What a Ride...!!!

Last night, was probably one of the best rides I have had on Chester...probably ever.
So, I show up again with the plan on doing some conditioning...because, you know, we have an event in 5 days...and of course, it is pouring down rain...sigh. No conditioning, again. And, we are stuck riding in the arena, again. On goes the dressage saddle....which was the smartest decision I have made in a long time. We proceeded to have a wonderful warm-up: the Pickle was being attentive, responsive, we were in balance everything was great. We start doing the movements to the dressage test, using having to ride in the arena to our advantage, I really worked hard on accuracy and obedience. If I wasn't happy with something, then we would repeat the movement again immediately prior to moving on. It was going well. We did some leg yielding at walk and trot and he is much better to the left then right (expected) but he got it pretty fluidly (is that a word) in both directions by the time we were done. It was lovely. So - no stirrup work - sigh - I know I need to do this more often (like at least 10 minutes every time I ride) but I don't. Annnd today, I know why - because it friggin makes me sore. Anyways....
I work on my balance, staying as light as possible, with as long a leg as possible...and once I got him moving forward enough - if I do say so myself - it was pretty good. So good, that I rode the entire dressage test we are going to be riding on Sunday....and it was great. I am finding out, less is more with Chester (YES I KNOW THE BOSS HAS BEEN TELLING ME THAT FOR MONTHS) and it just really seemed to click in my head recently...for whatever reason.
Tonight - he has the day off. Aaron and i are going to pick up that lumber for the xc jumps we are going to be building on Thursday...which is when we have our next lesson...in which I have been informed we are going to be doing grid work...awesome <-- sarcastic....no really, I KNOW we need to work on it, and it will help make Chester a better jumper. He likes to hang his legs a little bit. Joyce says I don't give him enough credit - lol SHE should try jumping the spook-a-holic - and I need to release him more so he can get his front end up and out of the way...basically, the grid work will be as much for ME as it will be for HIM....sigh - I will get there....eventually.
More soon.
4 more rides to go...