Left foot calling right foot... come in, right foot

I had another mostly lovely ride last night - the trot work was great, and the canter departures were good even if the canter itself was rather sprawly and rushed. My husband took some video of our warm-up, which is pretty embarrassing, but frankly during warm-up, I usually just ask my horse to go forward in a more or less straight line and be fairly rhythmic. My idea is to get them loose and moving and that's pretty much it. So that's pretty much what you see in the video. The rest of the ride was much, much better, but it was too dark to shoot any video by then. Of course!

However, the biggest issue of the night was my right foot. It was ALL OVER the place. I couldn't keep my heel down to save my life, to the point that my right calf was cramping. Every time I thought about it, my right heel was up. It was super-frustrating.

I think that I may need to shorten my stirrups one hole to work on getting my weight back in my stirrups. I've been reaching for them a bit with both feet, but definitely with the right more than the left. Since I got my new saddle, I've been riding with my stirrups slightly longer than I normally would. So, perhaps I need to shorten one hole, I don't know. Certainly some time on the longe line where I could focus on my position would be a good thing, if I can talk someone into holding the other end of it.

And while we're on the subject of feet, my left foot has been tingling again. But I'm starting to think that it may have something to do with my paddock boots, in addition to possibly being a pinched sciatic nerve. I started getting the tingling sensation just after I got new boots. They're a bit higher around the calf than my last pair. The reason I suspect my boots is twofold: last night on the drive out to the barn, my foot was tingling more than usual, and after I rode and was getting ready for bed, I noticed that when I pressed on a certain spot on the top of my left foot, it tingles quite a bit. So maybe it's my boot that's causing the problem. Next time I ride, I think I'll try my old pair of paddock boots and see if I have the same tingling problem.

Anyway, after I rode, my husband got on Saga and worked on his trot. He had a really great ride and got a very steady rhythm, then worked on making it faster and slower, just with his seat. I snapped some pictures of him at the end of the ride. Handsome, aren't they? :)