It's Wednesday, and the day I look forward to most in the week. It's the day of my riding lesson.
I love this day, being able to go and ride and get out of the house. I love being able to get on a horse....even if it's just for a few mins, it gives me a buzz. I have always been like this ever since I was little.

Any way before I get side tracked, I had better get on an tell you about my lesson.
I rode Pink, who is genuine, a super little dressage horse and a great horse to ride. I really love riding him!
We are working on our dressage tests for next month and I had a couple of runs through mine.
It's not a difficult test, in fact it's very easy. We warmed up whilst our instructor finished off teaching another RDA rider who rides in my lesson and had her test run through and lesson first.

The test itself is mainly medium walk with a couple of small areas of trot in, which is good for me because my stamina isn't good and my legs get tired very quickly. This is also my first dressage competition!

Pink worked well for me today and to start I had him going at a nice walk and the transitions to trot were a little rough at times, as Pink had moments where he wasn't listening to me. I felt I had to work really hard to get him to go off my leg at times, but he soon got the gist of what I wanted and started to try for me.

I on the other hand still need work! My turns need a lot more honing as they are a bit rough and I loose momentum and tempo as I turn the corner, I think I will get there in the end though. My riding needs some tweeking and certain areas need tiding up. I totally forgot to get him on the bit as I was concentrating on my position.....so many thing to think about! lol
Our instructor hopped on him for a short while to demonstrate him working on the bit and got him moving off the leg a lot better. With him gee'd up and moving off the leg better, I was able to do the transitions between walk and trot a lot better than having to work hard and loose all the strength in my legs (which happens quite quickly).

I am feeling pretty focused and am determined to do my best for Pink, my instructor and mainly for myself.
I have a list I run through when I am riding and I often think about my riding position and try to work on my posture.
I wish I was able to ride an extra hour a week so I can practice more, but I'm lacking a horse to ride and I'm not sure how much I would be able to do without the risk of a flare up. So far the 40 mins or so a week seem to be ok.
I really enjoy my riding and I and so pleased to be learning so much and improving my riding.

Well I am pretty tired now and the pain levels have increased, I need to rest for a while, but I hope I will be about right for next Wednesday. I often wish I was back to normal health and able to ride everyday as I used to, but, Hey ho, I am just grateful that I can manage riding now!

Pink before my lesson.
I am really, really looking forward to next week!

Thank you to all the helpers and instructors at my RDA - you know who you are ;)