Slow And Steady

After our good ride on Thursday, we had a not so great one Friday. New Barn is quite a busy place and there are times when sharing the arena becomes a bit difficult, particularly when there are a couple of people who are pretty aggressive about getting in your space. Great practice for crowded warm ups, but not the best for schooling your horse. Bridget unfortunately got a couple of stone cruises on our big adventure last weekend, and has been a little footsore, so we're stuck with arena rides for the time being.

The shape is getting better. More muscle + smaller belly :)

Saturday and Sunday I timed my visits early-ish in the mornings when I knew the place would be less crowded, and that was a success. While I know sharing an arena is a reality when you are showing and boarding, Bridget and I both do better when the place is less busy and I'm always disappointed when I drive in and the parking lot is full. I'm more focused and less self conscious, and pony is obviously less worried about her surroundings too.

I don't have any super exciting updates or breakthroughs riding wise this week, just some slow and steady progress. Those canter departs are slightly more reliable. The right lead is getting stronger.Walk/trot transitions are improving as far as balance. We're halting square more often than not. And, we're cantering little jumps. It's not pretty, but we're getting it done. I feel like the majority of the battle with Midge is just showing her she can do stuff - the refinements can come later. As always, she's not as brave or confident as her calm exterior would have you believe. She'd happily quit mid stride at any point so my legs are getting a super workout. My position most likely stinks, because adult legs plus spurs on pony body seems to equal heels up and leg too far back. Must remember to ask once, then use my whip to tap her so I can keep my leg softer. EC is hopeful that with increased fitness and confidence Midge will start taking me to the jumps. I'm not 100% sure of that as I do wonder how much of it is her being lazy and not that into it. Dressage needs all the forwards too though, so whether we continue jumping stuff or not we've got a bit of work to do. It's funny though, in the moment I'm super positive and happy with Midge. When I get home and start writing these posts or thinking further on things (also, fall into the trap of comparing where we're at with how others are doing) I start to feel a little discouraged. That probably says more about where I'm at personally than how our actual rides are going, so you may need to take some of my uncertainty with a grain of salt :) Progress, no matter how small, is something to be celebrated.

What Midge thinks of progress!