(no subject)

My pony was a GENIUS yesterday. I got to ride in the afternoon and so we went outside. It was chilly at first, nice sun but the temperature was probably in the forties, and the wind was COLD. A CRANE was across the street zipping around as there is a mall being built over there, and near the arena the fresian was pacing fiestily in a pen. A woman occasionally knocking dirt off her currycomb on the fence made some nice "Tink tink" noises for Trudi to spook at.
Trudi batted an ear or two at the "tink tink" till I let her see what it was, and she looked at the crane with utter puzzlement. But other than a little pacing now and again at the walk, she was very good. We did some suppling (bend left, bend right, cha-cha-cha) and I was sitting like CRAP. Worse than crap, actually. My shoulders and neck were all rolled into a ball, I was actively battling my legs, and seat? What seat? Even at the POSTING trot I was being jostled all over the place, completely bouncing and tipping to one side or the other. My hips wouldn't loosen, and I was trying to push my creeping leg down with all my might. It felt like each leg was tightly bound with duct tape. I did some walk, then trotted a few steps, walk, trot a few steps, it got a little better. I was hot from the internal struggle at this point, and took off my coat. I sat up, found my seat, and my legs finally loosened. And we had a GREAT ride. There were a couple of times where I just sat there with this big smile and it was like, "This is harmony. This is correct and we are GOLDEN."
I started with a very downtempo trot that I could sit, and slowly brought it up to working. When Trudi started to rush and lean, I realized I felt like I was waterskiing on the bit, so I came back to a walk and asked myself what would help. Self helped. Transitions. Transitions within the gait- we lengthened the walk a bit, back to working walk. Transitions BETWEEN gaits. Walk to trot. Within the gait- working, to lengthened, to more collected. Bump with the leg in the collection, and she actually got LIGHTER, and brought her legs up under her MORE. Between gaits. Trot to canter. Working canter, lengthened stride. Collect the canter more. Goooood trot transition. Changed directions- more of the same.
It was some of her best canter work ever. When she started to lose her balance, I let my inside leg slide down around her, and she got her balance back. I tried to push her legs under more when her head came up, and kept the tempo with my seat. I felt like there was a real difference in the lenghthening and it didn't feel like she went faster, the stride just lengthened. I think it was espcially gratifying because things started out so hard for me, but by the end we were awesome.