Stirrupless Wednesday

Arrived at the barn Wednesday for my lesson to discover that L had ripped the stirrups off all the saddles. Ruh roh!

I rode Rory for the first time, who is a nice little pony, but needless to say I'm feeling the burn.

Apparently L (who manages another lesson program at another barn) takes the stirrups off all the saddles at her barn in November and doesn't put them back on until March. And you thought No Stirrup November was hard! For herself, she doesn't even have stirrups on her dressage saddle and always flats her horse stirrupless. All. Year. Long. She is my new hero.

Anyway, she turned the lesson into "Dressage Day". Actually we were going to pull Walker out but wouldn't you know it - I left my saddle at home! :(

We worked on the 20 metre circle, and I did my first real big girl dressage test. I also did my first real stirrupless posting which wasn't as hard on a horse with more bounce (Walker is too smooth...and lacks impulsion).

We also discussed my back. It turns out L has a curve in her spine too. She says that I drop my left shoulder going to the left on a circle and become less balanced. She explained that because of the curve in the spine, I have less mobility in my right shoulder so I can't drop it as easily. Ergo, shoulder stays up and circles are balanced. But to the left, I have more mobility and just collapse. This was fascinating to me because while I knew I was a leaner, I never realized it was just in one direction. Voodoo magic!