Trot Half Pass!!!

My lesson today was the only happy point in my day. It was just a frustrating day, but I'm kind of proud of myself because I didn't let it get to me. I had to tell myself "Do NOT get frustrated with life and take it out on Dan... smile and enjoy the lesson". And I did. :) 

My day started off with me waking up irritated because the dogs were barking all night/morning and then the rooster was crowing, so I slept like crap. Then the neighbors had their roof being worked on so there was a bunch of commotion. This meant the the horses wouldn't come in for breakfast and I had to go catch them. And then of course Dan was running amuck and wouldn't go in his stall. So he got all hot and sweaty. I hosed him off but even with the fans on muffling the noise, he was too agitated to eat. So that made me late for leaving for my lesson. Then Dan didn't want to load. I was trying to be calm and remember that he was agitated with the roofers, but it was hard. We finally got on our way and we actually were only about 5 or so minutes late for my lesson. 

I smiled and let it all go and warmed Dan up. He was good so that helped. And then I had a great lesson! But holy moly was it hot. I love having the indoor to be in the shade, but it was just so humid that day. I literally was having to wipe the sweat off my face every 30 strides it felt like. 

Anyways we continued to work on getting more push and sit behind with Dan today. Cindy has us start with half pass today!! Eeeekss!!! Baby boy is growing up. It was fun. :) 

So... I realized that the trot half pass to the right was easier for me. When we go left I felt like there wasn't enough left flexion, so I would cross the neck with my left rein in an effort to create it. I knew it was wrong though so I asked Cindy how to fix it. She said that it wasn't so much that he wasn't flexed left enough but that he wasn't bent around my left leg and his haunches weren't coming over like they should. So he was leading with his shoulders but not following with the haunches. So... I needed to use my inside leg to create bend, use my seat and move my seat to the left to encourage his body to come left, use my eyes to look left and help get him to the left, and then use my outside (right) leg to move his haunches over more! And it helped a lot and we got a fairly decent half pass left. It was actually quite nice for a few steps. :)

So much fun!!! Sweaty, but fun. :)