Doing the Happy Dance

It might not be super pretty, but I am doing it anyway. Why you ask? Well, my big brown horse is turning a very big corner.

While I wouldn't call him dead broke or anything, we are certainly at a point where we do more dressage work than fixing naughty horse work, and that's worth dancing about.

Soft eyes and no tension.

On Saturday, I caught myself bustling around as I tacked him up. For just a moment I paused and questioned whether I shouldn't be more cautious. After all, I wouldn't want to rile him up and push one of his freak out buttons. And just as quickly, I dismissed the idea. Izzy has really settled into being a riding horse. Tacking up and bridling are no longer issues.

In fact, I realized that most of the time, not all of the time, but most of the time, I am working on the quality of his movement and not whether he's moving. He has a confirmed right and left lead canter that I can get whenever I want - unless it's one of those times when we are working on naughty horse stuff rather than dressage stuff.

All of this made me realize that it's time to step it up. Izzy now needs to learn to work under some kind of pressure. He does great when it's just Speedy and me there with him. What I need now is to figure out how to get him to work when someone else is in the arena or other horses are nearby.

I've got a couple of ideas, but they require someone willing to give up their own ride. You know, someone willing to just putz around as I school my own horse without worrying about wrecking their "ride." If you live nearby and want some saddle time, Speedy loves to putz! Or if your horse just needs some new scenery, but you don't have a riding agenda, Izzy would love to meet you. We also have another steady eddy at the barn who would love to pack you around.

​Give me a call.