I gotta feelin'

I had a lesson on Tuesday, one of my last before I lose Ryan to a warmer climate and not to mention a horse lovers heaven on earth- Wellyland! Last year when Jen and I visited people not wearing breeches and spurs got the funny looks, not the other way around!

I told Ryan about our circles, so guess what we worked on??? yup circles! Doesn't sound exciting, but it was very rewarding. One of my most favorite things is when I get on and I just have that feeling. Like everything is in tune. I can actually anticipate the need for a correction before it is too late. Ryan would start to tell to fix something, and then he would literally stop mid sentence because he could see I was doing what he was going to tell me to do. Don't get me wrong, this doesn't happen often, but when it does I feel like I am finally making progress! About two minutes later I was brought back to reality. Ryan had us working on our half- halt so that Gram could learn that plowing through my aides is not the right answer. We first started on the straight away. Half halt in trot almost to walk and trot off again. He really wanted to see that I had control of the gaits and she was respecting my aides. Then we progressed to the quarterline; shoulder- in then big half halt and trot right off, then haunches-in, big half halt and trot off again. There was a clear change in the trot in both of those... then he added another element: the HALF PASS. Half pass, big half halt and trot off again- yeah right! Our first attempt was really just that a (poor) attempt. My favorite Ryan comment of the night "Nothing is happening... still nothing...(losing the intensity in his voice) and that is not a half halt." I of course burst out into laughter! I knew it wasn't working, I couldn't get my body to hold the half-pass position and ask for the big half halt at the same time... There was like a complete mis-firing in my riding. It was funny though because Ryan was really rooting for me, then realized I was a complete hot mess! The outburst of laughter must have helped, because the next line I actually got all the pieces to work together. We had a good laugh about that one!

The biggest challenge about dressage is no matter the rate at which you are progressing, going back to the basics can only improve the higher level movements. You never get to the point where working on a half halt for 45 minutes feels like it is a bad, boring, basic training exercise. Once you get it as sharp and crisp as it needs to be, you can improve all the "tricks". It really gave me that feeling- the feeling that I knew what we were doing, and knew exactly why we were working on it. So now of course The Black Eyes Peas is stuck in my head... I gotta feelin, that tonights gonna be a good ride.... wooo whooo! :)