OK, first of all, thank you to all who joined my pity party that was last week’s post. Much appreciated, and your comments honestly left me feeling so much better!

Hoping against hope, I scheduled a short dressage lesson for Tuesday, and lo and behold, the golden pony actually came through!

We did a lot of talking about how sound he looked (which was pretty good, huzzah!) and mostly spent the lesson just focusing on transitions and some of the basics. After 6 months (seriously WTF SIX MONTHS) since last having a lesson, that was A-OK by me.

Jack was fairly tense, which could be due to his longer break, it being dark, the scary saddlepad sitting by the ring, or any combination of those things. So we spent a decent amount of time just letting his brain relax (which can often be a theme even when he’s in full work) by doing boring trot circles until he released the tension in his back, occasionally incorporating leg yields to play with some lateral work.

I got nothin.

One other thing we focused on in the time available was the quality of Jack’s canter. In previous tests, he has been described as being downhill and behind the vertical. This comes from a habit of landing heavily on his front end on the ‘3’ beat of the canter, almost nodding with his head.

1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2,3

It’s my job then, to make the 1 beat (the active inside hind) the strongest beat by using my seat and upper body to support him. Ideally, he will start rocking back onto his haunches, in turn lifting his forehand, and making the landing gear come down with more of a pitter-patter than a thud.Tonight, I have dared sign up for my first jump lesson back (it’s a week for firsts!). Mostly I expect it to be jumping at shadows versus actually jumping, and anything we do make it over will likely be small. But it’s nice to dip our toes back in the water!

And hopefully as a result you’ll be hearing more from me on a regular basis!