Mort and I have been plugging away at our dressage-ing. He had a long weekend last weekend while the husband and I visited some family out of town. He was a little off behavior-wise (aka feral pony) Monday so I lunged him then just played a bit bareback. In spite of it being very casual it was not very successful. Mort and I were both unfocused and inconsistent (both my fault because it's my job to focus him). Just a 'meh' ride had me trying to think of a plan to fix it.
My big plan was to pick a few things to really work on each ride and focus in on that. Revolutionary, I know. My lack of direction in a ride leads me to riding to fix whatever problem just arose as opposed to actually training him and pushing us to bigger and better things. In all of these rides I've been touching upon some of the first level test elements since we've got another schooling show coming up in July. I signed us up for First Two and Three, so steeper leg yields, ten meter circles, and counter canter loops here we come.
Tuesday we worked on having him really jump off my aids. I'd quietly apply some leg pressure (or whatever) and if he didn't respond immediately I'd back it up with a tap from the whip (or whatever). It only took a handful of taps before he figured out that I was serious the first time I put my leg on him.
I think a lot of his dullness (he's not that bad, I just appreciate a horse who doesn't require much) comes from when we're trail riding. I still ride with my legs but I don't always make him respond as specifically as I would in the arena. For example, if I want him to move sideways I'll put my leg on for a leg yield. But instead of a proper leg yield he'll maybe just kinda fall sideways bulging his shoulder or bending too much around my leg. And trail-rider Jacki thinks that's good enough, so Mort thinks that's good enough. Obviously this leads to disagreements in the arena. It's on the list of things to work on.
Thursday we worked on transitions. It built well upon jumping off of my leg from Tuesday's ride. We really focused on trot/canter and canter/trot transitions trying to maintain the forwardness in the transitions without losing suppleness. It was moderately successful. We had good and bad transitions and Mort was definitely working hard for me. Overall it was a good ride that just showed more things that we need to focus on--throughness in the transitions.
A storm Friday morning blew in the most wonderful cold front. We're talking temperatures in the eighties with low humidity in the end of June. It was a darn miracle. We took advantage of the perfect weather and the perfect footing to do some conditioning on the trails. The focuses for this ride were straightness and adjust-ability. I had an awesome, forward and uphill horse and it was a super fun and successful ride. Straightness out on the trails is much easier for us as he's not busy anticipating where we're going to turn next--I always appreciate what the straightness is doing for his muscling. I thought the lengthening and shortening was going to be a challenge (because woohoo we're cantering away forever), but he listened really really well to my half halts and stayed with me. We both worked hard and came away feeling good.
I ended up giving him Saturday off. It marked my first long training run for another half marathon this fall. So my morning was busy running around (and enjoying the wonderful weather) with Emma pup. After that I decided that I would clean the house instead of go to the barn. The husband and I haven't had a free weekend at home in several weeks so we had some catching up to do. After all that we had a couple friends over and cooked-out. It was a good day, even though it had no pony time.
Yesterday my focus was on change of direction and bend. We did several canter/trot/canter transitions both in prep for First Three and because they're good for us. We muddled along for a little while but eventually we really got on the same page. I had his outside shoulder and had his inside hind stepping up underneath. I did a few figure eights at the sitting trot and called it quits with how wonderful he was listening and waiting for me. We took a short walk on the trails to cool-out.
I just need to remember the more I push myself to be a better and more aware rider the better Mort is. It's sometimes hard for me to gauge how hard I have to work to dressage, but it's always worth it. Today will just be a lunge day because I've got other stuff to accomplish on the home and running front. I need to sit down and hash out a schedule like I did last summer so that my rides have more direction.
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