We rocked it.

After a week of trying to come to grips with a right hind that did not want to work so hard and focusing on straightness we made some serious break through. His right hind was working just fine this evening and straightness was not an issue. I had a FABULOUS ride. We worked on the finer points of the ride. Tuning Blu to my queues for transitions by sitting a bit taller signaling a transition was so very easy for him. He obviously knew this in a past life and was waiting for me to catch up. I need to focus on this for every transition we do. We also worked on the single change of lead. My biggest challenge is staying in the moment so the next moment can follow. My inclination is to be way ahead in the ride and it does not help the present. It allows Blu to take charge and that is not necessarily a good thing. I got it and it was wonderful. We worked at the canter on a 10m circle -- canter to walk to canter then a simple change and the work in the opposite direction. If we can do it on a 10 m circle, the changes in the test are a real piece of cake. Our changes tonight were perfect. We then went off and worked on some canter half pass to a leg yield and counter canter. All was excellent. I need to keep my inside leg on him in the half pass and not let him take over. Another challenge to work on. Linda got on the end because I wanted her to feel how spectacular he felt to me. She schooled the flying lead changes and I could not get over how much they have improved. She then did some of the medium and extended gates with him and he was terrific! She thought we may have to accept some 6s in these gates but she really thinks that after tonight if ridden right he could get 9s... wow. We have lots of work to do but I can feel and see such progression in both of us. It is really coming together. How did I get so lucky?