July 29th - 9:27pm

Spent this morning riding. Schooled Buck and Luli over fences. Warmed up Puccini for Martin and schooled Cor Lit on the flat. Finally getting the hang of Buck. Im getting confident and comfortable enough on her to create and manage a 12" stride so our jumping is coming along. She's got the most fun cant and jump. Absolutely love it. Luli was very good for me as well. Martin's starting to crack down on the little things I do that interfere with my horse's ability. Allowing my arms to relax in the turns instead of getting stiff, using my legs to turn before my hands, balancing after each fence instead if scrambling. I can feel (and Martin says) that Im improving in my ability to ride to the fences. Finding my balance point, maintaining a good canter, staying in the middle. After the fences, though, I tend to get a little panicky thinking about what is coming next. Which tends to result in a failed attempt at balancing and turning. Shouldn't be so difficult but it is. Needs more work for sure. But of all the places in the world to be to work on problems in the tack, this is one of the best. Horse after horse to keep working on things with. Martins set me to work over ground poles and with lead changes. Maintaining my pace, balance, rythym and direction without scrambling after the pole/change. Should be good for me. Schooling Cor Lit was fun as always and significantly better than the last time I was on him. He is without a doubt one of the best movers here and I cant wait for the day I can make him look anywhere near as good as Martin. He's just stunning on the flat with Martin on board.
After riding Martins family came over and they did an asado for lunch. Alice and I were invited and as usual it was a ton of fun with great food. Martins newphew went for a ride on Pastrocito who was an absolute rockstar. The two of them were super cute together. We all ended up in Martin's house for dessert, coffee, tea and the Olympics which wad fun. Alice and I are pretty obsessively keeping up with what is going on in London. I think its partially due to the horse related portions and partially due to it just being something outside the farm (or the compound as Alice calls it) to pay attention to. Keeping our fingers crossed the USA moves up in cross country tomorrow!
Nothing good on TV tonight so we're crashing early. Another full day in the saddle tomorrow with plenty to work on! 

Photos of Martins nephew on Pastrocito, Alice on Pastrocito and the always adorable Cor Lit.