Actually kind of getting it right?

Emphasis on the kind of. The whole "massage the inside rein" thing was such a wild concept to me before Max. Even Music didn't need it, she was ready for contact. It's an automatic action whenever I get on a horse she's trained. I've been bold enough to try it even on Carlos, and he reacted fairly well.

Clearly ready for his nap

But Blake has responded by far the best, and our lesson was quite the opposite of what our rides usually are. I pretty much never get along with Blake. Like, every ride has its fair share of drama, and I always dread having to swap onto him. At the end of the long and stressful time that last week was, I wanted a simple ride like Boomer or something. But nope, 3 hours of sleep and a 9am later, I was on Blake and ready to collapse from exhaustion.

I've been in the habit lately on using the children's saddle pads to brighten things up. Perhaps that's why we had such a successful ride. Nothing says pro trainer like purple and green swirls with intermixed sparkly bits.

I actually didn't start asking for the softening on purpose. There were a couple times while we started trotting where Blake did the whole exaggerated softening thing, and I suddenly remembered "Hey, you know how to do that!" so I asked him for it, and he didn't even hesitate. It was lit. Not only that, but he was actually okay with hand contact. The outside rein was there, and he was chill. Granted, I was giving huge releases with the inside rein, but he didn't buck like he usually does.

I opted not to try at the canter due to the fact that trainer had me lengthen my stirrups, and I could barely sit. He was slow, but we only broke once.

Jumping was simple as well, just a pole and two fences two times through with some transitions. I got left behind coming to the second first fence the first time through. Second time, I missed my lead, but eh, it was otherwise fine.

Bonus: I beasted my final crit which I had directly after my lesson. Not bad considering the fact that I hate my model and now have to use it for the rest of the semester.