I had a really rather amazing dressage lesson last Friday. Obviously, overdue to journal about it, but I'm not sure WHAT to say.

Well, time off does us both good. No real 'serious' riding (hacking, bareback, etc only) for a while so this was our first serious riding. And? it ROCKED. Denali was more through in her back than she's EVER been, and that was just in the warm-up on the lunge line (her, not me). Even hyper, she was still listening to me superbly and it was a joy to work with her.

Riding wise, our shoulder-in work was smoother and more relaxed than its ever been with adjustments and riding on my part done almost entirely from my hips and core.

At one point I *did* have to focus on my hands (which were numb, even in winter gloves, so that didn't help much) to get a lighter "feel" of her and make sure I was releasing more to give her room. Well, after trot shoulder-ins, I let her trot out (straight) to just move and DAMNED! the *best* extended trot we've ever gotten out of her. The rest of the lesson was a solidification of peaks of brilliance we'd seen before, but this? this was new. Balanced, Forward, Relaxed .... I rode it better, she gave it better.

Rinse, repeat. Even in her 'not as good' direction, she was superb. Sweet!

The canter work was not perfect from the start, but going with the "less is more, meditate" mantra, I worked a few circles on lifting her from my core - NOT from my hands or too much rein - and she shifted into some excellent canter work, again in both directions.


So really what more could I ask for? :) not much! but it was a good good good hour.