riding log: progress

Yesterday, Minnie and I made progress towards successful Intro dressage tests. Without her standing martingale! She was a good girl, at least partially because of the heat and humidity, and possibly she was a bit tired from Monday's ride.

Minnie is one of those horses who thinks about misbehaving, but if she knows you know she's thinking about it, she usually doesn't. She definitely thought about tossing her head, but she never did, just as on the way back to her paddock, she thought about spooking at the absence of the big truck that's usually parked along side the road. Yes, she will spook if a scary thing that used to be there is not there anymore. She is the definition of "hates changes."

After we warmed up a bit, J had me ride through the two dressage tests twice, letting Minnie stretch and walk on a loose rein for a bit between tests. I'm still a bit overwhelmed by how many things there are to keep track of, but I think we have the basic patterns down. J praised me for "riding through" the times Minnie was bad, when she jigged a little or wanted to canter instead of trot or when we had a wobbly halt. The routine of getting ready is good for us, though I am sure that Minnie would rather have our usual hack around the indoor ring without so many tight turns, and with a few trotting poles and a little jump at the end. In a way, so would I.

I'm riding her four more times before the show: Sunday, Thursday, and the Tuesday and Friday of the following week. Working around J's and my vacation schedules...

Afterwards I got to watch J on Trumpie, who knows and loves dressage. It's quite a treat to watch them.