Having a plan...and sticking to it

This weekend I was at a horse show.  Have to say, I wasn't sorry I didn't have to get up and run in the howling wind and cold on Sat.  However, the cold made riding difficult yesterday.  I was cold and felt stiff, I just couldn't get in synch with my horse Riley and he did the best he could with what I was doing.

I slept almost 12 hours last night...what a treat and I wasn't about to get up when it was really cold.

Today was a new day at the show.  I had a plan - ride forward and keep my leg on no matter what - and I stuck to it.  My coach asked what had happened overnight that I was riding so much better and I listed off a bunch of goofy reasons but I think I just trusted that Riley was going to do his part so I just needed to do mine.

2nd and 3rd classes were spectacular - I rode fairly aggressively to the fences and took a couple of risks - they paid off.  He didn't win anything because he is a little ragged between the lines still but the jumps were great.  One guy said he cleared one 3' fence by close to 2 feet.  That's not a great thing but that's just Riley, he's really careful.  It felt smooth though and I wasn't been launched out of the tack like I was on Saturday.  A long day but fun.  No run, I'll do something really easy tomorrow afternoon.