Lesson Warm Up...

These first couple of pictures are from when I was warming up on my own. I was focused on encouraging her to move out and reach for the bit. I was trying to ride on a longer rein and mainly paying attention to my position. I've noticed that my legs are always tense when I ride, so I'm trying to keep them relaxed and sit back and keep my head up. When I say I ride with my legs tense, it's not constantly squeezing her every stride, they're just not relaxed. Of course, I had a lot more trouble maintaining it during the "real" part of the lesson.

Oh, I'd also like to mention that I was wearing my shoulders back device for this lesson. I think it helped a lot, it was more of a reminder than anything, though I could feel it working. My shoulders ached the next day (along the top of them). I took a day off before riding again to give my shoulders a chance to recover. I plan to ride in it every ride, as it didn't limit my movement at all, I mean, it's made of cloth and velcro, if I *really* wanted my shoulders forward they would go forward!

And always, you can click on the pictures to make them bigger.


And then warm up once my instructor entered the ring.






Drool...