Success!

Today dawned super cloudy and wet. It had stormed all night and, looking out the window at 7:00 am, I thought surely I'd be lucky if I got to ride one horse today, let alone two, which was my original plan.

I was at the barn by 9:00 am, and the minute I put on my half chaps, it started to drizzle. I killed time-catching up with the barn manager on the weekend's events (I worked both days this weekend, and whenever anything happens at the barn, it's usually on weekends when everyone is there), and then following Dianne around when she arrived to catch up with her. I felt like I hadn't seen her in forever. She's been going through a lot of change in her life. She's one person who should probably have her own blog-she is definetely a Superwoman who should share her secret with the rest of us mortals! She has 4 jobs and a horse; Charles says she must have Hermione's time turner to be able to squish the equivalent of 48 hours into 24, day in and day out. Hi Dianne! ;) (yes, she's one of my readers) Lily was so cute-she had scarfed her breakfast and poked her head out her stall door when I was walking by with an alert, questioning expression; "Hi Mom! What are we doing today? I'm BOOORED!" I've had her locked up in her stall with the stall guard up on her walkout because it has been raining so much for the last 3 days. The walkouts turn into quicksand/swimming pools when it rains this much.

Suddenly, the drizzling stopped, so I dropped everything I was doing, got Lily out of her stall, and tacked her up before the weather changed its mind again. I rode in the arena, since she had had 2 days off (I was afraid she'd be too frisky to go in the field). We did more of the same we've been doing since our dressage lesson last Thursday, and BOY could I feel the difference!!! Lily was so much softer going into the trot today!! The eternal warm-up wasn't necessary today to get her supple. Right off the bat she started dropping her head for a couple of strides at a time, reaching for the bit. Her spirals were perfect, and she nailed the 20 meter circles at the canter, which she had not been able to do before; she always wants to use the entire arena. We then trotted the cavaletti, which were set as ground poles 12 feet apart, but I turned the 2 cavaletti in the center of the line into tiny little crossrails by setting 2 PVC pipes in an "X" on each of them. I should've taken pictures; I think it's hard to imagine unless you've seen our cavaletti. Basically these were crossrails that were about 6" high at their lowest, and about 1.5' at their highest. The point? To encourage Lily to trot through the center. She did okay. The first time she decided to stop and look at the cavaletti crossrails and tried to run out, but I turned her around and made her go over it. After that, she didn't hesitate again. She does slow her trot going through, but I think this is also my fault because I'm being too easy on her; I need to use more leg. She hasn't discovered yet how much fun jumping can be, so she is less than enthusiastic about grids. We'll get there. I also feel weird doing jumping-type exercises in my dressage saddle. After some more circling and changes of direction to end on a good note, I decided to take her down to the field. The gate out was partially open. She was so cute! She stuck her head and neck out to her shoulders, the part of her that fit through, and waited for me to swing the gate open the rest of the way from her back. She walked right on out of the arena and down the driveway. I laughed. I guess she's bored with arena work! We went down to the field, and once there, Lily acted like she had just come out of her stall. We had worked for 45 minutes in the arena, but she was not at all tired! So we did circles and lots of lateral work in the field at the trot. Her leg yields in the field were nowhere near as good as in the arena because she was so full of herself, so we did lots of shoulder-ins instead, until she was nice and bendy and paying attention. Afterwards, we walked down to the park just cause we haven't gone down in a week, then turned around and came back. She got a quick bath because it was threatening to rain again.

In the afternoon, I was able to ride Christa after all despite on again, off again rain. Elisabeth arrived when I had her tacked up in the crossties, waiting for another bout of rain to stop. She got to see our entire workout, and Christa was EXCELLENT!! Waaay less stiff than our last ride, listening, and responding to my requests for more energy. I wish someone had taken video. Her trot was long and easy, she felt light in my hands, yet round and powerful-it's hard to describe the feeling if you haven't ridden a horse correctly before. It felt like Christa's 900 lb body was rolling along between my knees, held back by the lightest touch on the reins. It feels like you are riding a contained storm-all that power is harnessed between your legs and your hands. Pretty awesome! We demonstrated shoulder-ins for Elisabeth (I didn't even have to remind her how to do them! Christa remembered right away), and she was doing them so well that we tried a leg yield at the walk. Christa crossed her front legs, but her hind end was trailing. However, this was a very good first attempt from the mare that was so stiff a week ago. "Who says Christa can't do dressage!?" I said to Elisabeth. It made her day; she was grinning from ear to ear like a little kid and oh so excited to see her baby working so beautifully! Cantering was way better today too-not so heavy on the forehand, and a lot more responsive. She did buck twice going to the right again, but she really is doing it in response to the touch of the spur when she tries to slow down in front of the gate. Silly girl. I rode her through it both times  and she did not attempt it again. It was a really, really nice ride and we finished right before it started to pour again.

All in all, a truly awesome riding day :)