Well there's something to be said for clearing the mind before setting about to learn anything. I was a bit rushed when I got to the stable, Marlow was covered in mud, I didn't get my stretches in. It's important for me to make time for these things if I want to get the most out of my sessions.

Worked on the circle today, exclusively. Mostly at the posting trot. Discovered a couple of things. Riding arenas cause a rider to get lazy. The horse turns when he gets to the short end, he has no choice. But when you are riding a circle, you have to be precise with all your aids all the time. There is no visual cue for the horse to follow. Big revelation.

The other thing is this, the inside leg refers to the bend in the horse, not the direction he's going. Worked on circle to the left in a right bend, ergo my inside leg is my right leg. This type of exercise is wonderful in getting to fully understand the impact of all the aids- even the quiet ones.

The boys in Vienna never shift their weight to cause them to fall in when doing a circle. Their composure stays very much straight. All that crap I was taught by instructor-wanna-be's all my life about using the inside leg to get a horse to bend needs to be whitewashed from my hard drive. THAT is going to take a lot of work.

Also learned there are often no wrong answers to some questions. Exemplified today by Chris with the "Do what I do" demonstration.

Most riders approach a jump with a "braced for failure" approach, recommended reading "Zen in the Art of Archery".

Was totally encouraged to "experiment" today - found it totally frustrating. My mind was not open to it.