Ever have one of those days?

Interesting ride yesterday.  I was ridiculously stiff and sore to begin with - not sure why, potentially several near-wipe-outs on the ice earlier in the am, or something else entirely...   Who knows?  Regardless, I went to get *on* my horse and found it a stretch.  And *that* is not a good sign at all since in general I can pretty much mount in my sleep; it certainly doesn't require muscles or flexibility that I'd have to even think about.

So on the horse and realize that I'm way too stiff to ride.  Problem since my coach will be there in 15 or so.  So alright, let horse trot around long and low and totally focus on relaxing so I have a hope of being able to ride.  Ever try to relax on command?  hahaha not entirely easy, but actually have some experience at it so was making ok progress...  However, 15min is not long enough.  Coach shows up and I'm not there yet, but horse is quite enjoying the non-work.  Coach is not nearly as amused.  *sigh*   Ok so go to work and manage to royally screw up the first three exercises.   Not my horse - she's doing exactly what I'm telling her; I'm just totally misinterpreting the instructions.  And it's not like it's anything new - we do these sorts of exercises all the time.  But neither my brain nor my body were interested in co-operating.  And my coach's frustration level was rapidly reaching scary.

Alright, at least by this point I'm mostly warmed up so I figure it's about time to start participating in the lesson before I get fired as a student *g*  So I told him I needed a "do-over" and before he figured out exactly what I meant I followed it with "Good morning, how's your week going?" -- I almost got a grin.  Definitely got a nod and a "good morning", and we started over on much better terms.

So take two was going much better till he happened to ask how the clinic went.  Just a suggestion - when your coach asks you how a clinic went, the answer is always "good".   Mentioning what exercise your horse had trouble with?  Yeah, not such a good idea.  Unless *I* happen to be your coach >;-P   hahaha but of course I told him, because I do, in-fact, want his help to improve her.  But usually I practice a little first *g*.  Also not always good to ask for trouble on a day that hadn't been going particularly well to begin with...  But then, how often do I do things the easy way?

So yes, I told him that the canter pole circle exercise did not go particularly well...  So he sets *almost* the same exercise -- except his involves full bounces rather than only one side raised.  Oh good.  Harder. For something we're always bad at. *sigh*  But fortunately by this point, I'd clued in a bit.  And while we had some ummmmm awkward moments getting through the gymnastic, in the end we got it together both directions and the success rate was WAY beyond any we've had up till now with that exercise.

And in the end, disaster turned to brilliance.  And the world was good.  But oh my were there ever some scary moments on the trip!