Lesson with KT - Mara begins to understand dressage

I think it's our 6th. It's too hot and humid out for me, but I'm not gonna cancel a lesson. I just didn't mention that Mara had the last 3 days off while I hid in the house and played Dominion with J and watched Angel.

KT was a half hour late so we had a 45 minute warm up. It was a very tedious one because we both don't need to be any warmer. I'm getting a lot better at the double longe,  handling both long lines through reverse a the trot is always a trick. Mara objected a lot to that outside line above her hocks, thrashing her tail like crazy saying "I'm gonna buck that thing off if you don't remove it" but she never followed through cuz it doesn't tighten, it's just there, annoying her.

I love the control the double longe gives - she really pays attention to my vocal commands and body language, and if she doesn't walk when I ask, I have two reins to reinforce it. I don't even need a lunge whip, she knows my cues now and canters willingly, often without my asking, and having two lines I can bend her to the inside and make it a very good exercise. She can even back up, what on a normal lunge line I have no idea how to teach.

We hid in the barn from the flies and heat the last 15 minutes, and I appreciated how patient Mara can be with just standing there doing nothing. Well, after she chewed on an old wooden wheeled feed bin and picked up a dirty towel and threw it on the ground and pawed it to death. Very cute.

When KT arrived I said it's raining inside my helmet, and I'd appreciate it if she rode most of our lesson. I left a path of water droplets on the ground so she agreed.

After she had a very nice 30 minute ride, I got on and we worked on leg yield, shoulder-in, transitions, and finally a canter - an entire half of a circle, woo! KT had just done the entire arena at a canter on Mara for the first time on the right lead, her "impossible" lead,  and it was a thing of beauty. It wasn't the rushed unbalanced canter of a green horse, it was a careful, slow motion canter of a horse trying its best. I said, "Beautiful!" cheering them on.

As I trotted around on Mara, transitioning every half circle, I felt something different. A steadier connection. A total effort on Mara's part to give me her entire focus. We moved with such a remarkable connection, it was like being on Baasha again, almost. After a few minutes KT said, "Do you have your camera today?" I said, "For the first time, no. Not today."

She said, "This is really amazing, you guys are doing wonderfully - I need to get photos to show you!" So she went to her car and got a camera and started snapping images.

At the end, I asked her to mail them to me and she said, "Uh, I'm not sure I know how to do that." I was like, "Yes, you can do it. I need to have them!" I looked at them on the camera itself and they were the prettiest photos I've seen of my horse and I in unity.

I ended the lesson early cuz of the humidity. I just couldn't go on.

It feels so good, I'm so happy with her. I don't even care that we're not going out into the woods regularly alone - I'm lapsing a bit on that, and just enjoying what we have in the arena and with other horses on trail when possible. I have a possible lead on a new riding buddy - we have a plan to meet up for a "training ride" this Sunday or next. Saying a prayer that this person works out to be a reliable riding partner!

Mara gets a big (strained) beet pulp mash tonight, plums and apples on top.