Happiness

 My rides are going so well that I feel that I'm in a permanent state of happiness. It would feel like magic, except that it isn't. It's the result of a lot of hard work. 

if you ignore the hands things look good here

Riding Carmen is so much more fun. Not that she's not challenging at times. She totally is. But I feel more confident and my riding is better able to deal with the shenanigans. As times I swear I can feel her contemplate doing a big spook/bolt and then think 'ah never mind, it's not worth it' . Which is hilarious because, while I may scold, I don't punish, I just take a deep breath and go back to what we were doing. 

Carmen is trying so much to figure things out. Now she offers me things that I haven't asked for (well not intentionally). She's so smart I have to be careful. My original plan with lessons was to have them every other week (for budgetary reasons). But with the show date quickly approaching I decided to have weekly ones and then go back to the bi-weekly plan. The truth is that I love my lessons. They are hard and challenge me but it all feels manageable. If I ask for a break for myself or Carmen Jane is quick to agree. 

Carmen also likes Jane. As evidenced by our lesson last week when we were doing a free walk across the diagonal and Carmen was 'oh, look there's Jane, let's go say hi and she can tell me how magnificent I am'. It's hard to not indulge this. 

such a cute face

I have to share this video clip from one of our rides (not a lesson).  In the past I would never show a vide of me mounting because Carmen was very cranky about it. She would pin her ears and bite at the air or a fence. Despite checking the saddle and uclers and all the things it never changed. I started to give her a treat after mounting to make her think more positively about it. That and the liberty work I think were the ticket. But look at this:

Her pawing is just a 'get on with it woman'  while I try to get her a bit closer. I am ridiculously proud of this change. 

In our last lesson we worked a lot on second level movements. It all felt so good. Jane said, more than once, second is level is right there. I can feel her shifting her weight back onto her haunches and she's much more stable in the bridle.  It's getting easier to parse things apart. Like when she got heavy in the canter and I held the half-halt too long so she broke. In the past I might not have noticed that is was because I held her too much. 

Carmen is, as always expressive but not closed off.  Every single lesson ends up better than the one before. Of course, there's always more to work on. Canter departs are coming. 

so not the best but at least it's uphill

but improved by the next stride

I've been working on it. Turns out that if your horse is on the outside rein and straight you can simply use the softest of cues and they pick up a soft canter (follow me for more training tips, lol). 

It's hard to not push the schooling. I have the tendency to want to to buckle down and grind. And we all know what Carmen thinks of that. Today I was tacking her up and she didn't look happy so I took off her tack and we did a play session at liberty up in the ring. She quite enjoys it. Including leaving me and then coming back on her own. It's fun. It's supposed to be fun, otherwise, what's the point?