Where I Recruit a Friend

Guess what? Not only did I win a contest(!!), I also have a few riding pictures(!!!). It's a banner day. I got a friend to come out with me to take some pictures this morning.

We tried the saddle on again. I still like how it sits on her and I'm getting used to it not being as pretty as my other one, that I guess now I have to sell. :-(

We're in the round pen again to take advantage of the super soft footing. Izzy is about as quiet and unbothered as can be.

She's really stretching down nicely while staying forward. It's quite relaxing to ride.
I'm trying not to do too much with her. I just want a little rhythm and regularity.
Nice trot on a loose rein. I didn't want to pick up too much contact because I want her totally free to express her opinions, both about the saddle and about how her leg is feeling. She looked almost totally sound today.
Change of direction... what a pretty pony.
Happy left lead canter.
The only time I even picked up the reins. Nice, balanced right lead canter. It felt really good.
I know, there's lots of walking pictures. Two reasons: 1) We're doing a lot of walking to keep anything from getting worse. 2) She's just so pretty that I'm putting a lot of them up.

See? Pretty. I'm not too worried about my riding. Yeah, it isn't fabulous in this series, but we're focused on happy and easy instead of competitive right now.
And we're done. Isn't she a good looking horse? Feel free to say nice things about her. ;-)

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.