Taking Advantage

In between rain storms, we had a freakishly warm day on Sunday. The high was somewhere close to 80℉, and that was just days after a massive snow dump in the mountains just above us. 

It was predicted to be a wet week, so I got to the barn before the next storm could roll in. Both horses were covered with mud, but they were happy to see me and even happier to be groomed.

While I still have to persuade him to lower his head, Izzy is getting better and better about the bridling issue. Now, instead of just getting his head back down to our atmosphere, I am teaching him to put his head as low as I can get it to be bridled. For unbridling, he's always been good about dropping his head to his knees.

While searching for the non-existant one trick that would give me a finished dressage horse, I hadn't been paying attention to the progress that Izzy is making. We definitely still have wonky rides, but they don't come as often as they used to.

On our good days, we can trot a 20-meter circle while maintaining a consistent tempo while also being mostly steady in the bridle. Changes of direction still have to be done with a fair amount of preparation as his shoulders still need to be micromanaged. We can now (usually) canter a 20-meter circle when I want to without too much drama. Shallow loops and the long side are still too hard for us, but we're getting closer.

On Sunday, he gave me the best canter to trot transition possible. A judge would have given it a 10. He actually moved forward into the trot from the canter while maintaining an uphill balance rather than simply falling back to trot. It was amazing. 

Patience with a good attitude is easy to do when your horse is being super-duper. I'll let you know how it goes when we have our next "suck-it-up-Buttercup" kind of ride!