And yes, I will try to take pictures tomorrow and get them posted by the end of the week. It is unfair for me to sit here and describe it without visual accompaniment.
I was hoping to expand on what Izzy and I worked on yesterday, but we had a new challenge to deal with. Our usual riding buddy couldn't make it. Cathy brought a horse over to lunge, but Izzy had to deal with that horse leaving. Yeah. Pretty dramatic. I consider it good practice for an imaginary time in the future where we do big, fancy shows. In general, I was impressed by Izzy's response. The other horse left, and she panicked a little bit. I kept her going forward on the lunge, and within two circles, she was pretty much back to listening to me.
Then another girl came in to ride a strange horse (well, strange to us. It's her normal horse). It was fun to watch, because she rides at a much higher level than Izzy and I are capable of right now. We worked on circling, staying out of the way, and not trying to kick the expensive horse when it went by. In addition to paying attention to my seat bones, I tried to keep Izzy's neck straight and influence her balance and direction by shifting my weight. Overall, she was good. We'll hopefully be participating in another dressage clinic at the end of this month or next month, depending on how the scheduling works out. I'm looking forward to that.
In the mean time, here's a little visual history for you.
This is Izzy on one of our first few rides ever.
And here she is a couple months ago: (pre-new bridle and indoor arena).
I will work on getting pictures of the indoor arena and us in it, but that depends on having a camera person, and those are hard to come by when it's freezing cold outside. Oh well. Maybe I'll just do a walking tour or something.
Good work. Once again, Izzy conquers another level of the doom bubble's terrors!
ReplyDeleteThere's already quite a change in the two pictures you've posted. But the fact remains, Izzy is one lovely girl!!
I have the same problem with finding a photographer. Someone just asked for a picture of me riding. I have no one to take one, especially this time of year. Hopefully you will find someone soon. I'd like to see the new improved Izzy too!!
She's really coming along, both in your descriptions and the pictures!
ReplyDeleteSounds (and looks) like you two are doing great! I have the same problem with getting photographs of myself riding. And when I do manage to con someone into it, they usually aren't horsey and take pictures at all the wrong times.
ReplyDeleteIf you can ride Izzy in a blow-up arena, shows will be a piece of cake!
You might try a tripod set up - that way you can frame the shot and all they have to do is push a button.
ReplyDeleteA real photographer makes all the difference, though. I had one take some shots of me working my horse by accident one day - I've never had better pictures.
Like anything, I guess, experience counts.
Izzy is so gorgeous. I'm looking forward to reading back a bit and learning more!