Riding Without a Plan

Mort was good last night. I didn't go in with much of a plan. I want to keep this week lighter and mostly work on the basics--no use getting either of us worked up before a clinic. Suppleness is the name of the game. He started out the tiniest bit more up than normal. I think the cooler weather is helping him feel the pep in his step. I did some walk work before trotting to get his attention on me a little more. We started off with full-arena figure eights. I tried to focus on getting him straight and only asking for a little bend. Steering from my legs and seat while just softening the jaw a bit. I've been doing better with not letting my left hand go too low and I've been working on trying to sit heavier on my left seat bone (because I'm always sitting right these days). The seat bone is a lot harder to fix. I never used to have an issue with being this crooked, so I blame Mort's crookedness influencing me a lot on this one. That's not me trying to come up with an excuse not to work on it, but it is a bit frustrating. I'm not buying a new dressage horse anytime soon though, so it's just something that I'm going to have to get stronger about. Honestly, we got to a good spot pretty early into the warm-up. He was responsive and forward without being rushed. He got a bit fast after we cantered, but nothing that some half-halts couldn't easily fix. After our walk break I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I went back to the circle exercise with bend/counter-bend and leg yields. It's a good one for loosening him up in the base of his neck. He has to tune into my seat and legs even more for directional aids. And working on 10 and 20-meter circles is never a bad thing for us dressage folks. He did well with it and I only ended up doing it twice each direction. After another break I just did some leg yield zig-zags. We ended with some stretchy trot both directions. He does so well with this at home--I can't wait for him to unlock that back someday at a show. We walked a few laps in the field to cool down. He was spooked by something back there last week and hadn't been really comfortable in turn-out since. One day he was so worked up in the lot that the barn owner had issues with him being rude coming in. So, I've made it a point to end our rides out there. He was really up and nervous at the beginning of our cool-down on Sunday but worked into a state of semi-relaxation. Yesterday he started off mostly relaxed and was fully relaxed by the end. And he was good in turnout last night, so I'm calling it a win!