In our lessons and schooling rides, we have been working on levels 1 & 2, but now that spring is creeping up on us, I have been revisiting the training level tests. I am planning on spending at least the first half of the show season at training level. It’s what we are ready for. And I really want to be ready – I want to be competitive, and I have a specific goal in mind:

The Jockey Club recently announced an incentive program for facilities hosting shows with Thoroughbred awards/classes. I am very proud to own an off-track thoroughbred. As long as I have loved horses, I have loved Thoroughbreds. Their energy and personalities fit me like a glove. I am excited that the Jockey Club is encouraging the recognition of my favorite breed.

This show is my first goal for the show season. I want to be competitive. It’s hard to know who/what will show up for the High Point Award, but I hope that it will be a beautiful show full of beautiful thoroughbreds, and I want Cloud and I to ride at the best of our abilities and see how we size up to the other TBs out there!

Thursday was my first lesson in a while – I made the decision to try cutting back on lessons to every other week to try to save some money. I don’t want to hinder our progress, but I figure it’s worth a shot to try to save some money, especially since I want to show this summer. Some weeks I have felt like I needed more time to practice what we learned in the previous lesson before another lesson, so we’ll see how this goes!

At our show on Thursday, I told Christy I had been revisiting the training level tests, so she wanted to see what we’ve got going. Sarah was kind enough to record test #2.

We did pretty well with the tests. Christy told me that if we were going to a show this weekend we would be ready, which is always good to hear when my first *planned* show is at the end of May (I would like to find one schooling show maybe in April as a warm-up since the High Point is so important to me). She was thrilled with our halts, and said that if she was getting nitty-gritty I could clean up our centerlines and corners. So that is exactly what I plan to do in our next few rides. I actually haven’t ridden yet today, I need to feed the Main Stay horses their midday hay in just a bit, then will be heading to Cloud. My plan for today’s ride is to ride some off-rail squares and rectangles.

I want to keep working the training level tests while continuing to progress with our first and second level skills. Lots to do!

Yesterday I baked Cloud some new treats – Pony Pretzels! Can’t wait to see what he thinks of these!

Just a really cool video that I wanted to share! The best part about this video, is how much fun the riders are having. That is SO what horses are about – no matter the discipline. Forget that, and you’re in trouble.

I had a great make-up lesson with Cloudy tonight, but I am tired…so to be continued!

Anyhoot, since our failed lesson on Thursday, I gave Cloud the day off Friday. Saturday I showed up not really sure if I was going to try for a ride or give Cloud a bath. Cloud was too muddy for a bath – for one, he’d clog the washrack drain, and two, he’d just get muddy again lol. I try to groom Cloud thoroughly every day, so I keep him as clean as humanly possible in the winter. It’s a constant battle against stains, but I wouldn’t love grays if I didn’t love grooming!

Since a bath was a no-go I saddled up yesterday. Held my breath, crossed my fingers, and Cloudy was back to normal. We had a really good ride, working on a lot of canter transitions and some big trot/little trot transitions. I’ve been playing with flying lead changes again, I just can’t resist. He is getting SO GOOD at his left to right transitions. They are getting to be very smooth and less dramatic looking (in a good way). Right to left are improving as well, but at a different pace. Right to left are very inconsistent, but at least we are getting some true changes. Cloud enjoys this work

But today, we had to work on the things that Cloud doesn’t enjoy so much. Those things involve “whoa”. Today I really wanted to work on our trot-halts and canter-walks. I tried to mix in the “fun stuff” with some canter breaks, flying changes, and leg yields. While I was working on canter-walk, Cloud was giving me a very jiggy, tense walk. So our cool down for the day was a lot of stretchy trot transitions, followed by free walk/collected walk transitions.

I really do love Cloud’s “willing to work” attitude. I prefer to have to say “whoa” more than I have to say “go”. I think the video of Cloud walking to the gate for our ride says it all, he really loves to work and be challenged. He has definitely improved in the past couple of months in the “whoa” department, but we’ve got a long way to go for our “whoa” to be polished. And neither of us like to practice it all that much

2011 ended with a bang. I had a lesson with Christy on 12/29/11. We started the lesson working on my halt-trot-halt transitions. I have stuck to my word and have been working on halting in every schooling ride, but I’m disappointed with our progress. Cloud comes up off of the contact in our halts. We are getting pretty clean transitions with very few walk steps, but he keeps coming up off the contact. Sigh. I know that, like everything else, if we just keep working on it it will click for him. But frustrating!

After that torture, we moved on to the fun stuff - canter transitions, canter serpentines, lengthening the trot, etc. Christy was getting very excited from the center of the ring. Sure, we’ve got work to do, but in the last month or so, Cloud has come so far. All we needed was a little more challenge to get us progressing. We are still visiting the ‘basics’, which is important to not abandon, but I can tell Cloud is enjoying the new stuff. I’ve got new buttons developing in him, and Christy asked if I had noticed his new muscles in his hind

It’s easy to see that I have a different horse than I had at the beginning of the year! It was a year with ups and downs. I started the year laid up on the couch going through surgery on both of my feet. I had some friends riding Cloud, but I was a sad girlie missing my pony. I got on him as soon as freakin possible, in February. We started our 2011 riding with numerous soundness issues. We persevered through them, but they plagued us – and put off our show season to mid July. I managed to get Cloud to our first and second shows together. Originally I had wanted more, but I am happy with what we accomplished in the two shows. Our first show was a learning experience, and our second show went even better. The important part was that we made it there, together. It meant a lot to me, and I am excited to try to get Cloud to even more shows this show season, possibly some recognized shows. In the fall, Cloud and I traded the show ring for the trails – and I’m thrilled with Cloudy’s effort on the trails. We were going alone and with company for longer trail rides than we have ever been on. And of course, we’ve kept on working our schooling rides. I spent the year riding 5-6 days a week without many breaks from our routine. Our relationship together is stronger than ever. We celebrated Cloud’s 19th birthday and our 9th anniversary together this past year. What a year!

I am someone who likes to make, and try to keep, resolutions. Last year, my resolutions were to:

1. Get back in the saddle post-surgeries, and continue to ride 5-6 days a week (CHECK!)

2. Do everything I can to improve/maintain Cloud’s physical abilities (It took some work, but CHECK!)

3. Continue to improve my feel of Cloud’s movements to improve timing of my aides (Still work to do here, but yes, there’s been a LOT of improvement! CHECK!)

4. Improve my sitting trot position (CHECK!! We’ve done a lot of sitting trot the last couple of months)

5. Get Cloud to the show ring, have confidence that we are ready, and don’t make excuses! (CHECK!)

Pretty impressive, I think. So time for 2012 resolutions. It’s almost hard, because I’m so happy with what we’ve been doing lately. When I think resolutions for this year, I think “Just keep going how we’re going”. But here’s some specifics…

1. Continue riding 5-6 days a week;

2. Continue to maintain/improve Cloud’s physical abilities, as much as I can;

3. Get to the show ring earlier and more often than last year – starting the year in training level, ending the year in first level;

4. Update my blog at least once a week, better if more;

5. Continue to love and appreciate this amazing horse that I have been blessed with

Happy New Year, everyone!

I’ve had 2 lessons since my last post, and I’m very excited about the things that Cloud and I are working on. In my lesson on 12/8, Christy asked me to run through the training level tests to see where they are at. It had been quite some time since I had put a test together. She said that if the tests looked good and were easy that we would know that we could move on to more challenging stuff, if they had some bumps we would touch on them. I ran through tests 1 & 3, in test 1 I had one missed lead, but had been working on counter canter the day before so Cloud just got ahead of me. The tests were very easy. The only flaw was coming above the contact in the halts, which is something that we’ve been working on daily now and is getting better and better. 

After running through the tests we had a little chat about goals. I wanted to know what Christy was thinking, and she wanted to know where I was at. We are both on the same page. While it is clear that we are ready to be challenged in our schooling rides, Cloud is going to need some more positive experience at shows in the spring/early summer. Christy and I both think that it is a good idea to plan on entering more schooling shows as early as possible, riding training level tests. While we are working on first level in my lessons, Christy said she envisions Cloud and I riding competitively at training level – and maybe going for some year-end awards by hitting up some recognized shows. She said that we have a bit of work in lateral work before being show-ready. I like that plan! Because the training tests were so easy in my lesson, we can move on with first level schooling, but I like feeling like I will be competitive next summer by showing training level for at least the first half of show season.

Once we had finished chatting about shows, we turned back to the here-and-now. Christy brought up the difference between Cloud’s trot and canter. Lately in our lessons we have been focusing on lengthening and shortening his trot stride, and lateral work. The lateral work is coming along at a slow-but-steady pace, his lengthening is going well, shortening needs work but is improving. That is all first level work. In the canter, Cloud has first level down. His lengthening and shortening comes very naturally, and the more we practice the easier the transitions have been coming. A while ago, when I shared my ‘bucket list’ wish about flying changes, Christy told me we would be skipping steps. In our conversation on 12/8, she expressed that maybe Cloud is ready for 2nd and 3rd level canter work, specifically schooling correct changes. First level canter work has come very naturally to Cloud, and so has a well-balanced counter canter. She said that we don’t want to school counter canter too much, because it could make flying changes difficult. We started working on walk-canter transitions. Obviously for Cloud walk to canter is fun and easy, but schooling canter to walk has been more difficult. Brakes are always more sticky than the gas pedal for Cloud!

So that’s what we’ve been up to lately. Instead of starting my rides with a single goal in mind, I have been doing a little bit of everything. We have done some lengthening/shortening the trot, a lot of lateral work, trot-halt-trot, stretchy trot, walk-canter, canter-walk, canter lengthening, stretchy canter, and even some dabbling with flying changes J. I can see how walk-canter-walk transitions will help school correct changes. I have had success with changes in my latest rides by doing figure eights with walk transitions in the middle.

Our lesson on 12/15 was a wild one. The horses had been stuck inside for 2 days because of the icy cold rain and mud. Wednesday, 12/14, was a warmer rainy day, and when I rode Cloud his fused fetlock was acting up. I attributed it to the weird weather change/arthritis, and crossed my fingers for the lesson on Thursday. Sure enough, he felt fine on Thursday…too fine. Having been couped up for 2 days AND not having felt good the day before…he had plenty of get up and go. 

We started the lesson and I told Christy that I was really pleased with our work in all areas lately, and she was anxious to see our ‘stuff’. So we went right into lengthening/shortening his trot stride…but Cloud wanted to canter and was blowing me off. He was listening to my half-halts to collect his trot, but wanted to canter when I was asking for a lengthened trot. I got frustrated fast. I understood that he was fired up and feeling good, but we haven’t had a problem with breaking stride in quite some time. It was a flashback that I didn’t want! But I tried my best to keep my cool. Christy suggested we let him run it off, but I wanted a say in the matter first. I did several trot-halt-trot and trot-walk-trot transitions, until he was listening and gave me a lengthened trot without cantering. Since I won the mini battle, I gave him a walk break and then we let him canter. 

Oh, boy. It is very easy to forget his age when he has nights like that one. We started out completely letting him have his way – we lengthened his canters down the long sides, and collected for semi-shortened stride circles at A and C. 

We cantered and cantered. When it felt like he HAD to have gotten some of his beans out, we took a walk break, then switched to canter-walk-canter transitions on a figure eight. Sort of. Beans were still in place apparently, because we ended up with several flying changes – some sloppy, switching his fronts and hinds at different times, but some clean. Even good, clean right to left changes…which have been harder for us! 

I was pretty happy with myself that I was “riding the horse I had under me” – aka, not getting upset that things weren’t going as planned, and making the best of what Cloud was giving me. And I was rewarded for my efforts! After our figure 8’s, we picked up the trot with some very nice lateral work. So nice, that Christy had me take it a step further. We practiced riding shoulder in to the right for half a length of the arena, then straightening and switching to left. When we got the hang of that we did the same thing with leg yields. It’s tough, but we had some baby steps! 

Overall, we’ve had another good couple of weeks with Cloudy Boy. I am excited because I feel challenged. While we were putting together training level tests, I felt challenged to put a perfect test together, but the movements themselves were not overly challenging. I like working on 1st level trot work, and more advanced canter work because it’s new and exciting, and I feel a difference in our training level work as we go through the more complicated stuff! Cloud is loving it too. I love his attitude towards riding. I don’t know what he would do sitting out in a pasture. He really enjoys being ridden and challenged. I can tell he feels good about himself when he knows he did something right. I think he might get just as frustrated as I do when he isn’t sound!

The first thing we worked on in my lesson was getting more life in Cloud’s working and collected trot. He absolutely loves to lengthen his trot, so that is easy to work on. I’m very happy that I am seeing a quality to the gait that I never expected from Cloud. Now that we’ve seen a better gait in him, the goal is to channel some of that energy into ‘flashier’ working and collected trots. It’s going to be a work in progress, but I am already seeing improvement in his trot in general.

We moved on to a few different exercises incorporating trot and canter poles. The first goal was to work on adjusting Cloud’s trot using the poles, while making it more challenging by throwing in some changes of bend as well. The poles helped remind Cloud to pick up his legs, then I had to half halt and ask for a small trot in a 10 meter half circle before changing rein. It was a good exercise to keep Cloud thinking, and a strengthening workout as well with the trot poles.

Upping the ante, we added a small 12-15 meter canter circle to the exercise. It went pretty well, but the added challenge had Cloud coming up above the contact during the collected trot and transitions, so some room for improvement there.

After giving Cloud a breather, we switched to canter poles, which Christy decided to take the poles down to just one because we haven’t done a lot of canter poles. The goal was to canter the pole, trot between C & H, halt at E, trot, and pick up the canter again between K & A. The halt was the stickler in this one – I do not work on halt nearly enough. In fact, I told Christy the last time we worked on halt was at our last show! So keep that in mind as you notice our halt is nowhere near E! I made a vow to work on halt in every ride for a while… Also, Cloud gave me a nice flying change by accident/on purpose over the pole during one pass. I made a sloppy turn onto the quarterline, and overcorrected by changing Cloud’s bend just before the pole. So it was by accident, but on purpose because I did actually cue him for it! So that was a nice surprise…

So that got us excited, and when we switched directions we did the same exercise, but if the moment felt right Christy suggested I ask for a change over the pole. I got a bit sloppy with the rest of the exercise, and we never actually got the change this direction. So we joked and figured that my brain is impeding our flying changes a bit. The fun in this video is watching Cloud’s halt-canter transitions. Yep, he decided to skip that trot on his own. I was amused by it.

After all that craziness, we finished up with a nice stretchy trot. Notice a difference??

It was a good lesson. Cloud and I are having a lot of fun in our lessons, and a lot of it has to do with all the hard work we’ve been putting in. In the last few weeks, Cloud has been very respectful of my half halts, which makes life much much more pleasant! Brakes are important! Obviously we need to practice our halts, and I imagine that incorporating halt work into our rides will only make him listen even more.

On a lighter note, Rob came out to ride again on Saturday. Apparently he is past his fear of Cloudy Boy. He did the majority of the riding on Saturday, while I hand-walked my good ole friend Derby to let him stretch his legs. I was attempting to teach Rob posting, and it didn’t seem to be going over really well, but then when I went to put Derby away and chatted with some barn friends, I turn around and Rob is trotting by the arena door, posting. Cute! When Rob was done riding, I hopped on for just a few. Cloud let me know very politely (no sarcasm, he was such a nice sweet boy) that he wasn’t really in the mood to work hard after Rob had had his fun. So, since no one was at the barn, I closed the arena doors and untacked Cloud so he could roll in the arena sand – a favorite pastime of his. Rob was bored with this, so he went and grabbed a small green ball that for some reason lives in a corner of the arena. He kicked the ball, and Cloud moseyed over to give the ball a look. In the meantime, I’m telling Rob that Cloud has never been a horse that plays with toys. Cloud decided to prove me wrong (Cloud reminds me often that he understands English) and engaged in a very mellow game of soccer with Rob. Rob would kick the ball, Cloud would look at the ball, then look at Rob, and Rob would head towards the ball, which for some reason told Cloud that he could too. So they would both mosey over to the ball, which Cloud would nudge with his nose to signal to Rob that he should kick the ball again. Rob kicks, Cloud waits, Rob moves, Cloud moves. It went over and over. I don’t think Cloud was really excited about playing with the ball, it more seemed like he was trying to figure out what Rob wanted him to do with it. Regardless, they were both having fun, I was excited to see my boyfriend and my horse bonding, and Cloud’s mind was again engaged on something other than dressage. Sweet! Unfortunately, I left my camera in the barn and I didn’t want to disturb their game by opening the arena door, because it was just too cute. So the game wrapped up without any footage L Cloud then got in his roll, and we wrapped up our day at the barn!

Love love love my horse!

Saturday came, though, and I was really ready for some horse time. I didn’t have to work at the farm on Saturday, so I allowed myself a little sleep in, then headed for the barn. You can tell when I have been away, because I always seem to make up for the time that I have missed. I’m pretty sure I spent at least 6 hours at the barn on Saturday, maybe more.

I showed up, and I was surprised to see that Cloud was in his “new digs”. Atlanta, a chestnut mare that I’ve ridden before, moved out that morning, so Christy and I staked our claims on some stall swapping. She moved Remy into Atlanta’s stall, which is next to her other gelding’s stall so her horses are next to each other, and then I moved Cloud to Remy’s stall. It wasn’t really a necessity or anything, nothing was *wrong* with his stall, but I like the location of Remy’s stall better than Cloud’s old stall. Cloud’s old stall had two exterior walls because it was in a corner, so being my nurturing self I worried that his stall was colder than the more interior stalls. Plus I really like that Cloud will have more to see in his new stall, with people coming and going from the arena, and in the spring when the arena doors open again, he can watch and learn while the other horses ride! An added bonus is that I’m closer to the tack area, wash stall, garbage can, muck bucket/rakes, arena, etc. Very fun having a change in scenery!

Anyways, it was a pleasant surprise that the owners of SFS had moved Cloud AND my stuff for me! I got right to grooming and tacking Cloudy up. We had a really good ride – working on a lot of the stuff that we’ve been doing in lessons. A lot of shortening/lengthening trots and canters, and some lateral work too. I decided to carry a whip to see if I can engage the hind more in my lateral work. I haven’t ridden with a whip in quite some time, so I think if I carry one for a bit that we can phase back out of it, but it did seem to help. We’ll see. I forgot out much juggling you do when you carry a whip!

After my ride I gave Cloud a bath. The temperature was as high as it seems it is going to be for some time, with a temperature drop in the forecast. Even with his trace clip, he took a few hours under 2 coolers and with the aide of towels to dry. So I cleaned my tack trunk, his halter, his bridle, and his stall, and mixed his supplements. And of course hung out with my friends at the barn. It was nice to just hang out at the barn and spend time with Cloud after a few days away.

Yesterday Rob (aka the boyfriend) came out to feed/watch me do chores at Main Stay, and also came with me to the barn. He earned some points there :) When we got to Silver Fern, the barn was empty. Cloud was in because it was raining and the temps had gone down, so I was excited that he was still fresh and clean from his bath. I tacked him up and did a quick review of what we’ve been working on, then let Rob ride. Rob took a riding lesson last year just for fun on a sweet little gelding named Bert, but he had yet to ride Cloud because he said he’s fast and scary haha. While I respect that Cloud is bigger and more forward than Bert, he is not scary – at least not scary like he used to be when he was younger and more prone to spooking. So after Rob walked and trotted a little bit, I took off Cloud’s bridle (the barn was still empty and arena doors were closed) and hopped back on, to prove that he’s not scary. I trotted and cantered Cloud without a bridle. It was really funny because although we have worked on downward transitions and halting from my seat, Cloud knew he didn’t have a bridle on, and, well, he’s never been a huge fan of “whoa”. It’s extra funny because I was having no problem steering him, but he just didn’t want to slow down. So we cantered a while, I got a trot transition, then we trotted – and trotted – and trotted until finally Cloud listened to my seat. Fat chance I was getting a halt for a dismount, so I dismounted at the walk. It was very funny, I was laughing so hard the whole time. Obviously I never felt like Cloud was going to run off with me, but he thought it was pretty darn cool to be the boss for a day.

Sometimes I think it’s important to let loose and have fun with your horse. Sometimes I take Cloud in the arena, either tack-less or before/after a ride and just play the “follow me” game. It was fun to take off his bridle, even if he wouldn’t listen to my seat instructions to whoa, just to do something different and play with his head a bit. Dressage is very disciplined – I am the boss in the partnership and he needs to follow my instructions. He is Cloud, so he enjoys the work, but yesterday he got to be the boss, and Rob took a little video (I’ll have to upload it later), and watching it back Cloud’s eyes were sparkling, his ears were forward, there was a pep in his step – he was having fun, and I was too!

Wow. It’s been 2 months. Okay. When I left off, I had decided to stop showing for the year. I wish we had gotten in some more shows this summer, but now that I made the leap and have 2 shows under my belt, I am looking forward to a more active show season next year. However, before the weather gets cold and we’re stuck indoors, I got in a lot of trail riding with Cloud since my last post!

We had a trail-related breakthrough in early October. Cloud had just had new shoes put on, which can throw his soundness off for a few days, so instead of canceling my dressage lesson, I opted for a “trail lesson” with Christy. I really wanted someone to show me the way to the elusive forest preserve, and it gave me an excuse to have a relaxing chat n ride with Christy. Going into the trail lesson, I had hopes that we could make it far enough for Christy to give me adequate directions to the forest preserve, and then I could inch my way to it over time. At that point I had worked Cloud up to about 20-30 minutes tops out on the trail. Christy guided us on Liam, and we not only found the forest preserve, but ventured into it! Cloud was a complete rockstar. We saw a runner, a few people walking a dog, cars, you name it. At one point I even commented to Christy that we were so busy talking that I had forgotten to be on alert for Cloud’s trail nonsense! Wow! We spent an entire hour lesson on the trail! He was jiggy when he figured out that we were heading back to the barn, but manageable. And it felt amazing!

So amazing that I ventured to the forest preserve by myself a couple of times after that. I absolutely love that Cloud is the same level of nerves alone or with other horses, it makes my life a lot simpler not always having to have company on our rides. One weekend Sarah wanted to take Derby on a trail ride, and I was so amazed when she asked me if Cloud would be okay leading! And he was! I was so proud of Cloud to be leading Derby on the trails!

October was a bit busy because at the end of the month I went through PATH International’s workshop and certification to become certified as a registered level therapeutic riding instructor. It was a very intense process, and I am so happy to say that I passed the riding, horsemanship, and teaching portions of the certification. Main Stay’s season just ended, but I will most likely be starting as an instructor in their spring session, either on a substitute basis, or if I’m lucky a permanent slot! Very exciting!

In the ‘dressage arena’, Cloud and I have switched our tune from training level to focusing on first level. Over the summer we focused on perfecting the training level tests, but with so much time before our next show, we have time to work on turning Cloud into a first level horse. Our lessons have focused on lateral movement and lengthening and shortening Cloud’s stride in the trot and canter. For Cloud, lateral movement is going to be a step-by-step process. I am working on a slow, muscle building approach to ease him into lateral work. You’ll see in my lesson videos that right now he steps under himself instead of completely crossing his hinds for a leg yield. I don’t want to ask for too much too soon and end up with a lot of soundness issues like last spring. We’re building up in that department. 

Here are some samples of our recent lateral work:

The shortening and lengthening has been very fun. Cloud loves to lengthen, and I can see a real difference in the quality of his gaits in recent weeks. It amazes me, because it’s hard to picture after all the years I’ve had Cloud that he’s had more to give! Shortening his stride into a nice collected trot and canter is a challenge for Cloud, but I can tell that when it clicks it’s going to be beautiful – probably more beautiful than our lengthening. Cloud has a lot of forward and a lot of go, if I can harness that energy into a collected trot and canter, I can just tell it will be breathtaking. 

Here’s some shortening/lengthening footage from our last two lessons:

I need to get some video of Cloud’s canter work that we’ve done shortening/lengthening – but here’s a couple of canters from our last couple lessons:

Okay, I think I’m just about caught up! But I did not mention that on November 3, Cloud and I celebrated our 9 year anniversary of the day that I bought him. It was pretty fun. Our anniversary happened to fall on a Thursday (lesson day), so I brought pizza and two of my close horsey friends to the barn and just had an informal gathering to celebrate me and Cloudy. Every year around this time, I get very sentimental about Cloudy Boy. When I bought Cloud, I was in high school and used to keep written journals, so I dug up the journal that talked about pre- and post-purchase of Cloud. It was so fun to look back on the days when I was worried someone else would buy Cloud, reading the countdown that I had until the day that I bought Cloud, and then reading about our ‘early days’. It’s amazing to me how little I knew back then, but I knew enough that I ended up with the perfect horse for me. Cloud and I have come a long way together in our partnership under saddle, but we’ve always been the same pair on a relationship level. Something about him and I just clicks, and I am sooo grateful to have him as my horse! 

OK, I hope you’ve enjoyed your update. I will try very very hard to update more regularly, maybe I should set my goal for at least once a week, since I lesson every week and should really take the time to reflect and record what we worked on.