PMA

Riding is all about attitude. You need to be positive, confident and determined in order to succeed at it. This morning, my mental attitude was none of the above. Hence, not the greatest lesson ever. I was on Dolly, who's not the easiest horse to begin with, but she was great last week, so I knew I could ride her well. But my signals were imprecise, my position was all over the place, my stirrups were too long, and my first instinct when things got tough was to give up.

It wasn't a total disaster - we managed everything we were supposed to do adequately, but it was just a slog from start to finish, and I didn't get a great deal of satisfation out of it because I knew I was riding badly.

This kind of thing has happened before, and it's always when I feel lousy - so perhaps next time I wake up with a cold on a Sunday I shouldn't go at all.