Sore day!

So... after yesterdays lesson, today I hauled Fleck up to Beths. I had a lesson on him and a lesson on one of her new horses and then was going to do some chiropractoring on the barn horses. I was already sore from the day before, especially my thighs.

We started with Tucker and I did a jump lesson on him. I thought I had him figured out working on the flat, but then it sort of went downhill. To the point of me almost in tears. But they were tears of frustration at myself. It was a wonderful lesson because it really helped me figure out the root of some of my issues. Tucker is used to people hanging on his face so he locks his jaw and braces and runs. And throws his shoulder out. A LOT like Fleck. Only because Fleck and I have been together so long, he's sort of sneaky about it. And because of that too, he is sort of tolerant to my bad habits. However, riding Tucker, who is not tolerant of me, made it blatantly clear what I was doing wrong. I was collapsing on the right, dropping my right shoulder and then resorting to lifting my hands high in the air. This was because I couldn't effectively half halt on the right rein. By collapsing my right side, I ended up with a straight elbow. And I can't effectively pull straight back and down that way. So my response was to lift my hands. BUT... if I instead lifted my shoulder, that allowed my elbow to bend and then I could half halt effectively. It took some SERIOUS brain power to talk my body into doing it. And by the time I did, my shoulder was so sore and tired. But we got it finally. Tucker was thrilled that I finally got it too. :)

So then it was Fleck's turn. We opted to flat him and I got on. He was funny. He was full of energy and spooking when the wind blew. I, on the other hand, was exhausted! I was jelly! I didn't manage to ride very long because I was so weak it was ineffective and I didn't want to ruin things, but I did accomplish some really nice work. If I really thought about lifting my right shoulder, Fleck's response was amazing! He was straight and holy smokes... his wither and back lifted and it was LOVELY!!!! So exciting! We got a very nice trot and a very nice canter and even better lengthenings. Beth said he was much more even behind in his lengthens when I thought about lifting my shoulder.

Whooo hooo!!! So worth it. And then I had to do chiropractic adjustments on four horses ;)