Mostly crappy with a chance of brilliance...

So we rode outside this weekend and I totally sunburned the side of my neck. It was sunny and warm and really beautiful. The work was really hard- I set up our cone arena and we did lots of "OMG we're outside hurry be crooked losing my balance what do you mean rhythm." It was really challenging- Trudi wasn't bad but she wasn't herself. Forward, through, stretching, rhythmic and relaxed were simply all missing at some point to one degree or another. We did lots of hollow-backed trotting, stiff, uneven, and either plodding or rushing, and dang me for allowing it for the canter transitions, which of course were mediocre, and the canter which was much more unbalanced than it's been, though not completely insane- and considering this is still a very new thing in the outdoor I'm not going to fret a lot- but I am going to get our butts back into shape in the evenings when we have to ride inside. I fought with my body, and Trudi was all hyped up about the canter "We cantered wanna canter now? We're cantering now right? Well I think we're cantering now...". We did get to a point each day where she was focusing more on me than on the surroundings, and I focused more on working than on being nervous, so that was good. Even though it's much harder for her to balance and relax outside, this is really crucial milage and it's really nice to have a very long side to learn to deal with, not to mention a side with no wall. On Saturday I really worked my legs, and kinda went "Hell yeah" when my muscles started burning and just pushed harder.
On Sunday I thought Trudi might be a screwball because it was kind of cool and breezy, but in spite of her snorting and pricked ears she wasn't spooky or too hot. We still struggled with hollow/rushing/unrhythmic/crooked. I tried bringing her shoulders in, tried bending her around my inside leg, tried tapping her hindquarters with the whip. It all worked, kind of, but I finally realized that she kept getting crooked because we weren't forward, and straight without forward is pretty difficult. So I decided we were going to go forward, and we were going to trot, and I was going to sit, and by God I was going to ride straight to that point in the distance. So we walked and trotted forward and got straighter, and I stopped trying so hard with everything else and let my seat and my back work on steering. I thought about how I wanted every step to be looooonger, and to reach farthur forward, and that helped a TON at the walk, and when we trotted I bounced and BOUNCED and Trudi stayed hollow, and so I jammed my butt down in the saddle and went "Screw it anyway, I am sitting this trot, give me your BACK" and Trudi went "FINE" and suddenly,
Medium Trot.
Sonofagun.
Unexpected progress, but I'll take it.
Man, I hope we can do it again sometime. It was frigging AWESOME. ^_^