Waiting is really hard

I have a lot of fun exciting things to look forward to this weekend...and a lot going on between now and then. All good things and as much as being busy can be a bit of a whirlwind, I tend to thrive.

We have been lucky to have quite warm weather move in so its been easy to stay motivated to ride.

Much to Tillie's dismay

I hopped on last night after showing my old trailer to a few interested people and I am reallllly hopeful it sells so I can go get my new trailer for the weekend. I kept the ride pretty light and just pushing some buttons to be sure we were agreeable and on the same page.

She started off a bit distracted since there was a lot going on...amazing when its warm how lessons pick up, leasers are around etc. So when I initially started connecting her at the walk she was a bit fussy.

floppy ears!

But I focused on using my legs and getting her forward in the walk to concentrate. Once I had a reasonable walk and she could bend and counterbend off my leg I ask for a trot. I did some gradual leg yields to help get her testing her balance and was really impressed with how well she settled into them. She stayed much straighter BOTH ways too!!

I will not look at you

I did some ground poles and felt her fill up the contact even more and it felt really nice. She even offered stretch and stated on the contact while doing it for an entire circle!!! I let her catch her breath before cantering and she did beautiful transitions into both leads and I really forced myself to not stay on a 20m circle and stay large around the ring. It paid off!! While she got a big a few times, it was never unbalanced or out of control. She came right back and down to a nice trot after a few rebalancing steps.

After another walk break, I picked her back up and we worked on lengthening around the whole ring and Tillie really seemed to enjoy it. She did break into the canter (albeit a lovely one!) but I dont hate that...she was really trying and I just need to figure out the balance of toeing the line without breaking. I know it will come.

showing off her newly trimmed mane

From here I decided to pop over a few little jumps just to test if we could keep it chill...and Tillie actually offered to jump the cross rails and come back to trot without me even asking...it felt more or less like I thought it and it happened :) So we upped the height a bit and jumped around at about 2'9 and Tillie just felt flawless. 

We jump jumps!!!

 She really cracked her back over a few and really enjoyed herself. After the last fence she dug down and was a bit heavy, but she came back after a short "victory" lap that wasnt out of control, warp speed or containing any airs above the ground.

All in all it was a great brief ride. I could really get used to these! Now we need to practice for the dressage show this weekend!!!!