November 6th - 10:03pm

Heck of a busy day. Rode Uxmal on the flat followed by grid lessons on Nixon, Holandesa and Nacar. The grid exercise was a pole on the ground, short five to a cross rail then right turn to a short three, swedish oxer then normal two, swedish oxer, a second normal two and a final swedish oxer. Lots of oxers! On Nixon I worked on holding my body and not leaning at the jumps. With Holandesa who's a bit more forward it was even more about staying still on top so she can jump without interference. I have a tendency when I feel horses get forward to fences to brace my leg forward/heel down, get my butt back in the tack then over release up front. Manage to get a bit behind and a bit ahead all in one motion. Staying light, on top and in the middle is something I have to continually practice. Nacar, my favorite five year old stallion, was just as good as always. Got him round and stretching down on the flat then was perfect to the fences as well. It was his second time through a grid ever and this one did not at all lack in the intimidation factor. Lots of very colorful rails. He was such a good boy though. By the time we got off the last horse is was a lovely 33 degrees Celcius in the ring.
All in all a good morning. I wasn't thrilled with my riding. Particually my work over fences with my position but as Martin pointed out, when I first got here I was not able to ride any of these horses. Let alone jump a line and sizeable grid on them all. Which is true but still going to push that much harder with my riding tomorrow. Dont ever want to come out of the ring feeling like I could have done better.
The afternoon was spent driving to Haras Baral to check out the new foals (Invasor babies!) as well as see some older horses in the free jump. I think Martin had planned to bring one back to the farm but ended up with an almost full load of 5 new colts. We headed home, unloaded them then turned right back around to grab dinner at a grill down the road. Quick, but yummy, meal then home to bed. Literally got in at 9:50. Which, by our standards, is incredibly late. Bed as fast as possible since tomorrow will likely be no shorter of a day!