Riding Diary: 22

Horse: Quiz!

Bit: Shanks with Roller to Snaffle

Time: 1 hr

Ride: Quiz & I's last ride until I leave town (On Monday... ohmahlord I have no time). I got to the barn and prettylittlemareface ran up to the gate to say hello.. so cute, I love you mare. Our ride actually went really, really well. Of course, there is always something to work on, or nitpick at, however, it felt nice to look at where I was when I started going for lessons in February to where I am now. A whole lot has changed!

We focused primarily on poles, and then a line consisting of: ground pole - caveletti - ground pole - cavelletti - ground pole. We worked Quiz in the Shank bit at first, last week she was tossing her head and noodling around like the noodle horse of the century, this week she was doing much better but was still pushing at the bit, and had her head raised more than usual. My trainer commented that with the introduction of the caveletti, the shank bit might not be a great bit to use, so we switched her back into a plain snaffle, but added rings. I waver on whether or not I like the use of rings, I know that a lot of people see them as a short-cut trick, however, I do see improvement with the use of them. For Quiz, we worked a lot on getting her to engage her hind end with different maneuvers, etc. So we're not just trying to achieve frame and headset with gadgets, but it aided in the process. Thoughts on rings my merry-followers?

Anyways, going back to basics with the snaffle ft. rings I was reminded at how much easier and lighter Quiz is to check when she has a shank bit in. Back to the big holds, and the big releases for me and my baby sorrel! We had some really, really beautiful lines, and I was all smiles about that. We even ended up on the correct lead after the line was over once or twice!! I worked really hard on checking Quiz back before a cavelleti or pole, and then giving her a big release right before, I also worked on keeping my eyes forward and ahead, instead of down, and on the obstacle, which I always tend to do, throwing us both of.

All and all, it was a really good lesson - we'll see how far I get this summer without having my Trainer there coaching me along. I will definitely miss her. & of course Miss Quiz... what a horse, how is a 4 year old so perfect in every way? My friend lucked out when she found her. I absolutely adore her, she is just the cutest, silliest, little baby. I'll miss her so, so much this summer.

For Next Time: Is there a next time? =( Perhaps in the fall I ask Quiz's real owner if we can throw an english saddle on her. I have to admit, jumping (even these little bitty baby jumps) is a pretty good time. But you guys know what that means... shopping... uh oh.

Riding Diary: 21

Horse: Quiz!

Time: 1 Hr

Ride: I have been such a bad blogger - I haven't even blogged about my last trail ride! Which, as always it seems, was a crazy/beautiful adventure-ride. I am blessed. Hopefully tomorrow I'll post that before I leave town for the weekend again.

On Monday I rode Quiz for the second to last time before summer starts. Crazy, you count down the days to something, wait and wait and wait... and all of a sudden I have a little more than a week before I leave for the entire summer. Along with seventeen pounds of laundry I need to do, packing up a whole life (atleast, that's what it feels like), taking a trip to Airdrie and Irvines for some feed, and a couple new bits I need, house-sitting for family friends, and of course, trying to fit in working as much as possible and a truck that needs some repairs before I leave - I'm going crazy.

Now - to my lesson... Quiz was acting like a bit of a turkey, she wasn't accepting the bit like she usually does, and she was back to her noodling ways. My trainer mentioned that I was doing better at correcting her than I have in the past, which made me happy. Noodle horse, why u show up right now?!

My trainer had set up a bit of an obstacle line, (for all you jumpers out there, you will laugh at the fact I call this an obstacle but here goes), there was a ground pole, a caveletti, two more ground poles, and one last caveletti. Quiz and I struggled, to say the least, going through this at a lope. Quiz would head one way, I would head the other, and that sure doesn't equal for straight and steady. However, I worked on checking, while also keeping my reins a little more even, and gripping more with my knees, and towards the end of the lesson I think we figured it out, princess Q and I.

This upcoming Monday is my very last lesson... I will miss Quiz dearly. :( Thankfully, as I am reminded by her wonderful owner (hi Caron), I will be back in September - Jingle in tow (if I ever find my little wild pony), and will still get to ride Quiz if I so wish. That's a pretty good deal, if you ask me.

For Next Time: Straight, calm and clear through all these crazy obstacles my trainer throws at me. On Monday she asked me if I dreaded Monday's and what she'd have cooked up, and the answer is no, never. I honestly am a total lesson-freak, I love them, even the bad lessons. I wish I had the money to do a different lesson every single day, on all sorts of different horses and in different disciplines, alas, we'll stick to the basics for now. ;)

Riding Diary: 20

Horse: Quiz!

Bit: roller port with shanks

Time: 1 hr

Ride: Oh Quiz, I love ya - I just can't quit ya. Little mare and I had a really good ride on Monday. I was reaaaaaaally trying to focus on my position, and to keep my hands almost too-low, I find that she really calms down and is just a more responsive, quieter horse when I give her quick and serious checks over long, constant checking. She and I were really meshing, even my trainer told me how good we looked - yep, we're really good looking, and pretty amazing.. so before you bring out those damn ground poles, we might as well quit on a good note hey?

.. Ya, not so much. However, the ground poles were less of a mortal enemy-demon lover this lesson than last. Honestly, when trotting and loping circles on ground poles, I tend to think to myself, "okay, where would I rationally think to leave the rail.. here.. okay, wait 2-4 strides, now go", works like a charm.

At the trot, Quiz and I are fluid over the ground poles, but at the lope she pops her hind end up towards the end, and kind of spring-loads over them. That causes me to totally lose my position, and often ends in a pretty messy departure. Things to work on.From there we got to do some upright poles! Waaaay better than ground poles. Quiz was a star.

Finally, my trainer set up a bit of an obstacle course, a single ground pole, a small maybe a 1/4 ft or less jump. (I'm sure there is a name for this - a standard? I don't know.. I am lost in the world of jumping), then a row of upright poles, come around, exit the rail, three ground poles, end course. Weooooo. Quiz and I did it 3 or 4 times, as did the other people in my lesson. Everyone got a good giggle over everyone else - ground poles look so decieving easy until your horse is flinging around them. Quiz actually did quite well, as did I - I think. Our only main issue was that after the jump she'd swap leads, I'd fail to notice, and then we'd end up doing the poles on the wrong lead. Secondly, I notice that when I get a little excited, I tend to let my horse rush things - gotta keep that cool, calm, collected low-hand mindset I guess.

For Next Time: Keep calm and carry on... over ground poles. :)

Riding Diary: 19

Horse: Baby Quiz.

Bit: Straight Shank Roller Bit

Time: 1.5 hr

Quiz during her "cool down".

Ride: We started the ride with a nice warmup, trotting the poles, etc. Then we moved into a lope, Quiz is really responsive on the shank bit, it just provides that titch more check that I think she needs. I feel as if I can ride her on a much looser rein, and I think that helps to keep her calm. We loped nice and slow around the arena, I focused on keeping my hands wide and low, and we ended up loping the poles quite nicely a few times. I was a happy camper with that.

Her jog is so wonderful, after the last week and a half, riding other horses at the jog.. I realize just how smooth of a horse she really is. We've graduated to loose rein jogging, and she's starting to really drop her head and carry herself more with her back end.

Then we moved on to ground poles... well... you can't have too many good lessons, or too many good moments in a lesson.. because then you wouldn't be learning now, would you? Ground poles are my nemesis, I fall apart. I can never figure out when to leave the rail, Quiz and I end up squirming through those poles, she half leaps through them. However, after one pole, then two, and then three... I think we had at least 3 good lopes through each of them at a circle, and we quit for the day.

Then I went to the outdoor arena to cool Miss Thang down, and she was zooming around like a crazy person! Quiz... not the point of a cool down. She had cooled off and I went inside to untack her, and her entire back was still a hot mess. So back to the outdoor we went! She got a really good roll in - she loves to roll, it makes me laugh. Then she pranced around with weeds that had been dug up hanging out of her mouth - another laugh from me. Finally, after all the grooming was said and done, I let her out to her new outdoor paddock and after a buck and a sprint, she finally resigned herself to grazing. Such a silly princess. I will miss her very much come summer.

For Next Time: Ground Poles - Keep inside hand out and low, focus on checking before, and after, but not throughout. Work on keeping a line from the rail, through the poles, back to the rail. Basically... do the ground poles better.

Riding Diary: 18

Horse: Quiz

Bit: Straight Shank Roller Bit

Time: 1 Hr

Ride: My lesson went well... I sure wish I had the time to ride Quiz more, but, nonetheless I always walk away with something to mentally run through in my head. For our warmup, my trainer had us posting-trot pole bending poles. We then moved onto loping those poles. Quiz was swapping leads, and as you know I struggle to know 100% which lead i'm on at all times, and so that was frustrating. However, I'm starting to figure it out more and more. I've always had a hard time focusing on the entire package of rider + horse, and now i'm figuring out timing and feel more and more.

Loping the poles I was bending Quiz more than I should have, and so I was focusing on keeping her straight, and I think she did really good. She's such a quick, zippy horse, I really do love riding her and my trainer noted how she is starting more and more to use her back-end, and how exercises like this really help her with that. Then we jogged and then loped on an entirely loose rein. Quiz, of course, was zipping around on the lope, but it was a pretty cool feeling totally abandoning contact and just letting her do her thing for once. The thing we need to work on is breaking down from the lope to the walk, Quiz digs in and stops, instead of just slowing down into the lope. Causing me, of course, to look so graceful. As always.

For Next Time: Keeping her straight through the poles, working on breaking down from lope to walk, and as always, focus more on the entire package.

Riding Diary: 16

Horse: Quiz

Time: 1 hr

Ride: Well, it is officially spring! Riding in +20 c in the outdoor arena at 7 pm... life is good. I was a little worried about how our ride was going to pan out since I, nor her owner, had ridden her since last Monday, and she was zipping around the arena at mach 10 during the warm up.

We did a looooot of posting trot (owwie), including posting a trot around the barrels as a warm up. My trainer had me circling her tighter and tighter about 3-4 times, then trotting out, and then doing the same at the other side of the arena.

Then we moved outside (thank you lawd - I was sweatin' buckets at this point), and we trotted the barrel pattern. Quiz and her owner are doing a gymkhana on the weekend (yes, I am unbelievably jealous... as i always am when I am reminded that Quiz is, in fact, not my horse) so we probably have to you know, try barrels.

Here's where rider error comes completely into play - my god, you'd think i was a 2 year old the way I was getting my lefts and rights mixed up, I couldn't even figure out what "right, left, left" meant, let alone "right, right lead, left, left lead, left, run home, stop" meant... embarrassing. Thankfully my trainer humours me, and I finally just said, "walk me through this, my brain is mush", and I got myself together and reminded my brain that, yes brain, we are indeed almost in our last year of University.

Then we slow loped the pattern, we zoomed out a bit here and there, but other than that we had one or two nice, semi-slow go's. Plus... I'm beginning to figure out my leads more and more. It's the same old story with me - when I have a lot of horse stuff to figure out, I forget that I am indeed part of the equation of the horse stuff and let my body flail, and forget what i'm doing. I need to hone in on what is going on under me, and through me. Focus, Focus, Focus.

For Next Time: Consistent slow loping of the pattern & focus more on rider + horse = ride.

Riding Diary: 15

Horse: Quiz

Time: 1 hr

Ride: It has been 6 years since I've blogged... but I've been running around like a madman (or perhaps.. a chicken with her head cut off, more like it) working 3-4 different jobs, working 60-70 hours a week, as well as a giant personal project on my hands. I have one night a week off... and as of next week... i'll be busy then too. Goodbye life. It was so nice knowing you.

Anyways, I'm definitely going to be a bit of an absentee from this blog, and even from horses. However, I still have my Monday lessons to look forward too! Quiz was being really good on Monday, as per usual. We worked on a looooooooot of loping. I'm getting down my leads, but i'm still frustrated that I don't know which lead I'm on 100% of the time. Things to work on.

In preparation for flying lead changes we did more breaking down exercises, loping large circles, and then at the centre breaking down into a jog, and then back to a lope. Quiz isn't exactly a "breaker downer", half the time we we're almost at the end of the circle before she was truly jogging. Sometimes it feels like I'm a 16 year old kid trying to learn standard, go-lurch-go-lurch-go-lurch-go-stall-lurch, etc.etc.etc. What a good metaphor for my riding... haha.

Once Quiz settled into that routine we worked on loping a circle, breaking down into the jog in the centre, and then picking up the other lead and lope the other direction. If I remember correctly, this worked well for us, and I had all the right leads down, and was feeling good about it. I had to remind myself to sit up straight, and calm down. I've noticed in the jog i'm super upright, relaxed, calm, good body position, and then once you add speed I'm all over the place.

Finally, we worked on loping a circle with two poles in the centre, bit of a disaster. Sometimes I was checking too much, often not enough. I had some jumps over the poles, some walks over the poles, one or two complete stops at the poles... Quiz gets all frazzled and rushes through things, I tried to really work on dropping my hands and giving her a little more rein, which seems to help her calm down into a nice slow lope which is what I was looking for. We got one or two good runs out of that, and then quit for the day.

I was tired and sweaty (riding around in a bit of a ridiculous looking yoga top... showin' some skin ya'll), as was miss princess mare face. Good lesson had by all.

For Next Time: Keep calm, upright and relaxed at the lope. Work on keeping Quiz calm and slow through the poles. Work on focusing more on rider + horse, especially with leads. Get those leads down!

Riding Diary: 13

It has been forever and a day since I wrote my last "Riding Diary", so without further ado...

Horse: Quiz! (aka princessbabymarefacecutie)

Time: 1 Hr

Ride: So, this was the first time i've ever ridden in our outdoor arena, in 25 c weather, at 630 at night - NO LESS. How awesome! Aside from the thumb sized mosquitos that are already plaguing us, and our horses, what a wonderful day to be riding! I was in a t-shirt, I could feel sun on my face.. life was good. 

My ride predominately went really well, I've pretty much been "off" of riding this month, other than a couple little rides here and there, and a pretty disastrous lesson at the beginning of the month, so I was a little worried. Compound that with Quiz's (thought-to-be) mini abscess last week, and the fact my muscles, especially tummy, are all jiggly balls of goo, I expected it to be a bit of a train-wreck.

Maybe the Sun-gods were on my side.. who knows. Warm up went well, they were excavating a pond in the back pasture by the arena, so there were bob-cats, quads and tractors, and although Quiz's ears were a little like "uhm, what is that?" she sailed on through. Plus, I've noticed I'm becoming more and more natural in my posting trot. I think I'm becoming more aware of the big picture of rider + horse.

We started at a jog, and moved into the lope. My trainer commented that Quiz was settling down and not trying to break/push as much as she used it. It all kind of clicked yesterday, like the ride just felt really, really good. I had her on a loose rein for the majority of the ride - we even jogged on at the loosest possible rein - one handed, and for the most part she kept up a nice, slow, jog. Perfect!

My trainer had me working on rollbacks in a circle, so she would get me to lope, stop me wherever, get me to rollback, etc. etc. My rollbacks are a little iffy at times, Quiz was walking out on them quite a bit at the beginning, I just need to focus on really guiding with my rein hand and physically looking where I want her to turn. By the end we got a couple good rollbacks in there.

Then we moved on to loping around two barrels, she had me circling a barrel, coming out of it at a wide circle and then moving into the second barrel, circling it, and then again coming out wide. For this exercise I need to focus on keeping my hand closest to the barrel wide and open, but not dropping my hand. I also need to keep my back straight and really sit in those turns, only cueing Quiz with my leg when she begins to break down.

All and all I had a really good ride, and walked away with some concrete stuff to work on. Good lesson all around.

Next Time: Rollbacks - guide more with my body and don't expect her just to plant her back feet because I think she will. Think of a rollback as more of a fluid motion.

Barrel Exercise - Keep my hand closest to the barrel wide, open and up, don't drop the hand, thus allowing her to drop her shoulder. Only cue with my leg when she needs it, otherwise she'll just speed through the turn. Watch my shoulders - keep my body upright and slightly back through turns and while cueing for speed.

& now, because I never remember to take photos, or have anyone to take photo of video of me, I took a little video of Quiz post-workout. I was told by her owner that the second she got in the arena she would roll, well two videos later she had yet to roll. Hence my over eagerness when she actually did..

Quiz is so cute, my dorky self is not. I hate listening to myself over video. haha

Sigh...

Image Source

On Monday I rode Quiz, and after I got off I noticed she was limping. She didn't feel off during the ride, so, your guess is as good as mine what happened. Sore muscle, mis-step, small abscess... who knows, who knows. Anyways, poor princess baby face is off, which means no riding for me this week. Hopefully she's better by Monday so I can get some real-life horse-time in, otherwise, it's more talk of imaginary horses, and blogging about random things for all of you to read!

What can you do when your favorite sport relies on another physical being to participate in? Sometimes I question why I love horses so much, oh right, because of their soft fuzzy noses, their big doe eyes, their aura... the list goes on. I'll stop complaining for now and go back to my virtual horse world.

Riding Diary: 12

Horse: Quiz

Time: 1 Hr

Ride: Well... I didn't exactly have another great ride, which is probably why I'm hanging my head like an old sheep dog and not writing about my lesson until now. I haven't had any time to ride other than in my weekly lesson lately, and that's really frustrating, and I think my frustration is really showing in my riding. Anyone who says this sport isn't hard doesn't factor in all the freakin' emotion that goes with it. Like... some days I can just feel Quiz working off my emotions alone... ugh.

Anyways, I can barely remember the ride (except for the end) but I'll try my best. We worked on trying to achieve that nice slow lope again, and she was doing better (as was I, I think). Things I need to remember is to keep my body upright when doing circles, I tend to lean into my circles, as well as not cranking my neck around... I'm throwing both of us off. My trainer also keeps reminding me to really drop my wrists at the stop, so another thing to put into the mental "to-do-while-riding" list. Finally, gotta focus on those releases, somewhere along the line I've mentally stored "releases" with completely dropping my reins and losing contact, which I obviously can't do when my horse gives for 2 seconds and then goes back to running around the rail like a crazy-noodle-horse, so I have to focus on smaller, but more frequent releases.

Once again, I felt like Quiz was being noodle horse supremo. I need to work on even contact, and just picking up a rein, not actually pulling more onto the rein... me and my noodle horse, woopeee.

Towards the end of the lesson my trainer set up three poles in a semi circle. The exercise was all about breaking down from the three gaits slower, and more complete. So I was to walk from Pole 1 to Pole 2, slow jog from Pole 2 to Pole 3 and then finish off the semi circle in a lope from Pole 3 to Pole 1. I just couldn't get it, Quiz wasn't breaking down like I wanted her too, then I was getting all flustered, legs were going everywhere, wrong leads were being picked up... it wasn't pretty. So, obviously I have a lot of things to really work on when it comes to transitions. Next time I get some trainer-me time I think i'm going to ask her to physically go over every step for me, because I ended up just confused during the entire exercise. I'm more of a physical learner than I realize, I like to be able to physically map out each step in an exercise.

However.. I'm in the middle of a hurricane of term papers that I've left to the last moment because I am a big idiot, so next Monday I wont be able to make my lesson, and then the Monday after that, my trainer is gone. However, this might be a good thing.. a little bit of a break so that I don't show up to my lessons mentally and physically totally unprepared. 

After all my exams/finals/projects/assignments are done (APRIL 13!) I plan to try to get out to the barn to practice way more, and hopefully by the time she's back I can be a little bit more in the zone.

For Next Time: ... wah, so far off :( Focus on my body more, drop those wrists & most importantly, work on the transitions and releases!

Riding Diary: 10

Horse: Quizzie

Time: 1 hr

Ride: Quiz makes me happy. Our ride went really well, we didn't do anything too out of the ordinary. I thought she was loping out nice and slow to begin with. I had rode on Sunday (my lesson was yesterday - Monday) and didn't do much, just a lot of slow, calm loping and hanging around and I think it helped. She wasn't tired, but she felt a little more focused, and a little less frazzled, or, one the other hand.. a little less ready to race around the arena at mach speed.

My trainer put down poles and I had to really focus on keeping my body aligned, and my chin and eyes up, and straightening her out over the poles. I kept coming off the rail too soon and then arcing her over them, causing her to rush through. After we slowed it down and I worked her through them at the jog I think I got more of a physical feel to what I should be doing. Sometimes that really helps for me, I like to think things through, and then physically map out what I should be doing. This method generally helps me gain some physical memory for next time. Nothing feels better than your body just doing what it should be doing without you having to really think about it. Y'all know what i'm sayin' over here?

Anyyyyyways... For example, when I finally figured out the poles, I mentally remembered the leave more time on the rail, then physically picked up a bit of a bend and then remembered to physically straighten out my hands and let her go through in more of a straight and forward fashion.

After all that loping, poor baby was a sweaty puddle, and we finished up with more of my fav. the slow jog. I think that perhaps when I am older I will just be a "slow jog trainer", as it seems that is all I have been doing for the last two months.

(I'm only being sarcastic, I truly don't mind the slow jog. I honestly truly don't mind anything about lessons - no stirrup work; love it. slow and steady; love it. fast and checking back; love it.)

After a big long lesson Quiz went beautifully on a nice loose rein and around the rail we went. My trainer commented how improved I keep getting, AND how well I've done with Quiz. Big smiles all around.

For Next Time: For the first time I'm back to my old - how much is too much contact/checking back? issue. I always just assumed my trainer wanted me to keep a bit of a contact but she doesn't if Quiz doesn't need it, so, I want to work on a lot more loose rein stuff. Reeeaaaalllyy releasing when Quiz slows down and backs off, but on the completely other side of the coin, really being forceful and checking her back when I need too. I also need to remember to do a momentary heavy-check before the poles to get her really soft and easy going over them.

ps. Like my new header? Thoughts? Comments? Concerns?
--> Trying to figure out this whole "blogging" thing slowly but surely.

Riding Diary: 9

Horse: Quiz

Time: 1 hr

Pre-cursor to Ride in which I ramble about nothing: ...I have some stuff going on that has been severely messing with my head as of late. (Blog post to come about that one of these days) So, along with being an emotional, unstable wreck at times... I'm in the centre of hurricane midterms, quickly approaching the Tsunami otherwise known as Finals, more specifically... term papers. & to top it all off, I started a new job and although it's easy-peasy-lemon-squeezie, i'm now busy Thursday, Friday & Saturday evenings. I'm busy and I'm sad and I'm in a bit of a mess.

So, what does this have to do with my weekly lesson you ask?

Well, I rode Wednesday than bailed Saturday because I felt sick, and knew that I had to be "responsible" and study. (Even though, in times like these I am prone to mentally shutting down and doing absolutely nothing) So, once Monday had rolled around I was feeling all stressed out, and was worried that my mental state at the moment would really affect my riding. Plus, it felt like I was lacking in Quiz-Louisa time.

Good news is that going riding was probably the best thing for me. As always, spending time in silence with horses can cure a lot of my mental mania. I got out to the barn earlier than usual and Quiz had been rolling in our new-found springtime mud (apparently she only rolls on her left side). So, I spent some decent time featuring a curry comb and the shedding blade and got her nice and shiny clean again. I actually love grooming, it's just that mental down time for me. I like picking and fussing and brushing, zen time.
Now, without further ado.. the actual ride..

Ride: So? Remember all that talk about my own mental mania, apparently Quiz had some too. Usually she's a little feisty to begin with but she would not check back at the jog or lope for me. I've never had to use so much rein on her to attempt to get her to check back and relax into the gaits. Furthermore, if I left the small circle and attempted to lope or jog the rail she would shut down when I asked her to check back and either stop, or walk. My trainer attributes this to the fact she has a foundation of reining training, and that when they got her she was used to doing extremley fast, small circles, and not a lot of long, rail-style loping. Still, nonetheless, I can sense it's frusterating for her, and it is for me as well.

My trainer got me to lope her in a small circle, for every half a circle we would lope, for the other half I would transition into a jog and back again. She explained to me that attempting to check Quiz back with just reins was clearly not working and that she was getting too tough on the bit and that this exercise would help her understand the point of checking back, while also asking her to work with the bit, not evade, or push on it. It seemed to help and Quiz was better to check after that... but still not great. I'm not sure if it's me, I'll ask her to jog from a lope and more often than not she either screeches to a halt, or breaks down right into a walk. I suppose that's a sign that I need to be using more verbal cues with her, and then asking for specific actions in more consistent ways.

Other than our issues with checking back, Quiz didn't have as big of a stop as i'm used to with her. All of a sudden she was evading and leaking out of a stop, so i'd back her after stopping.. but by the end of the lesson I still wasn't feeling like she was 100% stopping like she usually does.

I also have to watch my position at times, when loping a circle I tend to let her cut in, thus causing her to speed up and cut corners. We've figured out that when asking her to lope I shouldn't cluck to her, it causes her to rush the transition, so I've been working on asking in a more calm, non-verbal way. Also, again in those damn circles, I drop my shoulder and kind of angle into the centre of the circle - I need to focus on sitting up straight, with evenness in my body. Finally, when asking for a rollback, for example a rollback to the left, I'll drop my left hand/rein halfway through the turnaround, I need to keep both hands more consistent.

This was the first lesson with Quiz where I felt like our communication was really off. I can't help but wonder if my riding, with the addition of my mental state was causing this hurried, gross mess that was the outcome of our weekly lesson... it can be a bit of a confidence blow.

Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, keep riding, keep learning. Everyone, including horses, have their bad days.
For next time: Work on checking back without shutting down (utilizing different methods such as the circle jog-lope technique), and focus on keeping an evenness in hand and body posture while loping circles.

Most importantly, leave the stress and agitation of life in the truck before entering the barn. =)

A Glimpse: 1

a little glimpse into my life lately...

Little Miss Quiz in an XL cooler after a sweaty ride today... isn't she the cutest?!

A piece of an email I received yesterday, very bittersweet.

A Sweaty Quiz & A Muddy Moose

Some photo's from today...

Little Miss Quiz! Quite sweaty after a beautiful ride today. =)

My "White" dog, Moose, after 2 hours of somehow finding EVERY puddle in off-leash, as well as mud-wrestling a black lab...

Clearly, the common denomination in today's pictures is that it took me quite some time to cool down/groom/mop up after two animals today.