Nice Day

My riding instructor, S, is one of the 1700 women I know who are pregnant right now, and as such she is going to be teaching me a little less often for a while. To fill in the blanks, T, who is the owner of Phoenix Farm, took over for me today. It was a really great lesson. Clearly I've not only been getting stronger; I've also been listening to S and really working on my posture and my aids (telling the horse what to do). I've also developed a relationship with Gjinger, my usual mount, and so I know that she's going to bulge left (curve her left shoulder out whenever possible and pull on her left rein so it gets longer) and slow down from a canter to a trot right before the pole (not a big deal with the pole lying on the ground; more of a big deal it's a jump and she then stops short, or tries to jump from the trot) if I don't keep at her. She listens when I ask her to do things, though, and so my lesson time is more efficient. I don't have to ask her seven times to go into the canter anymore; I ask and she goes. Today, when I finished up and decided I'd better call it quits for the day, I looked at my watch and saw that I'd been at it 45 minutes! Pretty darn good, if you ask me.

After that, I took the dogs to Magnussen, where I had to park in plebian parking for the first time in six months. Fortunately, my friend LE was able to join me, to ease the transition and hang out in the park with goofy dogs. And it was sunny and 55 today!