Dazzle Visits Red Barn

I braved driving the stupid-truck-I-hate and took Dazzle to Red Barn so Melissa could ride her in between classes. She hasn't been there in about 3 months and it was really windy. She wanted to jig at first and just stare at the horses in the pastures, but after 2 or 3 minutes she settled right down and got to work. Melissa was giggling with joy at her reachy trot and quite pleased with her canter work which was probably the best we've ever gotten from her. She actually called it "uphill"!!! It was lovely to watch. Not rushy, not on the forehand, controlled, it was awesome. In a 20 meter circle her head popped up about 3 times, meaning, she was starting to get consistent! She was on the bit most the time, listening to Melissa's leg and letting her keep her in or out as the circle needed. She got the correct lead both directions with no extra effort on Melissa's part. AND she wasn't even sweating by the end of it. She looked relaxed, thoughtful; not annoyed, no grimacing or swishy tail. Not spooky, even in the wind. I wish I'd taken video! I plan to take her back tomorrow, so I'll take my camera if that works out. Melissa hadn't ridden her since my last post, so it'd been a while.

She's also shed out most the way, no more wooly-mammoth hair. She's gained weight in the last couple weeks; before her girth went to 3 holes each side and today it was nice and snug on 2! So, she's looking good and seems to feel good. I'm so glad! She should show off nicely on Saturday.

Dressage Day - First Time Through Tests

I printed out the two tests I'm going to show at the end of the month; Intro B and Training 1. I searched and searched and found the directives. I printed out arena diagrams and drew out the patterns to help me visualize them and memorise them. I read them over several times and then went out to school them as best I could remember. I knew the movements if not in the right order for both tests.

I got Dazzle, tacked up and hopped on. No spurs today, just a Dressage whip. Friday we rode with no spurs western and she was awesome. We walked around the rail, trotted, did some walk/trot/walk transitions trying to stay on the bit the whole time. She has a tendency to look shocked even though I've warned her with leg, seat, and rein aids before the change in gait. We got some calm transitions so we started the test. Intro B was first. We entered at A nicely, but she didn't want to halt at X so our down transition looked a bit violent. She then lurched her front end to one side instead of stopping straight and tried to walk off when I saluted. We trotted off pretty well. Tracked left. Did our circle at E. I was impressed with out geometry on the trot circles. Our diagnoal wasn't bad. Pretty straight, if not a steady rhythym. Our long-rein free-walk on two diagonals was really wobbly and she wanted to slow way down. We'll have to work on that one. Our halt at the end was straighter, but she still thought it was stupid to stop in the middle of the arena and she didn't want to halt on the bit.

Then we tried Training 1. We made it through the first trot circle then got to the part where you take up the canter in the corner. She took the RIGHT lead instead of the left. We tried again. She did it again. I gave up the pattern for a moment and rode her down to the center circle. She took the correct lead that time. We went back to trot and headed down the wall to try it again in the corner. She took th wrong lead again. I was getting frustrated, especially after how awesome she did the day before, so I trotted the circle at A until she felt straight and I could get the correct lead, then rode her to B and did our canter circle. She did the same thing on the 2nd canter circle. I was really discouraged, so I took her to the other end of the arena and made her work on the bit trot-canter-trot-canter until she did canter circles on the correct lead, both directions, on the bit. She did it fine there, so she must not like the something about the footing or something at the A circle. My arena is the corner of an alfalfa field and not level, so it's very possible it throws her off. Plus, my legs are pretty sore from riding so much this week after a month off. So I decided that maybe my muscles aren't doing what I'm telling them to and not cueing her like I think I am. So, it was very disappointing after the awesome western session yesterday. We'll get there, but I feel like I suck right now!

Our Weekend

Saturday is rained ALL day. We drove around buying half-price Halloween candy to make up for not being able to ride.

Sunday we got to ride at the indoor arena at the fairgrounds. We were late getting there (because of the law of the universe that requires there to ALWAYS be a problem when trying to trailer horses somewhere), so I only got about 45 minutes of the hour in the indoor. It wasn't bad though. The last time we'd been there was a show in March where she was a DITZ and awful. She started doing the same head-flipping-crazy-green-horse garbage and I pushed her to behave and she actually did! We even cantered both directions and she was pretty good.

After we rode in the arena we rode in the outdoor a little bit, Melissa made me ride Bayberry for about ten minutes. Bayberry is a 16H ottb mare that she's had about a year. She feels like riding a timebomb. My arms are still sore; she leans on the bit constantly.

We traded back and went on a "hack" about the fairgrounds. We rode around the arena buildings, around the parking lot, over to the race-horse barns. We rode them over different colored concrete, rubber mats, logs, etc. It was really fun and horses thought it was awesome; "What, all I have to do is not kill you and you're happy? Yey!"

We get to go back next Sunday. Hopefully we'll be able to get out of here on time so we can actually have a leisurely ride and talk to other club members.

We had another club meeting tonight and it was really fun. We scheduled a dressage lesson evening with an instructor. Melissa had a lesson with her last week. I haven't had a lesson from anyone but Melissa in probably a year or more. I'm so excited. And nervous of course, haha.

On a training note, our leg-yields are coming along nicely. We need more forward still. Our trot is getting better I think, but our trot-canter transition is still really rocky. I'm hoping we'll get to deal with that in our lesson. Our haunch and forehand turns are almost perfect. Melissa says they aren't Dressage style though, they're Western where she plants the foot. I didn't realize they were different. So, I guess we're ready for Trail class for next summer, haha. I'm not too worried about it. You don't need those turns in Dressage until a higher level. We're only trying to school Training right now.

I'm excited to be part of the Riding club we joined. I'm hoping to find more riding buddies to hang with for when Melissa goes home to Canada when she graduates. So far, they're an awesome group of women.