Good day!

 Ahhhh... I love days like today! The weather was glorious!! It was almost 75 degrees out and the sun was shining but no humidity. And I had the day off! I started my morning with chores and walking Funny. Then Dan and I went to our lesson. We made a pit stop at Ashland to get my navy airvest :) 

We got to Woodland super early because I didn't realize Ashland wasn't as far from them as I was. So I was able to do a lot of walking lateral work before we got started. Rana said that Dan wasn't dragging his toe anymore. Yay! So... either it was the previcox working, the lateral work warm up, or the fetlock injection getting full effect. I'm guessing some of the first two. The hind end lameness resolved with the fetlock but I'm not entirely conviced it resolved the front end. But it did get way better. Regardless, yay! 

We went right to the canter since I had warmed up and already trotted and cantered. We worked on my position. And Rana said it was better! I was getting better at keeping my "egg" from getting crushed. Ha! She said that my foot wasn't jammed as hard into my stirrup as she didn't see the soles of my boot at all. And that also helped me keep my spur/ heel out of his side. I still had to work on closing my toe in more. Really, it's stemming from up high. I need to rotate my femur in but that creates tension and pain in my hip and makes me clamp my hiney so.. it's a struggle. I was definitely feeling the burn today. We basically just cantered on a 20 meter circle the whole lesson. Both ways. BUT... we got a really nice canter, especially going to the right. He was bent correctly, straight in his body in the correct ways of straightness, and through. He was softer in the bridle too. We worked on riding outside leg to inside rein and Rana reminded me that I could ride quieter. I didn't have to completely throw away the inside rein to check him. I could shorten in, and give and take just by opening and closing my fingers, or bending my wrist a little. Okay. Good! Going to the left I asked her about how I was rotating my pelvis in a way to allow his dorsal spinous processes to rotate and also allow me to move my hip and shoulders. But that I was worried that it would put me too much onto my outside seat bone, which I think was wrong. She agreed.. I need to be on my inside seatbone, but... my thought process was on track. We played with it a little bit and I think I can make it work. I need to rotate my pelvis to lift my inside shoulder and bring my outside shoulder more forward and keep my inside leg at the girth (not farther back) and I can tip a little to help his DSP's tip, but I need to make sure that my center of gravity stays over the center of him and not pushed to the outside and that I also keep my weight in my inside seat bone, as that is the bending aid. Rana also said I should work on using my seat aids as bending aids as that will make the tougher stuff - half pass! - easier. But yeah...we had some really nice canters to the right, and some really nice albeit still slightly leaning in canters to the left. And after that, we had a lovely trot. 

So yep. A good day!