More of the Same

Sorry I haven't been great about blogging.  Two reasons:  craziness in the rest of my life, including ALMOST selling our house and moving and then not and then the fact that we're just revisiting old problems.

Yes, it's still the forward problem.  Last night my trainer wanted me to ride forward.  I felt like we were REALLY MOVING OUT.  She took my pony away from me and had Layla get on.  Layla took five minutes, amped her up, jumped the course and gave her back to me.  I got back on and was told to feel how forward really felt.

I'm embarrassed to say that it felt scary.  Yes, she was able to jump MUCH MUCH MUCH easier.  I did my best to not shut her down.  To keep my reins short and my body upright.  But it took a lot of breathing and realizing that THIS is what normal should feel like.  I need to adjust my expectations and my feel.  I need to be more comfortable with my horse being forward.

Unfortunately, I don't have the opportunity to ride other horses to fix this.  I'm okay with that though.  As a wise woman at my barn once said "You have to learn to dance with the partner you have."

So, my upcoming goal is to just try to find comfort at a forward gait.  And if I can to try to get someone else to get her going forward so that I can start with just maintaining it.  From there I think we can build on it.

P.S.  I also did a course that included a tiny little vertical.  Which made me grin from ear to ear like I just did a Prelim Event course.