Lesson!

I know, it's been awhile. But never fear that I'm not keeping track of my New Year's Resolution! I have a special calendar, which contains snippets of my ride, or giant sad faces on the days that I didn't ride.

So, lesson today! I'd been practicing backing (the truck and trailer, that is!) I left a little bit early so that I could back into my designated parking space in the daylight. Which my instructor gave me a bit of a hard time for, but at least she got me to park there. It's a better lit spot, for tacking up when it gets dark so early!

Since Trouble hadn't had any real work in awhile (the 9 inches of snow, remember?) she was happy and eager (mostly) to do my bidding. We still had three moments of, "I thought I was done! I don't want to go more!" tantrums, but they weren't as strong as what I'd been dealing with at home, pre-snow.

Anyway, we worked a good bit on shoulder-fore (a moderated version of shoulder-in). We did alright tracking right, but had a good bit of trouble going right. That's Trouble less bendy direction, anyway. So we digressed into a leg yield along the wall. Where we are 30 deg to the wall, and moving parallel to the wall. That at least got Trouble moving off my leg. I definitely need to work at staying straight for that. I get all discombobulated, which isn't helping Trouble at all!

So we have homework! Leg yields along the wall, getting her moving off my leg. Instructor said to just do that much and get it good, and then we'll get back to shoulder-fores and even shoulder-outs. Very convoluted stuff, but it all should help Trouble become more bendy in both directions.

AND, the most exciting news of the day. I've been feeding the horses old Nature's Valley granola bars. They're just too soft (old and stale!) to be good people-eating food anymore. Trouble, as always, is happy to oblige with getting rid of them. The box we have is a giant variety pack. Both critters have sampled the Oats and Honey and the Maple varieties. Today, they had Peanut Butter. Trouble has decided that those are HER FAVORITE THING OF EARTH. Hmmm, might have to get some more of those!