First Ride Back

OMG! I rode! and nothing bad happened at all.  In fact, pretty much only good things happened.  I guess the only "bad thing" was my total lack of fitness but that's to be expected after several weeks of sitting on the couch like a lump playing solitaire compulsively...

Prair felt fabulous.  We swapped her bit back to her chunky KK double jointed D ring and she is going nicely in it (two days in).  We realized it had been a while since we tried a softer snaffle, and maybe it would encourage her to relax a bit more/not duck behind the vertical... and so far that theory is working.  I'm not sure it'll hold up in a show environment, but I'd love to get back to a friendly snaffle for schooling without sacrificing too much control...

The ride itself was pretty straight forward.  It started pouring rain just as I tacked up so we went to the tiny indoor to warm up.  Worked some leg yields which I haven't really done much with in a few months.. but Prair felt good.  Much straighter in her shoulder and felt more active in her hind end. 

After some walk/canter transitions and lead changes we marched outside into the drizzle to jump a little.

She felt very balanced over a small x, (and we trotted the dreaded liverpool as well), so we moved up to a four stride line set at about 2'9".  We started by trotting in (sitting trot, ow) and adding for 5 which was great.  Prair wanted to drift through my outside rein a bit so we focused on straightness (hence sitting trot) between the fences. 

Then we cantered in and added for 5, then we opened up her stride and went for the normal 4.  Everything felt good.  She felt energetic and bouncy for 5, and controlled and balanced for 4.... The only hint of landing and lurching was when we opted for 4 strides going home... a tad more strung out that direction, but still very manageable - especially given the softer bit. 

Started stringing small courses together and it was easy and fun.  Prair was mostly adjustable to every fence and I felt like at least 60% of my rebalancing was coming from my seat and leg as opposed to hand.  I don't think that sounds like that much, but for us it's pretty good :)

Hoping for a weekend with a few more good easy rides to get back into the swing of things..