Mort's eyes were essentially better yesterday with only the tiniest bit of discharge. He also looked bored and ready to get out of this stall and do something (though, in his head, it was probably something along the lines of grazing). The heat index had made its way back up into the high 90's so it wasn't going to be a ride working on lengthening and shortening his stride, but I wanted to hop on him none-the-less. I adjusted my goals to taking a long walk with no pressure then just asking for straightness on contact in the trot and canter.
We started out with a long, loose rein walk along the gravel road and fence line. It was luckily fairly cloudy so we weren't under the direct sun. He was happy enough wandering around other than the occasional horsefly. Those darn things are out to get him. Have I
When we got back to the grass area I asked for him to walk on contact. We did a few mini leg yields then picked up trot. Thankfully Mort was very attentive and calm. He did about 1.5 laps of trot each direction. He stayed straight when asked--even on the side that is open to the barn--and quietly accepted contact. He bent around my inside leg nicely in the corners. We walked for a little while (because a million degrees) and cantered about 1.5 laps each direction. He was listening fairly well, if a bit on the lazy side. I played a bit with haunches-in. We walked a cool-down in the pasture on a loose rein.
It was the world's easiest ride, but sooo much more successful and satisfying than Monday's ride of tension and frustration. Hopefully Monday was just a fluke and we're back to our current normal. He's really getting the haunches-in right and I'm ready so start actually playing with it in transitions and different gaits. I can't wait to play with more and more lateral work to hopefully continue to improve his movement and lift that front end. He still gets stuck going left and I know part of that is my fault. I focus too much and end up trying to hold him together and get stuck myself. If we don't work through it some over the next couple months I'm gonna have to bring it up in the next clinic I go to.
It's really interesting for me to bring along my own horse. I never rode a real dressage horse when I was young--puttering out around training/first. Fred was well trained, but was really a hunter style horse and I had no idea how to do much else. In college I got the opportunities to ride some really amazing horses, but they were already trained. Taking Mort from track trained and trying to make him a dressage pony is just a really interesting journey and it's amazing that we're getting anywhere at all really. Hopefully I learn from my mistakes with Mort along the way so that I can get better with every horse that I end up owning.
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