A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort!

I am just in the best mood. No real reason, but have been all day :) N amazing how when things start that way good things happen...

So we were told a few days ago some of us would be going south on the 14th and some on the 17th (the horses go in two loads). Was very def hoping to be in the first group :) Well first thing this morning I find out I'm to leave on the 12th! Woohoo. Then at lunch it's "it looks like we might be going a week earlier" hahaha I could leave next Wed!!!! But won't know for sure till Mon or so. Craziness.

XC lesson got cancelled cause, well, the jumps are all burried :( Ah well. Dressage instead. Sheesh :) Theory quote of the day was "when he's being good, ask him to be good" -- which is a whole lot like "ride every stride" -- basically just cause you FINALLY get it, doesn't mean you get to stop riding. Oh no, in fact more likely than not, you actually have to ride more. Sheesh. WHY do we do this again?

Oh yeah -- cause the hack AFTER the dressage was phenominal :) By that point the sun had come out and the sky was blue. Temp just around zero (but w/ nice fuzzy winter breeches it's all good :), big fluffy snow covering everything, horse a little high and bouncing cause the temp's just right for that (funny - he didn't bounce when we were doing dressage....) etc etc etc. Absolutely amazing. N in the middle of nowhere, hacking alone. Soooo peaceful. Only sounds are the horse's hooves crunching the snow and the stream babbling off to the side...



Anyways -- back to dressage. The point was basically it's easier to keep him there then to get him there (theoretically that is -- at the moment he's so unfit I actually find it easier to get him there than to convince him to hold it. But I do agree w/ the theory -- I'm reasonably certain I've even been guilty of saying it to MY students *g* :) Also discussed the concept of dressage being like going to the gym -- do a certain # of reps in each set; take a break; rinse and repeat... hahaha I'll mix metaphores if I want to thankyouverymuch! >;-P

Right yeah back to dressage... it being the weightlifting component of riding -- do it, do it correctly, but don't do it very long. Then change dir so both sides get same workout (or 60-40 for the weak side). Give horse a break -- either entirely (long rein walk) or by changing the exercise to focus on something completely different for a bit. Then come back to it -- and the next time around still expecting perfection, but shorter bursts cause the muscles have already worked (again like being @ the gym... Have to be a trainer in ALL aspects of the word). This, of course, is all after having walked for ages, then warmed up and been all relaxed n soft n all that other ooey-gooey-good stuff.

hahaha yeah so I'm being a little silly tonight sobeit >;-P

So back to dressage... hahaha no -- I wouldn't do that to you again!

Well I'm off to go make Hallowe'en cookies so tomorrow we have junk at the barn. (there were donuts AND cinnamon buns today. Maybe *that's* what made it such a good day!!! hahaha of course the donuts were from the rather unfortunate soul who had an unplanned dismount the other day. Still don't know where the cinnamon buns came from... But at least a few days/wk there's usually fun stuff to snack on. It's a *very* good thing this job burns so many calories or we'd all be round!) Now don't worry that I've been taken over by this whole baking/cooking thing -- by "make", I mean "take out of the box and put in the oven" hahaha as baking SHOULD be :)