Onward!!

Dressage day yesterday. We worked hard on going (and staying) forward. I found it went so much better when I kept my reins short, my hands forward, and just offered a contact and let her take it. Plus, that made me use more seat and leg, which for some magic reason, actually works.

Go figure. All those crazy dressage people are right. I do think I've made progress on Izzy's head-tossing upward transition evasion. For some reason, I was asking for transitions with just one leg, which allowed her to get crooked. She would also throw her head to distract me, and then our transitions always zig zagged left. Awkward and not forward.

Hence, if I keep that light, steady contact, have the mare MARCHING forward, and squeeze with both legs, the ick almost completely goes away.

Despite it being a crappy cold windy afternoon, I was just enjoying spending some time with my ever so lovely horse, so I pulled her mane and re-trimmed her tail.

Of course, since I was alone, it was really hard to get a decent picture of it all.

Uncooperative mare.

Funny thing: I get irriatated sometimes when I'm riding Izzy because her ears and attention are on absolutely everything but me. It used to scare me, because I was afraid she would spook.

The new, braver me is not worried about the spook but still annoyed that she isn't tuned in. However, it's interesting to see how much more focused she is when I actually sit down and ride like I did yesterday. Because I'm so intently focused on what I'm doing, she has to pay attention to what she's doing.

It actually works brilliantly.

Close up of the new pretty hair. Such a pretty girl, isn't she?

In theory, this pretty mare and I are trooping out of the arena today... on to the track and maybe even into the hay field. Wish us luck!