Lesson Number Three.

Third times a charm! My lesson on Sunday went incredibly well! I felt like I was a lot more comfortable and secure in the saddle. I got to train with Carlo again and he said several times how impressed he was with my progress just after two lessons back. It was great to hear that I am improving and that it is noticeable.

I rode Giorgio again and as usual he was wonderful for me. We started out with a lot of flat work. Carlo had us working on circles and getting Giorgio to bend his neck to the inside. He was really good to the left but to the right he was really stiff and kept pulling his head to the outside. It took a while but I was finally able to get him to bend correctly in both directions.

After all of those lovely circles, we started working on transitions from a slow collected trot to a lengthy extended trot. Then we did the same at the canter. After the flat work we went into the jumping (my favorite part)! Carlo let me do a lot more jumping this time than my first lesson. I jumped a cross rail and then a 2' vertical a few times. Then he moved the vertical up to 2'6" and I cantered over that a few times. There was a roll top with a pole above it that I think was also 2'6". He had me do the vertical to the roll top a few times and that was a lot of fun!

I'm still working on getting my eye to the jump back and finding the right spots. I think I need to go back to when I first started learning how to ride and count down...3, 2, 1 to the take off point. I'm going to try this at my next lesson and see how it works.

I've scheduled a lesson for this Sunday since Lori is coming to town next weekend and I won't be able to ride. My lesson this week will be with Bre since Carlo is going to be gone again. I'll be riding a new lesson horse...he is going to feel so short compared to the Giant Giorgio!