New Blog to Check Out...

I recently stumbled across the blog of the author of Right from the Start. I haven't had a chance to check it out in any great detail yet, but it seems to have a lot of information and I think it will be helpful in the future. http://thedressageprocess.wordpress.com/ That's the address, I'll add it to my blogroll when I get a chance. I haven't seen Sophie in a couple of weeks, not since the surgery, but it's been bitterly cold and I've been watching Jilly. There are lots of Jilly pictures on the other blog, so check it out if you have some time!

Ok, I Went Ahead With a New Blog...

I went ahead and made a new blog, because I'd like to keep this one limited to horse stuff, since I use it a lot to go back and see what we've done and how we did it. The new blog's address is http://kittyelphiejilly.blogspot.com/, I'm going to add it to my blog roll as well, so that you can see when it's updated if it's not mentioned in a post here.

If I added the other tags in addition to all of the horse tags, the tag section would be three pages long since I plan on tagging everything we teach Jilly.

You guys are no help...

The poll is tied! Someone make this decision for me! Though if it remains close, I may start a new blog and then post a picture over here with a link to the other blog when I do update with pictures.

As far as Sophie goes...in case you're wondering...today we're puppy proofing, tomorrow we're driving to my parents/grandparents (it's halfway to Cleveland from our house), puppy shopping after seeing Twilight, picking up Jilly on Sunday, and driving home from there. Monday I'll resume visiting Sophie and I plan on working on free longeing and clicker training with her, since I can't exercise or ride for at least two weeks. I think that the break will be good for her, because we've slowly been increasing her workload and it was the most it's ever been these last three weeks (with some back to back lessons!). Quite a change from the once a week she was being ridden. When I start riding her again it'll probably be 3-4 days a week, and never more than two days in a row, at least for a while.

Please Participate in the Poll!

With the exception of the surgery happenings, this blog is generally solely for horse stuff, what I'm doing with Sophie, what I'm learning, horse pictures, etc etc. I'll post pictures I take, including of the cats or other things, but not much about more everyday stuff. I had started a new blog for the baby, so that people interested could see it, and people not, wouldn't have to weed through baby stuff to see the horse stuff.

So now, I wonder if I should start another blog where I'll post puppy updates and also lump the cats in there too. Maybe even some general life stuff, at least more than I post now. I started a poll to the right of the screen, asking what you guys (the ones that read my blog) would prefer, so please answer, the poll closes Monday night, unless there is a heavy leaning one way or the other.

We're picking up the puppy on Sunday now, so that we don't have to worry about the breeder's work schedule. Plus we'll have one more day with the puppy before we got back to school. The puppy's name right now is Lola, but my sister suggested Jilly and we both love it. I was liking Jillian/Jilly for a child, and we like animal names that end with the "ee" sound (Kitty, Elphie, Jessie, Sophie, etc). So far she's definitely going to be called Silly Jilly and Jillybean, I'm sure we'll come up with other things. I talked to the breeder tonight and she loved the name Jilly. She said it sounds very British (the sire is from England).

Surgery Completed...

There was lots of waiting, and they never told poor Craig that they hadn't even started on me yet, but the surgery is over. I woke right up and felt really good. Completely different anesthesia experience than when I had my wisdom teeth out! I ate a cup and a half of ice chips while they took my blood pressure every 15 minutes. My pulse was only 50 bpm at the beginning, but it ended up being ok. After 45 minutes they got me and Craig a hot meal and I got to eat. After I proved that my bladder was still working they let me go home, though it took a while to get the discharge papers done.

I felt so good on the way home that along with my massive craving for Texas Roadhouse biscuits we decided to go browse puppy stuff and get something to eat. We went to Jack's Aquarium and Petsmart to look at the doggie stuff. We didn't buy anything, but we took notes on what we want to buy. I'm asking the breeder about the best harness for her before we get one. Looking for puppy stuff definitely kept my spirits up though. I spent last night watching Papillon videos on youtube, so I'll probably do that some more while Craig and I continue our X-Files marathon!

Ack!!!

The hospital called at 8 and told me that my surgery needs to be moved to 9. We were still asleep!!!!! (The plan was to sleep as late as possible so that I wouldn't know I was hungry).

And...we're picking up our puppy on Monday!!!

It's Starting...

My surgery isn't until tomorrow at 10:45 in the morning, but it's already started. This explains why I was feeling like I had to throw up earlier. So far there's no pain, hopefully it stays that way until tomorrow. The presurgery appointment this morning was awful. They didn't tell me that I had to go to a different office when they told me about the appointment. We spent 3 hours at the hospital and only talked to people for 20 minutes total. There's more, but I won't bore you with the details.

On the way home we got a couple of puppy training books. Last night at 3 a.m. I decided I wanted a medium sized dog. But then the Papillon breeders started emailing me back, and I'm smitten again. I found one near Cleveland that sounds *very* promising. It's a little more than we wanted to spend, but she's so cute, and seems well bred by a caring breeder. I want to have it now, but it's a 4 hour trip and I'm not sure when I'll be up for a long car ride.

I will say that there was a lot of information in the folder they sent around with me at the hospital that no one even mentioned to me. I don't know if they're planning on going over it with me tomorrow, or what, I guess we'll see. They had me call later this afternoon for my surgery appointment (no idea why they couldn't tell me when I was there this morning). They tried to tell me I needed to give them a urine sample prior to my show time tomorrow. I said ok, and hung up, even though I was confused because no one had mentioned a urine sample. So then I called back because I quickly realized *why* they needed a urine sample. I had to call three times, but finally got someone to pick up, and yep, they needed a urine sample for a pregnancy test. My God, I mean seriously. Fortunately I very calmly explained that at this point a pregnancy test was a moot point. The person I spoke to agreed after I told her what my surgery was, and said that I didn't need to do the urine sample. I am *very* frustrated with our hospital. I hope that my next base won't have a full hospital, so I can see a real, off base doctor.

The thought of getting a dog has kept me pretty upbeat and excited though. It's all I can think about. Though there was a brief crying stint during House tonight, Cuddy found the baby that had been picked up by someone else and was telling her that she found it and saved it, but now it was time to let it go. It didn't help that it was a little girl all wrapped in pink.

I've been wondering about when I'll be able to ride, because I don't trust my doctor to give me a true estimate of how long to wait. They're going to be way too conservative and honestly, while Sophie is being good, I don't think she's good enough to handle a month off! The worst part about the surgery tomorrow is it's at 10:45 and I'm not supposed to eat after midnight. Let's just say Stephanie gets *very* grumpy when she's hungry. And Stephanie *always* eats breakfast. Sigh.

Is Now a Bad Time to Get a Dog?

So, we're thinking of getting a dog. I'll admit it, I want a dog to help "make up for" the baby. But Craig and I have talked about getting a dog for years, it's just never seemed like the right time. But, on further reflection, this is probably the best time, since we have the rest of December off and will only be gone for a few hours at a time, instead of a full work day until we move at the end of March. So we'll have time to work with the puppy for a while.

We went to Petland tonight and fell in love with a Papillon that we named Gizmo. It was quite a change of plans, since I was going to go the barn and work on clicker training with Sophie, and Craig was going to go to karate. Then the power went out. So we decided to go out for dinner (Outback), Christmas shopping (Sam's Club), and to see the puppies (Petland).

I slept for 5 hours today. I had a dentist appointment this morning, and it was "fun" explaining how I was pregnant, but ok with getting x-rays taken. Then I found out something interesting. The new x-rays revealed that a couple of spots that could go either way had remineralized. The dentist asked me if I'd change my habits at all, which I hadn't, until he asked if I had stopped drinking soda. And actually, I had. I stopped drinking as much a month or two before getting pregnant and once I got pregnant I only had one soda a week, maybe two (only when out to eat). I hadn't realized how much effect diet soda had on my teeth until now. The worst part of the appointment was the end. I was sitting up in the chair, with the flouride thing in my mouth, with only the sign telling you to talk to your provider if you are, or think you may be pregnant. That got me teary, and then walking out of the dental clinic I saw a little girl with her mom, in the waiting room. So I lost it for the drive home and slept from 11 until 4 this afternoon.

I'll be back in the hospital tomorrow morning, for my presurgery briefing. Then surgery on Thursday. Meanwhile I'm going to continue to puppy shop online. We don't really want to get our puppy from Petland, but instead, a reputable breeder, so I'm looking for breeders with puppies available.

I Cried Tonight...

During my lesson. I didn't get Sophie completely loosened up in our warm up, she was a little looky and I just didn't focus on getting her warmed up so much because, I don't know. I guess I just thought we'd work on it more in the lesson. But the beginning of the lesson was working on trotting a 20 meter circle, walking at the walk, and then continuing down half the long side in shoulder in. Except Sophie was tense and braced the entire time, it wasn't fun and I didn't want to be doing it. I felt that to loosen her up we should work on something she's confirmed in rather than something we've only worked on a handful of times. Which was just making me even more frustrated, it was a terrible cycle.

Then I started thinking about how awful it was and how the one silver lining to losing the baby was that I would have longer to work with Sophie (and getting her going really well) before getting too big to ride. I'm going to take a break from riding until next week I think. We had a walk break and I had a good cry.

Then I picked up the trot again and we had much better work. Our canter work was really good tonight, I was able to get her to canter slower, but still maintaining the canter and it was a nice canter at that. Then I worked on riding off the 20 meter circle in the center of the ring to cantering down the long side and all the way around the arena. We were trying to lengthen the canter on the long sides and shorten it on the short sides. It worked pretty well the first direction, not quite as well the next, but decent, at least.

We worked on trot lengthenings and Sophie put forth her best effort ever. So that was pretty cool. Even Craig could see that she was extending her stride. We also did some spiral circles and Sophie was trotting really nicely and was very balanced even on the 10 meter circle portion, so that was great.

It was kind of funny, seeing Kim championing Sophie when I was frustrated with her. She seems to really, really like her. Like I said, the lesson ended really well, I just would have approached it differently in the beginning, until she was already soft and supple. Probably with leg yielding and spiral circles, and some serpentines. Then worked on the new stuff.

So it was a bittersweet lesson, seeing as how it's my last with Kim. I just need to relax and not put so much pressure on myself for my riding to be perfect to make up for other areas of my life sucking. We did get a lot of nice sitting trot work in as well.

Randomness...

I just wanted to say publicly, where everyone would see, that my husband was very involved in selecting the colors for my new blog. I was trying to go with some kind of purple theme, so you all should be grateful that he intervened, because the purple choices would probably have hurt your eyes. And thank you for the compliments on the new colors, and your kind words about the baby. I have a feeling things are going to get worse once the loss actually happens, right now it's kind of like the calm before the storm.

I also forgot to say that I told Kim about my fears of flying changes being hard for Sophie, because I've never see her do flying changes on her own like I did with Jessie, and she just shook her head as if it was crazy to think Sophie would have trouble. I really think Sophie has won herself a fan. Kim even spent a minute rubbing Sophie's head after the lesson, and she normally *never* encourages a horse to rub. That was one of Sophie's worst habit when I started riding her, she would initially try to rub on me as soon as my feet began to approach the ground postride.

Oh, and the other reason for a new post, Kim told me that I need to start picking spots to make my transitions, instead of just doing them. So I need to pick up the trot at K, instead of waiting for that "perfect" moment. Try to make the perfect moment be *at* K. Same thing with picking up the canter. I've said it before, but one of my biggest problems with dressage is discipline. I'm the type of person that's just happy with "better", even if it's not "good". And now I need to raise the bar with the precision thing. But that's ok, because I've got all winter to work on it!

And apparently Sophie doesn't play very much in the pasture. Her two pasturemates play lots, but Sophie just watches them as if they're crazy. That might be fore the best, since she's aroun 15 hands and her pasturemates are large draft crosses!

Zoom, Zoom, Zoom...

Well, today Sophie decided that my well thought out warm up was a complete waste of time, and she'd rather get straight to work. So after we walked around the arena for 3 minutes she did a big spook away from the wall on the end of the arena she liked even when she was "bad". Aaaaargh! She also decided that the other big door couldn't be trusted, so she had to keep an eye on it as well. I was not in the mood, so we went straight to work and if she even *thought* about slowing down when approaching one of the doors I smacked her with the whip to keep her forward. I only had to do that twice and she was moving off my leg well and accepting my half halts. By the time Kim came out, she was going beautifully.

I discovered that sitting trot adds an extra bit of power to Sophie's trot, and really gets her through and working over her back. So we started out with some extensions across the short diagonal, and there was much improvement. Kim gave me a new exercise with them, and that is to go from lengthened trot to walk once you reach the wall again, that way Sophie starts thinking "is she going to make me walk?" and really sits down when I do half halt just to bring her back to a more collected trot from the lengthening.

After the extensions we worked on cantering, counter canter, to be more exact. Her canter was *amazing* tonight. Much better than last lesson. We started off by cantering a 20 meter circle in the middle of the ring. Then I would ask her to trot, we would trot along the wall and begin another 20 meter circle at the end of the ring. Once we had a good canter established I would turn down the quarterline and try to leg yield over to the wall a few strides (pretty much until she broke). We only got 2 or 3 strides when we got any, but Kim seemed really pleased. It was a great improvement because we were cantering down the long side, and last lesson Sophie wasn't able to canter hardly at all down the long side. Kim had also set up three cones to give us a distance to stay away from the wall, kind of like a barrier to leg yield around.

After the cantering we worked on leg yielding away from the wall, to the quarterline, and then back. We had a discussion about my reins, because I always think they're too short and she always thinks they're too long. So I tried shortening my reins a little more, and it was like someone turned on the 4 wheel drive. There was so much power under/behind me. Sophie was up and open and actually started to get some suspension. Kim was very impressed and had us try some lengthenings with this newfound energy and it was incredible. I could feel her launching upwards as we began the legnthenings. We've decided that Sophie (and I) are ready for more sitting trot than rising trot, provided we're both properly warmed up. It's amazing the difference it makes in the quality of her trot. And my half halts are so much more effective with my butt already in the saddle, as are our transitions.

We then worked on shoulder in, initially at the trot, which didn't go well at all. So I went back to the walk and Kim told me to make sure I keep my inside shoulder *up*, and back, like I was turning to look at someone in a tree behind me. It worked like magic. As soon as I got my shoulder back and up I could actually *feel* Sophie snap into position. I was just sitting and she was performing shoulder in, every now and then I would use a little inside leg, but it wasn't a constant squeezing of the inside leg, asking her to bend that way. She was working almost completely off my seat. It was like magic. And it worked in both directions. I was able to more effectively half halt and use the outside rein once I was confident in my position, and Sophie looked like a real dressage horse doing shoulder in. It was incredible. We had 3 really good steps of shoulder in the first time, and then 9 the next, once I put it all together. As I get better at half halting while doing the shoulder in I'm going to start asking her to trot *while* already doing the shoulder in, instead of trying to do it after a corner or a 10 meter circle.

Our final exercise was more canter work. Sophie was no longer light and back to being more barrel pony on crack than she'd been in the beginning of the lesson. I know some of it was probably a little bit of fatigue, so I think that when I'm working on my own I'll do canter work early in the ride. Instead of the end like we had been doing. That may have been why we had so much trouble with the canter at the end of last lesson. At one point, when I asked for a lengthening I used a little too much of just my outside leg, and she picked up a lovely canter, I went ahead and rode it, and she kept it around the tight turn when we returned back to the wall and all the way up to the other end until I asked her to come back.

Today and the previous lesson were full length lessons, with lots of warm up to boot, but Sophie overall did very well. Both of us are gaining strength and stamina, I don't actually require breaks during the lessons anymore. And Sophie mainly gets them as a reward for doing especially well. We're at the point now where I'll sometimes just give her a few inches of rein and let her stretch her neck. Kim said that she thinks her neck is really coming along, and is much thicker now than it was (in a good way, lol). She was also soooo forward at the beginning from being worked out of spooking that Kim didn't have to tell me once not to let her get any lower. Sophie was just trucking along just like a real dressage horse. So, though it started badly, it was an overall very good lesson. I needed that, because I'm beginning to feel crampy, and have a feeling that I'm going to be starting to miscarry before the surgery on Thursday.

My last lesson of the year (and for the next four months) is tomorrow night, provided I feel well enough. I feel like we're in a really good place though, with *tons* to work on and continue improving while we're without instruction.

Oh, and I am officially crazy. I looked at the weather report and said, wow, it's warm today...because it was 23 degrees, and felt like 23 degrees.

In Ten Years...

I want to travel back in time and buy this horse. http://www.arabianhorses.org/marketplace/classified/pas_detail2.asp?id=49402 She's a Trakehner/Arabian just like Sophie, same age, but much more advanced in her training. I watched the video of her and she looks lovely and correct (especially for a half Arabian, no BTV/overflexion). And of course I like her color.

One a different note, I never realized how many dressage blogs I read until I made a blog roll, so that I can check them as they're updated instead of going to individual links only to discover they haven't been updated since I last visited. I really like blog rolls though, I've found a lot of new blogs through them on other people's pages and it was getting cumbersome to just update the blog list.

If you'd like to be added to my blog roll, and write about dressage, just make a comment or something and I'll add you. I think I got everyone that I read, but there were a couple of times where my copying may not have worked because when I pasted and hit enter I was told that blog was already on my list. So I think the new copy hadn't worked.

Can't Sleep...

I can't sleep. After being absolutely exhausted at 11 and going straight to bed, I just can't sleep. I'm not sure why. I've drank 2 bottles of water and I'm still thirsty. It might be the champagne. Not that I'm celebrating, but I like the taste of cheap, sweet champagne. On the way home from my lesson I started bawling. I sat in the truck for a few minutes, crying, and when it had mostly subsided I decided to go inside. My poor husband freaked out when he saw me, I guess I did look pretty bad when I saw myself. He thought something was wrong with Sophie. I was just sad, and frustrated, that I let it interfere with my lesson.

He hugged me and I cried on his shoulder for a few minutes until the tears subsided. Then I took a bubble bath while reading The Complete Training of the Horse and Rider and drinking raspberry champagne.

I always wondered how people know so much history of dressage, and who to like, or who to dislike as far as the old masters, but Podhjasky spells it out for you in the first 15 pages of the book, so that explains that. Reading this book has made me realize that I need to use my voice more often in rewarding Sophie. He talks about influencing the horse's senses, and the one he says is the strongest is the sense of hearing. So far I really like this book, it's very readable, and the descriptions are clear. I'm very glad that my sister got me this book for Christmas this year. I just wish I'd read it sooner.

One good thing about all of these lessons in a row is that it's giving me lots to work on over the winter, while I'm on my own. Kim said that as I practice going large around the arena at the canter, not just on my circle, that I can then begin schooling counter canter. So right now I have the following to work on:

Transitions (these are getting much better, trot-canter need more work)
Lengthenings (these too, are really coming, especially once we've cantered)
Leg Yielding (she's doing *great* at leg yielding, but needs to be hotter off my leg)
Shoulder In (great at the walk, gets it a bit at the trot)
Renvers (pretty good at the walk, haven't tried trotting)
Travers (great at the walk, haven't tried it at the trot)
Counter Canter (this'll be fun)
Turn on the Haunches (very, very baby right now, more like a 1/8th turn right now)
The canter itself (joy)

I'll probably work mostly on shoulder in for now, because when I do travers her butt gets all wiggly. She's *very* good at moving her butt from side to side and loves to offer to do so to demonstrate just how good she is at it. I feel very prepared for the winter at least. I can get her warmed up nicely and going well, and those exercises are, for the most part, confirmed enough that I can get them on my own, now they just need practice, and I need to fine tune my aids so that I'm not leaning or using my leg too far back, etc, etc.

(I don't know why Blogger says it's 12:14, my clock says 3:35.)

Losing It...

I had another lesson today. While warming up I discovered the key to travers. I was playing around while walking and asked Sophie to move her butt over with my outside leg. Presto, haunches over. I tried it again on the next long side and same thing. So when Kim came out I showed her, and she told me that it was a good start, but I needed more bend. So I tried asking her to move her haunches over before we finished the turn (since she was already bent for the turn) and then using my inside leg to ask for bend. Worked like a charm. Suddenly we were doing travers.

So we did that a bit in both directions. Then we worked on shoulder in at the walk, and then trot. Which went ok, but when I prepare my aids to ask for shoulder in Sophie thinks I'm asking her to walk, which was frustrating.

We moved on to work on cantering one direction, which really frustrated me because I was in a not so good mood to begin with, and she kept breaking and flinging her head. The more frustrated I got the worse she got. After that we did some lengthenings, which went *really* well. So well I was able to start focusing on bringing her back to a more collected trot at the end of the lengthening. Then we cantered in the other direction, which was even worse, especially when we tried to go large off of a 20 meter circle. But she got it when we tried it a few more times. We finished up with working on turn on the haunches, which went pretty well. I just need to remember to half halt *every* step, to be able to do it. Granted, it needs a lot of work, we're going to have to work on it a lot, but it's a good start.

I have another lesson Sunday night. It was 15 degrees when I was driving home, it was 25 degrees when I looked at the barn thermometer. I was surprised Kim decided to teach in that weather, but glad, even if I was having trouble keeping my emotions under control.

Beginning to Hate Winter...

Some of you may have noticed that my other blog is gone. I had a doctor's appointment yesterday (my first, at 11 weeks, insert eye roll here). The doctor started out by going over tests and procedures we could opt for, or out of. Then she did an ultrasound. The baby's heart wasn't beating. And it measured at 6 weeks, 3 days, not the almost 9 weeks it should have been measuring. I had another ultrasound with the real technician, not just the doctor, she found the same thing. She also looked at the blood flow in my uterus, and there was no blood flowing in the sac the baby was in.

I'll be having a D&C on Thursday. Craig and I, were, are, devastated. We thought that at 11 weeks I was far enough along that the risk was practically gone. We were shocked at what the ultrasound discovered.

Last winter I "lost" Jessie, due to his stifle injury. This winter I lost our baby.

It might seem odd that I'm still riding, but really, Craig and Sophie are the only things keeping me from losing it completely. Everything else in my life is going so right that it makes it easier to deal with this one major thing going wrong. I don't know what I'll do if it happens again though. I try to tell myself that at least I didn't find out in two weeks, when we would have had the nuchal scan and been in the second trimester. I just wish we'd known two weeks ago, I think it would have been a little easier to deal with.

But, that's why the other blog is gone.

Best Lesson Evah!

I have a feeling this title might get used quite a bit in the next few days. I had another lesson today, it was 21 degrees when I drove home from the barn, but still 30 degrees in the barn/indoor arena. I got Sophie ready and all was well. Warmed her up while Kim finished her lesson with a little girl learning stake and bend. Sophie and I just free walked for a bit and then leg yielded at the walk a little. After that we started trotting. I did a few leg yields and circles, but I mainly tried to stay out of the way and give Sophie a chance to warm up her muscles.

Kim had us do some leg yields and then we walked some while she helped the little girl untack the lesson horse. Then we went straight to shoulder in, which went really, really well again. Sophie is picking it up soooo quickly. I'm working on not leaning too far to the side and getting my inside leg far enough forward. I asked Kim if we could work on travers a little, if she didn't think it'd confuse Sophie, since I haven't done shoulder in/travers since last winter, with Jessie.

So we tried travers, and it just confused Sophie, she kept trotting with my leg that far back and my inside leg asking for bend. We tried it a couple of times and she was still confused, so we gave that up, and instead started to work on renvers! I guess there's a movement in Second Level where you move from shoulder in to renvers on a long side. You have to do it in the trot for the test, but we did it at the walk. At first it was hard to visualize for me, especially since I've never ridden renvers before. So Kim stood at the halfway point against the wall, so that I could change Sophie's bend around Kim and then kind of "slide" over her. I probably can't explain why it worked so well in my head, but it did. It was amazing, Sophie is a renvers pro. Of course, after doing that she was wiggling her hind end all over the place, anticipating doing more renvers.

After that we picked up the trot and worked on getting Sophie up, since she kept getting too low. It's odd, because I have to make sure my reins are short enough, or she gets low and BTV. So after lots of half halts we were ready to try shoulder in at the trot. It went ok, I was having a lot of trouble with my left leg, it was shot after trying shoulder in for so long at the walk, then the shoulder in to renvers exercise made it worse. But we did pretty well overall.

Then we cantered, and that went ok, our transitions were much better at least. Sophie was very forward (though not rushy) so we tried lengthenings across the short diagonal and she did sooooo well. It was a little strung out, on the forehand, but she lengthened. She did even better the next two times we tried it. After that we had another walk break and cantered in the other direction.

Unless Kim decides it's too cold I should have another lesson tomorrow, and one on Sunday. I don't know if I'll have one next week, since I'm going to be having a D&C sometime next week and I'm not sure if I'm going to feel up to riding after. Kim's leaving on the 11th now, so I could have a lesson Monday/Tuesday depending on how things go.

Saying it Out Loud...

I'm not pulling Sophie's mane.

Ever.

There, I said it. When I bought her it had been hacked off and looked awful. I was letting it grow, because I wanted some pictures of her with it long. But you know what, I *like* it long! I braid it for every ride and it takes less than 5 minutes. The braid stays in and looks great from beginning to end of my lesson. Then it's wavy and lovely after I undo it.

I do use a lot of detangling spray on it (and her tail), but she really likes having it brushed (as long as I do it gently if it's knotted). The most relaxed I've seen her is when I stand next to her, brushing her mane. I'm going to make up a mixture recommended on UDBB to see how well it works, since I hate just using silicone based products on her hair.

1/3 water
1/3 showsheen or other silicone based detangler
1/3 mane & tail conditioner

I've also been doing something different with her tail, knotting it near the tail bone to keep the longer hairs from dragging in the mud. I tried it during my last ride and all of the knots stayed in great and weren't tangled when I undid them last night (as week later). It didn't look like there was much in the way of breakage, but we'll see how it looks on Thursday.

I've been debating braiding it and looping it up on itself, but I'm worried about moisture staying in the tail and it rotting off. I also don't know what to do in the summer, because right now, flies are not an issue, so she's not using her tail much. I may braid it up then, if it's not as muddy.

Best Lesson Evah!

I went against my gut (which was reacting to the fact that it was 28 degrees, 18 with the wind chill) and ventured out for a lesson today. They were still bringing the horses in to eat so I checked the weather (30 degrees in the barn) and brought in my gear. Sophie was mildly happy to see me, once she was done with her grain. I got her ready, braided up her mane (4 minutes from walking to my cubby, getting my rubberband, braiding her mane, and leaving her stall for her boots!) We started warming up and I decided to try something different. Instead of just walking around for a bit, aimlessly, we leg yielded the long sides. First, just from the quarterline to the wall, and then, because she was leg yielding so well and her walk was so active, we would leg yield to the wall, away from the wall, and then back.

This went really well, and she started to come on the bit on her own. Then we trotted some circles and leg yielded in each direction to warm up. The trot leg yields were so much better after doing that warm up than they were in the middle of a lesson previously. We'd warmed up for about 20 minutes when Kim came out and the lesson started. I had Sophie a little too forward, so we did some half halts to bring her trot back a bit. We did some regular circles and worked on developing the trot after "A" while going straight ahead, and then developing the trot from the canter after a 20 meter circle while on the straightaway.

After that we made up a couple of Training Level tests and rode them. I know that they're similar to "real" tests in the movements. They went really well, a lot better than expected. Our transitions still need some work, especially the trot-canter. Our first canter-trot transition was *amazing*, completely seamless. The one in the other direction, not quite so much. The second "test" we rode was much better, though both were decent. My turn down centerline was horrible the first time, so we practiced it again before the second test and tried it with me looking at the judge's stand as I was making the turn that would lead to the turn down centerline.

While taking a walk break after the two practice tests we discussed where Sophie and I are. Other than our transitions we're solidly Training Level. Sitting trot for me isn't a problem, though I haven't done it much on Sophie because posting is easier on her back. Leg yielding is going really well. Lengthenings are ok, we've just started working on them. Counter canter isn't even a thought at this stage though. Maybe in a few more weeks we'll be ready.

On another note, we did start schooling Shoulder In today! It went sooooo well. We decided to try at the walk because she was doing so well with maintaining contact and staying forward while connected in the walk. We went to the left first, and she did incredible. We just walked and I maintained my position, with my leg forward, asking for a little bend with the inside rein but mainly using my leg and then pulling her over with the outside rein. Worked like a charm, she did great, stayed on the bit, though I could hear her working the bit with her mouth as we did it. We did it a few times to the left, and then tried it to the right, where she was even better. I was doing a better job of not sitting too far to the inside, so that may have helped. I was also able to give releases with the right rein much more often, almost like clockwork.

We decided to call it quits there because she was so good. And Kim isn't leaving until the 10th now, so we should get a couple more lessons in before she goes.