Realizing my responsibility

I've never taken my responsiblity as a rider so serious as I have lately.  In all my years of riding, it's just never occurred to me how important what I do while in the saddle is to the ride itself.  I know the obvious, that I should ride correctly, but I know I need to do more than that.  I need to be a thinking rider, always thinking.  Thinking before I ask for a change of gait, thinking before asking for that correct lead, thinking as I go into a turn, thinking about my posture, legs, back, seat, hands.  I want all of this to be a part of who I am as a rider so that I can get from "Kramer" all that he is as a horse.  He's such a naturally beautiful and correct mover without me on his back that I don't want to hinder, but instead help him be that beautiful mover while I'm riding him. 

I worked hard to be a balance, quiet and correct rider today as I expected Kramer to be the same.  After the first disconnected 10 mins of riding where I let K just trot w/o making any demands until he warmed up; things began to get better.
It was when we were trotting and I tried to be as light as possible in the saddle while keeping my legs on the horse and making sure he was on the bit that I got the most wonderful trot.  It truly felt like we weren't hitting the ground.  It was a lovely feeling!
After our ride:

This is a picture of the elusive "bag monster" that blew close to the gate as we rode by.  K-face looked at it, but only once.  I assured him it wasn't "look worthy" :

Allie, you know how you told me the Clinton Anderson quote about to get to a horse's mind, you have to go through his lungs?  Well, Kramer got to me brain as well today:

I know I was using my lungs, chee!
K-face saying:  "I'm not going to do anything"...

"It's just that this is soooo tempting"!

"I can't resist it"!

And that's Kramer.