Pie Eye Update and Dawn Works with Me on Lateral

Last night when I went back to the barn, Pie's eye was already looking a bit better - it wasn't fully closed and was a bit less weepy.  More eye meds.  This morning very early I went to the barn and found Pie in his pen - I'd had him put there instead of in turnout so I wouldn't have to walk one half mile out and another half mile back to find him in the pasture.  He greeted me ears up at the gate, clearly wanting to get out and go join his friends.  His eye looked even better - more than half open and nice and clear.  More eye meds and a 500-lb. dose of Banamine later, he was galloping off to join his friends.  We'll keep doing the multiple times a day eye meds through the weekend, and a bit more Banamine tonight and tomorrow, and if he continues to improve I think we'll be OK.

The more I ride, the more I find that my horses are working with me, in the sense of they're training and teaching me, rather than I'm working them.  This makes sense - the more I listen to them, the more they have to tell me.  And the message they give me, almost every time, is the same "less is more" that was the assignment Mark Rashid gave me in June for the year to come.

Dawn worked with me on more walking lateral work this morning.  We did some leg yield and shoulder in.  We ended with leg yield back to and away from the center line, three strides in each direction with an immediate shift to the other direction on the next stride. She taught me that it's no different than our work on circles and corners - all I have to do is change my focus to where we're going now, keep my upper body up and open and offer her the "mental feel" of the hind legs stepping over, carrying our body where we want to go, and making sure to keep offering her the space to move into by "opening the door" with my body.   The net result is forward is maintained and the movement is free and relaxed - no pushing, pulling, twisting or leaning on my part.  Dawn says it's a lot easier to connect with my thought when there isn't all that other stuff going on, and she says it's also a lot easier to move if you're not being held, pushed, blocked or braced against.  (She gets the last word, particularly since she's right!)

New trailer being picked up on Monday . . . :)))