I don't want to jinx us, but....

it's all coming together!!!! "They" always say that in riding, you have ups and downs, and lots of lulls with no real feeling of progress. And yes, I would agree with that. Then you have a few shining moments of progress, which are usually followed by some backsliding. ;) But it's all good... as long as the overall journey is one of forward progression. 

Well, I'd say Fleck and I are in one of those shining "it's all coming together" swings! And it... is..... awesome!!!! I really think it's just a culmination of all our hard work, things finally making sense in my brain, happy bodies, happy backs, healthy pony, and even some time off to allow for bad habits to become less ingrained. I owe my trainers, all of them, a HUGE THANK YOU for everything. Each and every one of them has given me something to make me who I am today. And Fleck thanks them too. :) And by no means are we done... it's just, the last few rides have really been coming together for us :) We're back baby!!!

We had another jump lesson today - stadium this time. And it was great. Fleck was excellent and I was riding. It really just clicked in today how connected Fleck and I have to be. I can't drop him or throw him away at the base of the fence. I'm not helping him at all by giving away the connection. He needs me to support him. And when I sit my butt down lightly in the saddle, and close my leg and keep the connection... all is well. Regardless of what type of distance we get. Even if it's icky, if I WAIT and support him, he jumps well. He was so good. We even got most of our leads on landing too :) And thinking of owning my elbows instead of dropping my hands really seemed to help too.

So yep.... I'm feeling REALLY good about Chatt hills this weekend and Jumping Branch next weekend. He'll have a flat ride tomorrow, a nice chill trail ride Wed, then a day off Thursday, a nice hack and flat Friday and then hopefully we'll kick some butt this weekend. Then he'll pretty much get a light week. Monday and Tuesday off, then trails and chiro Wed, then a flat Thursday and a hack Friday and then hopefully kick butt at Jumping Branch. Then, we'll take it easy over the Winter and see where Spring puts us. Hopefully he'll feel just as good and we can see how things go. 

Man do I love my pony..... It was such a gorgeous day too. We finished our ride as usual with a short trail ride and an "icing" in the lake. :) I'm so glad we can do that!