Happy

This afternoon I am happy.

Two things: Sunshine and a forward horse.

Despite the gale force winds today I rode. I took a extra hour and half on my lunch break, went out and picked spider up to drive over to the arena. Not a drop of rain nor a grey cloud in site :)

Just worked on a circle, and he was nice and forwards, and only had minor corrections. It was really nice somewhere in the ride, I applied my leg and he moved forwards - big pats. Other than that one instance the rest were normally followed by a growl. We did a few transitions up using the same thing, squeeze and then growl/kick. And they were coming along a bit moer promptly. I did catch myself a few times where I was keeping on kicking when I shouldn't have been... whoops. I had jods on today that weren't full seat and man did I keep slipping around - I don't like them. Give me my full seat breeches back. The first canter I did we had a little whoopsy though he kicked out a couple of times, I'm not sure why - it could have been from me pushing for more straight out of the transition, or something else, even starting the first canter on the stiff rein. I did make a concious choice to work the first canter on the stiff rein - its a fact that you always spend more time on the rein that you first work on. No one has seen it from the ground or at all so would be interesting to get someone elses view on it. Normally only happens the once. I just cantered the rest of the circle and came back down to a really forward trot.

So happy with todays ride. Happy that I am riding because I was feeling a bit like a dabbler - someone who say that they are a rider, but really only gets on 2 times a year... no offense to anyone who does - thats just not me or my style. I like to ride and to me that means 6 days a week for a hour at a time schooling, hacking and jumping (if the horse is ready for it). So it really is nice to have ridden over the weekend and today. We have sunshine forcast until Monday so I'll ride all this week. In my full seats that is