alive and well!

Thanks so much for the well-wishes! I had a few very ouchy days where I resembled a 90 year old lady more than my 25 year old self, BUT, I am feeling much better now. My road rash is almost healed, and I had a wonderful, productive, confidence-building lesson yesterday. It was the first time I had gotten on since my fall, and I felt good that I was riding under the watchful eye of my instructor. It was comforting to have him there with me.

Lucy actually was quite stellar. It was an exhausting ride for me, mainly because my body was still a bit sore, but also because Lucy is very physically demanding to ride correctly. She had Monday off, so by the time my lesson rolled around on Tuesday, she was full of energy. Some of the lesson was like a carousel ride gone bad lol, because she just hauled me around the entire time. She also thought she was finished each time we took a walk break, which meant that when I asked her to work again, she got very pissy and threw out repetitive cow-kicks, etc. My instructor talked me through it all and in the end I got a really lovely canter to the left, where I was able to muster up enough energy to put it all together and get her organized underneath me. WOW, guys...when this horse moves correctly, it is so nice. I am really starting to understand her buttons, and to break some of my nasty hunter rider habits.

So here are two videos with some clips from the ride:





Today after work I felt revitalized and empowered with what we had worked on in yesterday's lesson. At the same time, though, I was getting REALLY tired of the same old flatwork, so I decided to set up some crossrails and see how Lucy did. I warmed her up thoroughly on the flat first, and we practiced what we worked on in the lesson yesterday. She was surprisingly receptive to my aids and we had a few lovely moments. Then we popped over some crossrails and she was so cute. She was very honest and really surprised me when she got an incorrect lead coming out of one of the crossrails but threw a flying lead change on her own accord in the first stride out. What a smart horse :)