I had a great ride Sunday night! I think it helped that Paige was giving a lesson to an adult beginner the whole time I was in the indoor arena, so I knew she was watching me ride.  Why can't I ride better when no one is watching?  We practiced turning with an indirect rein and cantering (which still needs a lot of work).  I'm having a hard time getting Dandy to pick up the correct lead using outside leg pressure.  For some reason, he picks up his leads better with inside pressure.  Unfortunately, a judge will be able to see if I use a strong inside signal to begin cantering, so he'll have to learn correct way.  I blame Sonny for teaching him that way...

We also practiced trotting and cantering over two ground poles, and he seems to be getting less nervous about them.  He's not trying to jump them.  Instead, he feels like he's floating, because he lifts his legs so nicely.

I rode him pretty hard, so it took forever to get him cooled out.  Fortunately, my new Rambo/Horseware Ireland cooler really sucks the moisture out of his coat, so it saves me some drying time (and he looks super cute in blue and white stripes).

I got the car tires changed on Monday afternoon, so I was able to go to Loveland despite the icy roads.  We practiced cantering more, but he seemed a bit worn out after Sunday's ride so I took it easy on him.  I met Laurie, who was riding in the indoor at the same time, and she just switched from western to English a few months ago.  Her horse is a lanky, black quarter horse with a pretty star.  She said that she decided to switch to something new when she noticed that her horse seemed to let out a defeated sigh every time she approached with the western saddle.  She's riding him in a dressage saddle now.

I had to miss my scheduled lesson tonight, because I developed a nasty cold yesterday afternoon (which I'm sure had nothing to do with driving my heater-less car to Loveland the night before).  We rescheduled for Saturday morning, so hopefully I'll perk up by then.  Dandy will be wild from eating and not working all week!

I had a really long riding lesson Wednesday night.  We rode hard for about an hour and twenty minutes.  We worked on bending without overbending, and it was really challenging.  Paige noticed that I had worked on my two-point position and my transitions which felt good, but I still need to work on my shoulder position more. 

We cantered a lot in the lesson working on turning with an indirect rein, but for some reason Dandy kept picking up the wrong lead in both directions.  I feel like I don't know him well enough to predict his leads accurately yet.  Usually, I can just feel which lead a horse is going to take, but I'm not good at that yet with Dandy.  We had already been riding hard for an hour when Paige had me work on jumping over a 12" jump.  She had me circle at a canter at one end of the arena and then incorporate the jump into my circle each time around.  It was challenging to get Dandy positioned right while continuing to circle.  After we jumped on the circle she let me jump him on a straightaway to see how much easier it would be.  The circle jumping seems to take away my anxiety leading up to the jump, because I only have time to get Dandy in position and then the jump is there.   He seems to be getting better at timing the jump.

Dandy was exhausted after the lesson, so I figured I'd give him a few days off.  Unfortunately, another winter storm was coming Thursday night, so I got the car running and went down for a quick ride Thursday evening.  I was lucky, because there was only one other person riding in the indoor, a rarity for a weeknight.  I didn't ride him too long, but we cantered for most of the ride.  Of course, he didn't miss a single lead.  Isn't that just typical? When the pressure was off and no one was watching, we did it just right. 

I'm heading out to go riding in a few minutes.  I'm going to work on cantering and using an indirect rein, so I'll be ready for Wednesday's lesson.  I probably will have to ride indoors since it's been snowing a few days.  Even if it has melted, it gets pretty slick and squishy in the outdoor arenas.

I'm having my fourth lesson on Dandy today. I started him on Strategy feed this weekend (not much), and he was HYPER on the trail last night. Much better than his usual sluggish attitude. I did the whole loop at J bar S and mostly practiced trotting and cantering in two point. It's hard to keep my calves on him and not pinch my knees in two point, because I have a 35 in inseam. My lower legs want to swing out to support the weight of my upper body. I have to work on staying tall and keeping my shoulders back. Damn my heavy monkey arms!

Dandy got a lovely pedicure by the farrier before our ride and he definitely needed it!