Dressage-ing

For the last couple of weeks, I have been starting to feel hints of where Mort and I were before all of our time off this winter. He's pushing from behind and getting more and more consistent about connecting up front and looking for me. I can feel him getting stronger and settling back into our training. (Yay!) So, on Sunday and Monday I decided to ask him for more and see how he handled everything. We touched on lifting and some collection. We did bend/counter-bend in canter (and trot). I asked for walk/trot and trot/halt/trot transitions on a figure eight. We worked on rapid walk/trot transitions every four or five strides. I played with some shoulder-in both within trot and within the transitions. For most of it, he was mediocre on the first try but rapidly improved with the following tries. I only did each of these things a handful of times before I was satisfied and moved on. I didn't want to fry his brain, nor did I want to fry his body. I would touch on something and move on as soon as I felt it connect. I'm so glad that he's coming back to where we were. I'm glad that I've got an instructor that makes me go back to basics when things fall apart instead of trying to put a band-aid on our issues. I'm glad that Mort can take a joke.* And I'm glad that everything that we had is still in there somewhere. Mort is the perfect horse for me to learn how to train. He's forgiving and willing to try. But he's also lazy and won't fake it for me if I'm not doing what I'm supposed to. Since he had two harder days in a row, yesterday was much lower key. He was on the buckle until well into our trot work. He's so happy to stretch down and do our big loopy figure eights just listening to my legs and seat to turn. We spent a lot of time taking breaks at the walk. I did eventually pick up some light contact but didn't ask him for anything more than a training level frame. I touched on leg yields at the walk just to keep him even between my legs. And I did take time to pick him up and let him down at the walk as I always do. But the ride was short, easy, and pretty fun. It's amazing how much I'm learning with Mort. He's so sensitive to how I'm holding my body that he's training me to be a much better rider. I'm getting more zen and patient about my riding, which is a huge feat considering my need to control and plan everything. Retraining Mort is probably one of the most challenging things that I've ever done, but most days I'm just out there having a blast and soaking in how awesome my horse is. *I am the joke