clinic day 1

Bah, I be sick and injured. Only slightly sick, and slightly injured, but still, I feel slightly sorry for myself. Was grabbing some dinner last night after primping my pretty pony, and as I turned away from the counter, my hand grazed a kitchen knife that had apparently been thrown in the sink handle first. It caught in my flesh, and my reflexes went *ouch, flinch*. I jerked my hand up and then it started to come back down when the knife, still stuck in my hand, made contact with the counter, which drove it in a little more. I came to my senses enough to yank it out at that point, but it was a stupid freak accident. Hello, self inflicted stab wound.
So my ouchie is about a half inch wide and a half inch deep, and hurts, but at least I don't seem to have done any permenant damage. I put a bandaid and antibiotic ointment on it and wore a glove (purple) to keep the bandaid in place. I was quite the girl today in my pink rubber wellies, red coat, purple glove, and chestnut horse.
The cold/funk that kept hubby (sick), child (sick) and me (taking care of child) home on Thursday decided to come after me, so that sucks, especially since it was very cold today (we had snow flurries).
So at last, the clinic. Trudi was somewhat spooky but not terrible - I was fairly relaxed - maybe just from being under the weather, but in any case it was a welcome change.
Bent started us out doing some flexing and keeping a deep bend at the walk while keeping the inside rein steady and playing the outside rein. Kind of a flip from the usual "keep the outside give the inside". He hopped on her and put her together, and got her to take a strong contact on the bit, which was really nice because she is often so tentative.
The work was circles at trot and canter, slowing the tempo of the trot and keeping her really onto the bit, and the canter was too quick but otherwise nice. My timing was off in the canter so I couldn't get the jump I wanted in order to collect her. There are times when I can get the jump, then take the energy and use it to float through the stride, and it gives me really good control over tempo, amplitude, and distance. But that was my problem, not hers. My position was mostly meh- somewhat better I think, but I wasn't really thinking about it as much as I should have and I was doing a lot of sitting on my pockets...
Overall not a bad day, but our session went quick. More tomorrow.
Comment for the day- "When this horse is good, she is really good. She should be this good ALL the time."
I know, I know.