Workin' Hard

No rest for the wicked! We jumped right back into things with a dressage lesson last night.

B brought all the energy, but started out by using it for evil rather than good. Super braced against my hand, and wanting to run through the bridle and go faster rather than actually bringing those hind legs under and adding power.

Standard Bridget MO. It's odd to ride because she's actually behind the leg and stuck...yet she's running away with you.

A million transitions later we had polite, soft pony back. A further million transitions beyond that, and we were able to use half halts in the manner they're intended and get down to the real work.

The real work of late consists of all the counter canter, because we have dreams of moving up the levels and apparently it's a thing there ;) Mostly though, it's just a great exercise for building strength and suppleness in the pony. Remember how yucky her true canter was last year? And how long it's taken to get reasonably balanced? Well, we get to do it all over again, only this time in counter canter. I'm envious of all those whose horses are cordinated and balanced enough naturally, but luckily I'm a sucker for punishment and don't mind teaching B how to canter....again,  On the plus side, I know what I'm looking for, and Bridget knows what we want, she's just not strong enough yet to carry herself very long, It will come. For now though, we're permanent members of the renvers thru to transition club!

Best pony awaiting her post ride treats.

I've said it before, but it's worth saying again...for all my joking about the ponypocalypse and pony 'tude, B is remarkably tolerant of all we ask her. Yes, she'll say it's impossibly hard and she truly can't even, and find all sorts of ways to express those opinions, making her quite unreliable day to day, BUT I do feel very lucky in that she's excellent for me to learn on. The fact that this doesn't come easy for either of us, I think means our training has to be very correct and methodical.  I need to learn to ride and ask precisely and effectively, and be able to problem solve on the go too. All good things!

Proof you CAN improve the canter with a lot of hard work. This time last year we were getting 6's on gaits in the collectives, and 5's in all the canter work. Now it's all 7's and 7.5's ! And yes, we can argue it was in there all along, but truly, I think most people would have looked at the "before" canter/tranter/gallopy thing and walked away. Myself included, had I actually been shopping for a dressage prospect when I bought her, lol.