Snowshoes, Yoga, and Counter Canter

What does one have to do with the other, one might ask. Well, nothing, really… unless we are talking about my week.

After another thoroughly exhausting trip with the dogs through knee deep snow JP took pity on my sweaty self and surprised me with a great pair of snowshoes. Fun! It’s still a great workout, and yes, I still come home sweaty and exhausted, but I can go for much longer which makes the dogs happy. Even if Mr. Smarty Pants Husband of Coach thinks it’s not fair that the dogs don’t have snowshoes… Hey, they have four legs, I only have two, so I guess that makes us even.

 Snowshoe weather!

For good measure I added ‘Yin’ Yoga classes to my schedule (Yin yoga poses apply moderate stress to the connective tissues – tendons, fascia, ligaments – with the aim of increasing circulation in the joints and improving flexibility). Ouch – I definitely need to work on that flexibility! But I can already feel a difference in my riding, well worth the ‘ouch’.

And now to the last part: Counter Canter. It was the ban of my life at 2^nd level with Saumur, and now here we go again, this time with Remy. 2^nd Test 3 has the three loop canter serpentine without changes, so we were practicing this in our lessons.

I was almost ecstatic when we got through it without a major glitch, and I stopped right after the first loop to put more quarters (read: sugar) into Remy. Nothing like a deadpan comment from your instructor: “I’m glad you are happy, but I have higher standards, so let’s do that again”. Of course, right you are, Judy: Practice makes perfect. We are not at the perfect stage yet, but hopefully we are coming closer to your standards. Om shanti, Om peace J