If I can't be good, at least I can be entertaining.

I woke up this morning and was absolutely freezing. So I put on my nice warm fuzzy breeches under my jeans and multiple layers on top. World is good (winter here does NOT require the snowsuit etc layers). Then I open the door to the outside world. And get hit by a wave of . . . HEAT! It was like 10 deg warmer *outside*. Tells me two things -- first, we *really* need to get our heat fixed and second -- I LOVE winter here. Was like the perfect late-Aug day today. Temp 20-25 deg all day. Slightly cloudy so not too hot... mmmmm perfect :) Other than the fact that I was *way* overdressed! hahaha first thing I did when I got to the barn was change -- some advantages to keeping a mountain of clothing in your car!

The question of the day: does it make a diff if the ab workout from dressage comes from laughing too hard instead of sitting trot? hahaha I have never laughed so hard in a dressage lesson before :) Unfortunately, I think it was very much a series of "you had to be there" moments so I'm not even going to try to explain (or more accurately: I typed it, it read as ridiculously stupid, I deleted it :).

The advice of the day: "Don't bounce". hahaha Which was freely acknowledged to be just about as useful as "just ride better". Although have to wonder how bad it was when I got told "why don't you make it easier on yourself and just cross your stirrups? It's kind of cheating, but it's ok for now" hahaha ah well. Good days and not so good eh?

So today the concept of dressage as preparation for show-jumping was applied in the lesson... Was def dressage, but dressage w/ "improving your eye" -- as in canter, on the bit, w/ correct speed-balance-impulsion, around and around the Wheel of Death. And then use that to improve the dressage-trot. Was surprisingly effective. (for those who aren't students of mine and so *may* be unfamiliar w/ that term -- the Wheel of Death is where you have one fence that you jump over-and-over-and-over-and-over again on a 20m/10m/whateverm circle. The idea being to A - jump on a curve w/o losing bend, B - hit the right spot every time, and C - be accurate enough to keep the same circle line each time). Anyways, since it was a dressage lesson, the "jump" was more accurately a pile of poles, but same concept. And the trot after was amazing -- swingy, back up, etc etc Back to the "gymnastics to warmup for dressage" concept.

As to Sienna -- she's long-lining in the outdoor world now (pics here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=190339&l=cbb98&id=823765365 if you're interested :) AND being ridden. Woohoo. She is NOT, however, permitted to lunge anymore *g* hahaha classic eh? Why? Yeah that'd be because she reves herself up when she lunges (ummm decidedly the opposite of what we want to happen!) and isn't fit enough to handle running around 15m circles... Which puts us right back where I started -- just getting on and riding it out. Although to be fair, she's a whole lot more chilled about that general concept than she was when I did it the first few times.