Oof.
Another almost month break, unless something bad happens (again) I'll have a couple more lessons before I leave for Colorado for two weeks. I really should try to arrange a lesson or two while I'm there.
I felt very out of practice today, worse than last time. Cypress was a total mixed bag today, in some ways he was better behaved than he has been for a few lessons (mostly as far as getting groomed and tacked) but he flipped between not listening at all to being hypersensitive (and stupid, as Catherine pointed out). So extremely minor shifts in weight in the saddle that he wouldn't normally listen to he was reacting as if I meant them with some urgency.
And since I was out of practice and not feeling comfortable as it was, things degenerated quickly and I got very frustrated. Which caused me to tense up. Which he reacted to.
Catherine put us on the lunge line for a bit to work on getting me relaxed and floating the in the saddle so I could practice giving him signals very lightly and correctly and have him react. We did that for a bit and he did great and I felt better. Put the bridle back on him, walk around, and now he's in butthead mode again even when I'm doing stuff (more) correctly.
I'm glad to have gone out, I'm sure Friday's lesson will go a lot better, but wow that was frustrating.
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