Preparation

So, everyone knows that the best way to prepare for a month of twice-weekly training (the most instruction I've ever had in my life) is to go into it completely unprepared with an unfit horse and unfit rider, right? right?

Starting this Saturday I will be having two lessons a week with Elaine for a total of 4 weeks while she is in the area. Unfortunately, I am still in rough shape after a month of being sick and having a super demanding work schedule - I thought I was getting better but pilates class last night just about killed me and I generally think of pilates as my "easy sport" (I'm in a class with my middle aged parents, so if I can't keep up there's an issue). Kachina has been mostly sitting around losing fitness as well. A combination of the weather, my schedule (including being out of town for the last 5 days), and my sickness means that I have not even ridden yet in 2018!! We have done some good ground work and lunging (Kachina is finally comfortable again with me handling her feet so that's a win) but we are whole-fully unprepared for the work that will be heaped upon us shortly. At least we haven't been practicing our bad habits either?

While physically this is not the start I had hoped for, I am really looking forward to this month of training. I feel like my mind at least is in a good place to give this training a really solid try. I'm not going in with a list of specific problems or show deadlines that will direct the lessons. I instead want to learn as much as I can, soak up knowledge, work on my homework each week and figure out how to generally become a better rider and better trainer for Kachina. I really hope this month helps me to figure out some goals and a broad training plan for the rest of the year because I would appreciate the direction. Bring it on!