On Wednesday I hopped on Cupid bareback for a (uneventful) walk around the property.
Then on Thursday we went back to work, with a dressage lesson. It was very cold, so I put Cupid's quarter sheet on. It seems to help him not start out so slow. After warming up at the walk, we did a lot of trotting and Cupid was starting to tire. Even though he seems to have decent muscle tone, he does get winded pretty easily. Luckily we were riding with another of my trainer's students, so we got to take a little break while they cantered first. Then it was our turn and we started on the right. We did several laps, with some large circles thrown in. Then we went across the diagonal and got the left lead on a trot change. Unfortunately we broke half a lap later, as we were passing the other horse I guess I didn't have my leg on. It took two tries before we were able to pick it back up.
After a short walk break I did some sitting trot, with some 10 meter circle to shoulder fore to haunches in. I could feel an improvement in the quality of the trot; even though we were going slow there was a little impulsion there. I still have trouble feeling if anything is happening with the haunches in, but my trainer seemed satisfied. I felt pretty good with the sitting trot.
On Friday we had a jumping lesson, and it was super! It started out a little rough because someone was sitting on the rail watching, and Cupid thought that was pretty suspicious. So we circled to the inside each time he started bending outside to stare. The guy asked if he should move, but I told him no it's good for Cupid; that could be a judge or spectator at a show so it's good for him to get used to it.
We were again riding with another student, and when my trainer was setting up jumps in a circle I assumed that exercise was for her. But Cupid and I did the circle of death exercise for the first time! (Well we did it with 3 jumps not the full four, and probably about a 25 meter circle.) We stared out just jumping a cross rail on a large circle. We trotted it twice to the right, then picked up the canter. We started with the the one jump, at 9 o'clock. Then my trainer told me to canter the crossrail, then back down to the trot and over the caveletti at 12 o'clock. Then we cantered those two once, then the second time added the third jump which was a vertical at 6 o'clock. Cupid knocked it the first time, which is pretty rare for him and he seemed kind of annoyed about it! But we went through the entire circle a few times no problem. Going to the left was a bit more difficult, but actually went better than I expected. I was very proud of how well Cupid did, and supper happy with how relaxed he was!
On Saturday we had another flatwork/dressage lesson, more of the same as Thursday. We cantered a few large squares to the right. We still had trouble getting that left lead, and I thought I felt something just slightly off again in Cupid's right front foot when we were cantering to the left. :/ So we kept the cantering shorter. The trot work felt really good. We went on a square and shortened the trot with some shoulder in, me sitting, a 10 meter circle in the corner with some haunches in coming out of the circle. This time I think I could feel it a little better, through his ribs. Then straighten out and into a bigger trot, posting. It was harder to the left, I couldn't get as small a circle.
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