Finding Our Groove

Last week's lesson was miles better than our lesson the week before.  Peebs was super soft and relaxed, almost to the point of being too relaxed. In fact not only were we able to trot in and trot out of a line, when Trainer told me to canter through the line I couldn't get him to. Oops.

Trot all the things!

We did canter some single fences and once I stopped picking at him things went really well. I know better than to pick at him, or get tense and lock my elbows, but it's soooooo hard to sit there and let him flow. MUST MICROMANAGE ALL THE THINGS!!! My job is to make sure he has a good pace and is straight. After that his natural rocking horse rhythm will carry us to the fence. My current mantra while cantering fences is "Don't pick, stay relaxed", said in a one-two-three-four counting strides style.  I also had a bit of a lightbulb moment when Trainer said to "Pull your hands back to your hips instead of pulling up." I don't know how many times she's said over the ten plus years I've been with her to keep my hands down, but this finally worked.

Since he was so good and I felt confident enough, we entered our first show on the 23rd. We're just doing trot-a-course cross rails but I'm super excited to get back to the show ring. Only downside is that after we sent entries in, Trainer's son's high school robotics team made the national finals which is the same weekend, and she's going to chaperone. They've been dealing with some scary health issues so this is a big bright spot and I'm happy he gets to go. And my trainer friend BS and one of her clients (McKenna's new owner but with her other horse) are going and my mom will be in town so I'll have back up and support.