Cob Jockey

I had my third of three lessons on Friday, and I don't know if it was the endless rain on the roof, the other horses in the ring, soreness from his amazing lesson the day before, or just being over the whole boot camp thing, but he was, well, over it.

Rainy day, spent indoors.

I also had a complete mental breakdown in that lesson.  She asked me to establish shoulder in, then do a walk pirouette into a canter transition, and I just could not figure out how to do it, even though I've done that exact exercise before. Like, I couldn't figure out where to go in the arena, or remember what a walk pirouette was even.  I blame it on not eating enough carbs that day, and it being the end of a very long week of learning the ins and outs of Exchange Server 2013 in class.  At any rate, it wasn't productive.

So he got Saturday off entirely, I purposely didn't even go to the barn.  Instead, I did this (which I usually do anyway):

None of those people are me, for the record.

And this:

I can park in the garage again thanks to my awesome husband!  Also, that's my horse laundry hamper in the background.

 And then Sunday was great!  I focused a lot on shoulder in at the trot as well as my own position, but at the end, I combined two exercises and did the "halt from your seat on a diamond shape with your shopping bag elbows" exercise, and in between I asked for the slow walk in shoulder in.

Outdoor! Love it!

A few of those had him really listening to my seat, and shifting his weight back, and suddenly I got "that feeling" of self-carriage and self-responsibility from him for the entire diamond.  His back felt like a table instead of two sides that drop my hip bones alternately with each step, and my feet felt like they were on the ground, like I was standing still.  I didn't do a thing except ask him for it, and he kept it.

It was a very cool feeling, and I quit shortly after that.  Good pony!

He got to go naked for the afternoon as a reward.  We are finally having some gorgeous weather here!