Steele and I have our First Lesson

I finally managed to arrange for Steel and I to have a lesson. It's not easy in this part of the province to find someone. I can trailer him to a place for a lesson but I'm not sure we're ready for that and I need to get my trailer repaired (bummer) so we're stuck.

However, Steele's breeder, Rachael also teaches and I know she comes this way (she's also the saddle fitter). I contacted her and we worked out a time. I was beyond excited.  I brought him a bit early to give him a good groom. He was quite content to stand in his stall eating hay. Irish was not too impressed (Irish seems to be back to normal, yay) but we both ignored that.

When she came I explained that I was excited and that would probably make me a bit tense. But fortunately Rachael knows me so was prepared for that. She did some minor adjustments to his saddle and then we went to work. He was as good as gold. One issue that we have is bending to the left but she was able to give me some pointers and help us work through. It's so important to have someone on the ground to let you know when you're leaning, or uneven in the contact. We worked on me keeping more consistent contact, - I was giving too much rein and it was making it uneven for him.  I also had to work on making sure that I let my seat move with him. Unless he's going too fast.  She liked how calm he was about everything. I showed her how I can move around and flail my arms about and he just twitches an ear. We worked on some pretty basic stuff. I'm sure that anyone watching would have been completely bored. But I was trying hard to absorb everything and make it stick so I could remember it later and use it.

I had a few 'aha' moments and was reassured that we were on the right track. Steele seemed to be quite pleased to have an 'admirer' in the ring. I think he was showing off a bit. But that's okay. That night when I tucked him in, he gave me a wee nudge with his nose
I was awesome, wasn't I?
yes, dear  you were.