Riding in the Rain

Before I talk about today, just a quick note about my experience at Kerri's place last weekend. 

Walker and I had a great experience. Kerri really stretched me mentally and physically. Walker got to show off how far he has matured with his respect and impulsion. After feeling a little unsure about the ball early in our online session, we returned to it in between other tasks, and as you can see in the pic, he was pretty OK with it by the end of the morning, bouncing it off his back from both sides. I realized, again, that many of my horses limitations are really my limitations. 
He struggles with zone 3 still, but that's OK. We're going to keep plugging away and one day he'll be OK with it. I need to be better at accepting my horses timeline on that one. 
He was really great when I asked him to circle at the canter, freestyle, with my arms crossed across my chest. What a feeling of partnership!
I have to accept the great with the not so great and make all of it better over time. Frustration is counterproductive. 


With that in mind, today I thought it would be great if I brought Mav with Walker and me into the arena. It was raining very lightly, so we were all slightly wet throughout our play session. While Walker and I played with zone 3, jumping a single barrel and going sideways over a single barrel, Mav chose to climb up on the pedestal to look down at the other horses in the turnout. He definitely knows how to amuse himself. 
Walker really struggled with zone 3 today, even though two days ago, he offered to jump the single barrel. I never know from one day to the next how he will feel about the zone 3 tasks, so it takes all of my equanamity to not get frustrated when he loses his confidence. 
As I was playing with getting canter transitions online with Walker, something that we were able to improve pretty quickly today, Mav rolled in the arena dirt. As he was wet from the rain, he made himself a nice mud coat. He even had splotches of mud all over his face. Then he just hung out and followed us with his ears and eyes. 
Then, it was time to ride Walker. Because of the rain, I decided to ride with my bareback pad. We did mostly right circles to help Walker bend his ribs to the right. Then we did bow ties and Walker offered the left lead. Fantastic!
Now it was time to see if I could get Mav to come along with us. At first, he did not really want to move, but when I gently insisted, he trotted up and down the arena with us at Liberty, at one point even offering a lovely canter. Fun!

Then it was clear that he was done moving, so Walker and I did freestyle cross-armed right circles, at least four. So lovely, so calm. Even bareback, I felt glued to Walker's back. Pilates for Dressage, Gilad and 22 lbs of weight loss have all helped make me a much more confident rider. Just a short 15 months ago, I had never ridden Walker freestyle and bareback. I am so competitive with myself, it's a good exercise to remind myself how far and fast we have progressed. 
Even though we did not do any left circles, I knew it was time to quit. I have to remember, I am playing for tomorrow. And tomorrow is soon enough to do left circles.

In fact, the day before, Wendy and I hung out at the barn and discussed that very thought. We laughed, because she reminds me that I have to focus more on playing for tomorrow, and I remind her to be more in the moment when she is playing with her horses. Both of us are learning to be a five with our intention.  
I finished my day with a lovely dinner with family to celebrate my Mom's 87th birthday. We had fun together. I can only hope to look as good as my Mom does at her age. I fully expect to still be spending time playing with and riding horses at that age!