2nd Clinic Day

Wow. Today was a combination of intense, good, frustrating, exhausting, fun and great all rolled into one. We started the day with most of the other people saddled up. Myself and one other person had more work to do before we or Greg felt our horses were ready. Chance came in with braces everywhere, front end, back end, lowering his head, backing. So we started with lead bys, did more lead bys and more lead bys. That was the frustrating part. My timing was off, I wasn't asking him to do enough of the work and Chance was trying to figure it all out. Greg watched and helped us get it pretty close to the way it should be. Chance was pulling and I wasn't bumping him back with enough to fix it.

By lunch time backing was much lighter, dropping his head is better (not perfect but better) and I had a saddle on him. We were both pretty darn glad it was lunch time because we needed a break. After lunch the saddle went back on, we did more lead bys, some flag work and then to the round pen. With some help from a couple of people (a little more help than I think I wanted) we got some nice transitions. His work ethic was definetly lacking, but with encouragement he tried with everything he had today.

After the round pen it was back to the ring and time to get on. One of my goals for the weekend was to ride my horse without feeling like I want to throw up. I accomplished it! We have tons of work to do from the saddle now but I had a good start today.

What I love about this year is the amount of detail Greg is getting into with us. Today he spent quite a bit of time talking about seat bones and the correct way to use them. He gave us a great demonstration with a coat hanger and a barrel. He also talked about how much weight to put in our stirrups so our seat bones just float on the horse instead of jabbing into the horse like the sharp heel of a shoe.

Earlier today I started to worry about coming home and having the ability to continue with the progress we made today. Then I told myself to knock it off! I feel that today ended right where I left off last year and I still have 3 days left to ride with Greg.

Okay, so I promised myself that I would write down at least one good thing that happened everyday. Today I have 2.
#1 - After Greg did some flag work with Chance he told me that there has been such a change in him from last year that he feels like a completely different horse now. Even with the braces he feels much better now, all the bad feelings Chance had last year are gone.
#2 - After lunch as I was on my way to get Chance and dreading the lead bys we were about to do again and wondering if I was ever going to get it right, a Mom of one of the other riders stopped me and told me I was a great inspiration to her. She told me how brave I was, what a nice job I am doing with my horse and that my love for him really shows as we work. Then she said that when her kids are little older she wants to do exactly what I am doing. I don't think I have ever gotten such a wonderful compliment. I thanked her for what she said and was so grateful for her timing because when I got my horse I wasn't dreading the lead bys anymore and everything just seemed to fall into place.