I should be thrilled with my scores, and I am, but I am horrified by the video. I do not ride this horse with the same deep seat that I ride Sydney. After watching the video, and seriously cringing, I rode Speedy on Monday and addressed two of my most obvious weaknesses: my forward lean and my busy hands.
Speedy asks so politely that I always just give the reins back to him. I have got to quit doing that. I don't dare do it with Sydney or we'd be in the next county. Since Speedy doesn't bolt, rear, or melt down, his polite little root, root always achieve what he wants.
So on Sunday, I sat deep and tall and quit fussing with my hands, I resisted his polite but persistent habit of pulling the reins and added leg instead. I did a fair number of trot to canter to trot transitions and felt that just by sitting up and keeping my hands quiet I improved my position noticeably, and as a result, his way of going.
Before you watch, keep in mind that Speedy hasn't been shown since July of 2013 and has had several months off. He only just started back to work a few weeks ago. We had done only a handful of canter transitions before the show. I was really worried that we had lost all of our training (such as it was), but I was actually relatively pleased by his performance. He showed more maturity, and his submissiveness was hugely improved. He was willing and listened even when I was fussing with his mouth and over-bending him.
The California Dressage Society's Regional Adult Amateur Competition may be on the books for us after all. I earned two scores and now just need one more score to be qualified. I had wanted to qualify at First Level, but I'd be happy showing at Training Level.
Here's the Training Level Test 2 video ...
Speedy asks so politely that I always just give the reins back to him. I have got to quit doing that. I don't dare do it with Sydney or we'd be in the next county. Since Speedy doesn't bolt, rear, or melt down, his polite little root, root always achieve what he wants.
So on Sunday, I sat deep and tall and quit fussing with my hands, I resisted his polite but persistent habit of pulling the reins and added leg instead. I did a fair number of trot to canter to trot transitions and felt that just by sitting up and keeping my hands quiet I improved my position noticeably, and as a result, his way of going.
Before you watch, keep in mind that Speedy hasn't been shown since July of 2013 and has had several months off. He only just started back to work a few weeks ago. We had done only a handful of canter transitions before the show. I was really worried that we had lost all of our training (such as it was), but I was actually relatively pleased by his performance. He showed more maturity, and his submissiveness was hugely improved. He was willing and listened even when I was fussing with his mouth and over-bending him.
The California Dressage Society's Regional Adult Amateur Competition may be on the books for us after all. I earned two scores and now just need one more score to be qualified. I had wanted to qualify at First Level, but I'd be happy showing at Training Level.
Here's the Training Level Test 2 video ...
