Tonight's lesson was amazing! I hadn't ridden since two weeks ago, because my family and I were in Canada for a wedding, so I was very eager to ride again. It was good to see Captain again after all that time (it felt like forever to me!), even though he was a little grumpy when I groomed him - he kept swishing me with his tail and fidgeting a lot.
This week we worked on walk-canter and trot-canter transitions and bending. First we did a little review of my last lesson because I sort of forgot what we had done. Then I worked on my turns, because I still struggle a little with turning from my center first, rather than my hands first - it's my instinct just to turn my hands and pull, but you're supposed to turn using your seat and legs before you use your hand. When Captain was warmed up, we went into walk-canter transitions while doing figure-eights. It was relatively easy once Captain got moving, but before that he refused to move faster than a slow walk. The transitions were pretty smooth though, so I was happy with that. Then we kept doing transitions while doing lots of turns to help get Captain to bend, paying special attention to right turns and leads because that's Captain's weaker side - he has a harder time bending his body than with his left.
Overall though, frustrating as it was sometimes, this lesson was really satisfying. My mom talked to my instructor briefly afterwards while I was sponging off Captain (he gets really sweaty this time of year) and she said that my instructor said I was doing very, very well. That was a great boost of confidence that I needed, especially this week as I will be graduating very soon (!) and it's exam week. But once this week is over, I'll be able to focusly mainly on my riding, and nothing else! :)
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