Oh, how I suffer for my "art."

I lengthened my stirrups again during this past Tuesday's lesson--I tend to ride my my stirrups a hole or two shorter than I really ought, so I've been gradually lengthening them half hole by half hole. I think I'm at the appropriate length now, my knee was finally out of the knee roll (or is that thigh block? haha) and strangely enough, my lower legs stayed underneath me better. I wasn't reaching for the stirrups at all, I only felt some muscles stretching.

We worked on contact--feel--again. My hands have improved a lot over the past 2 years, now it's time for me to really fine tune them and "get it." Use my fingers without tensing my wrists or elbows, mostly. It's that insanely subtle. With me, it's either too much or too little. It's not that I'm constantly hauling back on the reins, but I do take back slightly as my lower arms tense up when I try to use a more subtle rein aid. Slowing down the walk and trot helps coordinate the effort better. But, you can't try too hard, or you tense up and lose the horse. It was grueling, focusing and trying, but not too hard, concentrating. My hands stayed where they should, and I stopped the slight taking back. Michele said it was the longest she's seen me ride with my hands so still--in space, my fingers were still active. I even got to do some 3 loop serpentines on dear, stiff ol'Katja.

Last night I went out on a hack on Mico with Christine and her two new, but temporary, boarders. One of the girls is a neighbor who's in the process of building her own barn for her and her friend's horses. It was cool enough that the bugs weren't out, and we had fun trotting around in the woods, taking about past trail rides of glory.