More dressage

 Poor FuFu... she got the short end of the stick today. Well, kind of. Dan too, I guess. Lyric got to go to Ashland but she was the only one. 

 

I rode Funny at home this afternoon/evening. There was a nice steady breeze and while it was hot, it was quite lovely!! We tacked up and hacked up to the arena and walked around. I let her do the livestock pen and the slalom's and the cloverleaf. And then we did the gate. And she did it really well!! Not perfect, but not half bad. Actually, quite good really. Good pony!

 

So then we did our dressage. It wasn't a great ride. It wasn't bad though. I just think we've hit a plateau again and after all that monumental progress, the plateau kind of sucks. Ha! But, it's still better than it has been. I tried to sit and stay behind her motion and it is definitely helping. She's not as quick and is more balanced. But she was still a bit inconsistent in her tempo... fast, then slower, then faster.... And she's still not consistent in the contact either. I'm in a tough spot because part of me wants to start really insisting she holds the contact, but... I'm not sure that is the right choice. But then again... will she ever learn if I don't start asking?? I don't know. I'm not that good at this kind of thing, so I will need some help. I tried just holding an outside rein, which kind of worked. So... we'll see. Hopefully Liz can get us straightened out again on Friday. (Unless I decide to go school at Chatt instead, but... we're showing Saturday so I'm not sure which plan is my better bet). Anyways... we had some struggles with our left bend still... and we were struggling with our transitions today. I tried to do more frequent transitions instead of just taking 10 minutes to get a nice trot.. then a break. So... we started out decent.. then the ride sort of fell apart.. and then we finished on a good note. Her canters weren't great today but not bad. I just can't quite figure out how to keep her soft and more balanced. But today she didn't seem to be as responsive to my seat and leg aids. Or maybe I wasn't being as effective with them. Admittedly, because of my last two lessons with Dan and Lyric... I may have forgotten about my seat aids a tiny bit today. I was keeping my body back and upright... keeping my hands wide... and trying to slow my post. And in the walk, I was trying to lift my pelvis to help her lift her back.. and keep the swing...  So maybe I wasn't as forgetful as I thought, but... I certainly wasn't as effective today. 

 

But regardless, we had a good ride and we had some really nice moments. We finished with quite a lovely trot one way, then a nice lengthen across the diagonal and another lovely trot circle the other way, so... we halted and got a nice halt and quit! Which... not like it was a short ride anyways... it was time to be done regardless, but... it was nice to quit on that lovely few minutes. 

 

We hacked home and I hosed her off and she immediately rolled in the sand. Doh! Oh well. I can't blame her. She earned it. But that meant she didn't get the bemer at dinner. Lyric did. :) She can get it tomorrow morning.