Two Lessons in Two Days

This week has absolutely flown by and left me wondering where the heck the time has gone. I'm leaving on Saturday for two weeks exploring "out west" as I've been telling people, most notably Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, etc. I've reached a point in my riding where, as much as I enjoy vacation, I'm starting to realize that taking two weeks off from the barn really sets us back and causes me to miss important things like shows and schooling :( To make myself feel better, I squeezed in two very productive lessons, one flatting and one over fences. 

My flat lesson was yesterday, and I rode in the dressage saddle, which was the first time E has seen me ride in it. She didn't correct my position much, which made me very happy! We mostly worked on keeping him balanced and tracking up. E also had me do a very cool exercise in which I opened my inside (right) rein as far as I could while pulling my outside (left) rein towards my right hip bone. It sounded and looked easy when E hopped on to demonstrate, but it was actually SO hard. Keeping him moving, turning my torso in the direction I was going, and using enough arm muscle to pull on the reins at a weird angle all contributed to the difficulty. I got it down pretty well at the walk and then attempted it at the trot, which was a lot harder. We did have a really nice corner in which E said Limerick moved "like a ballerina," which was a pretty awesome compliment from her! I also worked on my sitting trot, which I think is getting pretty darn good! I can finally keep my stirrups while sitting, where I used to always lose them because of tense leg muscles. I posted a video below; I'm kind of channeling Silva Martin and riding with my hips more forward then my torso per E's suggestion.

Fortunately, Limerick has finally settled down at our home barn. When he dumped E last week, she did suggest that I get a slightly stronger bit to prevent any freight train action when jumping. Enter a single-jointed pelham, which Hillary so kindly let me borrow today. I thought that the pelham and the double reins worked very well for us. I was nervous for my lesson because I had never ridden with double reins, but it's so much easier than I was expecting! I actually kind of like holding two reins because I hold on to them much better and don't let them slip as much as I do with a single rein. We did some work through a bounce, jumped some lines and some single fences. Limerick was great and I think E was really impressed with how far we have come since our last long stint at the home barn. S is really good at instilling confidence in both of us, which has definitely carried over to all aspects of my riding :) I unfortunately do not have any pictures or videos, but I'll try to get something from my ride tomorrow to share with you guys!