Whooo Hooo!! Feeling Ready

Ahhh, what a lovely day!! It was a nice sunny warm day! Not hot, not humid!!! And I'm still NOT complaining about the cold weather. But the sun today was that lovely type of sunshine that soaks in your skin, then soaks into your bones and just warms you up inside out. Not the sweltering, suffocating, dripping down your crack type. ;) Anyways... so Cindy came this morning and we got Dan's saddles flocked and fitted and chatted. Then I packed the trailer (mostly) for Pine top and got it organized and hung a shower curtain rod for my shower. I'm hoping that if I can get it to work right, I'll be able to stay a bit warmer when I'm showering at Pine Top. Then I gave Fleck a bath to get rid of his skin funk. Then I gave Dan a bath to get rid of his skin funk. I put them in their stalls to dry and NOT ROLL while I went inside to make chili in the crock pot. Then I came back out and turned the ponies out as they were mostly dry and the sun was really warming up nicely now. I tossed hay so that they could focus on that. I went inside to eat lunch and change into my riding clothes. And when I came out.. this is what I saw.....

Seriously Dan?!?! Flecky was clean. Sigh.. but we had to go, so off we went to our lesson.

And it was awesome!!!! Yay!!! It was so nice to have a great lesson and feel like I could ride and not just panic. I could see a distance. I was with him! And he was game :) We jumped a few little smaller fences and got into our groove. I rode the same as I did in the stadium lesson... Got a canter lengthen, then shortened his neck while lengthening. And Beth said that my leg position was better too. And my saddle felt sooooo awesome!! It's amazing how a correctly flocked saddle can make a difference. Note to self... when I start struggling to keep my leg in front of me, have Cindy check my saddle. :) We jumped the ditches just fine and then Dan cantered over the ditch and wall like it was nothing. In fact, he jumped the snot out of it and cracked his back so hard he almost jumped me out of the tack. Then Beth had us trot it. And... everyone started falling apart! I was afraid we would to, so I cheated a tiny bit and may have asked for a canter stride or two right before he jumped it, but... he felt like he would have easily trotted it. So yay! Then we did the training coffin line with the fake trakenher. But we did NOT do the trakehner. That's okay. I would have done it had Beth told us too, and part of me wanted her to tell us to, but.. I didn't want it enough to ask. :) Ha! We worked on the water too and Dan got to do the big kid stuff. We jumped the small log down into the water and then did a bendy line to the corner. Only the first time my line was so terrible and he was so off balance that he couldn't jump the corner and stopped. Totally my fault. So I fixed it and we got better, but sort of took a flyer. We did fix it and got a much better take off spot the third time. Then we went back to the skinny coop roller coaster combo and this time... this time there was no crying!! We didn't make it perfect, but it was sooooo much better and not nearly as awkward. Yay! Then we did a little mini course and did the corner again (but not from the water, from the table) and it was PERFECT!! Like.. he was super balanced and super rocked back and nailed it. YAHOOO!!!!! 

It was such a great day and Dan felt awesome. He was forward and in front of my leg and responsive and I was able to ride him into the bridle and get a nice canter and get him "on the bit". :) Yay! I'm feeling pumped for Pine Top! And.. he was silly. He kept making snark faces at the other horses but then wanted to play with them. In fact, when another horse was naughty at the ditch and wall, Dan and I stood to the side to prevent the horse from running out and Dan was all too happy to make snark faces at him. Hee hee.

Then Kelli met me and we went for a short hack. It got a little chilly in the woods and as the sun started to set. Granted I was also fairly wet from Dan cantering through the water repeatedly. :) But it was a nice relaxing cool down ride. And it gave me time to let my knees and thighs stop freaking out. I was sore!!