July 27, 2012–This morning, I started on Cylana and George rode Goose. She was very fresh and I spent some time on her until she relaxed. I rode Mika without stirrups and he was much better today. He was a little bit bullish yesterday, and I really worked on getting him lighter instead of me carrying him so much. Today he felt great, even without stirrups!
After Mika, I hopped off to help everyone set jumps for Beezie’s school on Via. She looked like she was jumping really well and everyone was very happy with how it went. After that, we had a team meeting to review travel arrangements and then I had my lesson with George on Onisha. It was such a productive lesson and I really enjoyed it. A lot of the time instead of truly flexing, Nisha will overbend to the inside or get all crooked and bulge-y. George really helped me to get her on the outside rein. She also has a tendency to bolt through her changes, which has improved a lot but is still far from perfect. George helped a lot with that. Sometimes I get too soft with my hands and he helped me to really brace against her and get deep flexion all the way through her body.
I jumped a line adding and leaving out which was hard because she was really bidding and being strong. After a few times, it got better. He also had me do this serpentine course of singles to make sure she wasn’t diving and cutting which made her much straighter and calmer. It was a super lesson.
After we finished riding I had lunch with McLain, George, Lizzy, and my mom. I went to the gym after, showered and changed, and headed to Amsterdam airport to pick up Tim! It’s an hour and 20 minutes but I was excited to see him so I drove really fast. So happy to be with him. Everything feels right in the world again! Very pathetic.
