Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Change

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad. ~C. S. Lewis

I think both Cricket and I are emerging from our shells.  And we are learning to fly.

The journey to my green string was huge for me.  Taking the time to build my confidence and chip away at my fear was a long process.  It's not finished.  There are still moments where I feel my anxiety rise.  That's okay.  I've come this far; I can keep going forward.

Cricket is becoming the horse I never imagined I could own.

Our session on Saturday was mind-blowing.  I love the development in Cricket's magnetism.  I've stopped screaming at her with exaggerated phases and I've started keeping an eye on her confidence.  I've started allowing her to initiate games and I've stopped feeling the need to manage every step.

She left once.  But that led to the coolest part of the day.  I brought her to me at the canter.  First. Time. Ever.

We had tons of fun.  Her circle game is back.  Including transitions and change of direction.  We had a little trouble with the FLC from right to left but she nailed it going right to left.  And she maintained the canter in the new direction.

We played with some sideways and she gave me a few hop-canter steps going down the arena wall.

Riding didn't start so well.  Not sure where we broke down but she seemed mad at me.  I think my energy was off before I even got on and we were just out of sync.  It took us awhile to find a rhythm but eventually things started to harmonize.

I played with her canter on the question box.  I learned, very quickly, that I'm not ready to ask her for flying lead changes under saddle.  I need to go back to lower gaits and work out the mechanics of my body and her body.  It doesn't matter that it didn't work out - we played with it and she was so patient and tolerant.

We did a little bit of jumping and my friend helped me find better position and the last time over the cross-rail felt so good and balanced.

When I got home, I charted Cricket's horsenality.  I converted the PDF horsenality charts into a JPG image so I can just chart her on my computer and then upload.  I'll save that for another post . . .