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Couple of really nice rides to talk about.

First, jump clinic on Sunday again. Two weeks in a row definitely did really good things for both of us. Apart from some difficulties in getting Tris to wake up (he even planted his feet when he saw we were going in the ring! Hannah had to smack him on the but!) I feel like there was a great deal of improvement all around. When he really gets into gear going around he’s a *fun* horse to ride over fences – he’s always great, really, but having him take me to the fences instead of booting him over them is a very different thing!

I feel like I had some personal riding success in a couple of areas. I was able to make some progress on slowing things down in my head. T. talked to another rider in my set about using the circles (this was a land and rollback jump set) that he had mapped in after every jump to get space and get a better canter. He pointed out that circles are, in their most basic form, lateral work, and that you should use that lateral work to supple the horse back up in time. So I was able to take that a little bit into my riding. I think we used the circles effectively, and that I was catching him when he wanted to quit. I was quite liberal in my use of the crop, which helped.

Only other thing was a moment when I spun Tris a little too hard toward a jump placed on the center line, and he really dug in and turned on his hocks, and T. observed that he’s a catty little thing in corners when he wants to be. Which I interpret in two ways; first, yes, he is, he’s very clever about his footwork and he’s small and compact enough to get away with it; second, I should let that be my safety net and not my default, as in, how lucky are you that your horse is so catty, otherwise you would’ve eaten that fence.

Dressage lesson on Tuesday, first one back with T. in a looooooong time and it felt a little bit like boot camp. I haven’t been riding much, so I was letting him get away with a little too much, being a little too gullible about the don’wannas, and T. snapped me out of that in the first half of the lesson. The second half went much better, and we even got some nice canters in, and then a really nice reachy trot at the end. We’re back to the “expect more of him earlier” mold, which is a sign that we’re on that climb up the plateau. At least, I think, we’ve stopped sliding down, and a lot of the work we did on the descent should start to pay off now.

I also tried a minor innovation for the dressage lesson: put my spurs back on. My leg is so much better, and combined with my wonderful new saddle, and Tris’s stickiness in the jump set, I felt like it was time. In the past I’ve avoided them because I didn’t like the way I rode while I was wearing them. They felt like an easy place to go when I was frustrated, and I could feel myself becoming a kind of rider I didn’t like. Plus, he got dull to them very quickly, and had I let it spiral further it would’ve become a nasty little arms race. So: back to spurs, and it was I think a success. I posed the question to T. at the end of the lesson and he emphatically agreed that I should stick with them.

Wednesday afternoon I managed to get there just after he had finished his massage. T. told me that massage lady said that he might be a little behind the leg because of the massage, and we both had a good laugh about that. Yeah, that’s my pony. Any excuse he can get.

And you know, he was, but not in his usual way. His usual way to be behind the leg is because he’s convinced he’ll DIE. This way was more the way I feel after a really good hot bath, or a perfect amount of sleep – lazy and comfortable in my body and kind of slinky and liquid. So in some ways stuck, but in others, wow, was he all supple and loose right out of the box. It was really great to feel. In a 25 minute ride I had him WAY more over his back and reaching for the bit and tracking up and bendy than I’d had him in his hour lesson the night before. Which no doubt was a result of that lesson too, but wow, it felt great all around. Nothing earth-shattering, just a really pleasant soft ride. Then I put him out in his paddock for about 20 minutes because he hadn’t had any turnout b/c of the massage, and he was a bit forlorn that I hadn’t left him with any hay. Poor darling. So abused.

Hack on Saturday, and then school on Sunday; probably poles with Hannah. Maybe a fun exercise, or maybe just a few raised poles to work on timing his canter and getting more jump.

Eventing Nation linked to Phoebe Buckley’s video blogs, and I’ve been watching a few of them on my snow day. I was incredibly struck by the first video here, about getting on a cold-backed horse. Two things: first, I love watching really competent people handle the tools of their trade. That never gets old for me. Professional musicians handling their instruments, carpenters slinging hammers, and in this case, Phoebe handling her tack. It’s that self-assured way that experts handle tools, like they know them inside and out instinctively.

I also really, really love her clear respect and love for her horse. She talks the viewer through every step she takes, and she notices all these little things, not every single one of which I picked up on. It’s that same instinctive awareness of everything around her.

In my own riding, Tris and I have been doing well. I’m entering my second straight week of no weekday riding because of the #@$#@ weather, but mostly taking it in stride and enjoying the time I spend with him. Last weekend we went for a trail ride in the huge drifts on Saturday – in spots, nearly up to his chest – and he was just thrilled. That’s something I really need to remember: the clear pride and joy he takes in mastering natural objects. I see the same thing in him after he’s climbed up a tricky, rocky bit of hill. I’ll never forget the trail we were out on when we came across a sheer rock face that I would’ve thought about climbing on my own two feet. I asked him to go around, he said no, and charged up with not a single slip. When we got to the top he paused, sighed in a very contented way, then turned and kept going on the trail. He LOVES those kinds of problems. When I think about how solving dressage problems in the ring is nearly the polar opposite of that – it reminds me to be better about presenting the puzzles to him.

Jump clinic on Sunday, in which we needed to work on a few things. As always, I need to get better about keeping my weight in my feet and balanced, but I think I’m progressing well on that. We’re also really starting to figure out the pieces of getting the canter we want. It’s not a fancy canter and won’t be for a long time, but at least taking it apart, looking at it, and beginning to understand what we need more of, is a progression. It’s a cycle, too: you always want the right canter, and once you get there…the right canter changes, because you’re aiming higher (figuratively and literally!).

What we weren’t clicking on was in keeping up impulsion and rhythm, especially through the gymnastic line. Bless my wonderful horse, because even when I can’t help him keep the motor – or do something that kills it entirely – he still heaves himself over the jump as long as he’s presented to it. He jumped the last oxer from a near-standstill at least once or twice. When he runs out, it is always entirely my fault. He is honest nearly to a fault. But I need to be better about keeping weight down through my leg, which will let me keep my leg on, which will let me really remind him that we need to keep that canter we’re getting better at *through* the jumps, not just on the 20m circle in front of them.

The second piece that I don’t entirely know how to fix yet is that I need to make things slow down. I was talking to Hannahabout this. Right now, jumps come up fast and I react, instead of thinking things through as I ought to. Every time I jump, it’s incrementally better than it might be otherwise, but I am at the point where I really need to make it slow down even more. I need to be more aware of each second, each stride, and what I’m doing in those seconds. It’s a problem throughout my riding, no doubt, but when jumps are coming up fast and furious in a course, I find it especially difficult to hold everything together and really, really focus and slow it all down in my head. Because if I could do that, instead of reacting down the gymnastic (Tris lands from the first jump, leaps over the pole, my leg slips, I forget to bring it back and put it on for the second, so now he’s lost a bit of impulsion, and the landing is a bit harder this time, and my reins have slipped, and he feels me tuning out and gets a case of the don’wannas, and there’s still another jump, and by this point he just heaves himself over it, and now I’m entirely out of my stirrups and down on his neck or way in the back seat), I could plan it out and make minute adjustments in the second they need to happen.

I suspect the ultimate cure is nothing more fancy than “do it 10,000 more times” but I’m going to start experimenting in riding on the flat with slowing everything down and breaking it apart into smaller groupings. We’ll see how that pans out. I might also pull T. aside and talk to him about it a bit. I’m sure he’ll have some good ideas.

Okay, new year, new habits, right?

Saturday’s ride: not so good. He came out tight and less than enthused. We had no bend to speak of and I couldn’t keep him consistently in the bridle. Winter blahs all around, and I got a little peeved at him and his impression of a brick wall. Kept him going longer than I should have – forward was for once not really an issue, but any kind of suppleness was. He was breathing pretty hard when we finished, and took quite some time to walk out. On the one hand: definitely too long. On the other hand: building wind and valuable lessons about who decides when and how we work. Still, I would’ve liked to learn those lessons in a session that was actually productive.

Today, we just went out for a hack, which turned out to be a great decision. (I’m trying hard to fix, or really upgrade, my decision making on horseback.) He was tight and sore for the first 10 minutes or so, and then started swinging and reaching. I rode in jump tack, and just kept the lightest of possible touches on his mouth, asking him to soften his jaw occasionally, bend a bit for me, move away from a leg here and there. We had a couple of very short trots on the trails asking him to stretch, which he did beautifully, and then some VERY nice circles in the back field, reaching for the bit and springing through from behind.

It figures too that after such an angsty post as my last one, today at the Flatlands party I was awarded most improved boarder. 🙂 T. said that the progress we have made as a horse/rider pair was fantastic, and that you wouldn’t recognize Tris and me now if you put us beside our work of a year ago. So that was a really nice ego boost!

I am struggling a little bit with mom guilt.

Intellectually, I can look at it like this: I was running on fumes at the end of the fall semester. The last three weeks have been a welcome recharge of my batteries, with time to have dinner with friends, indulge in a bit of television watching, crochet more than I have in months, and generally accomplish things without feeling a sword blade at the back of my neck. I am comfortable in my budget and write off his expenses without a second thought as long as I economize like crazy in the rest of my life – which I’m used to.

He’s going better than he ever has before, he’s happy and relaxed and well cared-for. He will be those last things regardless of how often he sees me.

Emotionally: I am riding three days a week max, and feeling like I’m letting my horse down. I’m guilty about the money I spend on him, which I could be saving for a mortgage, or using to finish grad school with no debt. I feel that to justify that money and to do right by him I should see him more often, should put more into making our dressage better. There are many dedicated, accomplished riders in my life that I admire tremendously, and though I can on one level acknowledge that I have many other responsibilities in my life and cannot make my riding and Tristan’s improvement as a riding horse my priority – I still think I ought to do better. I am a competitive and driven person. It’s in my nature to always think I can do better.

This, too, shall pass, but a strong wave of it was just triggered by making the decision to meet my undergrad advisor – one of my favorite people in the whole world, who I haven’t seen for over a year – for coffee tonight instead of heading down to ride.

I wish…many things. I wish the barn were closer and I could make a trip to ride in 2 hours instead of 5. I wish I were in Vermont where I could spend less money on him – I wish I were at the place in my life where I could keep him in backyard.

Anyway. Here’s to 2011. I’m going to try to post more about our rides, in the hopes of making the time that we have resonate more.

Two things.

First, last night, we had a super lesson. Stepping it up another notch.

Afterward, R. was watching Tris mug for treats from over his stall guard and said “You looked fantastic. Tris was hugely overstepping, and his back was swinging, and I looked at his face and he was all, I DON’T THINK THIS IS A GOOD IDEA. AT ALL.” That’s my pony.

Second, I’m very happy with my cheapo ice bandages: a multiple-cell flexible ice sheet from Kmart ($2.49 each), stuck to his legs with polo wraps. His fetlocks especially have been just a bit puffy all summer. Only occasionally heat, and he’s not off, not sensitive, none of it, but…y’know if 10 extra minutes after tougher work tightens his legs up again, I’ll do it. So far I’ve just done front but I’m going to pick up some more ice sheets and do his hind legs too, or at least have the capacity to do so after jumping especially.

Until now I’ve been using a half set of some sedate burgundy polos to wrap him. I have white and black polos already, but I am tempted to buy him a new set for wrapping.

The real question is…snakeskin or pink camo?

(It goes without saying that more suggestions for colorful polo wraps would be much appreciated!)

It’s been a while, so I figured I should get back into things with two fantastic lessons in a row.

I’ve been working really, really hard the last few weeks to get my legs back and deeper. It’s finally starting to pay off – it’s starting to feel like a normal place for them to be instead of a painful stretch. The reward is that they’re much more solid and effective, and that I can really access Tristan’s hind end now, especially that sticky right hind.

In turn, he’s never been better. His canter is really starting to have lift and spring to it, and he’s flirting with really truly coming over his back in it. He’s reaching for the bit, and his trot is just getting superb. He’s developed a whole new level of confidence – if you’d asked me six months ago I would’ve said he was already a supremely confident horse. But I didn’t take into account a certain kind of body awareness and confidence in his physical ability to handle the work – before, he was struggling with his own musculature and confirmed way of going, and now that we’ve eroded so much of that and replaced it with solid, good muscle and stretch and bend, he’s starting to enjoy his own body in a way that’s really neat to feel. He’s still Tristan – he still gets snarky and snotty most of the time when I ask for new things – but that resistance is such a small fraction of what it used to be, and he comes out the other side much more willing to work with me.

So from last night’s ride: once again, some lateral work in hand, then a 10+ minute march, march, march in the walk warmup, then collect it together for maybe 5 minutes, then into a loose trot. I really need to stop making excuses for not doing that every time. He goes SO much better and more forward than when I ask for more work earlier. 3/4 of the way through the warmup T. stopped us and said that he really, really liked about 99% of what we were doing with the warmup – we just needed a hair more tempo. I have to balance his tempo carefully in the warmup – too much and he’ll happily run around like a lead weight in my hands, too little and he’ll happily be all slinky with no actual push. So T. got us to just the right metronome click for his trot, which was indeed only a fraction more than what we’d been doing.

Lots and lots of lateral work in general in the actual ride. I’m flirting more and more with a proper shoulder-in. I can get the angle, and for maybe half-step I can really get the push from his hind end, but I can’t sustain it, can’t keep him steady in the angle when he adds in that push. We’re getting closer and closer, though, and as I get more mobility in my lower leg I’ll be better able still to keep the push and the angle corralled together. Lots of leg yield, too, which he is really nailing. He just needs to be kept up in his tempo through that, too – when he is he is just wonderful; when he isn’t he chooses the easy way out and zips through his shoulder straight to the wall.

Not much fancy, but just a lot of good, correct work, at the end of which T. was effusive (!) in his praise, saying that my hard work on my legs had clearly paid off, that we had taken it to a whole new level, and he was thrilled with our progress. 😀

I have the week off and had asked for an extra lesson, if possible a XC school, and J. obliged by putting me in a noon lesson today. I started off nervous – it was extremely hot, I was running a bit late due to unexpected construction traffic, and the other horse in the ring was a big leggy beautiful Thoroughbred, impeccably turned out, rider ditto. (I found out later they’re from the Vineyard, which…made retroactive sense.)

It didn’t help that Tris was sluggish to start, wouldn’t walk on, and then when I asked for the canter, got hoppy – I’m sure he was a bit sore from last night. I pushed him through into a long rein canter around the ring, got off his back, then brought him back and started over. I didn’t get him to a *great* place, but I felt at least a teensy bit more confident at the end.

I completely ate the warmup 18″ crossrail, twice, until T. got on me about my leg, and we cantered it, and Tris fiiiiinally woke up. “Oh! We’re jumping! Okay, I’ll go forward for that.” We only did 2-3 courses, enough to get jumping on the brain. I did the same courses as the other woman, who is I would bet running around Novice, which was…intimidating, but a nice vote of confidence. Tris was awesome, of course, even when I saw a long distance, he disagreed and took *me* to the base, and then I gulped, planted my hands on his neck, and leaned like crazy. He propped us both up and over, and I got a lecture about not counting on my horse to save me.

Then, out to the back XC fields. A bit of a run around to warm up, and bless my horse, he was completely unconcerned about the loud mower going in the next field. We played around with some small courses. Tris was, of course, a super star. I ate a few fences, one in the same way I did in the ring (got it on my second try later) and…well…no excuse for the other two.

Tris popped right over the ditch, so our next “just to check in” was to “go play on the banks.” Okay. I decided (somehow? why?) to canter off the medium sized one to start off with. My little mustang went “WHOOOOOOOOO,” launched into mid-air, and landed bucking to kingdom come. I started laughing too hard to pull him up for 2-3 strides, till Tom yelled “GET. HIS. HEAD. UP.” and then I was sent back to walk down the bank many times to think about what I’d done. Tris stepped off quietly and beautifully, of course. Sigh. Then up a couple of times, and then we were allowed to trot down. Good pony. Idiot rider.

My crowning moment, though, was on my last run. I was not doing especially well with the heat, and had been drinking water, but was still getting pins-and-needles in my face and a bit wobbly in my legs and arms. I began to feel better just as T. called out our last run, and – I bucked up and went for it. Sent Tris down the long side in a nice gallop – he was tired, too, and getting a little strong – over the gate, then up and around to the coop. And, okay, first the coop had been tweaking me all day – it is very straight, and decently sized (to my eye anyway) and obviously it jumped fine but every time we approached it all I could think was “big!” and I’d had some wobbly moments with it earlier.

My course was coop to down bank, and the bank was on a slight offset angle from the coop, and in my head as I made the turn I was thinking “stay on the left side of the coop, that’ll make it easier to take a straight line to the drop,” and somehow on the rollback from the gate that turned into a line that was…to the left of the fence. Tristan galloped past quite cheerfully, then turned quite cheerfully, and then I damn well went over the middle of the fence the next time. (Cheerfully, of course…)

We nailed the rest of the fences, including one that I didn’t realize was on the skinny side until I approached it – a sort of garden stand series of steps. He didn’t blink at anything, no matter how airy or how reflective or even for that matter, the ditch. The steps were set at the bottom of a fair hill, and he started rushing it a bit, tired again, and not wanting to bring his hocks up downhil, and I stood up slightly, and wow, it was so easy to reach down and half halt through my core, then sweet as you please get back into position, hold him with my hands and bring him up with my leg. It was like some kind of karmic payback for the stupid decisions I’d made earlier: all of a sudden I was making exactly the right decisions, in the 5 seconds or so before the fence, on pure instinct, and my God, he nailed that fence.

In conclusion: best horse ever.

Didn’t head down to the barn until after the World Cup, so I got there verrrry late and had the ring all to myself, which was good: I was concentrating too much on him to have navigated any kind of ring traffic.

While pulling out boxes of kitchen stuff to sort through for the new apartment, I ended up doing a bit of re-sorting of Tristan’s stuff, which meant that I was moving his other saddles a lot. I have three saddles in all: his everyday saddle, a Passier all-purpose that suits both of us well but desperately needs to be reflocked; a Wintec 2000 with changeable gullets that I bought for 70% off thinking of trail-riding; and an old, old, old (1940s) dressage saddle that I adore beyond words but will probably never be usable. It’s a beautiful caramel cover, has a shallower seat than anything I’ve ever ridden in, only the tiniest hint of knee rolls and no thigh rolls, and I think the tree is in serious trouble. It creaks. There’s also no padding left in the seat – you can feel your seatbones slide around *inside* the tree when sitting in it. Someday, if I have a few hundred dollars to spare, I’ll have someone really look at it, but for now…

Anyway: I had the Wintec in storage because it never quite fit him right; the gullets were either too wide or too narrow. It was a good trail saddle, but it didn’t make sense to keep it around just for that. Tonight, I looked at it again. He’s really been bulking up around his withers lately, starting some muscles just behind the point of the wither that will, with time, really travel down his spine and give him more of a back. (They were my new favorite muscles two weeks ago; this week it’s the filled in musculature just above his hocks – pony’s learning how to sit!)

I liked it better immediately after putting it on his back; still not perfect, but it was settling better behind his shoulders than the Passier. Getting up I had to tweak the stirrups down a few holes; it still took some getting used to. It’s far more built up the Passier, and it actually has padding instead of rock-hard leather. Consequently, it took some time for me to feel as deep in my seat and legs as the Passier lets me be right away. I never quite got the seat there, but once I got my legs settled it in I found that they were actually set better than on the Passier – whopping knee rolls on the Wintec, and the stirrup bars back a bit too, I think.

Ride went really, REALLY well. I think it was a bit of a perfect storm of three factors: first, he really is starting to go better and better, putting some air time and reach in his gaits and give me his back earlier and easier. Second, WOW did I have my leg on. Not until they got quite muscle-tired was I tempted to jack them up and go after him with my heel. Other than that, inner calf all the way. Which was both the saddle and the fruit that’s finally starting to bear from T.’s incessant body mechanics talks and my own furious determination to work on my legs. Third, I do think the saddle frees up his shoulders quite a bit more – he was much looser much earlier through the base of his neck than he has ever been.

Cons: I didn’t quite get his hind end the way I wanted it to. It was allllmost there, but not all the way. Should’ve gone for a few more leg-yields to really get the hind end moving.

Canter, though? Best it’s ever been. Which is an excellent trend! Even got the right lead bending and through after some long discussion.

Will ride in the Wintec with T. on Tuesday night – we’ll see what he thinks! Unless he has objections, I think I’ll ride in it for the foreseeable future, ie until I can afford to get the Passier reflocked.

Not much to say about last night’s ride: light, clean, straight, and I felt like I made good decisions all around. Tris came out forward, we warmed up in the walk for a looooooong time – I didn’t fuss with the reins or the headset, just focused on his hind end and back, how’s that for a revelation – and he moved off well into trot. Canter was malleable both directions, and the left lead is really starting to come along.

We are starting to play with a shoulder-in, too; I can get a solid sort of three track shoulder-in (hind leg on track, diagonal pair even on middle track, front leg off on another track), we just need to open up the angle a little bit more and he’ll be there. Which means still more work on my stabilizing outside leg – though that is really starting to come along. Though last night I was really getting it on spiral in and out, keeping the leg there and not letting him trick me by hollowing to the outside as soon as I put it on, pretending he could only move off my leg by flipping the bend. Lies!

It was also lovely to have a leisurely ride, no rush to tack up, ride, untack, and sprint to get back to Boston to study or something. I even wish I had stayed longer, thoughCaitlin tried valiantly to tempt me and I demurred in the moment. Next time, I’m not leaving the barn until the hockey game is over.

In lieu of an actual thinky update, a few bullet points:

– Tristan is awesome. No surprise there.

– My left leg is substantially weaker than my right, and now that we’re working more and more and more from the seat and the legs it’s starting to light up holes in my aids with big neon signs. To wit, spiraling out tracking left is hard, as is spiraling in tracking right. To say the least. Slowly getting better, though, as my aching hips can attest.

– I want a dressage saddle so badly I can taste it. Unfortunately, it’s rather low on the financial priority list.

– In talking with L., we’re going to set up a weekday soon to take Tristan over a bunch of XC jumps in hand, especially the ditch and the banks, before we introduce them under saddle. He’s jumped most everything in a haphazard way, but I want to do it *right.*

– I’m hauling people to King Oak this weekend. We’ll see how my trailering anxieties hold up. Fingers crossed no panic attacks. Only thing for it is to keep doing it, though. And once I’m in the truck and driving I’m usually fine.

– I’m struggling right now with a bit of a dichotomy: when I really get my leg in the stirrup at the canter, I lose my seat. Vice versa. I know the answer here is that I’m not truly deep in my leg, I’m just propping off the stirrup and that’s what’s lightening my seat, but damn, it’s proving to be a long uphill slog to get the same feel in the canter as in the sitting trot or the walk, that plugged-in, legs-as-weights sensation. Tiny, subtle shifts in balance and weight are still missing.

– I’ll miss the Flatlands show in July for family time, but I’m eying the XC Safety Clinic at Scarlet Hill in June, and the Flatlands show in August. In the fall, who knows, maybe an off-property dressage schooling show, if we can find one? I’d like a crack at a Training test, especially after we’ve had all summer to work on our canter.

– Speaking of the canter, the transitions. I’m feeling in a lot of my riding right now like I know where to find the answers, I just have to work harder to get them. I know the feeling I’m looking for in that transition, and I have pieces of what it takes to get Tristan there, but so far a good, uphill, soft, relaxed canter transition is eluding us except for a split second at a time.

– Solutions, as always: ride better.

First things first: BEST PONY EVER.

He was a little stuck in the warmup last night, didn’t want to move out, and I could feel the right hind lagging. So we marched, alternating leg pressure to time with his hind legs, asking for nothing more than a teensy stretch and bend in front. He was still sluggish moving into the trot, and we finally had a discussion that led to a bit of a hand-gallop, and after that he was easier to work with.

Lots of changing bend in the trot, and he’s really coming into that nicely, switching over smoothly instead of going flat and hollow for a few strides of don’t-wanna. I think I’ve gotten the knack too of supporting with the outside leg while switching to a new inside leg to really clearly tell him what I need.

Canter was really our shining moment, though. Once I found a good 20m circle to work (jumps are set out in the course for Sunday already, a bit tough to navigate esp. when L. was packing up the leftovers in the truck and was a moving target to avoid), he came into my hands beautifully. Downhill, yes, but not nearly as heavy as he could’ve been, and amenable to at least the suggestion of lifting his withers. He’s coming sooner and sooner after the transition, too; used to take several strides to re-organize, and now in the first or second after a head-flinging transition he’ll settle in.

Part of the transition is my difficulty: I really, really need not to give in to the temptation to tip forward and “help” him into it, putting my outside leg too far back. It feels like it works, but it just works in the wrong way. Sitting reallllly up straight and back gives him no options but to add more power and straightness to the transition to make it work.

I was happy with my body (straight and following) but NOT my seat and only occasionally my legs. I was asking him for difficult enough self-carriage that I had to keep leglegleg, and while on the plus side he was responsive to that and trying his heart out, on the minus side I got my brain tricked into inching my legs up and up and digging heels in, my old bad habit, instead of wrapping them down and around and supporting that way. And when I really SHOVED my legs down, I lost my seat. It was really hard to get that balance just right.

He was going so well, so quickly that after 10 minutes or so of working the canter, I put him on a long-rein stretchy trot. He was powering around so beautifully, and so clearly not yet tired, that I thought…well…and sat back and asked for the canter on a long rein.

And he gave it to me.

He just balanced almost on the buckle, reaching his hind legs under him, not flinging his neck up, not hanging on to the reins, just lightly and perfectly there in my fingertips. And every time I just twitched my fingers and gave a half inch, he took it eagerly, and oh, that canter – it probably didn’t look like much, but I could feel, deep down inside it, a beautiful smooth rocking. And he was keeping it happily and easily, with only a little leg, and all of a sudden it was easy to sit, and my legs were long, and I had this almost-scary moment where I thought that this must be why people like hunter-under-saddle.

Didn’t quite nail the down transition, but we made up for it in the change of bend and picking up the canter again going the other way: he came through instead of up, and was if anything even lighter and smoother. It was just so much FUN. We went around the ring just maybe twice, with a few 20m circles, and then he was done. He was so pleased with himself, and I couldn’t have been happier. We went for a very short walk out back, he drank half the stream dry, and got a good rubdown and many many peppermints.

So, in summary? Best. Pony. Ever.

(I almost want to push the show forward just one week – look what we’re working on, look what we could bring next week! – but that’s part of the point of a dressage show, isn’t it? A moment in time, and then you get another snapshot a few months later, and you compare them and are blown away. So the temptation to put it off until you can really nail it is kind of avoiding the whole lesson. But still, damn, for just a little longer…!)