Nasty weather seems to exacerbate horse madness...:)

I must get my rant over this winter's never-ending bombardment of snow and unusually extreme temperatures that just seems to go on and on with no relief, has left me in a quite a funk. Every degree it drops, so does my mood. However, I am just crazy enough to wave my middle finger at all that snow and try to get in my horse time regardless of frozen hands, frozen tack, frozen ground and very fluffy horses! It seems the more things get in my way of doing something, the more I want to be doing it.

I have been taking my Miss Tea over to a local indoor for lessons once a week (or as weather allows). Miss Tea is doing very well in lessons and I am having so much fun getting real riding accomplished. It is all so very basic at this point. I am a total mess in the saddle and have discovered my legs are ridiculously weak! Between my weekly lessons, I find I am walking true cowboy style, hobbling along trying not to look like a complete moron, but simply unable to walk normally because of my sore muscles.

Miss Tea is a seven-year-old Quaterhorse, but does not look it at all and I am hoping to make her into a nice little hunter-jumper. We don't canter very well yet, and collection is still not there, so lessons are tons of trotting, working on my position along with her flexion and use of her hind end with leg yields, serpentines, and the dreaded no stirrup work (possibly for my coach's personal amusement).

The end of the lesson is some jumping work over small cross rails with ground poles so I can start learning to control the length of her stride. We are also doing a combo so I can learn to count strides. Alright, now here is my problem: I have discovered my ability to count to five goes out the window while on a horse cantering toward a jump!
My mind fills up fast on a jump line:
Keep weight in my feet!
Don't grab the mane like a sissy unless I really have to!
Is Miss Tea going to spook at that second jump...?
Don't swear too loudly!
Oh, right, One, Two, ...five-I mean, what number am I at?!

Multi-tasking is just not my thing. But in this crazy world of horses and dreams we all have to improve, I have to believe deep down that I will someday learn to count!