Deep Breaths

i need this burned into my tack trunk lid where i can see it every day

After Monday's horrible, horrible fucking ride--which I didn't even write about until the next day because I knew I needed to step back and take a breath over it--I had guarded expectations for the rest of the week's work.

To say the fucking least.

But turns out I was able to be pleasantly surprised! Wednesday was freezing, but I wanted to get on and see what I had. Did I need to do a long stretch ride to work out tightness? Was I going to have to defuse another bolting situation? Could I maybe kind of sort of do some real dressage work?

I got on and he was completely relaxed and ready to go to work. I put him on a long rein and we worked exclusively on the quarter lines to focus on straightness. Every now and then we'd do a 15m circle at C to make sure circles are...you know, circular. He did everything I asked, no fuss, and I called it quits after fifteen minutes of solid drama free work. Mostly because I was dying of frostbite, but also because he was so good I wanted to reward him for it.

Thursday he got off, and then today I went out without a real plan. I peeked in the ring when I got there and saw there were two jumps out so I adjusted the height on those (a 2'6" vertical and a 2'3" oxer). I put my dressage tack back on the rack and pulled out my jumping gear.

He warmed up quiet and lovely despite there being two other horses in the ring, neither of which had steering. When there was a gap in activity, I took him over the vertical on the diagonal. A single half halt as we turned in to get his attention and he coasted over it right out of stride. He's finally starting to be not as excited about 2'6 where he wants to jump me out of the tack to clear it. This jump was smooth as butter.

We spent a little more time w/t until there was another gap and then came around to the oxer on the quarter line. It was a long approach so he lost the rhythm a bit, but I managed to not pull the whole way there so he got in to is just fine. He did overjump this one a little because we do so few oxers, but nothing naughty or anything to jar me loose.

We finished up by pushing for the biggest trot he could give me and some no stirrup work.

The chiro should be out Monday which I felt like was the priority of my three to-do's (chiro, dentist, and massage lady). Getting his opinion on the LH and how much of it is actually a physical issue will help me decided how much I can push through Opie's evasions when it comes to really using that leg, and how much I need to work around it.