Back to Basics

I hauled out my lovely dressage saddle today and put Izzy to work. I mostly did this because I know that if I'd ridden dressage in my jump saddle, our session would have ended with jumping, which wasn't the point of today. I'm only disciplined to a certain point. ;-)

The ride was frustrating. Izzy wasn't "bad", but she wouldn't give me an inch. I'm sure you've all had those days--you ask for something and the horse just doesn't do it. She doesn't do something naughty; she just ignores you. Grr. I was fairly pleased with how I handled it. Specifically, we were working on stretching down into the contact. Izzy isn't a big fan of contact. I'd ask her to stretch down and she just wouldn't. I'd take her back to walk and ask, and then she would, eventually. Basically, what I was doing wasn't working, so I was able to incorporate what I learned in the last clinic and change the way I was asking.

See, when I write it down, it sounds like a good day. It was just really frustrating in the moment because she was making me work pretty hard.

Huh.

Then I turned her loose in the round pen to roll. She did that quite merrily, then trotted around ignoring me. I was a bit aggravated, so I picked up a lunge whip and off she went. She galloped around the round pen for probably 15 minutes. Clearly, we did not do enough dressage.

When I finally recaptured her, she was soaked in sweat, but pretty quiet. I tied her up and hosed her off several times. Usually she fusses, but I think that today, she admitted defeat.

Izzy 1, Aimee 1

Check back tomorrow for the rematch.