The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play. ~Arnold Toynbee

Alright soooo tonight was one of those prime examples of why I don't work in an office any more :)

It didn't start out that way.  I knew my day was going to be thoroughly interrupted by needing to go to the accountant (nothing tragic, but 2.5h by the time I drive there, sign stuff, and drive back again) so I knew I wasn't going to get to ride and that afternoon chores would be a little later than normal.  Booo :(   My *awesome* dad came and helped with morning chores, which meant everything I had to do as far as stalls etc was done before I left for said appointment.  Sweet.  Saved me probably 2h.

Ok all good.  Get back, do afternoon chores, bring everybody in about 4:30 or so.  Done by 5.   Teach at 6, so not quite enough time to ride *sigh* but at least enough time to get some work done or chill for a bit.   Realizing I didn't have my computer with me and I was very tired, I opted for the chill idea and Sasha and I ventured up to my beautiful new office.  Tried to read a bit, but really couldn't get into it (rare for me - esp as I can't remember the last time I had a chance to sit and read).  So about 5:30 I figured I'd head down since students should be there by now and I'd be social for a bit.

Get downstairs and nobody's there.  Odd.  Very odd.  Some classes I wouldn't think anything of that, but my first Monday class is pretty eager.  And then I clue in.  They ride at SEVEN.   I'm off by an hour.  Sheesh.   So I run through the list of things I could do - a ton of little "fix it" chores, pull some manes, organize some stuff, all the computer work I can't do w/o my computer *sigh*, or maybe even ride.   Still quite sore from puppy class (really?!?!?) and cold and dopey and tired so riding less appealing.   Ditto various chores for the same reason.  Well maybe pull a mane or two.

And then I hear Denny's voice in my head.   A little eerie actually; I often hear my various coach's voices when I'm *riding* but rarely the rest of the time.   But Denny was big on horses as lifestyle.  "To be the best you have to ride.  Anything.  Everything.  Every chance you get."   Basically it's too easy to be "too busy" or "too tired" or any number of other "toos" and soon enough you're not riding at all.  Esp once you're running a farm and spending all your time at the barn anyways.  I've definitely had trouble with that, so as I'm hearing his mini lecture in my head, I'm pulling my horse out of her stall.  There's also the fact that show season is about four months away and we have about two years of work to do in that time.   Ok, guess I'm riding.  

So my neck wasn't hurting tooo much -- till I started riding *sigh*.  Posting trot was absolutely BRUTAL.  Sitting was actually better (yeah I'm surprised too).  Only thing I can think of is my lower back was acting as a shock absorber for my neck.  So I could sit but not post.   But it was still very not good.   And then I'm hearing Denny merged with a few others telling me "perfect practice makes perfect" - so basically if you're not going to do it right, don't do it at all.   hmmmm tricky.  Have to ride.  Have to ride *right*.  Physically incapable of riding right.  Well...   Ok then - w/u at the canter in 2-pt.  Neck and back are steady and out of contact for that.  Perfect.   Do some forwards and backs -- very important for Athena at this stage.  All good.  Back to trot.  Horrendous.  Ok then, skip the trot altogether and work on lateral work in the walk.  Perfect solution.  All good.

It was a short ride, admittedly, but I DID ride and what we did was correct.   So the voices in my head went back to sleep.  And since I had a bit of time left I managed to at least make a good start on pulling one mane -- which revealed how upside-down this poor schooly really is *sigh*   Ah well, 4 months remember?  And I adore riding her, so now I've got an excuse to do so :)

Students arrived in plenty of time for their *actual* lesson time.  hahaha and that first lesson was so much fun.  Started out with Kennedy -- who has taught Apollo pretty much everything he knows and is *very* good at getting him going -- riding Louis.  Louis who once-upon-a-time raced.   Her slightly hot seat had Louis flying around the ring *g*    While at the same time Lissy wasn't deigning to move at all.  Sheesh.

By the end of the hour Kennedy had revised her riding amazingly and had Louis calmly trotting around over cavelletti, quite as can be.   I was really impressed at that -- there aren't too many riders out there who can make that change that quickly.  Esp when it involves letting GO of the reins when the horse is going too fast. Not an easy thing to do!    Meanwhile, Chelsea got Lissy going really well.   Cantered a PE sized course beautifully together -- even getting all their leads!   And then in a gymnastic got to Chelsea's new height record, with Lis jumping like a superstar.

So to recap, we have the slow Louis tearing around at top speed, the speedy Lissy not willing to go anywhere, and Jack - the spooky baby - being the GOOD one.  Perfect rhythm, never looking at Sasha or anything else exciting, all flying lead changes while jumping the course.   Lovely to watch.   He and Rowan should have fun this summer :)

So pretty high from that lesson, move on to the next., which continued the fun and games.  It starte out with Meike getting absolutely fabulous dressage in the warm-up.  Woohoo!   Move onto jumping where Aileen put in textbook style gymnastics on Nick THREE TIMES in a row.  Sweet.  Once is luck, twice is a fluke, three means you've got it :)   Kirby had a huge breakthrough with Charlie leading to a perfectly quiet hunter-like pace through the gymnastic (which he'd previously been attacking!) and a lovely rein-less halt on a straight line.   I really kinda wish I had that one on video.  Was truly sweet.   And then Kassidy on Bella was jumping beautifully today so I let her go higher than she ever has before (two in one night - awesome!).   Always very exciting :)

And of course in-between it all, playing with Sasha the Superpuppy :)

How many of you get to have this much fun at work?