X Halt

We’re days away from moving to the new barn, and I’m trying to enjoy my remaining time at Uulke as much as possible.  The weather has been cooperating, enabling met to get Fred outside – finally!  He’s a different horse when he’s not in the arena, and I think the weekend’s wanderings around the property really helped him, because we had a pretty good ride tonight.

He’s still not as forward as I’d like but we’re getting there, and I’m increasingly confident in my ability to handle this issue.

“Ride like a trainer,” Christy says repeatedly, reminding me to hone my responses, not accept “no” for an answer and to take responsibility.  “When you’re in the saddle, he’s responsive, period,” she insists.

We muddled through Training I tonight, and as you can see, had some nice moments.  We also blew a canter depart and needed three more tries to get it, and had to stop to poop (another issue I will tackle later.) Free walk was solid, stretchy trot needs work, and we wavered between dreadful, competent and pretty good. Fred is strong enough now to work on a 20m circle, so we gave it a whirl.  I’m actually going to re-memorize the Training tests, because the variety and pace of of the tests really is good for Fred.

Tomorrow we’ll just hack around the property. Wednesday and Thursday we’ll work.  Christy and i continue to cobble together our plans but for the near term, these will be our last rides with her, which really bums me out.  We’re good friends, though and this won’t be the last you hear about her.

In the meantime, if you’re not doing so already, keep an eye on her blog – Dressage Fundamentals – lots of good stuff there.