BEST DAY ever!

 Well, maybe not ever, but certainly a BEST DAY for Danny. And me too. :) 

We had a XC lesson with Kelly Eaton at Ashland today and rode with Allisa and Ardanza. The boys liked each other even though Dan was making faces at him. (That's how you know he likes you!). It was great!! Both ponies were super. Dan showed off and did his usual "ho hum... I can do this in my sleep" over the ditches, banks, and in the water. Well, maybe not the water. She asked us to canter through the water and Dan practically cannonballed in. Ha ha... He was definitely in front of my leg for that! And Ardanza was super brave for his scary stuff and was jumping so nicely. 

We worked on lots of simple stuff, but not easy stuff. My biggest thing for today was...well, two big things... One was to keep him in front of my leg. He cheats! He's a sneaky little bastard. Ha! He's so compliant and does his job that he convinces me that it's okay for him to be blase about it. We just kind of loped around some things, but when he's not really in front of my leg, he gets to a funky spot and sort of has to heave himself over. And the jumps are small, so it's okay, but... not ideal. So I have to be as adamant that he's in front of my leg and SHARP off my aids over the stick on the ground as I am over the skinny training level chevron! He has to be hot to my aids... When I close my leg... he needs to rocket out! So... there was lots of shock and awe. I also need to remember to use my stick where my leg is. Dan gets the point with the spankings, but... it'll be more effective and crystal clear if I use it behind my leg, not in his flank or gut. The other thing is that I need to land in my landing gear! I'm not pinching with my knee, but I'm not landing in my heels. I'm landing on my stirrup leathers. So I had to "shine my flashlights", "Kick my soccerballs" and "wipe my hiney" all morning. Ha ha. It took some doing. It's definitely WAY easier when Dan is in front of my leg as he sort of takes my leg with him. When he's not, it's so much easier for me to jump off my stirrup and land in my footbed instead of in my ankle. And this makes me get a tiny bit tipped forward. So... We lengthened my stirrups a hole and I tried my best to keep my butt in the saddle and not even slide my seat back.... but tuck my tailbone. Almost the opposite of sliding my butt back. Although I may have to try that too and see which works better. But she had my sling my tailbone foward with the saddle when the saddle comes forward. This also brings my toes up I think... So I land more in my landing gear. It did work. It's just hard to do all the things at once! But when I focused on it, I managed to accomplish it some of the times and most of the way. :) We jumped mostly BN and some novice stuff. Nothing too big of scary. But we were working on specifics. 

I also had to work on releasing by following instead of bending my elbows. I would throw my elbows at him, but when I did that, I'd end up pulling my hands back. Which defeats the purpose! And what else...? Mostly that was pretty much it. It was a great lesson and lots of fun. 

So then we were done and talking and Dan looked up and saw Indi hiding in the woods! He was like "YES... let's go!". But we finished talking and then we went back to the trailers where I pulled off all his tack and my boots and we put the bareback pad on and the halter and headed to the lake. Missy had been waiting a while so we pretty much cantered the whole XC field to the lake. He was fine! And game. :) 

Then we said hi and the pool party commenced! The boys were hilarious. They were quite rowdy today. We even both got to swim a tiny bit and cooled off. Then the boys both simultaneously decided they were done with the water and walked out and started on the trails. Okay then! Ha ha. We're just along for the ride I guess. They kept playing bitey butt on the trails too. Goobers. But we had fun. We sat for a few minutes at the field behind halfshire and chatted while the boys grazed. Then Missy and Indi headed home and so did we. 

Ahhhh... happy day. Lots of fun and giggling!