Oops, there one is

Friday's lesson was life affirming. Or, if not that dramatic, then at the very least Third Level affirming. 

Finally.

I feel like it was only yesterday we weren't allowed off a circle.

LOL jk we still sometimes get put on circle timeout.

love when it's warm enough for outdoor lessons

I told DL that we've been breezing through our warm up trot (which has felt super for a warm up trot--like, super) and then putting in the hard work at getting the canter in order which in turn makes the sitting trot feel amazing. So once we were done warming up at the trot on our own, she sent us into the canter.

She wanted us to do shoulder-fore or shoulder-in down the rail which turned out to be next to impossible. It's been no secret Opie's shoulders are what's holding us back in pretty much every movement, but hot damn getting those things unlocked never fails to impress.

After we started a fight over hanging on the left rein (DL: "You two are caught up in this rein battle and it's totally irrelevant to what we're trying to do here."), we got assigned exercises instead. Left lead canter, SI (as much as possible) down the long side, turn down center line, go back to the rail holding the counter canter, and SI in counter canter.

also my face when she told us to do SI in counter canter

I literally did not think this was going to be possible. 

Instead not only did we manage to do it, it got him super straight, we both let go of the left rein, and as we came near the end of one long side I got him too bent so that when I put my leg on he quietly and cleanly popped a change. I was cackling in delight and let him come back to the walk to pat him while DL was like ::facepalm:: "Alright, we can take a quick break." Listen, DL, this is a HUGE DEAL. Okay, so it wasn't intentional, but it was easy and sane and those two things do not get associated with Opie and changes.

We changed directions and the exercise this way was picking up the counter canter from the walk already in SI. That surprisingly wasn't too hard, probably because we'd already done so much hard work the other direction. From there we turned down the quarter line and leg yielded to the center line. When we got to A, turn onto the true canter lead, 10m circle, walk on center line, turn back the other direction, back into SI to pick up counter canter. Getting him straight was hard, but as DL said, he needs to learn to canter between the aids and be super straight underneath me. All of this is what is going to lead right into (intentional) changes. 

That took up our entire lesson, but it felt so good to get the affirmation that DL thinks we're capable of Third. Like, despite all our bad habits and things that need to be fixed, it's still solidly in her plan for us. 

The next day I tried to replicate some of the work. It didn't go well in the canter at all. DL warned me he would probably get sore as we went through this work, and my thighs were burning so he was probably sore as well. He was LAYINGGGG on the reins. I finally got him softer with a hundred rein backs and then floating the reins at him in the canter.

The trot to finish was alright. Not the best quality, but eh. I gave him Sunday off, and then this morning we did a stretchy only ride. He was super crooked starting off in the trot to the right, but once I got him straight and into the outside rein we started cooking. The left canter was not much of anything, but the right lead I got him connected to the outside rein and felt him step underneath himself and square up which made the quality so much better. More stretchy trot, and then a banging rollong stretchy walk to finish.