Back to lessons (after 3 weeks)

Back to lessons after a little over three weeks off for me.  Fortunately, Violet has still been in work.  

She was not happy to see me.  

However, we had a great lesson.  I got on and we went for a nice long walk around the cross country field before our lesson.  

We worked on canter transitions.  Something I have to remember is leg, seat then hands.  In most horses, you would kind of do them together.  But V has a definite order or else she either gets stuck and trots/canters in place, or throws her head in the air.  Either way, she tells you OMG HOW VERY WRONG YOU ARE!  And yes, she yells it.  She did that a bit, but if I don't bid into it and remember to keep my hands UP, she gets over it pretty quickly.  So we worked on our canter transitions, 20 meter circle, and going down the long wall to the downward transition.  I have to remember to sit into the transition in order to bring her shoulder up into the downward transition.  We did that over and over, side to side, then worked on the walk transitions.  Concentrated on using the rein on the other side from the judge to encourage Violet to reach down, which worked pretty well, then getting the transition back to the working walk without getting stuck.  After that, we worked on the trot to halt on the centerline.  Again, almost have to sit the last couple of steps to the halt in order to keep her front and back together and not string the back legs behind in the halt.

After that, we headed back out to the fields, where Violet just wanted to wander around in the wooded parts.  It was a beautiful day, and a great lesson.  I didn't feel too out of shape, partially because Fall arrived!  The heat just kills me.

And although the temps were much better, and I wasn't huffing like a dragon midway through the lesson, Violet was a sweaty mess.  Her winter coat has arrived, and she turned into a shaggy mess. When she gets sweaty and the hair is long, I swear it gets curly.  So she looks a little like a ragamuffin with long hairs, but she was lovely.  We'll take care of the hair closer to the show.  No need to clip now to have her grow it back before the show.

Tomorrow we head out for our last cross country school before the show.

And I may or may not be absolutely freaking out because I have outgrown all my show coats and absolutely cannot find anyone that carries a true plus sized coat.  Found some in the UK, but they won't ship here.  Ugh.