When In Doubt Smile

I honestly don't know what to do with this little quirk Karma has. If she is corrected/nervous/bored/whatever she does her smile.

I have been working with her halting on the lunge line. Her idea of a halt is come to me for a treat. My idea of a halt is stopping wherever she is. I have been making her back away from me. Her solution to this is smile at me.

I took her for a short pony around the park. She was starting to get tired at the end and her solution was to drag on the lead rope and smile.

If she is standing and gets bored she will start smiling. I have this fear that is growing deeper and deeper that I am going to be doing a free walk and she is going to poke her nose out, twist the neck and smile for judge.

Learning to Post

I keep talking about lessons on Cowboy, but now I finally have actual proof of them. I drug my mom to my last lesson so she could video. Which was kind of a risk because she likes to take pictures with her finger in them, but she was successful in getting several decent videos.

Right before the canter starts you can see me tip forward and dump my hips out behind

Of course having video is a double edged sword. On one side I am always happy to be able to see things, but on the flip side I can see how skewed my perception of myself is. I always think I have my shoulders back and my hips under me. Nope my shoulders lean forward and I dump my hips out behind. It is especially bad at the trot.

Trying to rise up instead of swinging under

Additionally this time I got to discover I really don't know how to post. Theoretically I understand, but putting that theory into reality isn't happening. There is some sort of disconnect, which I texted my trainer "I don't understand how to post without tipping forward. Help." And being the amazing trainer she is, she didn't bat an eye and said "Of course!"

Don't let that face fool you, he broke a lead rope and took 45 minutes to load

The next time I rode with her, trainer tossed me up on her very nice upper level horse to teach me how to post. He is super steady in the bridle but also very sensitive so I could very easily feel the difference in his trot when my hips were under me and when I was letting them trail out behind. It really helped me get the feel for swinging my seat forward instead of up.