I must be crazy.

....but life would be considerably less fun if I wasn't!

Yesterday's lesson went well. It was pouring rain, and the outdoor was FLOODED, literally, I think it had an inch of water throughout it, so I was inside with a snaffle bit. I had a lesson with Noodle and with a horse named Ripley. We're all around the same age and experience, so it was a blast. We were mostly alone in the arena, and we did a ton of flatwork. Extend the walk, collect the walk, two point, trot, post, sit, collect, extend, reverse, turn on the haunches, canter, extend, collect, etc. We [very surprisingly] didn't drop our stirrups. We started off jumping a little crossrail on a circle and stopping after it. We were supposed to get in our two point and just basically not touch our reins and let our horses find the distance. It was a little unsettling to not hold Sasha to the fence, but she was very good. She cantered a stride in front of it once or twice, but she made the distance work every time. <3

After doing that a few times, we did the crossrail to a diagonal in and out. They were the only two....obstacles? in the arena, but we had to do it as smoothly as possible otherwise we had to turn around and keep doing it. Sasha was very good. She gets a little strong to diagonals - I'm not sure why, most likely something I'm doing, or maybe it's the long ride to them - but she only did it once. I was trying to collect her to the jump because she has a giant stride and this was a little bit tight for her, but she was fighting me a little. She took a long spot and leapt over the first jump, got no release, and then settled down. I did the usual canter a circle on a long rein after the jump to get her to relax, and that worked very well. It's amazing with her; she can be racing around like a mad woman, but if you simply loosen the reins and get out of her face, she will drop her head, blow out a big breath, and lope around.

The second jump became an oxer, and she started listening better after that. We only jumped up to 2'6", 2'9", but it was done well, so I'm satisfied. I remember when I first started jumping about four years ago how 2'3" was HUGE. Now, it's a baby warm up jump. Or when I lost my heel over 3'? Now, I'm very comfortable at that height and my leg stays solid. 

I walked Sasha around outside once the rain died down to cool her out, and I put her away and did my stalls [I do Sasha and my mom's pony's stalls on the weekend to help with board.] I was hanging around the barn for the afternoon, and after doing some things, I got bored. Sasha stayed in because it was on and off heavy raining, so I got an idea. Here's where the crazy part comes in.

She had her Baker on, and I threw her halter on with a lead rope clipped to either side. See where this is going? I led her out to the aisle, got one of those jumping block things, got a friend to hold her, and got on. I was ONLY going to walk her up and down the aisle with someone leading her, and then I decided she was being good after a few steps, so then I walked down the aisle alone. Then I thought, hey, why don't I go into the arena? I went in and walked around in the middle, out of the way of the lessons. She was being very very good and stopped on a dime and was very soft. My friends [gotta love barn friends <3] then go "Hey, you should trot Sasha!" I went, "no, I'm too young to die! =P"

After a few more circles, I start to think "Hmm....maybe I won't!" And I trot her around a bit. Yup, definitely a screw loose. Bareback with a halter. My friends got some cell phone pictures, I should put them up if I can.

Nothing to do today except ride and do stalls. It should be fun!