Like A Dragon

I only rode twice this week, and both times were a little more exciting than ideal.

On the plus side, B is feeling fantastic. On the downside, I'm not exercising her enough so we've lost the relaxation temporarily to all that excess energy. Our flat work is more a combination of dragon and manic giraffe than anything resembling dressage on a pony.

Cutest dragon pony

She's hilarious, tho. I get on at the barn and she power walks the 15 min to the arena, all puffed up, shaking her head and snorting like a dragon the whole way. And yet, she's just walking on a loose rein. I guess in her mind she is walking SO FAST though that she's pretty impressive and bad ass.

At the arena, I let her trot around then canter on a loose rein. Again, lots of fire breathing dragon impersonations, but little actual bad behaviour beyond the odd scoot or spook. The canter is the best, because she's like "look at me, I'm cantering! So fast! IM THE LITERAL FASTEST COB EVER. Want to jump the rail? No? You want to walk? OK, good, because actually being a dragon is exhausting and I need to rest"

Power walking

I spent some extra time today making her stay in walk before cantering. When she gets feisty she wants to drag me around, until she gets tired and then she wants to suck back. So, walk to canter and lots of related transitions and lateral work are my friend for keeping her honest.

I actually like the overly excited and naughty Bridget way better than the lazy, uninterested one, so I don't do much to correct her beyond the above exercises. I spend a lot of time just letting her cruise around while I practice my two point.  I like that she's having fun right now. We'll get back to more dressagelike behaviour some other time, for now I'm spoiling her and can't bring myself to regret it.