The Monday before last I had a lesson with Madeleine Austin. She is a very talented dressage rider and trainer and the mother of another very talented dressage rider and trainer. In my lesson we worked on my very tight hips and ankles. I did many tours of the arena stretching my legs out and back one after the other. It did help loosen my hips up. I am thankful for the very quiet school horse I was on during this, since my balance was also tested during this exercise. We talked about the gradual position change that will occur for my outward pointed toes. This is fixable! Can you believe it?! I have had probably 5 different trainers criticize my toe position. They have all grabbed my foot and twisted it and placed it in a spot that I couldn’t hold it myself. Yikes! Also putting my foot in that position changed my thigh muscle placement and popped me out of the saddle and pushed my knees away from the saddle too! Well Madeleine's stretches and explanation for leg placement has helped my toes a ton. The root cause of my crazy toes is the tightness of my hips. Hip and thigh placement is very important. Having my hips loose and my thigh in the proper spot help my lower leg and toes hold the right position. So very cool! Why didn’t anyone ever tell me this before? I could have been working on that for the last 5 years instead of thinking all this time that I was hopelessly deformed!

We then also worked on the sitting trot, which is another thorn in my side over the years. Well long story short, she had me doing quite well at the sitting trot too during that lesson. She asked me to ride the horse into the walk from the trot and I have never in my life had such wonderful downward transitions! I was amazed and super happy!

The day after my lesson, totally fresh and excited to ride one of my horses. I rode my tb Lazz. Leg position was great. The sitting trot wasn’t as magical as the day before, but I had to blame that on Lazz' bouncy trot.

A couple days after that I rode my other horse Amigo around the farm. Again, leg placement was great. I felt anchored in my saddle and just all around wonderful. I didn’t practice the sitting trot b/c I was on a trail ride.

A couple days after that I took Amigo out again. The leg placement didn't feel as secure. The sitting trot was something between a sitting and posting trot. Like the bouncing out of the saddle was my posting. Yikes! My poor horse!!!

So, the magic is gone. I rode today and worked on the sitting trot. I had brief moments of the magic and then "poof" it was gone. More practice is needed obviously and my next lesson with Madeleine is on the 3rd. My horse's poor back, and I can't wait for my next lesson!