Lesson Day: Buddy

With a newly-chiropractor-adjusted Buddy sporting freshly-shod hooves and a body clip, half of our equation looked show-spiffy.  After a week of no riding, I wasn't feeling particularly with-it, unfortunately, and only getting four hours of sleep the night before didn't help. 

Buddy had had the previous week off for post-vetting, chiropractor and shoes, and he was feeling good.  Since the slow, cadenced walk is a challenge, we worked on that for a while, then moved to trot, which was, as usual, better.  Didn't spend too much time there before Eric asked for a trot-canter transition.  Correct lead!  Hooray!  But rate was way too fast.  Close legs, shoulders back, seat deep, half-halt... and it worked.  We slowed down.

And I could definitely tell that between the adjustment, new shoes, and time off Buddy was moving a lot more freely through his back and having an easier time staying collected.  (And since T's brother-in-law adjusted my back while we were in KS over Easter, I can testify to the benefits of getting everything realigned properly!!)

Rather than coach me on everything, Eric spent a lot of the lesson asking for a transition and then pausing before he mentioned anything that should be changed to see if I could correct it myself.  I did pretty well, although I still have that collapsing-forward habit, and I need to be quicker to rate Buddy back after his canter transitions.  Downward transitions are decent, but again I have a tendency to collapse at the waist - I have to consciously remind myself to breathe and lean back.  And I forget.  A lot.

We'll practice again on Saturday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and then on Friday at the show grounds.  Time sure flies!

And in other good news, we finally have RAIN!!!  I can't even bring myself to cringe over the fact that they're forecasting a chance of snow for Monday.