Possibly the Best Dressage Clinic Recap Ever

new fav pic from Sunday

HAPPY TUESDAY EVERYONE. Who else is pumped for a 4 day work week? Hopefully all of you.

Anyways. Courage and I had a dressage clinic this weekend and let's just say I'm REALLY glad I signed up for both days. Yeah.

Fall started Saturday. You know, it went from 95 and sunny and hot to 45f overnight with a high of 60, plus clouds, intermittent rain, and gusting wind. That meant two things in Dressage Queen Land: 1) horses are up 2) we ride inside.

Either one of those things would probably have been fine on it's own, but putting the two together was a bit much. Courage came out with the whites of his eyes showing. Plus our indoor is a pretty small space and we hadn't been in it in months and yeah... we started the session with one of the biggest spooks he's ever done (yes at the clinician) and it sort of went downhill from there. Not kidding--I had a rather large moral crisis at the end of the day and for the first time (in regards to dressage) was like "this is too hard i can't do it waaaaaah i fail at life and horses and everything".

and this. this helped too.

Hard cider helped that. So did a good night's sleep.

Sunday was a brand new day with a high of 70f, bright sun, soft clouds, and riding outside.

I usually try to warm up for day two of a clinic using exercises from day one so we're ready to progress, but LOL that didn't seem like a smart idea. (FLAIL IN PLACE AND FIND AUDITORS TO TRAMPLE THE HELL OUT OF!!! Er, no. Don't do that.)

he's so attractive

So instead we toodled a lot, did a little stretchy trot, and began.

You know when a clinician just reads you and your horse right and all three of you showed up to play and the session is a little bit mind blowing? That was Sunday. It was probably super boring to watch, since we did walk/halt/back/halt/walk/trot transitions for probably the first twenty minutes and then went waaaaaay over our time, but OMG YOU GUYS.

OMG.

I feel like Courage and I were able to make some significant breakthroughs together. Little things, but they build to much bigger things, like getting Courage's back loose and hind end engaged and changing how I was sitting on him to make me more effective (though I still stare at his ears. Someday we'll fix that too.)

i don't even care that i'm tipping

We had our best canter ever. We had some phenomenal trot work. We talked a ton about my riding and how to alter it to be more effective for Courage. We talked about how his inadequacies pretty perfectly mirror mine. I got a shit ton (literal amount) of homework to improve on for next time.

OH AND.

Without any prompting on my part, the clinician told me that we would be solid first, schooling second by spring, which is super nice (and also the goal, wheeee). And then when I was like "um so yeah my flabby crooked self wants to get my bronze medal on my pressure-adverse ottb who's tight in the back" she told me that was definitely achievable. As was silver and gold.

HOT DAMN RIGHT LEAD

Let's be real: the latter two aren't even on the table right now (because I CANNOT think that far ahead), but I'm really excited about the future with my little bay horse. He and I are rapidly getting to the limits of my understanding, which means we're launching a whole new adventure together.

And guys, that is really exciting.

Big Show Plans or "OMG WE'RE DOING THIS (maybe)"

Except Courage. Plz no bracing.

Brace yourselves. Omg.

I'm hoping to get my first level scores for my bronze medal at the big recognized show here in May 2016 at the Idaho Horse Park, which is all indoors. I've never ridden in it before (sad truth) and I want to do well, so here's the plan to set us up for success:

Dressage show 8.29 training 2 and 3

Dressage clinic 9.5-6 (wherein i will actually admit to the clinician that I want Bronze)

Dressage show 9.8 a training test and maaaaaaaybe first 1 if I feel brave. Or maybe not. That judge isn't our biggest fan. Super schooling show with not-a-real judge, so not a big deal either way.

this one time, we went to a show

THEN.

Super crazy local jumper show series in a spooky indoor this winter to prep for big dressage show in a different and much bigger spooky indoor.

THEN hopefully some schooling shows in the spring so we aren't going in cold.

and a clinic

I know it's all so far away right now that it's silly to plan, but I'm just really excited about this plan. Are we good enough to get 60%+ at a recognized show at first level in nine months? I don't know. I hope so. I want to find out.

Part of the reason I'm excited about this plan right now is that I literally do not have the skills to ride second level, never mind third. This isn't me going solo with a greenie and trying to make things happen. It isn't rehashing the same skills I already have and trying to do the same things on a different horse.

can he be my third level horse?

This is learning a whole new skill set. It's working with instructors. It's expanding my horizons. It's exciting and challenging and methodical, and yet possibly do-able, if we keep after it. It's not a pie in the sky. It's a tangible thing that we can attain and no one can take away from us.

Don't get me wrong--I still want to jump Courage. I'm having a harder time setting goals in a jump arena though. I've shown through 3'3" in highschool and 2'9" on Cuna and I realistically do not have the guts or finances or drive to just keep moving up for moving up's sake. Like a 3'6" course is a giant no to me. It doesn't even look fun. Or like something that I want to do, ever. And it never has.

On the other hand, I'm totally down for sweet third level moves. Like flying changes. And stuff. What's in third level anyways?