Sundays are my usual riding days. If I’m in town, I’ll head to the ranch for a lesson at noon. Today, John joined, which meant that my lesson was a full-blown photo shoot. I cannot get enough pictures of me with horses. I never post updates on Facebook, except for when I have a cool new riding pic. Haha. You’ll have to check out my Flickr photostream for the latest (I selected a very short list from what was captured today). Just so you know.

Unfortunately, the lesson itself was a bit frustrating today… 2+ years into this riding thing, and I wish I could truly feel when I’m posting the trot correctly and when I’m cantering/loping on the correct lead. But I can’t. That’s my problem: I don’t feel things. I can’t feel when which leg is hitting the ground. My brain just doesn’t register that way. So, I have to learn riding through methodical steps, through a concrete list of how-tos. My plan is, once I have the steps down, then I can focus on connecting the mechanical to what I’m physically feeling. I dunno. To be honest, today was just off. For so many weeks, I was on a role: Chip just did everything right. Today, he bobbed his head a lot, and he didn’t move straight. Also, I couldn’t tell if I had my cadence right. I was staring down at his shoulders and looking at my shadow, but ugh!!

I spoke with another rider who started around the same time, and she said she has the same problem, so I suppose it’s comforting that we’re both experiencing similar challenges. Also, it’s nice to find someone who kinda learns the same way– through process and protocol rather than through feeling. I think I’ll have to watch some YouTube videos again to visualize getting back into the cowgirl zone.

In other news, I’m all caught up on my Coursera marketing class. I scored a 100% on quiz 2. I mean, granted the questions aren’t really all that hard and it’s multiple choice, but still. It’s a nice ego boost. Haha. Plus, I’m still just learning so much. There are three more weeks left, and then I have to plot out my next class.

What else? This weekend, I was hoping to do some hands-on product research. I went to a few jewelry stores to see if they had the bracelet I am eyeing. No luck. Then, I went to a couple of electronics stores to test out the Acer Aspire. No longer on demo. As it happens, when I went online to think about getting the Yoga 2 Pro, it’s completely sold out– from Friday to today!! Everywhere. I dunno if maybe everyone read the same tech review article or what, but I guess that solves my dilemma. My Acer arrives this week, and I’ll just stick with the original plan. Keeps things simple.