Fancy Pants Dressage

Cuna and I have taken two whole dressage lessons this year in an attempt to be the butt-kicking-ist novice team to hit the horse trials in our neck of the woods. Our most excellent instructor took a short video from the first lesson. 

When she took the video, we were working on sitting trot with no stirrups. I had to focus on about a million things at the same time, but Cuna was responding really well.

Here's a quick close up more for an overall gear shot than anything. Taking screen caps is hard on a slow computer, let me tell you.

We borrowed a dressage saddle and that style of breastcollar fits him a lot better with that saddle. Plus it matches. Win win. Not to worry folks: it's also borrowed.

He's decked out in bell boots as per farrier orders and wraps to keep him protected. We use white wraps to give the most amount of contrast possible to make it easy for our instructor to see him.

The more we move along, the better it gets. Cuna relaxes into the contact as I get steadier. To my great surprise, sitting the trot was not incredibly hard. Our instructor kept pushing me to ask for more trot.

She said not to ask for more trot than I can ride, then watched and said, "You ride well enough. More trot."




By the end of the lesson, I couldn't feel my thighs and my arms and core felt like Jello.

I love this. 

So worth it.

Check out my fancy dressage Cuna!!

I'm going to have to snag a photographer for solid dressage shots here soon.

I mean, who doesn't want to see more fancy Cuna pics? Helloooooo sexy.

I have to hand it to the DQs out there. This is pretty intense stuff and we're not even doing cool tricks yet. Any one else playing dressage and figuring out just how much work it is?