But not really.  I had my "last" lesson with T3 last night.  In talking to her, though, she explained that the job is currently only contracted for a three month trial before she gets an offer to make it permanent.  And her husband is still living here.  She said that she would be coming back on weekends that they (I'm assuming it's a college, because she's taught at colleges before) weren't showing and could potentially do lessons on those weekends.  So all hope isn't lost.  Just.. indefinite.

Here are my reviews of the last lessons:  fourth, third, second and first.

The lesson with the kids ran about half an hour late and T3 was clearly eager to get started.  Archie got a little warm up, but we made up for it with a shit ton of trot work.  My first exercise, after I got him going properly, was to post as small as possible.  I don't know why this has been such an issue for me.  I post like, two feet out of the saddle.

Oh, did I mention that I wore my fresh-from-the-box boots?  For the first ten minutes or so, my ankles were in a fiery, painful hell.  And then the boots remembered that they were synthetic and started to relax around my legs.  Magical.  But, needless to say, lowering my heels was difficult initially.  I refused to make it an excuse and just pushed them down.

The small-posting brought to light that the giant posting was fucking up my hand position, so while doing these tiny little posts (which, fuck, I need to get used to), I had to work on the line from my elbow to the bit.  My hands would raise and break the line, which she said was a habit from pumping my arms as I take my giant posts.  The chant for the flat work was "elbows, wrists, reins, bit", interspersed with "TOO HIGH!" and "push your knees into your heels!".  She also explained that when I was pumping my arms, I wasn't giving him anywhere to go.  Goes back to that chokehold I used to put him in while trying to get and maintain contact.  So, softer hands, straighter line, to the bit with less movement out of the saddle.

From there, we moved into canter hell.

There were several standards and jumps in the ring and she made a serpentine pattern out of them.  I trotted through in once, and then went through it at a canter.  It was down the straight on the left lead, turn in and go straight, downward transition, simple change to the right lead, bend right on the rail, turn back in, go straight/simple change back to the left lead, bend left and get back on the rail.  Here.  I drew you a pretty picture.

The black stars are standards.  Blue is left lead/bend.  Orange is transition.  Purple is right lead/bend. And that blue star?  Where T3 decided to stand when I kept cutting that corner.

Hi, here's a super lightened panoramic of the ring.

The jumping wasn't as magical and exhilarating as it was last lesson.  I couldn't really relax, after having fucked up the serpentine exercise a million times.  We progressed to canter both directions with a few breaks to trot, then she moved them up to a cross rail and baby vertical.  We did okay with that and she turned it into two baby verticals.  So, yeah, we cantered our first line of (baby) verticals.

My baby verts.

Notes from this lesson:

• Elbows, wrists, reins, bit.
• Support outside rein
• Breathe
• Sit up
• Count strides to relax between fences
• Lift inside hand to facilitate lead and to keep inside shoulder straight
• Take time asking for the canter:  push him into the outside leg, slight bend to the inside and then request.
• Push knees into heels and stop posting so high!

Because it was the last lesson for possibly ever, we spent a few minutes just talking about our progress.  I mean, five lessons and I'm cantering lines of verticals.  My horse is a completely different horse and moves his body with balance and impulsion.  He swings through his back and uses his hind end.  We don't bulge (often) and we rarely fall sides, so long as I do my part.  We also had a good laugh at his race picture and talked about what an angry baby he was.

This guy.