Back to basics

Another beautiful day here in the PNW. Rode Boo this afternoon and it went well once again. I do seem to have trouble with my right side though. It is my strong side and it is my stiff side. Kept getting my boot caught in the stirrup. I haven't done that in ages. Need to work on those long loose legs with that loose ankle. Even so we worked well together. He was very attentive to my cues. We did our usual warm up which has come to consist of ground work, and some stretches for the rider right at the beginning. Then we work on loosening the poll, neck, shoulders, back, and hips. Once we've accomplished that we start working in rising trot and do it all over again. After that we work on whatever I have planned for the day. Today it was riding an oval the length of the arena. In the short end I would see how slowly I could get him to trot, and then on the long side I would send him forward in a working trot, slow, working trot, slow, working trot. From there we moved on to the sitting trot and to doing what the 101 dressage excercises called the needlepoint, then on to trotting on the 1/4 line and keeping it straight, and doing 20 meter circles where I stop at B, then trot, stop at C, then trot, stop at E, then trot all the way back to B. We did shoulder in on the 1/4 line too. We ended by working on our canter pickup and our transitions down from the canter to trot and then to walk. We did all of these exercises numerous times and in both directions. I completely lost track of time and kept hubby sitting on a bench outside in the sun far longer than I had meant to. Luckily he was a good sport about it. At the end of the ride Boo and I went outside and walked around the grounds in the sunshine. We walked through dry ground, muddy ground, and puddles. All in all I felt good about how the day went.

I've gone to a couple of movies this weekend too. Saw Benjamin Buttons last night and Slumdog Millionaire tonight. I liked them both. I have to say the Slumdog movie was a little difficult for me to watch because I hate seeing bad things happen to children...but the movie was good and I'm glad I saw it.