makeup lesson + clinic prep

We fit in a lesson on Tuesday night to make up for missing Saturday. This worked well enough for me and B, considering we usually ride Tuesdays anyway. The weather was a little nasty in that it was raining a LOT (like, half an inch to an inch throughout the day). It was very spring-like out tho - so all the snow was melting (making for even more water on the roads, yay!) and it was foggy foggy.   

'wake me up when it's over' - isabel

The horses were good tho and we put in a solid final ride before Wednesday's clinic (details to come tomorrow). Trainer P rode her three horses on each day of the 3-day clinic, so she was already brimming with ideas. The first and foremost being: forward forward forward! And boy did she make us move haha!

'wait, you mean i can't just sleep through this?!?'

My biggest objective was to actually sit up - and specifically wore a belt with a shiny buckle and tucked my shirt in so that I could clearly see in the mirrors if there was any slouching or collapsing going on. And you'll be shocked to hear that sitting up actually really helped lol. 

It felt like we flatted for a lonnnngg time - but Isabel felt really truly great. We got what is probably our best ever left lead canter, and had nice moments on the right lead. All in all it felt like the best preparation I was gonna get for the clinic - and was quite the workout between forcing myself into a better position (boo weak core!) and just going and going and going. 

'let's just do the jumping thing, none of that dressage'

And honestly I was a little tempted to just call it a day at that and conserve for the clinic. But then P set up a nice little grid... who can resist that? lol

Given the rain and all it was super dark in the arena, so any video stills came out too dark and blurry for even my low standard for photo quality. Therefore you just get gifs. Hope that's cool!

It started as an X, with a ground pole one stride after. Then slowly grew to a vertical, one stride to an oxer, one stride to another bigger oxer. Isabel was absolutely phenomenal, and we only had one little hiccup when I got ahead of her and then lost my stirrups (below). 

And frankly, I think my position over the final oxer without stirrups might be better than in the first and last gifs since I couldn't jump ahead. 

One of these days I'll learn to just be still to the fence instead of throwing my upper body at the poor horse.... But that day wasn't Tuesday and Isabel is already quite proficient at tolerating my shenanigans. So we'll call it good enough for now :)