Brief Recapture of a Week, and 6/15 Lesson

Week of June 9, we worked on a bit of canter, both directions, and some coming & going trot. Chewie was always agreeable, and, though one day, a bit "lookie see", due to a thunderstorm waking up the neighborhood (but refusing to bring rain to my house), he never spooked with me aboard.

Romeo, a whole nother story. That boy .... GRR is the only way to describe it. My plans for Romeo right now include not putting him anywhere near the hunter saddle, tacking up Western, Tom Thumb bit, and walking about the neighborhood. He's okay at the walk, okay at trot on the flat, even agreeable to lateral work at walk & trot. But set a trot rail or a series of ground poles in front of him, and it's off to the races. Calm to the poles, but speed demon during & from. There seems to be nothing I can do to slow him down. My only last option is to wrangle out my Kimberwick, and force that boy to slow it down. Pull a little Downunder Horsemanship on him, let him commit to the mistake of chasing, then shut 'im down right after the poles. There is absolutely no reason he should chase during & from poles, yet he's doing it. Sour on the work is all I can guess.

Chewie's lesson Sunday was, well, magical. Tacked up Western (reason following in another humorous posting), Tom Thumb bit (chain as loose as it'd go & still have effect if absolutely needed). We accomplished all of the lesson on a loose rein, which was good for Robin to see, and easy for me, since I didn't need to focus on his "face". Chewie, at one point in the working trot, had his little head & neck nice and low, and I couldn't help but giggle at him. He was so absolutely pleased with himself. We also accomplished a new high, six canter transitions. Three left, three right. The left canters were a bit longer, but one right canter was nearly 3/4 a round pen circle - another new high. I was secure in the saddle, and actually able to improve some posture & balance. So many lessons in canter have been, "Well, okay, now that it's over, let's talk about it and try again." In this lesson, there were cues during the canter... "sink into your heels", "shoulders up", "look ahead", "slide your bottom with his movement". Neat to be in the gait long enough to work on it. I wasn't having to kiss or push with my legs to keep him cantering, either. I guess my seat was secure enough, he didn't think he had to break gait to hold onto me. One time, I stopped moving with him, for a split second, just long enough to think about what I needed to change in my middle to move more with him, and he broke to trot. It was almost like he thought, "oops, Momma changed. I better slow down & get back with her, do what she wants and make her happy." All other down transitions, on a loose rein, all with breath. Just fantastic. No yanking on the reins, no hollering "Shhhh" or "Whoa", or "oh my gosh he's gonna kill me." Just pleasurable. It was a day of "pat Chewie on the neck & tell him good boy, then pat myself on the back, and tell me job well done." Total lesson time, including his 20 minute warm up, one hour, 45 minutes. Whatta lotta work for a big horse. :)

Plans for the week include more canter western round pen, loose rein, and focus on all but hands & contact, and trot in the arena hunter over poles.

6/9 Chewie

Tacked up western, Chewie, round pen, 45 minutes. Warmed up without side reins, perhaps a bit too long. Got a phone call near the end, and I didn't want him to just walk or stand, so I kept the trot going.

Climbed on and got to work. Good solid trot. I considered asking for canter right first, sort of a "get it over with" feeling. Nerves set in, so I got back to the left. Nice trot, nice canter transition. Worked on two transitions up & down, about 3/4 circle each time. Focused on sitting on toosh, inside leg on. Second canter, I put too much inside leg on accidentally, and he absolutely picked up speed. When I said to him, "oops, easy boy", he went right into a trot, sort of saying, "Okay, Mom. You confused me, but I'll slow down lots to keep you happy."

Got back to the right, asked for canter, and immediately felt the saddle swells push me back. Had a loose rein in one hand and saddle horn in the other. I focused hard on my seat, leaving my heels and shoulders to the wind. With a loose rein in the left, and a stiff right hand, I'm sure my upper body shoulder area was tense, and I'm 98% sure my shoulders weren't spread out, but swallowed inwards. I do know my seat was a lot better than it normally is at canter-right, since I got about 7-8 strides, and he came back right when I asked, rather than when he got tired of me losing balance.

Plans for tonight are repeat the saddle, and canter right again, this time trying to get a full circle around, so I can get myself into more of a routine at canter-right. Canter-left is just fun. It's easy to ask him into it, and he knows I'm secure, and each stride is a careful footfall.

Chewie's cuter than Big Brown... No matter what. I keep telling him that, at least when I'm hosing him down after a work session.

6/8/08 Lesson, Chewie - Push Button

Getting back to the original intent of the blog, here's a summary of Sunday's Chewie Lesson, things I got from it, and things to work on for the week.

Chewie & I are solid at trot. Posting nice extended trot, just beautiful. Only thing, and I know I do it, and I'm working to quit doing it - bend the elbows! If I keep my elbows moving, he stays steady in his gait, and relaxes his whole body. I stiffen my arms, his head comes up, he'll toss it, and shorten his stride. As soon as I relax, he'll toss a little fit and go back to work. Every time I change something about my posture or energy, he fusses just a little, then either works better or worse. If I make a physical change at trot, I need to give him about 3-4 strides to adjust, then measure if it got better or not.

Me at canter left - solid light seat. Up to two point just before asking, then sit as I ask. I need to consider sliding in the saddle, and keep my elbows bending. Ask with a shorter rein, then after a few strides, lengthen the rein, and keep inside leg on. Overall, a pretty canter, that just needs practice with time. 3 canter transitions left.

Me at canter right - mess. I finally had enough canter that Robin could see it, and I now know what I'm doing. Up to two point to ask, then instead of sitting, I'm perching forward. Robin said it looked like most of my body was in front of the pommel. That explains why he gets fussy - I'm asking him to reach up to canter, then sitting on his shoulders. I have a task for the week - stay up in two point for canter right, but think "middle of the saddle", and pull my toosh back underneath the middle of my horse. Instead of putting my entire body over the pommel, at least focus on my middle. Heels don't have to be perfect, shoulders and upper body can be a bit forward - that's all fixable. Right now, the real problem is I'm sitting up on the front of the horse, and it's no wonder he can't get up & canter with confidence. Chewie's a tolerant big man to put up with me learning, but he's enduring with ease. One canter transition right.

Tonight, I will venture to the round pen with my western saddle, equipped with swells and an adorable saddle horn - those will keep me behind his shoulder. With my hands on reins & saddle horn, I can focus a bit more to the right on the canter after the transition, and perhaps get a couple circles straight canter in, to focus on body position with some saddle-aids.

Chewie's brightness amazes me. Robin rode him before I did, and it was stunning. She wasn't perfect, either, but much more solid canter seat than I have. She sat to ask for the canter, and kept the rein contact. He fussed a little bit, but quickly cooperated. It was amazing. Solid canter both leads, both directions, no issues. Very beautiful. She did walk to canter each direction, and it was stunning. To the right, he had maybe one trot stride before lifting his whole front end up into canter. Didn't take off at an unreasonable speed, didn't rear or fuss, didn't even swish his tail. To the left, again, maybe a stride or two of trot. She did canters from trot, and they were pretty, but not nearly as beautiful as the walk to canters. I could see Chewie's happiness at "getting to do his job & show off to Momma". He appreciated her riding skill level, as did I. I had a great chance to see him & how nice he moves when he is allowed. Robin believes he is nearly a push-button horse. I just need to find all the buttons, and get my body in a comfortable position to let him do the job.

Push-button... wish I had a recording of her saying that. This typed text record will have to do, but it was pretty darn incredible even hearing her say it. Push-button...

Show Series Summary

It's one of those things I procrastinated typing out, because, no matter how I slice it, I wasn't strong enough to fight with an overzealous gate-sour horse. Romeo and I were fine in warm-up, took first on the flat (yahoo!), and then he just snapped.

Warmup - Ran through #1, jumped #2 pretty, bolted over #3, landed in canter, big circle to the inside after #3, jumped #4, big circle. Asked Robin, "What can I do differently?", and the response was "You did it right, don't worry about it. Now that he's seen it, he'll be fine." That's what I thought, too.

Class #1, Ran through #1, Jumped #2 pretty, Jumped #3 pretty, landed & then decided to canter. Huge circle away from #3 up to #4. He looked at #3 again, because obviously shaking me up twice wasn't enough. Ran through #4, almost taking the standard with him. I circled him big, and called it a day. Didn't finish Class #1, scratched Class #2.

If we'd had a good show-day, with clean rounds, or at least if I'd done decently in both jump classes, we might've had Champ or Reserve Champ. I decided after one round of Class #1, it just wasn't worth it to end sour. Completed as a finalist, and we should receive the series blanket in the next few weeks.

I could go on with a list of excuses. I didn't practice all four all the way around, didn't set up the course like I could have Saturday. #1 and #2 and #4 didn't have ground rails, #3 did on both sides, I was looking at the gate instead of past the fences, I didn't get enough energy going forward on #1, the list could go on forever. Plain & simple, Romeo got sick of working, and waited until show day to share that bit of info with me. He decided to get sour, and I am not strong enough of a rider to push him through it. Video review showed I was solid after #3 in both rounds, and I insisted he come back down to me, sitting the canter, deep air brake breathing, and he did come back to me. He was otherwise ignoring all aids, not paying attention, and just chose to use his 1,000+ body mass and newly acquired muscle development against me.

So Sunday, I ventured home, unloaded all my junk, and mentally unloaded my junk as I tacked up Chewie. At lunch Sunday the decision was made to set Romeo aside for a bit, work only on flat work with him, including trot poles & cavaletti, and focus only on Chewie over short fences & at canter. So I did. I set up a series of ground poles & one short crossrail. We did some trot & canter in the round pen (both leads), and trot over the line series.

The week was a repeat of Chewie's Sunday. He was solid, only giving me a little trouble to the right once or twice. In the arena Saturday, he was incredibly lazy, tripping, stumbling, and just seemed overall "2 year old in the candy store" grouchy.

A New Tuesday & A Calm Horse

Chewie kept trying to pick up his front left leg while I was putting the polos on, so I kept notice of his warm-up with good concentration, trying to find even the slightest hint of "owwie".

Side reins 5 & 6, walk, trot, deliberately asking for canter, and kept him at it until it seemed like he was focusing on his body more than "hurrying around the round pen." About 20 minutes free lunge & side reins lunge.

Climbed up, I worked on walk & trot. The sun vanished behind the trees, taking all the warm with it. I was cold, and tense, and didn't believe cantering with that much muscle tension was a good idea. He was still stiff, and seemed short-strided. I later figured out my saddle was a bit too far forward, sitting just on the back of his shoulder blades. Sorry, buddy.. I'll do better next time.

Half way through our under saddle ride, a neighbor's golden retriever galloped through the pasture. Chewie & I both saw it, but, rather than his normal "spook & run" reaction, when he started to get nervous about it, I sat down, exhaled sharply, and within a quarter circle, he was at a halt & relaxed. What a very very good boy! I almost stopped him right there, so satisfied that he might finally be calming down.

Total work, 55 minutes.

The weekend, oh the weekend

Friday night, tacked up Western, worked on Walk, Jog, Trot. Chewie didn't enjoy the western Tom Thumb bit, but it absolutely got his attention off of the happenings in the wind, and more on me. I kept getting little light-headed, dizzy spells, so put off canter for another day.

Total work (him lounging in side reins, me riding) = 65 minutes.


Saturday morning, Chewie & Romeo both got new feet. Good news for Romeo, and indifferent for Chewie.

Romeo's right hind split is improving! It's become a little hairline crack from the coronary down about 1". The split will never completely fade from an old injury, but at least it's not split 0.5" wide. He was trimmed significantly, and overall hoof condition looks great! My little man is progressing to a "real horse" with "real feet", and it's great!

Chewie's hooves, however.. darn boy. Everything had grown a ton! Mike cut a bunch of hoof off all the way around, all four feet. Unfortunately, his front right had grown soo soo much, we're back to widening the shoe on the outside of his hoof, adding Equilox all the way around the shoe. Mike said that, because of the Spring growing, and all of the work Chewie's been getting, the hoof growth was great, but just too much of it in one direction. I asked if there was anything that could be done to reduce the impact of him putting so much weight on that hoof when he's working, and Mike didn't think so. I wish there was a way to tell Chewie, "stop stomping, and move lightly, you'll feel better."

After some work-clothes shopping, MacKenzie & I went to PetSmart & volunteered for a few hours with the Calhoun County Humane Society (Kenzie's picture is at the top right of this page of their website). We walked doggies outside, loved on all the adoptable critters, and MacKenzie demonstrated how a plain normal basic dog can be adopted, trained in obedience, and turn into a fantastic house pet & family member.

Came home to an anxious horse. Tacked Chewie up hunter, and off we went the round pen. Side reins on 5&6, free lunge, side rein lunge, and off to work. Walked, trot, noticed he was pretty happy with his new feet. Heading left in the round pen, I centered myself in two-point, asked for canter, and off we went. First few strides in 2-point, next few sitting getting the rhythm, and then after I realized my arms were stiff as 2x4s, starting moving my arms with his face. We had about 5 great canter strides before I let out a good exhale to slow him down. It was fabulous! I didn't grab on for dear life, didn't deliberately lean forward, didnt' pull up on the saddle, just asked. I want to obviously get where I can ask sitting, but that will come in time.

More later on Sunday's intended-lesson-turned-nerves and saddle fit. Also, great news on upcoming arena construction!

Day Three - Pre-Work Thoughts

I've centered myself a few times, focused on soft eyes, did the leg & hip work as well as the shoulders, and a little "shake out", and I'm feeling more aware. Not just aware of the people around me in the breakfast room, but aware of everything. Last night, leaving the restaurant, I noticed everything was LOUD. Lights seemed loud, people talking seemed loud, even the traffic congestion seemed loud. It was like everything was screaming. I think focusing on bones & tiny joint centering has me so aware of myself, that I'm incredibly aware of everything around me. Even in the little hotel breakfast area, a few talking children seem loud. The TV volume is barely on, and I can almost hear it. I can even hear the juice machine as it buzzes off & on. Everything is just loud, and almost distracting.

Really hoping to get a lesson on Iris followed up by a ride on Chewie. There may be some benefit to even having the Instructor ride him a bit, and then myself some.

Day Two - morning session

Feasting on just about the best pizza I've had in Texas at Paisano's in Georgetown. This is worth it, even if I do have a train wreck ride this weekend.

Cleaned stall, cleaned Chewie, back to ground work. Worked on a "body shake", which I don't think ever made sense. Anyways, I was looser at the end - but I think I was loose to start. Laid on the floor belly up, and did some shoulder stretches. Stretch down, stretch up, and forward.

To the horse! Instructor added a wedge pad, and while it might have helped him, it made me feel like my seat was higher than normal, and a bit uncomfortable. We worked on bends & turning. Turning by spinning the top of the belly ball in whatever direction I wanted to go. Worked out pretty good, once Chewie got the idea. A few times I cheated, and looked with my eyes in the direction. He seems to like direction eyes rather than a spinning belly ball. Chewie's overall mind was somewhere else. He was in the mood of looking around nervous "What was that?!? Where did that noise come from?!? The monsters are going to eat me!! I know it! There's a booger on the wall over there, I'm sure the world is going to eat me, and I'm going to protect you Mom! I promise!" His mind wasn't anywhere on me 75% of the ride. To get his mind on me, I kept repeating "soft eyes, soft eyes, soft eyes." At one point, mid-lesson, focusing on spinning the top of the belly ball, his head popped up tense, his back got very tense, and it was all he wanted to do to get away from whatever had spooked him. I started saying, out loud, "soft eyes, soft eyes, center, soft eyes." Instructor praised me during the spook, and after it was over, saying, "You did the right thing, and you got him relaxed. That was very good. You applied the lesson and it went very well." I'm glad nothing bad happened, but there was a thought in my mind of "if I could let him trot it out, and get some of the goobers out of his system, I'll have a horse that will wait it out while I walk & learn things at that gait."

Finished up with riding squares at walk. Total work time for him, 1 hour.

Watched Instructor ride one of her horses for about 40 minutes. She's a Paint-Trekhaener cross, Iris. Her movement is large, fluid, and slow. It's almost like she calculates every single footfall. Pretty neat. Iris worked on many many transitions, little figure eights with half circles at canter. It was incredible to see her gather up, walk to canter, 8-9 strides, and back to walk. Pretty cool. Iris ended with cavaletti, while Instructor demonstrated a light seat. Pretty cool to see the horse love her job, and stay in that same fluid trot. Most absolutely more energy in the trot, and a bit faster. That mare loves to jump, and it shows.

Plan for the afternoon is to lunge Chewie on side reins (give him a job & make him work for it), and be ready for another ground less & ride on Iris at 3.

more updates later. For now, I must continue to enjoy this fabulous slice..

Day One

Up super early. Dogs off to the vet, and back home. Hooked up trailer, gave Chew a bath, and off we went.

Traffic was minimal to non existent. Toll 130 passed Austin turned out to be a super saver on my stress level.

Arrived to find a small place, many horses. Particularly surprised no fence around the arena. Makes fine for dressage, but quite stressed for jumping at any decent leve, I’d assume.

Got Chewie settled in his stall / paddock. Surprised by two great danes, one of which had her nose in whatever I happened to be doing.

Worked for an hour ‘on the ground’. I was asked to imagine a blue marble at the top of my neck, a pink marble just behind my heart, and a bowling ball settling into my pelvis. Getting myself where I was supposed to be landed me in what felt like leaning forward, looking down. Instructor seemed to be happy, but I didn’t notice much change in me. Maybe deeper breathing, but the overall equitation just seemed wrong.

Tacked up, and then the famous “this doesn’t fit right, you need to buy ____ to protect his back from injury.” Each instructor thinks I need to go out & buy something.. doesn’t seem to matter who it is, they all have their opinions. Opinions are like ____, everybody has one. Anyway, moving on, Chewie was tacked in his normal stuff, and while there may be “uneven contact” or “bridging”, his overall attitude lately hasn’t reflected any discomfort.

She lunged Chewie at walk, for, oh, about 3 minutes, then launched me up there. He spent a few minutes nervous & concerned, probably from my own nerves & concern. We repeated the same centering drills, with Chewie at the walk. Centering the head & chest were easy. Getting in my mind the image of a bowling ball settling in my pelvis is very difficult. I’m just not feeling it . worse, when it’s “right”, I can’t feel any change in him. I can feel when I think I’m right, and he shortens his stride. Instructor was quite happy when he fully halted, which seems wild. If “halt” is what we’re going for, I can get that much easier than with anything she’ll try to teach us. I’ll exhale sharp, put on the air brakes, problem solved. He stops.

Had an average dinner that was pretty good. It’s nearly after 9, and, starting the day at about 5am, I’m exhausted.

Maybe more in the morning when I can translate the lessons in my sleep.

Lesson For The Day - Giggles!

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.

Stretching Doooooown

Tuesday was wonderful. W/T round pen, left & right. 3 was the number of the day. His free warmup was good, side reins 5&6 also good.

I had a little fuss to the left, but the final two requests were pretty. Very forward - he didn't dwiddle along with a little WP jog to start, having to be forced to work at the trot.. Instead, he was very forward & energetic to start each request. Very much appreciated. Towards the end of the ride, rather than resting just behind the bit, he started leaning forward on it. I made a "deal" with him - if he was leaning down, and stretching down, I let the reins run through my hands. If he popped his head up & hollowed his back, I took the contact & short reins back.

Total work Tuesday - 55 minutes

Wednesday, we trimmed trees together. =) I climbed up on my Western saddle, English bridle & bit, and grabbed some manual tree limb snips. Up on Chewie's back, I reached up for the hanging branches that would interfere walking around the property, worked on his "air-brakes", and trimmed tree limbs. He never moved off, never avoided the work - I think, in fact, he liked it. It was more of a "utility job" rather than one requiring his full attention & muscle use. It was fun, for sure. Finished up the "work" with some leg yield, turns on forehand, turns on haunches. All was well.

Splish Splash

Wheee!! Yeah that's what Chewie was thinking when we walked out to the round pen. The sun was shining, with 30-40 mph winds, which made things wildly interesting.

I thought the round pen was dry enough. As it turns out, the low side was still pretty splishy muddy. Chewie trudged through the slop for about 40 minutes, side reins 5 & 7, walk, trot, canter. Something in the wind spooked him in his little work out. It took a bit of time to relax him, but he finally calmed down.

I joined in the work in the front yard, relaxing, working on walk with deep breathing & soft eyes. All of a sudden "Ring Ring Ring!" Startled both of us. It was Mom, calling to say "hi!" Oh boy.. okay. We talked a while, phone in one hand, reins in the other, while I focused more on staying relaxed, moving with him, breathing. Chewie got so relaxed he apparently forgot to pick up his feet, took a pretty big stumble, trying to kiss the ground. I stayed with him, apparently a product of the new work I've been doing. Nice to have it work out when I needed, but I wish it'd been a bit drier for some more real work.

Lesson Saturday at 3pm with Robin. Haven't had a lot of riding to show improvement, but such is life...

Cold enough to stick my tongue on a light post out there this morning. 27F according to my little indoor/outdoor thermometer. Chewie was less than pleased to have his blanket removed. Romeo just turned mid-breakfast & looked at me, asking, "Momma-lady... what did I do wrong that you want me to freeze my little roan hairs off?" Poor boys.

Monday Night In the Wind

Pasture is still too soft, round pen is under water (therefore, no lights). So we worked briefly in the front yard.

No Lunge warm up, Lots of walk, circle in, circle out, leg yield, halt on breath, moderate amount of trot focusing on soft eyes. I found it difficult to focus on deep breathing at the trot ... It was just good to remember to breathe, no matter where it comes from.

Tried a few deep breathing exercises after dinner. It's easy to breathe from my center if I think about it... but with everything else to focus on during a ride (heels, shoulders, bend elbows, look up, soft eyes, "feel his mouth", keep forward motion, knees off the saddle, etc) how on earth am I going to focus on where my breathing comes from?!?!

Saturday Relaxation

Chewie got new feet this morning. Good news - no more Equilox, just shoes. Glad to hear that, as it made his day. Both boys finally blanket-free & enjoying the warmer temperatures.

Went for a shopping adventure trip. Went to Houston, to Charlotte's Saddlery, Barnes & Nobles, and Quizno's for a late lunch. At Charlotte's, picked up new dressage leathers, saddle pad, a light green stable sheet for Chewie, and more hoof conditioner.

At Barnes & Nobles, I grabbed a copy of Centered Riding, Sally Swift. I began reading it while enjoying lunch. The first few pages are all about Swift's life & how she had to learn balance through a few different instructors (including balance to walk & perform normal activities).

The first real chapter on riding covers Four Elements. I've read up on two - Soft Eyes, and Deep Breathing. Spent some time trying out the two. The book says my deep breathing should cause my belly button to move - If I focus on that, it seems like I'm only moving the muscles & not breathing normally. If I breathe normally, I feel like I lift up... Hmmm.... Soft eyes was much easier.

Came home to a house full of critters more than happy to see me.

And it's Sunday - time for church & reflection. Also, hopefully, for the first time in a week, it should be dry enough to ride. Hoping to work on some of the CR stuff I read about yesterday.