I've been slacking

Somehow August is almost over already and I haven't posted since the 3rd. Good grief. I always joke that after my birthday comes and goes early in the month, it's only like 3 days until Christmas. That's how it always feels. Like I blink and the year is over as soon as my birthday ends. So weird. But also, with COVID, the year has been bizarre and also flying by, so I'm pretty sure Christmas is tomorrow, right?

I've been rewatching Gilmore Girls for the 193,791,739th time

Anyway, last time I posted, I was nursing my back back to health. (How's that for an awkward sentence?) It's been feeling really good the last couple of weeks. I'm back to seeing my chiro every other week and I've been easing back into working out this week. I've noticed a decrease in my stamina over the last week or so, so I decided it's time to start motivating myself to get my butt out of bed in the mornings and get back to it. 

My rides have been going really well, though! In general, I've been very consistently balanced every ride. I've been struggling with tightness through my hips, but that is partially due to not working out and stretching like I had been. I'm only leaning once in a while, and usually it seems it's because I'm concentrating on something else so hard. Like last night, in the right lead canter on Skylar, I was focusing so much on keeping my outside leg back and on him so I didn't drop his hind end and cause him to switch behind, that I started tipping right around my turns. But, I didn't drop his hind end AND I did feel the leaning. So, small victories that add up to larger ones once I can put it all together. To the left, I did drop his hind end a few times, but my upper body felt better. It felt like it was easier to stay up and back, while my outside leg felt weaker. 

I also jumped a few fences last night for the first time in weeks! I did a few singles and then T had me do a really tight, awkward right roll-back to the diagonal line to jump it backwards, basically. That awkward line really helped me stay straight and those were my best 2 jumps of the night. I botched my last fence a bit by jumping ahead but I totally held my breath and dropped my eye at the last moment. For not jumping in weeks, it went really well! 

On Sunday, after some difficulty getting my hips to release during our warm-up, everything started to come together. We had tried a turn from C down centerline and a circle from X to B at the trot, and it didn't go well at all. So, we stopped and stretched my hips and tried again and turning was like butter. It felt so seamless. Plus, later in class, T called my right lead canter "spectacular" and compared me to Tosh's other leaser, A, who has been riding him for many years, and has been riding with T since she was 9. T said, he doesn't give that beautiful gait to just anyone. I took that as very high praise, especially because A is a really beautiful rider and she and Tosh look amazing together. I found myself grinning stupidly from ear to ear for the rest of the day. 

But, I've found myself doing that after several of my lessons lately. It's really starting to come together and I can feel my confidence growing even more.