Great lesson! :)

Again, with the bugs here in Texas. GAH! I was totally creeped out on Saturday at the barn. There were these ENORMOUS, noisy, fat bugs buzzing around. They'd come really close, make me freeze/cower, and buzz away before I could get a good look at what the hell they were. I'm pretty sure they're hornets, though. I was riding Antares, and I saw these damn things buzzing all around us (the horses didn't seem worried, so I tried to take solace in that), and asked Richard, "WHAT are these ENORMOUS BUGS?!" He said he had no idea (comforting), and that they all hatched a couple days before. Ugh!

I had a fantastic lesson today on Bolero (I love that guy). The first 10-15 minutes, I was getting yelled at for not getting him to lower his head/neck, which in turn will raise and relax his back. He's very tight in the back, although I couldn't really feel it until he actually relaxed, and then I could tell the difference. We started off with probably 10 minutes of walking, doing shoulder-ins, leg-yields, and I believe haunches-in (can't remember). Then we went into the trot, and worked on getting him supple and elastic. I played with the reins a lot, and tried to keep my upper body upright. I have a tendency to roll my shoulders forward--hell, I do it when I walk! We did some leg-yields, and shoulder-ins. My issue is, I'm so used to having to "force" a horse to do a shoulder-in, rather than just letting it happen, so I "ride too hard" as Richard puts it, and end up confusing/upsetting Bolero, and have to do the exercise over again. But when I finally relaxed and just focused on feeling what Bolero was doing, and changing my aids to adjust to him, rather than "riding too hard", it just happened. Same with haunches-in, though those were much more difficult. Richard throws so many commands at me, I seriously can't keep up. However, he did say I had the best trot he's seen on the horse in two months!! :)

We also did flying changes (where the horse switches leads at the canter)! I've never done an actual flying change, at least not on purpose. ;) They were difficult to say the least, and we did them on the "short diagonal", so I only had half the arena to get it done, which made it even harder. I kept panicking as we got closer and closer to the next corner, and I would cut the corner, and Richard would yell at me, and we'd start all over again. The really good thing that came out of this is that I actually felt what I was supposed to be doing in the canter depart. God, it's exhilarating!!! I can't describe it. His canter is awesome, but to be able to feel him lift up in the canter just from me shifting my weight is completely thrilling. I can't believe how much I'm learning, and I actually feel I'm progressing a lot every lesson. It's unreal. Richard says, "We'll make you a Grand Prix rider yet." HA! He did say I'm a beautiful rider, and that I'm good in that I can change the way I ride from "trying to force something to happen" to "changing how you ride by the feel of the horse". And when I do the latter, it IS beautiful--I can feel it! :) (Michael, I've seriously gotta get you out here to take pics one of these days... :) ) Richard says he was very happy with the lesson. Yay. :)

Bolero is supposed to be leaving in a couple weeks (boo), but apparently his owner hasn't paid her bill for the month, nor have they been able to get ahold of her. That's very odd, as the horse was pretty expensive (I'm not entirely sure, but considering that he was imported from Germany and that he's trained to Grand Prix, I'm guessing $50k-$100k... wouldn't be surprised if it was more). People who buy expensive horses don't neglect their bills--barns can take a lien on a horse for that. So it's a little odd, but I'm sure it's just a misunderstanding or something.