*violently happy dances*

Things are looking up after my ride today. I was rushed into riding for about 20 minutes because apparently going out to pizza is a necessity in my family. They are lucky that I love pizza, but I still love horses more, so I made sure that my 20 minutes were productive.

Miss S had a private lesson going on in the small outdoor, so I went to the big one. It seemed smaller than usual today. I got on and went right to work. Baby was a bit nervous about being away from the other horses—which is surprising considering how much she pins her ears when we ride in groups. I was riding with a longer stirrup today, and it felt nice to be able to stretch my legs down. We went around to the right for a full lap, then I did a ~100ft circle, and she slowed down a bit. We switched directions at the trot, and then she slowed down completely and went right onto a nice, light contact.

We went around the whole arena, did two circles, then I asked for her left lead. She picked up the wrong lead at first. I corrected her, then she did a perfect circle and a perfect downwards transition. We switched directions again and picked up the right lead. We did about a third of a lap. I sat for part of it, then half seat for a little bit. Brought her back down to a trot.

Some of the jumps were set to cross rails, so I trot into the red line and cantered out. We got a long distance to the second jump, then had to switch leads after, but I don't really care. She was going slow and relaxed and was a lot more willing to come down and switch her lead. We did one more jump at the canter, and she was perfect, so we cantered it out, then finished up. She got big pats for today.

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