A woman and her horse. Jann sent me this marvelous picture yesterday taken of her and Vento out in his field. It's marvelous for several reasons. First, don't they look good together? The grass is green, the sky is blue, and it's cool enough in Germany that Jann's wearing layers. Vento is happy to get his carrot, which he deserved after a bad experience with anesthesia wearing off too soon during a visit by the equine dentist last Friday.
I rode Asia last Saturday and Sunday and India on Sunday. Also, I successfully backed my trailer into its parking space, manuevering it next to the green carport cover and not covering up the gate to the cow pasture. It only took me two tries and I sent a cell phone picture of my awesome backing job to many people. I rock. When I finally download pictures off the wee Sony camera, I'll put one up of the trailer tucked neatly into its spot. (Hey, it's not rocket science, but I take my joys where I find them and backing a trailer, especially not a goose-neck, is not the easiest thing in the world. I've been working on it a long time. :-)
Asia is benefitting from all the riding I've been doing the past week with her. We ride up to hay field that's just been cut and trot all around its perimeter. It undulates and Asia wants to speed up, but I ask her to maintain the trot. She's quite confused by this and I'm enjoying the new conversation we're having as we work together. It's so apparent that somewhere in her past she was taught that she'd trot a large circle to the left, then one to the right, then canter circle to the left and trot for three strides and pick up the right lead canter and it is very frustrating to her that I'm not following this pattern. She's working it out in her brain and the first two rides she wrung her tail and had a small meltdown when I wouldn't let her canter when she thought we should. The last three rides I've seen improvements as she's still confused as to why I won't follow the pattern she knows we should be taking, but she's thinking about it and not automatically picking up canters on circles, although she doesn't understand that she can trot up a hill when it's so much easier to canter. But trot we do and she's enjoying the work and I am enjoying her. I'm riding her several times a week. It's wonderful.
If I can download the movies I took, you'll see India working with Jenny. There was round pen work followed by under saddle in the large arena. India remembered leg yielding and two rein stops and her right lead canter departures were really good, until I got on and couldn't get the right lead to save our lives. It's me, dear readers, it's me. Isn't it always? Well, I've decided that I need to work on opening my right hip as the best Jenny and I can figure out is that even though I'm thinking about what I should be telling India about the right lead, I'm not following through as I can get at best, one stride. So, I'm looking for yoga dvds and if you've got one gathering dust, please send it to me. I alternate running and doing a bit of Pilates most mornings, but it seems that although the Pilates is going great things, I need that yoga to open and relax where I'm stiff, which is my right hip. Whenever I mountain bike and am coasting and not pedaling, for safety's sake I keep my feet in the 9 and 3 o'clock position and guess which is my stronger foot that feels more comfortable leading? If you guessed the left foot, you win! For a picture of this, look right. See me leading with the left foot as I ride off that rock at Phil's World on the prettiest bike on the planet? So, even though I've not been on a bike in way too long, when I next ride, I'll practice having the right foot lead. I have done that in the past, but not often enough and certainly not when I felt like the trail was a bit gnarly. It's mountain biking so more often than not, the trail's a bit gnarly.
In other news, I don't know if it's possible to overdose on Brown Cow yogurt, but stay tuned. The Kroger started carrying it about three months ago and I eat at least two of the vanilla ones every day. I'd eat more, but I feel as though I should try for moderation. Some days I give in and have three. If Kroger quits carrying it, I shall cry.
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