The inevitable lesson DOOOOOOM

Or maybe not doom. That just makes it sound more dramatic.

Sooo we have our latest evaluation: poneh and I are having technical difficulties with our turns. We are introducing her (or maybe just teaching her my way- I'm sure she already knows) to the lovely turn off outside aids concept. Part of it is entirely my fault- I tend to open my rein rather than taking it straight back, which just confuses everything. I think that will help us soo much with our courses.

Also, because pony thinks she's hot stuff (hahaha), and I curl up into the fetal position and pray for the best, we are working transitions in between fences and halting/backing up/etc. so I'll SIT UP FOR CHRISSAKES, ELIZABETH. Hrrgh, it's the blasted lower back of mine- yoga, my friends. Must.man.up. and go to yoga. I honestly have no idea that it *wiggles* as much as it does. THE WIGGLE. It's like a disease, I tell you. *Le sigh.* But I did finally master the lifting-the-chest thing, which will help. I just have to *feel* it, and then I can replicate it in the future. I'm glad I have a Nazi trainer. It makes life so much easier.

Man, this is all so stream-of-consciousness.

Anyways, hmm. She's a smart little booger, as I have said. When I was trying to do a circle on the outside aids only, she kept swapping leads. She's nice and smooth, I will give her that, but uh, I think she was confused. Maybe a little ouchy somewhere too- she's been worked hard lately. Gonna give her a hardcore massage-liniment-clip-sparkle spa day tomorrow after I ride. I'd like to just let her be a pony, but since I have the show looming in my face and I went for a hack the other day, I should probably school some flatwork- just stretchy stuff and turning, I think.

Six months from now, we'll be rockin' the AQHA circuit (if I can get a job to pay for this endeavor.) Just gotta keep telling myself that.

Ok, so here's our new list:

-Fix my retarded position, from locked ankles to pinching knees to crooked seat to THE WIGGLE to hunchy two point. Whoo, one thing at a time, and lots of bareback and no-stirrups in our future. I imagine once I'm balanced, she'll be much better.

Thank GOD I have nice hands- they're my pride, hahaha.

-Start more hardcore outside rein work. (That sounds painful.) I just mean inside leg/outside rein to save our poor little outside shoulder.

-Make our work interesting. She could care less about little crossrails and the low verticals that make up most of our fence work. But guess what? She's only four. So that's as high as we're getting (nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah :)) until her back is closed. In the meantime, once we're balanced, we're gonna do broken-lines and rollbacks over groundpoles and practice leads and do canter-halt-canter transitions and whatever else it takes to get us ready for big stuff.


As for the show, we're going to stick with our Green classes and our two foot. I'm with Patti on this- she said she doesn't care if we trot a fence or two in the long stirrup class- it's not about the ribbon, it's about learning. She also said we should enter one flat class from every division, right up to the big scary fancy hunters, just to get used to the environment and the competition. I like this idea. I can flip my number up if I need to. BTB isn't rated- it's where everyone locally, from the AQHA to RMI to PSJ to the lower-level HITS stuff comes to cool off and have a good time for a cheap trophy. Just have fun and try to learn, I figure :)