For the most part today's lesson went very well, it ended weirdly but that made us laugh so it was okay.
I found almost all the grooming supplies and tack before Catherine saw me today so I had Cypress ready pretty quick, the only thing I wasn't able to find was the western bridle. He was being a butthead during grooming but also very affectionate, it was a weird combo.
I was generally able to use a lot less effort to get him to do what I wanted today and in some cases was able to use very subtle weight shifts. There was the usual transition from walking to jog where he just wanted to head right to the middle of the arena but eventually he was responding well at speed, too.
One correction I need to really integrate into my body is lengthening the side that I'm applying pressure with so I don't collapse and lean that way, and instead lean the direction I want him to go. Practicing that today made a big difference, sometimes the leaning alone made him move and the pressure was unnecessary.
We tried a figure eight at the end with two jumping obstacles. It went well at a walk, starting going well at a jog and then Cypress got it in his head that you know what would be awesome? Let's jump that little one! Yeah!
So he did.
With me on his back.
Luckily it was down low and I was half expecting it but it was an interesting feeling for sure.
We could tell he was done with the lesson soon after, he jumped it again, was very resistant to any pressure or anything, and ended the lesson by slowly walking over both obstacles towards Catherine. All three of us in the arena were laughing at this, it was too absurd and it seemed like he was really trying to show off for us.
I'm back in Colorado for the next two weeks, hopefully I'll have the time and energy to find someone to take one or two lessons from there so I don't lose this momentum again.
