Weekend at Lendon's

Greetings from Bedford, NY! Cleo and I are having a weekend here to work with Lendon Gray, one of the great American greats in the sport; if I have to explain to you all who she is, climb out from beneath the rock you've been living under. This is an exciting time for Lendon, as she's stepping back from the full-training business (you should see the yard sale they're having at the farm this weekend; holy moley), to pursue her other interests. She will still be teaching and giving clinics (like ours in December, yay!), but she's taking a big life step, and I think it will be a good thing for her.

Cleo shipped like a champ, and we had our usual First Day In A New Place ride - no hind legs anywhere to be found. They'll show up today. After spooking all over the place like a dumb four year old, she did settle and we did a Grand Tour of all the work in the tests. She gave me a neat exercise for the transitions for piaffe to passage, something I'm a little uncoordinated at, and she was a big fan of my pirouettes and extended gaits. Today I'm hoping for some better half-halts at the canter - strike that, ANY half halts at canter - and to do some tests. I have "test brain": I have a plan, but when (inevitably) things don't go according to plan, my brain does the equivalent of "uh..... uh...........," by which time I'm halfway through the test.

So I want to be in CHARGE of the brain today, think a little faster. And try and remember where I packed Cleo's hind legs! They have to be around here somewhere...