lot less at the trot and canter, and feel mostly balanced these days, even when we do figures. I still hold them to ask for the canter because Tosh is so prompt and I don't want to get left behind. But, once we're in a rhythm, I find myself letting go so I can my body turn better and brace less against the movement. It seems to be working!

When I dismounted and started removing the surcingle, I laughed out loud because I noticed that I could have gone 1 hole tighter on it but I was so balanced that it didn't feel wobbly and I didn't even notice. 1 hole isn't a huge deal, but in the past, I've definitely noticed the difference and asked T to tighten it. 

I mentioned it to T as a huge victory in terms of my seat and balance and she agreed that it is definitely a huge win! She said, I noticed it before we cantered but you weren't having any trouble. It would have been different if you were doing something where a super tight girth really matters, like team penning or barrel racing or jumping, but since all we were doing is flatwork and you were balanced, there was just no need to tighten it more.

No idea why I'm so pooped on Tuesday nights :-P

On Tuesday, Skylar's shoe was back on, so I gathered his tack and brushes. When I went to grab his saddle pad, I noticed his wither pad was missing. So, when I went back for the saddle, I took it to the arena to ask T or J about it. J is the resident saddle fitting expert and she was available, so I asked and she said, well, this is a totally different saddle, and it's not as wide, so we are going to try it without the wither pad and see how he goes. I asked if she wanted me to use the all purpose pad or the thicker fleece one and she said either was fine. That was all I needed to know!

I did his stall before my ride, but opted to do his hay after, since he gets a bit cranky when he gets fresh hay and can't eat it. 

When I got on, I immediately felt more to the left. I found myself adjusting the saddle to the right multiple times throughout the ride. Other than that, it was a really great class. During our flatwork, Skylar felt looser through the shoulder, since the saddle sat a bit further back, off his shoulders. 

When it was time to jump, the more advanced people went first, leaving me to be last. I expected to just do a couple of lines and be done, but after tracking right up centerline and doing the natural element of the triple 2 times, she started calling out other fences to me. Apparently T felt I was ready to do a small course!

We started up the centerline, turning at half school to get to the natural element of the triple toward home. We did that twice. (pink)

Then she had me go up centerline to the natural toward home, and turn to get the lime green on the diagonal away from home. We did that twice. (pink)

Finally, she had me come up centerline to the natural toward home, backwards turn to the small stones to the lime green on the diagonal away from home, half school to the bricks, choose a direction and commit to it, I chose to track left since we landed on the left lead, so she sent us up the triple away. (purple) 

And done! 

I was not expecting to do that much jumping at all! Other than Skylar not putting in enough effort at the large lime green crossrail the first time, we cantered most of it and got our distances, I stayed up and back, I released, and it felt smooth and dare I say it...easy!