no breaks!

in a humiliating twist of fate, i missed some stairs going onstage during my performance tuesday and ate it in front of the entire audience. i wound up with a hairline fracture, with which i had to finish the show and pretend like nothing had happened. it was much worse the day after, so i went to urgent care and they wrapped it tight and put it in a sling, after telling me that the osteoporosis is bad enough in my arm that they couldn't tell exactly if there was a fracture or not, but most likely there is. this is the third time ive done that to my left wrist; and all i can say is thank god it wasn't my right!
anyway, seeing as my lesson was wednesday, i decided i wasn't going to let a little crack like that get in the way of my training. mother, i know you're reading this so don't worry, when it really bothered me i took walk breaks! Megan tried to dissuade me but i wasn't having it. i have a show next month and i only have 2 rides per week as it is. my wrist can just take it for now. 
i was on Ruby, and once again she was quite a different mare than just several weeks ago. it's like i am riding an entirely different horse. she was supple; almost immediately got into a frame, and was both forward and calm at the same time. we started with leg yielding first from the quarterline, then the centerline in either direction. megan instructed me to really use my left hip to push her over going to the left, which did help but we are still having some problems with Ruby ignoring my left leg. it's getting better, but will take both me getting more strength and figuring out how to rely on my seat more. 
next we did some lengthening and collecting exercises at the trot. we used about 3/4 of the arena, extending the trot on the longsides and collecting and sitting the trot on the short ones. i won't lie, that was slightly uncomfortable, since at the sit trot, my left hand bangs pretty hard with each step. i cheated a tiny bit during that time, by posting just slightly to lessen the jarring of my wrist. Ruby was a bit stiff still going to the left, cutting corners where my leg wasn;t strong enough to push her out. every time ruby blew off my leg, Megan made me put her on a 10m circle until she softened and yielded to my inside aides. at this point it is ten million times easier for me to get her to soften and flex using one hand than when i first started with her..and i do not have to choke up the reins to get her on the bit. that makes me feel very accomplished!
next we worked on the canter, doing 20m circles and then cantering the full arena, getting our horses bent and carrying themselves until megan told us to canter one loops. at first Ruby was very balanced, felt like a rocking horse, and we did a fairly decent one loop on the left lead, and then she got distracted by another student entering the arena, and she got entirely strung out and too strong so i had to work really hard to get her back to a walk. then megan had me do walk-canter and trot-canter transitions until Ruby was sufficiently light in the bridle and not hauling me around. after megan stopped our lesson, i did several more transitions just to make sure ruby was indeed respecting my aides, and then i cooled her out and we were done. i'm pretty sure megan took it a lot more easy on me last night cuz she was concerned about my arm; but we got good work done and i feel like i'm in great shape to compete next month!the excitement builds. i've got to be prepared with at least 2, possibly all 3 training level tests, so that's what i'll be memorizing for the next 4 weeks. stay tuned to see how i do on saturday!