The substitute instructor must have been the head of the organization, he was very good at the yoga himself, but I didn't like his lesson plan so much. There were too many breathing exercises and not enough strength or balance poses. However, this could have also been to do with the rest of the group who I had not seen before but seemed to struggle with a lot of the poses. Not everyone is so lucky to have prepped all summer with other balancing acts, strengthening exercises and cardio. I still cant believe how easy it was to catch on as technically this was only my 4th (or 4.5 - I count the one on ship as 0.5 as I didn't really learn too much) yoga class. I posted previously about the "Unintentional Sports of Horseback Riding" and I guess yoga can be added in there. Coincidentally, I have been working on a list in my mind every weekend of the unintentional sports of working in the barn. Watch for this later, I may have to recruit someone to model or photograph these for me as that's much more fun than writing it!
Anyway, I felt that I hadn't worked enough and since I had plenty of time when I got home, I immediately changed into my riding boots and left for the barn.
Ok another side track here. I wear my good riding pants to yoga instead of yoga pants. On the other hand, I usually wear yoga pants when I ride. Crazy? Nope that's just me being horsey and cheap. My yoga pants cost me $10, and my riding pants cost me about $70. Clearly I don't trust my yoga pants for yoga, I can already see little holes starting to form at the seams where the butt is. If I lose my pants, I would rather it be riding, because us crazy equestrians will understand! Plus the saddle is a good hiding place for holey pants, whereas downward dog... well you know!
The ride was nothing that would stand out. We just walked and trotted. Bentley was super hyper, he hadn't been ridden since Thursday and even then it wasn't much because of my sore back. He pushed hard to canter, but I stuck with the plan of lots of trotting in 10 minute intervals. Toward the end, while he wasn't tired, he WAS being a lot better behaved, and trotting very nicely. We used the time to work on lots of circles, small serpentines and some leg yielding to try and get rid of the stiffness on the one side. Still didn't come even by the end of our ride, but some improvement. Lots of slow work should help us recover!
After, since he was sweaty as usual (maybe not quite as sweaty as usual... it was much colder) I covered him in blankets
I thought he looked like one of the 3 wise men, in time for Christmas. Lee thought he looked more like an Ewok. Either way, he stayed in his hood for a good half an hour while I cleaned his bit, swept the aisles, and helped with the evening feed. What a cutie!
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