Trapezoidal

I had probably the best ride I've ever had on my own yesterday, working on what we were supposed to practice over the weekend from Thursday's lesson:  That outside hind leg thing?  Where I post the outside leg toward the inside ear after moving his shoulders out of the way?  THAT'S the key to getting him on the bit.  Not the straightness of the shoulders themselves.  The shoulders just have to become unstuck so that energy can...come forward, go in the right direction, whatever it needs to do.

At one point, I very strongly for the first time felt something my trainer had described to me months ago, and I never fully understood: the aids for the shoulder in feel trapezoidal.  I was missing a corner of the trapezoid.  Inside leg to outside rein to contain the energy, but then you gotta direct it too.  Am I thinking correctly here?  It didn't even feel like a change in the way I rode or posted, just a shift in the way I thought, but it had huge effects on the way Connor went.

This winter is going to be Serious Dressage Time, I can just feel it.  I'm ready for it!

Austen gave me this pad when I visited her this weekend and told me to have fun driving JenJ crazy with the color against Connor's coat.  Don't worry, it will look way better after he's clipped this week.

Scenes from my weekend (wedding at my alma mater, staying the weekend with Austen):

My dorm

Half of my dorm

The classiest strip joint in all of Indiana (Yes, that's a pole barn, yes, that was sarcasm!)