Chin up!

I had another really great ride on Jasper today in the indoor arena.  I detest arena work and tend to get really claustrophobic, but we'll be relegated to the indoor when the snows come, so I'm trying to work through that.  We did venture out to the outdoor arena and adjacent field on Saturday, which was lovely.  We also went out onto the road for a hand walk after our arena work today.  I wanted to gauge his reaction to cars passing (sometimes very quickly) on the gravel road before I took him out on a ride.  He was more concerned about eating grass, so that was a relief.  I think I'm probably going to have to order his renegades before we can start putting miles on the road, as the gravel is quite thin and I see a big potential for stone bruises at the trot.

Jasper is still wanting to drop his inside shoulder going to the left, so today we really focused on that.  I discovered that if I stopped looking just between his ears and instead lifted my chin, he naturally balanced below me and I found I had a better "feel" of his mouth and body.  This also meant that my shoulders relaxed and came back and I started breathing more deeply.  Go figure.  The whole time, my riding instructor's mantra ("Chin up!  Chin up!  Eyes up and looking where you want to go!") was going through my head.  As SOON as I looked back down between his ears, he fell apart beneath me.  It was a very satisfying ride, and for an entire hour I felt like the two of us were moving as one, and I completely forgot everything else in the world.  This is why I feel like riding has always been like meditation for me--my mind always quiets and the world stills around me and I can feel every fiber of my being vibrating with life.