I want to apologize to you fans as I probably will end up only writing once this week. Its busy at work and before you know it by the time I get home its late and time to crawl into bed.
Thursday - Lesson Day
This was a particularly bad week at work, and I felt the stress as I headed to the barn. I relized as I drove that this lesson was going to go one of two ways, either I'm going to drop all my stress and work crap the moment I hit the barn and I won't think of it again till I get back in the car. OR Oz is going to fight me also, and its going to be total fusteration and war, a lesson that will end in both of us mad at each other. I've had those type of lessons before, where I just wonder WHY am I paying for this lesson, WHY do I have this horse, DO I relize how financially better I'd be without a horse.... Now I haven't had those type of lessons or thoughts since we've switched barns, but I have had them before. Today was going to be a good lesson evening. I go out to the field to get Oz, and still feeling sour and cranky, only to find him curled up in a ball sleeping. So I got to cuddle in with him for about 10 minutes. Oz has always been one of those horses, that if he loves you and trusts you, when he's lying down you can curly up in his legs and lean up against him and either sleep or just soak in the moment where you go.... I am cuddled into 2000 lbs of pure power and beauty, and he loves me so much.
Once I got him to his feet, he was a big of a slow slug, but we headed to the ring for our lesson. We worked on the flat work for a bit, with bending, cantering and working on connection and him paying attention to me. He was a wee big of a slug in the arena also. So after being told to perk up a bit, he got a quick spank and then instead of pouting he put a bit more effort into the lesson. He was really working in the ring, his canter is still a wee bit weak, but my legs aren't all there to keep him going also. But its coming along. We can do a couple of laps around the ring at the canter before it falls apart, and he just starts to speed up and lean in. Once his canter starts to go its hard to bring him back to a balanced canter. Then Brianne set up about 5 jumps, and one cross rail oxerish style. And we started to work on that, on me telling him which way to go after the jump. For the hour we worked, it felt amazing, although I don't think I've had a bad lesson yet. Lessons now, leave me with homework to do, things we should work on and things we should wait till our coach is there, we certainly get all our moneys worth as we are both sweating and out of breath by the end, and yet they leave me wanting to go on for a longer and longer lesson... until my legs pretty much crumble underneith me. The whole lesson I finally felt connected with Oz, that as I was thinking of the next move, it was like he was reading my thoughts. Everything seemed to come together! Even Brianne mentioned that she can't wait to see the pair of us in a year from now.
Friday was just a practice session for the pair of us. We worked mostly on flat work and with collection. Oz finally figured out if he went on the bit, not only did he get mass amount of praise but it was just easier for him. There were times in both the walk and trot, where he was so beautifully collected that he looked like some of the advertising that you see for high level dressage horses. It took most of the ride before he just started to do it for a full length of the ring. But it is there. Although we moved from our beautiful collection work to jumping. And with this we will need to work under Brianne some more, as Oz then started to have a beautiful bend at the poll, on the bit, and just looked elegant, only to head to a jump like this and not be ready for it. So we worked on some more jumps and he was great, I think as we continue both Oz and my confidence level keeps dramatically increasing. I'd swear Oz is getting to the point he's starting to get tired off trotting up to cross poles. And there were a few jumps during both our lesson and our practice session that he was cantering to. And that jump felt so easy and non jarring. Although through out our practice session there were times where I wondered - if everytime we get on a horse we are either teaching them something good or something bad. And our times when its just him and I, I can feel that there are things that we are doing as a pair that don't feel just right, and without Brianne on the ground to instruct us, it feels risky that I'm just instilling in a movement or behaviour that is incorrect. So I ended the practicing and was feeling a bit concerned about our show on Saturday, as it was just us going, Brianne was in Alberta, and the other boarders were going to the Kelowna show. SOHA definately has great and supportive members, but after a so so practice session I wondered about how this show was Igoing to end up.