In terms of not procrastinating, the year is not off to an auspicious start. I don’t think there’s anything I haven’t put off so far.
We actually started our lessons two weeks ago come this Tuesday. The first was a theory lesson, however, in which we discussed which dressage program to train for during the semester. The second, last Tuesday, was all about some of the first obstacles in that program, namely riding a good circle in a corner and coming out of the circle and turning onto a diagonal.
There were lots of outsides floating way off to the side, not the least Murphys. But, I did have a clever idea partway in and started keeping him bent slightly the opposite way before coming into the circle, which helped me get his outside under control. At least once we started trotting, because at a walk he didn’t have enough forward drive for that work well. I was also less fiddly at the trot, I think, since at the walk I was thinking too much about that private lesson from before Christmas and all the realigning of my hands and arms that we did then. I need to try to start adjusting my hands without focusing too much on it.
On the whole, Murphy was a little so-so (but then again, so was I). He seemed to be either a little bloated or a wee bit overweight (given that he did not really feel lazy other than for the first few minutes, I am guessing the latter), and he had clearly had a bit of a fight with a few of the other horses. Not only was he missing a chunk of skin at his chest, but he refused to get near a few of the horses and was generally grumpy towards most of them. Hopefully things will settle down soon, and hopefully he’s not been kicked down too low in the rank, because that made him miserable last time.