Friday, I had stage-fright. The sky had an eerie grey "ready to burst any moment" look to it. Caught the Wookie-monster with intentions on doing something, and while clipping his ears & muzzle, the sky opened up a couple times for brief strong showers. I chickened-out, and did not ride.
Saturday, repeat. Weather crews were calling for anywhere from brief showers to thunderstorm watches. Lesson postponed to Sunday, and from inside the house, I kept waiting on the storms. Nothing arrived until nearly dark. So I wasted a day when I could have ridden. Darn it! When the rain did come, we had thunderstorms, heavy bursts of rain, and wind for about six hours. Nasty nasty weather...
Sunday, after the rains came, all that was left as a dry spot was the lunge-area. So, to the line we went. Chewie was a wonderful lesson horse. A little fussing to get into the trot after a walk-break, but overall, not too bad. I would like to figure out why he's so against starting back to work, but maybe it's just a phase. Overall lesson was walk, posting trot off the lunge, then focus on sitting trot on lunge. I had a few "soft eyes" moments when I would deliberately focus on the sky ahead rather than the track in front of me, and he would immediately respond. I also tried to focus some on where my breathing was coming from, and found that, with a good seat, it was easier to use my middle rather than breathing from my chest. It is getting easier to focus again on body parts & more automatic to use soft eyes & a deep breath. In each direction, we did one arm up for three circles, other arm up for three circles, both arms up for three circles. "Look Mom, no hands!" If my arms were straight over my head, and my toosh tucked underneath me, my heels would pop up. If everything was perfect, it would last for about 3 strides, then something would fall apart. I am improving at sitting on my pockets, but also kept moving my body weight to the back of the saddle, leaning too much against the back rather than sitting in the deep middle. Total Chewie work, including warmup, 1.5hours. What a patient horse, to go only two rides all week, then stick with me steady for a long lesson ride. This was another one of those fun lessons. While going to the right, I hesitated, almost waiting for Chewie to act up. He was also hesitant, since I did not provide him any direction.. Before it spiraled out of control, Robin caught us, told me to be determined in what I wanted, and he instantly became super-horse. More importantly, I was laughing. Here I am, trotting around at a pretty good clip, both arms up in the air, Robin in a military-like fashion barking "arms up, heels down, tuck that toosh, repeat repeat!" All I could do was laugh. By the end of the lesson, both of us were giggling. Must have been something in the horse hair Chewie's shedding... we both had a blast.
Countdown to Satori - 5 days. I'm anxious, and ready to get into it.
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