the great indoors

Saturday's lesson went ok-ish... it was the second solidly 'meh' lesson in a row, which I guess shouldn't come as much of a surprise since these were Isabel's ONLY rides in two weeks. This once-a-week schedule really doesn't work for us!

Right off the bat I was unsure of how things would go, as Izzy pooped six times just getting groomed before heading out. She was standing well tho, and didn't seem outwardly stressed -- but just kept on pooping... But she got on the trailer pretty happily, almost as if she was glad to see Wick in there. 

one stride line down the long side

Plus there were donuts and cupcakes in the lesson barn (I guess someone else fell off last week? lol) and she shared a cupcake with me. Whatever makes the mare happy, right?

same one stride line

I spent a loonnngg time just walking around trying to loosen Isabel up before the lesson got started - really working on the lateral flexions our biomechanics trainer taught us. Everything was nice and soft and low to the left, but kind of a cluster to the right. Unfortunately this theme would continue through the ride...

two jumps on the diagonals, with Wick posing in the middle

(poor Wick actually came up lame with a suspected abscess, so he spent the lesson just chilling and absorbing the atmosphere)

I thought we had fixed our old issues between tracking right and tracking left... but this ride proved me wrong. Maybe it's because we're not working enough... but going to the right (esp at canter) was awful. I just put Isabel on a small-ish circle (maybe 18m?) to try and work through it at P's recommendation. Bc I apparently forgot the lesson of letting the circle to do the work for us, even tho Dan drills it into me every time I ride with him... 

Anyways, Isabel couldn't quite decide between being wild and being totally done with the whole thing. But she steadied a bit when we started jumping - luckily she really does enjoy jumping. 

'um i prefer not to be touched. k thx bai' - isabel, if she were a cat

We started off well by nailing a single on the diagonal a few times in a row. Coming down the other diagonal (the blue one behind Wick above) we kept getting tight-ish distances... but that's what I was seeing, and Isabel just did what I asked. So that's all on me. 

'as if anything could ever be my fault' - isabel

We strung the whole thing together by adding in a one stride on the long side, and the first time through Isabel wiggled a bit like she wasn't quite committed to that second element, but a little leg was plenty reinforcement. And much to my relief, we finished the ride with a really solid course. 

my genius self parked in the *only* shady spot in the field.. oops!

Our appointment with the saddle fitter was scheduled for after the lesson, so we took the opportunity to set the horses up at the trailer like we'll do at shows. They did really well together, and Wick only got a few sassy sneers from Ms. Thing (since he really felt like her hay was MUCH better than his own, even tho he has alfalfa... silly guy). 

So despite the kinda meh lesson for both of us (esp B since she couldn't even ride!) and the bitterly cold weather, it was actually kind of nice to watch our horses chilling at the trailer and pretend that we were relaxing during the break between dressage and stadium/xc at an event lol. Hopefully those days aren't as far off as they feel right now :)