Dressage boos and whooo hoooos

So.... today was a good day, but a frustrating day. We had our lesson at High Point and it was great to be out of the wind! BRRRR!!! First day of Spring my butt... it's frigid out there. We started out with some walk work and I managed to get Fleck pretty loose and we had a pretty decent trot to start out. But I still need to slow my tempo down. Of course when I do, Fleck breaks to the walk, but if I could just remember to slow my seat but keep the leg, we'd be golden. So then we worked on the canter some and that was going better. I felt like I was able to play on the outside rein some and help compress the outside of his body. Then Cindy had us do a counter canter and it all went to pieces. I got frustrated because I thought I was doing what she was telling me to do and he kept breaking or attempting to change leads. Or maybe I was confusing what she was telling me because it was counter canter and not true counter. But regardless, apparently I was not moving and cantering with my inside hip (Inside to the bend/canter). Which... normally I would do but I thought she was telling me to sit on the inside seat bone... which... in essence, she was... but when I sat on my inside seat bone... I obviously did it wrong. Because I would sit and lock, effectively asking Fleck to swap or stop. And by locking my inside seat bone that sent my outside hop to cantering/moving, which was also asking him to swap. Argh... She kept saying it was a new habit and I'm thinking "yeah, because I'm trying to do what you're telling me to do"!  But once I realized that she wasn't quite telling me to do what I thought she was telling me to do... things got better. I focused more on moving that inside seat and thigh and hip than sitting on that inside seat bone and it improved. She said "good" so... hopefully I was sitting the way she wanted me to. So then we took a breather and then came back and did some trot work. I am digging the ten meter circle on the outside aids plan and I did make sure to move my shoulders. It must have been decent because Cindy didn't yell at me for moving my head too much in. Then we did some shoulder in. Apparently going to the right especially I bring my inside leg too far back. It's not a leg yield... it's a bending around the inside leg. So when I focused on keeping my leg straight down, it was much better. 

So yep.. a good ride. Fleck was still feeling great and some of the other horses were a bit frisky, so he had some good energy. 

Now if we can just stay warm and find some time to ride amidst the sleet/snow/rain mess we have predicted for the next three days, I'll be happy!