Tuesday, October 28, 2008

The Dressage Blues...

My event is this coming weekend and I have been getting excited as the date approaches. However, the last couple times I've ridden Coaster he has been extremely behind my leg. It takes nothing short of firecrackers to get him out in front of my leg when he starts this non-forward thing. I had a lesson today to work on the dressage test and I was not riding at my best, to say the least, and of course Coaster wasn't going to work well if I was riding like crap.

When he gets all strung out (which is fairly easy for such a big horse) I feel like I need to try to pull him together with my reins instead of riding his butt up to his chest. Now I've been riding for over half my life and I definitely know better but when I'm having an off day it is just too easy to get really frustrated over it all. I actually had to gallop around the ring (in my dressage tack!) to get him going. After that he was much better - or should I say I was much better. I was just having an off day, but I'm used to him making up for it in the jump ring, but he just can't do it in the dressage.

I'm worried that he's getting a little work-sour so tomorrow I'm going to go out into the field and do a little trailride along with some galloping. That way we aren't in the arena trotting in circles, but at least I'm going to get him out in front of my leg.

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