Freezing cold lesson with a special dismount

Today I had a lesson on Chai, and she was great. For the past few rides, I've been using another lesson pony's saddle and girth because she doesn't have her own yet, and today the other pony's girth is missing. I look around, and I find one that is out, and it's the same as the one I've been using, but when I try it on her, it's too small. I'm a little late, so I grab a random girth from another pony's saddle rack that might fit her, and when I try it on, it's just a little too small, so I grab a girth extender and put it on her. When I get to the arena, I check my girth and get on. We start warming up, and while we're trotting, the saddle begins to tip to the side, so I walk for a second to adjust it. It's not the first time that's happened because in my trial lesson, it was also tipping to the side. We continue trotting, and we make it an entire lap of the arena, and we are making a circle when it starts tipping again. I try to step into my other stirrup to keep it centered, but it keeps slipping, so I lean forward and grab her neck as the saddle is falling down her side. I'm already hanging off her, so I just put my feet down and start to fix the saddle. I take the girth extender off and spend a while trying to get the girth up. I finally get the girth up, get back on, and keep warming up. After we warmed up, we worked on a serpentine over poles and a little jump, and she was super good and wasn't as wiggly before the poles or the jump. Then we worked on the one-stride double, and I focused on keeping her straight and my upper body tall in between the jumps. She was really great, and we even got to do a big X-rail. Overall, she was super good, and it was a lot of fun.

The one stride double, but she got
a little wiggly

           

Wet and crazy lease ride

 So yesterday was my first lease ride on her, and it had been raining all morning, so we decided to wait until later to ride. We got to the barn right as Chai's pasture was being turned out, so I grabbed her before she went out. I took her and tied her to hay so she wouldn't freak out as much. She chilled out a little while I was getting her ready, but she was power walking to the arena and would not stand. I had to make her go in circles around me before I could get on, and then she walked off as soon as I got on. She was also super bad about flexing, so we had to do it a bunch of times. We walked around for a while till she settled and was not walking as fast. We did the same thing at the trot because she was trotting really fast, and also was being super barn sour. Then we just trotted over 2 poles until she did not jump them or canter out. The footing in the arena was ok. It was fine to do walk, trot, canter, but it wasn't the driest in the world, and nobody slipped. Then we cantered up one of the sides of the arena, going away from the barn. Left lead, we had to try again because she swapped halfway up the side, but the second time, she was great and held her lead up the entire side. Then we did some trotting towards the barn until she was slow and not rushing. Overall, she was good, and I'm never riding her at night like that unless I have to.        

Chai trotting towards the barn

Chai trotting over a pole

First lesson on my new lease pony!!!!

 Monday was my first lesson (other than the trial lesson) on my new lease pony, Chai! She is only 4, so she has just started jumping and is not the best at it yet. We did a small serpentine with 2 poles and a small X-rail, and then we went around to a small double of X-rails with one stride in between. She was doing really well with the course, except she would get wiggly before the jumps. We had to do the double on its own a few times to try to keep her straight. Monday was also my first time cantering her, and she was really good. I struggled to find the right buttons, but after a few tries, I slowly started to get the hang of it, and she was really patient while I was trying to figure it out. I'm excited for what the new year will bring and all the exciting things I will hopefully get to do with Chai!💖   

She's the queen of .5 pictures👑