Somewhere over the Rainbow...: Sunny disposition

The good wind seems to be continuing and things seem to be running smoothly with Rainbow at the moment. It feels as though we are progressing in our work (flat, but I am thinking of starting jumping again) but also, out of the saddle, I am feeling quite calm and confident with her. I am touching wood, so everything that I've just said here isn't going to shatter around me. It's hard to describe but we seem to be gelling together a bit better, mutual respect and all that, I guess. Next month, it'll be a year since I started with her (I bought her in July, but started loaning, 'test driving' in June)... So dare I say that we are now finally getting quite familiar with each other? She's felt familiar a long time, yes, but recently I just feel a bit more rounded about it within myself. Very hard to explain!

I also lunged R yesterday on my own, well the friend who's been helping was riding herself at the other end of the school, keeping an eye on us, but I had to deal with any issues myself. And Rainbow did throw me a turn-towards-me stop, and I managed to get her going again. My friend just shouted some instructions but I got her going by moving by her side and then sending her forward. My friend also said that if she does that perhaps I should sometimes get a little cross with her, like with a child, as I have asked her to do something but she's played up so she needs to know it. I think it's a plan, if I know I can win the battle, but at the moment I am still leaning towards resolving issues 'peacefully', i.e. being cleverer than her. But I will keep that in mind, as I think I can start asking for a certain level of behaviour from her.

Today we had another school lesson, dressage, with our instructor, and this time we concentrated more on me and my seat. In the last couple of weeks I have really noticed that I seem to be losing my stirrups, especially on the left. I am particularly struggling in canter and in trot too.

So, to improve it, we looked at how I am sitting. My instructor asked me to take my feet out of the stirrups and let them hang loose, then ask R to walk on. We noticed that my legs moved up a bit when I kicked her on. I grip with my knees. So my instructor made me think about loosening my knees and let my legs hang loose, and when I tell R to move forward I shouldn't really grip with knees but make the lower leg to wrap around her and kick her on. (I don't like the word 'kick' as it sounds a bit abusive, but I hope you understand.)

When I went on to put my feet back in the stirrup, they felt really short, so we lengthened them by one hole. Seems like a very contradictory thing to do when I had complained about my stirrups coming off, but it was amazing; with a little re-positioning and working on keeping my knees 'loose' I was sitting better and the stirrups no longer moved under my feet. I have been struggling with cantering for this reason as well, but when I went on to raise canter – keeping my knees loose – I managed to canter around beautifully and I was no longer going against the movement, as I have been feeling that I inadvertently do for a while now.

As a reward for a great lesson, I decided to let Rainbow out in the field with friends. The weather really has been gorgeous this week here – it may be our summer, as usually the floods start by June, so better take advantage while we can!