Thursday Lesson Day

So far my lessons have been on Thursdays, other than at the beginning of the month when I had three lessons in a row to try out a couple of different barns/trainer. Today was my third lesson with Julie and my first lesson with her off the lunge. It was great and I am enjoying her ability and training more and more. I was especially happy when she climbed on the horse today to show me something as people in this area seem to be either teachers or riders and not both. I am a very visual learner so when watching someone do something I learn a lot more than when being told how to do something.

I have some homework to work on, of course :-), which includes stabilizing my torso and changing where I hold my hands a bit. Mostly though I'm very excited to get Katai there because then I will have very different things to work on vs. riding a well trained school horse. I move her in just over one week!!!! I have just a few more things to get ready and one more lesson before the big move and I just can't wait.

In Katai land things have been great! After a few days completely off everything other than a little light groundwork and grooming I rode yesterday, without a bit of course to let her mouth heal, and she was really good! I got some nice forward, relaxed, back swinging moments from her despite her being extremely jumpy for some reason. Katai tends to be quite hot, my little redhead, but she's usually not spooky at all. However, yesterday she was freezing and jumping at everything. Luckily she has this tiny freezy-in-place-thing that really isn't hard to sit but it just. kept. happening. Ah well.

I also managed to get a bunch of mane pulling done which is good because with how thick he mane is she could easily sport a Fjord type Mohawk if I wanted her to. I did a lot of pampering and grooming with her as well. Unfortunately the current barn doesn't have running water anywhere that's easy to get to so trying to scrub her stains off will be tough but its something I feel I need to do before the move. I am certainly no grooming queen and she is a bit of a hairy mess right now but transferring her to a new barn covered in stains is not ok in my mind. Now I just have to figure how I'm going to get rid of them! People with bay horses have it so much easier...