Now is the time on Sprockets when we try the shoulder-in

It's not clear why the massage place I go to when my back and hip gang up on me is increasingly staffed by Bulgarian supermasseuses, but don't look a gift Slav in the mouth: They're hard-core on deep tissue work, they give specific follow-up instructions (for me, that's usually something about working on my core strength and shoulders; once it was a command to drink van bir that efenink, for help me more releks and slip better), and they've got a strong PT background that's really helpful for dealing with imbalances or injuries. The downside is that their deep tissue work makes me feel as though I've been pummeled with rocks. Oh, and the bit about not being able to stay awake for two days afterward. What exactly the mystery toxins are that massage releases, requiring all that post-massage hydration, I do not know, but I feel like every molecule of tryptophan I've ever internalized is now gamboling freely through my bod.

Last night's dressage lesson was surprisingly bearable, in its usual humility-enforcing way. With the Smithsonian's Folklife Festival in town, Mother Nature always ramps up the heat and humidity, the better to curse anyone daring to wander the National Mall in the full summer sun for touristic purposes: "Come, see the treasures of Northern Ireland. Now leave our accurséd city and never return!" But we worked indoors and were fairly comfortable. I got a new partner, a round-bellied little Morgan who needs to be taken away from all this direct-reining nonsense and made into a happy barrels pony, and after some initial issues regarding my continued inability to steer with two hands (to paraphrase Eddie Izzard, "Two hands? No one can live at that speed!"), we did pretty well. I still give dreadful cues for leg- and shoulder-yields, but we managed to do some good straight lines, which are harder than they look, and the ponchik didn't misbehave at the other horses. He also put the finishing touches on unkinking my hip. Sometimes riding giveth pain, and sometimes it taketh pain away, and damned if I can figure out the reason for either one.