An unremarkable lesson (yay!!) <- not sarcasm

I know if there was any sort of rules to how you should name a blog post, I'm probably breaking them. Yesterday's lesson was on Chewie, the been-there-done-that pony that has to be ridden in grazing reins. We worked on canter to trot transitions in a busy arena. I got better at the squeeze-cluck-crop combo. There was crazy lightening going on outside, but the horses didn't care at all. It always makes me wonder why thunder storms don't concern a pony but the littlest things do...

While I was waiting for my lesson, I watched what I assume was a beginner dressage group lesson. These aren't beginner riders, they seem like women who have hunter/jumper backgrounds that are learning dressage. I watched them work on a collected trot. One person was getting frustrated because the horse kept tossing his head. The instructor's advice was: ignore it for now, just focus on what we're working on. Normally, I watch these advance classes just to see what good riding looks like, but this time, Chewie happened to toss his head a lot and, remembering that, I ignored it! Good thing, too, because if my instructor is focused on my transitions, she's not going to know that my transition was wonky because the head toss was distracting me, (or my outside stirrup slipped, which is always the most distracting thing for me). I'm used to thinking up excuses for why I didn't perfectly execute something, but really there is no excuse for letting your attention waver.

All in all, the lesson was unremarkable. I improved incrementally in my transitions and got more comfortable with other riders in the ring. D wants me to ride a mare called Joy next. She also wants me to go over jumps again! I'm a little concerned about my jumping position (we didn't work on it this week and I was barely getting it last week), but hopefully grabbing some mane mid-air will keep things somewhat orderly.