Half seat's half-way there

Yesterday's lesson was on Pan, another special champion pony. I really appreciate how all the horses at this barn have amazing show records. Anyways, Pan likes to fall in...to the right! Yay, Pan, you are different from the other two ponies that fall in to the left! I was doing a terrible job of combatting it, because as much as my head understands it, my body refuses to believe that keeping my right elbow where it's supposed to be with feel of the bit will and closing the right rein will keep Pan from falling in if I use right leg as needed and open the left rein a bit. It just seems so counter-intuitive! Finally, a barn dog ran into the ring and upset Pan a little bit and Danielle made me turn us around and do the long side over, being extra insistent he trot past the trouble spot. It was the importance placed on the task that convinced me to do it.

And with that, we were free to work on my half seat. It's not good, guys. And the little ponies really show that, as Danielle pointed out, because there isn't much to hold on to. I'm frustrated because I only have so much time to practice. I talked to Danielle about getting extra rides in, but there's no space for any sort of rides on Saturday for me. My only option would be a half lease and they are way to expensive at this barn. I'm going to stew on this, and in the meantime, do some serious ab exercises to stablize my core. It's the only thing I can think of to work on half seat when I'm out of the saddle!