Finally, I'm leaning left

"You are sitting too much on my side."

So I start, as usual, to shift my body left. But wait! That was Dada speaking, on my left, not Kate, on my right. I never sit too far on the left. What is going on?

This was the second biggest surprise of the lesson. The first continues to be how motivated InfiniTy is. Dada actually had me slow her down once today. I didn't even notice she was going too fast. It was awesome.

We tried out a new saddle today, well, an old one that was new to T. It was a dressage saddle, which must be a lot lighter than the Australian saddle I was using. It has very few extras on it. No saddle horn or high seat back, for instance. But I rode well in it, very straight, Kate and Dada said. And circles were almost easy because T never slowed.

We even did one good figure 8. I messed up the second one, though. I think it is because I am still watching my hands and not where I am going. I know that skill will come back in time.

One thing I need to work on is my hands. Dada said to use the horse's neck to balance. So I am not straight if you look at me from the side. I am leaning too much, I think, because my wrists hurt after today's lesson . Also, it is harder to steer if your reins are not real short if you don't move your hands off her neck. More than once, Dada said, turn your horse or she will jump the fence we were headed toward.

But it was a great lesson! I felt like riding forever. Of course, the downside to this is I almost fell of when we stopped to dismount because I was tired. Oh well.