In the Arena #24 - A revelation

Saturday was a superb day... got to the barn early, did my chores, groomed Val top to bottom and then had a beautiful ride - our third this week. That is one of my goals for the fall and winter - three rides a week (at least). Now that the weather has broken I believe we'll be able to achieve it.

What made the morning extra worthwhile is that I had a breakthrough related to coordinating my aids... or more accurately I realized that I had mostly been thinking of / using my aids - hands, arms, seat and legs - separately. While I knew intellectually that the aids must work together, a "symphony of the aids" as Erik Herbermann says, I really hadn't had a feel for it before yesterday. There have been moments when it happened, but I wasn't conscious of it at the time. I'm psyched to see where this takes us.

Afterwords, Val got a nice rinse + carrot cookie stretches, and we did some exercises that his massage therapist recommended. She also told me it would be good to use one of those rubber curry things on the under the saddle and girth areas to bring the circulation back. Val approves of that suggestion :)

Yesterday was pretty close to a perfect day. It was everything I dreamed about before having my own horse.