Thinking it through

 Fun day! I decided to just ride Fleck since I was riding Danny twice this week already. So we had fun. I took a little nap after work and then Fleck and I headed out. I warmed him up with a short little jaunt through the woods. Then we went back and did some dressage work. It wasn't going well to start. He was very inverted and tense and while we did our warm up, the canter just was icky. He wasn't hanging his head and was bracing against me. I started to get frustrated but then stopped and thought things through. I knew it had to be something I was doing. I focused more on my seat aids and then gave him more rein. At least going right, he needed it. With a bit more rein he was able to hang his head and neck and be soft. And sure, it wasn't rocked back as much as I'd like, but I was happier with soft and using his back and in a training level or first level frame than a fake inverted second level frame. I figured it's strength. So we got some good work and then went back to the trot. The trot was then quite nice!! Yay! We did try the leg yield off the rail to X and then back to the rail. Egads. That is tough. Especially leg yielding to the left. Hmmm.... Not sure what I was doing wrong. We got a little better but never well enough to leg yield to X and back all the way. Oh well. Thank goodness I've got lessons soon! 
Then we went back out for another hack. We did some good hills and some trotting and had fun. Fleck is goofy! He saw a horse grazing in the XC field (with it's rider on his back) and was all spooky and goofy. Really?!? :) Turns out it was a chiro client of mine. Yay! We chatted and made plans to try to ride together.