Pride ( in the name of ponies )

[glenatron]

Very proud of sleepsy_mouse and Small today for being excellent on an epic scale.

A week of preparation for next Saturday and we've established a few fundamentals- we're better at being on the track, shoulders are dropping into the middle a little less and I'm much better at picking us back out laterally to where we ought to be. It is clearly tough being a heavy cob as your shoulders have a mind of their own and no particular interest in going where the rest of the horse is going. We're not brilliant but if we could turn in a test next week at the standard we're at now in our more harmonious moments I don't think I'd have let the big guy down too badly.

We may not have bothered so much with precision for a while, but now that we are I do like that when something isn't going the way I would like it to we have the tools in place to change it. It seems like every time I ride him, the rein that was worse last time is now the better one, which suggests that a) we're making some useful corrections and b) we're not working evenly enough on both reins :)

Comments

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

I do like that when something isn't going the way I would like it to we have the tools in place to change it

That's the ticket!

[tom909.livejournal.com]

Hats off to you Ben. You are a braver man than I am. It's interesting to me all this stuff you write, as it is very similar to stuff I am working on with my horse.
I'm quite excited by your dressage test - if I lived nearer I'd definitely come and watch, or are you banning spectators.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

Oh I think spectators will be unavoidable. I believe Kerin is coming along to see her horse in action...

I kind of feel that I do need to be out and doing with my horse, not in a way that is too deliberate or ambitious, but the experience will do us both good I think. Even if the outcome is total carnage...

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

I just hope the toolbox is still to hand when we're away from our nice safe* arena at home.

*except for the monster-infested hedge, obviously

[penella22.livejournal.com]

It's good to see getting out there and doing this stuff. I agree with the above comment that its not so much about the competition or the showing off, but more about the getting out in the world and doing ok even still.

I'm excited for you to be taking this adventure with your horse!!!

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

I'm excited too, when I'm not terrified. I can speak or play music in front of an audience with no qualms at all, I have something of the performer about me by nature, whether I can ride a horse in front of people is another matter entirely. Especially people who can see how badly I'm doing it wrong...

[penella22.livejournal.com]

:-)
Don't worry, they'll notice how capably you're doing it right too. Sometimes that's even scarier...