Epiphany

I rode Hobbes last night, as always he was slow and steady! I didn't bother trying to wake him up at the trot, I just went straight to transitions. Man, that's a good trick. Even though he wasn't exactly in a working trot, he was listening to me and moving.
It hasn't rained here in a while...and the dust is BAD. Hobbes coughed throughout the entire workout, making me feel bad for riding him! I guess I could think of it as helping to clear his lungs. Ha.
As for the epiphany...I realized if I work at rolling my legs in, ie so that my toe is straight forward, I dont grip with my thighs! I engage my outer thigh muscles instead, thus allowing me to engage my seat and I actually had Hobbes transitioning up AND down with only my seat. Quite proud of this b/c he is pretty good at tuning out my seat.

And this made me sad: In the spirit of anthropomorphizing, which I love to do....I have been talking to Hobbes about having to go back to his old home in VA b/c I can't keep him sound. Anyway, I went out to pull him in from the pasture (far back corner as usual) and he actually spied me and WALKED UP TO ME. He never does this. He usually ignores until I'm pretty much standing on his head. I could have cried. Nevermind what really happened was that it finally clicked that I give him a treat every time : )

I am going to bawl like a baby when I drop him off....