Lean on me

....my right leg says, and my whole body happily obliges by throwing all my weight into my right side. 

That was the theme of our lesson yesterday: sit the fuck in the center of the saddle. 

got a much needed goat beard trim

My saddle fitter did manage to drop me off a usable dressage saddle the afternoon before our lesson, so even though it was a bit too small in the seat it was better than fighting my jump saddle. 

During our quick warm up, DL reiterated that the canter is his gait and I reiterated that everyone says that, but I find it so hard to ride. I think it's mostly because even though Bobby was a giant, he had such tiny pony gaits that you never really moved on him. DL said I did a good job of hiding that because it's definitely our high point. 

We worked pretty much exclusively on the circle again which was fine by me so here are the highlights:

• Right off the bat she put me in a driving rein because I couldn't stop breaking my wrist.
• We took a few minutes to establish what steady contact feels like. 
• Always have a "2". If I have to go to a 3 because he's pulling, go back down to a 2 not to a 0.
• Use the elbows as the anchor, not the hands and wrists. The hands and wrists are soft and elastic, the elbows can block and say no if they need to. 
• She thinks his head wag comes from not being entirely through. He uses his hind end really well, but the throughness is getting stuck somewhere along his back--probably pretty close to his shoulders which do not want to get off the ground and do work.
• Opie and I both lean to the right so one of us has to get straight to lead the other one back to center. Being the thinking human being part of the relationship, that falls on me. Which sucks. Because it's really fucking hard.
• In the trot I finally picked up on the fact that my right calf was aching and my left leg was just chilling, coming along from the ride. So that will be a good tell for me when I ride by myself. 
• In the canter she had me look over my outside shoulder to center myself. I could feel it easier when I was centered in the canter because I felt like I had shifted my entire seat to the left side of Opie--which was, in fact, the center of his back. DL agreed I would probably get straight faster in the canter than the trot.
• She also rode my ass about slouching, and actually miraculously got me sitting straight!! I seriously didn't think that was a position my body was even capable of.
• She had me put my stirrups down a hole, and said she eventually wanted to see them come down one more for a true draping dressage leg. I can't imagine it, I already almost feel like I'm reaching for them.

warm enough to be naked when we got back

• Her takeaways were that:
• I ride like an eventer. I'm effective and I'm getting it done, but it doesn't look pretty.
• I've put a good, correct base on him and we're not going to have to go back and fix any basics. Pretty much the best compliment ever!

That's the bulk of what we worked on. I was able to feel the changes she was forcing on my crooked AF body, and in the canter I finally felt a deep but soft dressage seat. 

This morning I worked on my homework: sitting up and sitting straight. It's hard. It's so fucking hard, and when my horse wants to brace or go like a llama I went to wiggle him down and then drop all contact when he gets round--and that's fucking hard to not do, too. 

Riding is so harddddd.

one of us got a pemf session when we got back.
the other one of us has been going nonstop for the
past three days and needs a nap.