Back to the cold

Whew, it's been awhile! Me and Shay-la had a trip to Mexico from January 31 to February 7 and then I just plain forgot to update when I had a lesson on February 10! Being so busy getting ready for Mexico, I hadn't had a lesson in awhile and was mighty apprehensive about it! Turns out, a little time off can be a good thing!

I had Kali ride Jynx while I was in Mexico and it's amazing what a couple of rides by the coach can do! I came back to a very supple and responsive pon as opposed to a coming off vacation pon! We worked mostly on basics to get me back into it, my position didn't suffer horribly but unfortunately my strength did. Jynx was being a bit difficult and heavy and my whip hand was cramping from not being used! We worked on prompter transitions from trot to canter which is a bit of a nemesis of mine - even with the draw reins, I find immense difficulty in being able to stay straight and deep while also cuing with my outside leg. I always tend to get pulled forward or scrunch up my shoulders. We did a few transitions until we got some very decent ones! We worked mostly just trot and canter and kept it to 45 minutes. We also took the draw reins off for the end and it probably wasn't the best day to pull them off as I was already tired and sore through my shoulders. It felt horrific for about 10 minutes and she loosened up some, but I really couldn't. She's so incredibly difficult to keep on the bit when you're not perfectly there for her. It's frustrating during the lesson, but will teach me to be a better rider in the end so I should be grateful!

I've been having some minor health issues in the last few weeks that have been making me feel very drained and exhausted, so our lesson was cancelled for last night. I went out today to ride and have the farrier out and I only made it about half an hour on Jynx before I had to call it quits. She was a doll, but my strength being sapped concerns me. Her canter was absolutely breathtaking today - you know your horse has gone through coach bootcamp when they feel smooth as silk. She's starting to step under so much better now and it's a phenomenal feeling - the effortlessness of feeling her beginning to collect under me or go into straight lines without altering tempo or rhythm. It's been a year since I started working with Kali and man, the changes just blow my mind!

Also, in a bit of not so good news, we have decided not to show gold this year. We will still be showing bronze with Dressage Winnipeg but due to recent financial issues, and Jynxy's freshly resolved show issues, I've decided bronze is good enough this year and we will hopefully gear for gold next year! Just a slight hitch in the plan but at least we'll still get out there!