Friday

Friday Maxwell and I had another lesson. We had a great flat work portion, starting to get the hang of lateral work, but BOY is my horse stubborn! When he doesn't want to move a certain way, he will plant his feet firmly in the ground and no amount of encouragement will get him to change his mind. He's getting a little sassy now that he's being asked to do more. But overall, he obliges and is quite a good boy when he gets into it. We worked on having a more rhythmic trot and canter, and boy did that and the lateral work come in handy for the jump portion of the lesson. It was awesome to be able to piece together everything we worked on in the flat portion and execute it over fences. Slow, rhythmic trots and slow steady canters away, even implementing the lateral movement to better position us to jumps where we had a tight space to get through. Very informative and exciting lesson! 

I forgot how much I crave the direction I receive from lessons. I was so used to the same monotony over and over during solo rides, and now having a goal, a purpose, something to work towards each week, well, I thought I loved riding before, but since I'm back into a lesson routine, that love has grown tremendously, as has the bond with Maxwell. 

Here's a clip of Max & I during one of our rounds. We have a long way to go, but this is a great start for my boy. His first time doing a series of jumps instead of just an X here and there, and he was SO happy!