This past Saturday was the first day Tillie was allowed back into work after her injections. I fully expected there to be some interesting moments...so much so that I even lunged her lightly to let her sort out some wiggles.
Extremely fit horse + 4 days off of work = pshyco mare
Except this is the horse I got
Ok she did let some sass out on the lunge. But when I hopped on her, there was no tension, no jigging or bracing...not even the usual goading me into argue with her when shes been out of consistent work.
She showed up ready to work and was shockingly good...so bipolar in a good way.
Such a hard life
I was so freaked out about how good she was, I even took her temp a few times...all was normal! Poor Tillie. I do not give her enough credit, but seriously up until this, if I even gave her a day off I would be riding a very opinionated horse the next day.
Tillie isn't sure what the fuss is about
Her canter felt AMAZING. We were in the smaller ring, so she naturally tends to balance herself better in this one...and tends to stay straighter and better about not throwing her shoulders around. She was slightly down with her left shoulder when we tracked left, but that was also her more positive hock, and the side she is more downhill on.
Sleepy mare...and looking very tiny in this picture
It didn't take too much to get her to lift that inside shoulder when in the past, it would sometimes be an open door for bolting, head flicking or any number of her antics. She felt really nice and balanced, even willing to sit and engage.
Donkey Ears
Now, I don't think the injections work THAT fast. I have been told they can take anywhere between 10 days to 1 month before feeling the effects. So I am not really sure why the drastic change.
Her canter has been what we are trying to improve the most lately...and she certainly has given me nice moments, but an not usually an entire 2-3 circles.
At any rate, I am excited to get back into our lesson routine and prepare for our dressage debut next weekend. Here's hoping Tillie stays on this end of the spectrum!
So here is part two from my Saturday lesson (see part 1 here) - This is the overcoming obstacles and self doubt part. As I said in my last post, I wasnt super excited with my lesson...it wasnt bad, but I didnt feel like we knocked it out of the park either. I know I know...less than stellar rides happen but I am sure you can all tell I am bit of a crazy lady and have a hard time feeling good even when I should about a ride.
Before I continue, I am sharing some stills from the lesson that made me, in retrospect, feel a lot better about our ride:
Tillie and I getting it!
------------------------------ Part 2 ----------------------------- So at the end of the lesson, just like P always does, she asked if anyone else wanted to do or try anything else. I usually dont say anything...but I reallllly did want to try the barrels after I saw Emma post about her lesson that she went to on a weekday (I had this pesky thing called work so sadly couldnt go). So in true, FOMO I was dying to try...but wasnt going to speak up until, like a true friend, my barnmate did since she know how badly I wanted to try.
warming up before the lesson
P is so sweet and let our lesson run over and started to set up the barrels. For me, doing these barrels symbolizes overcoming a major obstacle and fear...I wanted to do it because neither Tillie or I have done these so knew it would be a test of our relationship and groundwork from the last few months.
Shockingly, as she was setting up, I thought I would be more nervous...the only tiny bit was evident when I asked P to set us up one small barrel on its side to start with just to familiarize Tillie with it.
Tillie Didnt care!
So after we cantered the small barrel P shouted, ok keep coming!!! Which in hindsight was a good thing since it sort of gave us a rhythm to start with.
Approaching the barrels, my thought wasnt, oh god thats big...it was more or less, thats skinny and interesting looking. I know If I find it odd to look at, so will Tillie so I just breathed it out sat back and allowed her to look at it on the approach:
So we kinda missed it at first...but I LOVE this mare for being so game. She never offered to stop or change her pace. She kept going forward, just got a bit wiggly. So new goal: start jumping low skinnies to teach her to look for the jump rather then look for the other side.
So we land (Tillie seemed not to be too rattled) and around we come for the 2nd try...This Time I was was more prepared and closed both legs around her. She faltered a little again and jumped them a little off to the left this time:
Talk about being brave and getting it done...
Ok so we know we need to try again and hope we get it just right in the middle this time and finally things clicked into place:
Just in case you missed it i have TWO angles of it:
P wanted us to try again...so we did. It didnt end on quite as awesome since we couldnt seem to find the right distance the last two attempts, but I definitely seem to have mastered the eventing equitation of stay in the back seat and let the reins slip:
Tillie was very proud of herself and celebrated around the turn...but it was reasonable and a perfectly acceptable one! HUGE progress for Tillie...especially since landing from a gappy distance like this in the past would send her on a full rampage.
Pats for Tillie!!
A few things came to light through doing this:
My horse is awesomely game and brave
We need to work on teaching her to look for the fence itself rather then the other side
I need to not get ahead with my shoulders - which is the reason for the gappy distances
I need to work on folding and being softer in my hip (being defensive is all great, but sitting that upright just looks ridiculous)
Tillie REALLY likes her job
Ears back ready for more!
The majestic tail flip
See - upright position, but hey Tillie is stretching!
not enough release here, stiff upper body and not folding enough for the height.
just another angle
So all in all I was really excited with giving this a shot. It really showed how Tillie and I have gotten to know each other and faced this obstacle together...this really helped my self doubt in our abilities and talent. While I am sure Ill still doubt, for now I am just happy with how willing she is to try for me!
There are something about my Saturday jump lessons with P that really seem to make me "centered." Anyone following me at this point can tell I am a ball of just heightened nervousness of OMG my horse is injured or OMG my horse is nuts or OMG my horse cant do this....and it goes on. So basically just a lot of self doubt and doubt in Tillie.
Which isnt really fair to either of us.
Hows THIS trot for ability?! side note: excuse my where's waldo shirt :) Its warm!
I noticed after only having 1 P lesson in the last month, I was starting to be like the pysh patient losing their minds from lack of seeing their therapist. Not to mention, work has been quite crazy so keeping to riding 4 -days a week has been tough. I did manage to ride 3 days this week so that close right!?
Luckily Tillie hasnt seemed to miss a beat minus the one really crummy ride I blogged about last week. Which is quite surprising since she typically requires full work to stay sane.
I LOVE Tillie's expression here - shes like " I got this"
Saturday morning comes around and Im like a big kid on Christmas - Soooo anxious to get loaded up to go except our lesson wasnt until late afternoon/early evening. **waiting sucks**
Loading Tillie, I was trying to put to practice the self loading session we did with Emma...Tillie has seemed to develop a nasty habit of going crooked now and swinging her butt away from me anticipating the whip. I even reintroduced it to her and rubbed it on her showing her it was fine, but she REALLY gets squirmy with it. As soon as I put it away she goes right on just fine.
So homework for me - practice this loading thing a bit more.
Oh hey uphill canter! I think Tillie looks like a fancy upper level horse here!
We get there and hack out to find puppies/dogs everywhere! Tillie was realllly not sure about them, but I was able to keep her focused and as I started warming up felt this incredible just peace.
You know when things just go silent and its this quiet, steady feeling of just being in the moment on the same page? I havent felt that ever on a horse. But our warm up I felt this...I said bend left or right she said ok and had these incredible uphill gaits. I felt at first like she wasnt moving forward enough, but watching back I think it just felt that way because she was balanced and where she needed to be where I am usually used to feeling her pulling herself around by her front end.
It was a bit warmer out so I attribute her quietness to that partially...but it still weirds me out when things feel this nice. Emma always reminds me as of late that this IS our new normal. I just havent gotten used to it yet! Tillie did throw in a teeeeenie sass fit after one fence when I half halted going into the turn and she got a bit offended like I KNOOOWWW I was doing it already mom!!
This lesson we had a much larger group then normal so we didnt get to do as much...but with Tillie and I havent jumped in a while, it was probably for the best. What worked well for it, was it kept things REALLY chill and low key - and Tillie ate all her breakfast Sunday AM!
Anyway, P had us warm up over some ground poles and then some small fences set as a one stride line. I needed to be reminded to release a bit more rather then plant...that is one hard habit to break!...so we can start encouraging Tillie to stretch and jump better with her shoulders.
Then we got to business and P had us run through this twsity turning course that was really fun! The first time we ran through was ok...Tillie was a bit flat but was listening and stayed in a nice rhythm.
The second run through didnt feel that great to me, but P didnt ask us to re-do anything which normally she will if she feels its necessary. Not sure what it was about it (not just the rail cuz I know rails happen), but I just didnt like it...
P was ready to call it a day and, as always, asked if anyone wanted to run through it one more time. Usually I say no so I dont push too hard...especially when Tillie is being so quiet. BUT shes been quiet jumping lately and its time to start expecting more...but I asked if we could.
I am really glad we did because it felt pretty good and P had raised the monsters inc jump to 3ft for another rider and left it for when we ran through. I honestly didnt realize/or think to question that height since height **usually** doesnt bother me, but I did hear the fellow barn mates asking, are they jumping THAT?
Yes, yes we did!
Tillie sailed over it no problem! I loved Emma's WOOO upon landing and you could feel Tillie hear that, and just get this vibe through her body like lets do this. The angle the video was shot makes it look smaller...but P said it was 3ft...
All in all, I wasnt super thrilled with the lesson at first. Mostly because I still am dwelling on the fact my horse doesnt jump "well" yet. But the more I thought about it the more I realized that our goal has been getting quiet first since that was a challenge - and I think we are there! The fact Tillie could open and compress her canter and adjust without sass is HUGE.
So I am thrilled and just hope to keep the momentum going! P even suggested trying her back in the snaffle jumping! WOOO!!!
Sunday was quite stressful for me and I wont bore with the details...but it was filled with a lot of good things too. I am choosing to focus on the positives :)
I FINALLY got my truck back from being fixed! YAY!! After months of it sitting because I was going off of a dealership quote that was ridiculously high, I finally found a trustworthy mechanic through word of mouth that was able to do it at half the cost. I am so beyond happy to have it back I almost cried.
Nighttime photo...hard to see :(
So some other stressful things happened and when things started settle, I decided to squeeze in a dressage lesson with C to de-stress since her lessons always have a knack for soothing any anxieties (riding and non riding). Lucky for me she had an opening!
Tillie knew what was up when the BOT blanket came out and was not entirely thrilled... maybe if I dont look at her she cant see me?
In my excitement to add some positives to my day, I got the barn a bit early and gave Tillie a spa day complete with trimming her mane and brushing out her tail. She LOVED her tail being brushed and was literally following me with her butt so I could scratch it.
I got done a little early so decided to go help with the first dragging of our NEW footing! This stuff is so cool...it has rubber in it and Im told riding on it is so elastic and wonderful! This is our smaller "dressage" ring and our larger ring is supposed to also get some as well.
New footing!! EEK!!
Once that was done, it was time to load up. This is the first time I hooked up my truck to my trailer...The wiring was all recently redone on the trailer and I was disappointed at first to find the lights not 100%. BUT with some cleaning, they all worked!! YAY! I also noticed I need a bit more of a drop hitch to get my trailer sitting more level. But it was good enough to get us the short ride to C.
Tillie was a bit skeptical to load on this trailer as its a bit narrower then the others we have been in lately. She just sort of hesitated once on the ramp, sniffed around to make sure all was fine and then loaded on. I really need to make a point to teach her to self load...she close, but not quite there yet.
You can see how not level my trailer is here.
Once there, Tillie was a cool calm customer. I think shes starting to get this all down and taking it in stride. C had to go turn out and bring horses in so we had 15 minutes to play in the indoor on our own and I really wish I had gotten a photo...but I had left my phone in the truck knowing I was by myself for this lesson and didnt have my trusty friends this time to get video.
As soon as I picked up rein contact she started trying to root. She tends to go in phases with this it seems...she'll try to do it to evade, realize it doesnt work and it will go away for a while, but it always surfaces again. It irritates me to no end because she'll do it especially when I allow for the free walk or try for stretchy trot which Ill touch on a bit later in this post.
Tillie says its all good as long as I have hay
So after some additional warm up when C returned, we touched on me trying to open and close my elbows more in trot since Tillie now is consistent enough in the bridle, I have to work on being more quiet with my arms and not lock my elbows. It felt a bit ridiculous, but C had me look in the mirror and it was totally normal. LOL funny how that works.
Her right lead canter was on point, left lead she felt a bit down hill and falling in a bit. C wasnt too concerned and decided to have us try running through a few training level tests for an upcoming dressage show in Jan. we would like to attend.
We talked about the differences of test riding - corners vs circles and since Tillie does corners so well, to show them off when not riding the circle portions.
So then went through 2 different ones to see which worked better for us. We went through USDF Training level test 2 first and it worked quite well for us. There is a lot going on in this test, but C liked it because there was a lot of time to allow for preparation for each movement. I liked it because there were a lot of circles, changing rein etc which means I can ride Tillie more forward and start showing off her trot and canter without her building too much.
The stretchy trot and free walk each time she tried rooting which C gave me tips to correct, but said not to over stress it since she thinks its her learning to likes opening her throat latch, albeit rude...yes correct it but by pushing forward not using rein.
C was so excited about her right lead canter and remarked "it is on fire today!" haha. Left lead wasnt as sharp but definitely started feeling better and more balanced by the end of this test.
So then we moved on to try USDF Training level test 1 which C was concerned would invite Tillie to build with the canter being somewhat on a straight line and the transitions happening right in front of the judge.
Shockingly, she did the test quite well and by riding into the corners helped half halt her quite well. We both agree though, test 2 would be the better choice and we would try test 3 next lesson before we go.
All done! Isnt she just the cutest!
I ended up staying for a bit after to watch C ride her new 3 almost 4 yr old baby and it was lovely!
Unfortunately, the weather isnt looking too promising this week, so not sure how many new updates Ill have :(
Yesterday was another "P" lesson and boy was it cold. We have been really spoiled lately with this warmer winter so far...but Friday brought in a cold front and it was cold and windy. I did ride Tillie Friday night and lets just say something was in the air. She was in a mood tacking up and just was making all sorts of faces even when grooming her. First getting on she felt cold backed and coiled up and just so braced everywhere I knew I needed to slowly work though each area to try to unlock her.
She always has tense days here and there, but this tension was through her whole body back before I started her on Depo and before really digging into dressage lessons with C. She was also insanely spooky which is not normal. The kind of spooking where she would go full on giraffe mode and then bolt a few steps. I realized at this point I have been a bad mom and have not been consistent with the Depo.
Despite this, she started figuring things out and I consider that a win since in the past it would not have improved. We did some canter poles which she really wanted to brace through and ended the night with walk trot walk transitions.
On to yesterdays lesson...it was another cold day and I have the best barn friends ever because I had some things to take care of in the morning and didnt think I would be able to make it to the lesson since I knew I wouldnt have enough time to load up Tillie. Well my wonderful friends did it all for me! I met them there and I was delightfully surprised to open the trailer door to this:
NOTE: Her front boots are on the wrong feet...my friend has never done shipping boots and got a bit confused! oops!
Tillie in her BOT blanket and shipping boots that apparently are my Christmas present! I think it makes Tillie look quite smashing if I may say so.
She was a bit spooky at first too, but at least wasnt jumpy or anything. Mostly looking around more then usual. Once I was on, she hacked up to the ring just fine! Yay for progress there! I could feel her in warm up trying to trick me into riding off my hands by scooting forward when I added leg, but would duck behind or above contact in the process. So really just not connecting.
P sorta coached me through some of that by telling me to just stay consistent, half halt and give back since I have the tendency when she does this to try to find contact by pulling (BAD BAD BAD!!) She also shortened my stirrups ALOT which seemed to do the trick - her theory being if they are too long and youre reaching, you arent moving with them which causes this issue.
I also started trying to not fuss with her as much and just ignore it by staying consistent in my rhythm and let the jumps sort some of her tension out...she loves it so knew she would settle in (Crazy i can say things like that now!!)
Here is some video from the lesson:
P really had me concentrating more on keeping my elbows in as I like to flap them like wings over fences...and also work more on my release. We talked about the auto crest release and working towards being able to be comfortable enough to put my hands lower on her neck since I tend to let them float which sometimes results in me catching her in the mouth.
See forward hands!! Tillie's face here is awesome...she says I GOT THIS.
We started off with a centerline grid to warm up slowly adding more and more jumps. It turned into a bounce to a wide low oxer working on compressing and expanding.
Building off this line, it turned into two bounces to the low wide oxer which could be a 2 or 3 stride. P recommended sticking with the 3 until we sorted some of our tension issues out.
Then we did the one stride grid line set to about 18" - Tillie really hit her groove here and this is where we talked about releasing more.
The grid went up in height and ran through it then...Tillie made it feel easy :)
Then we did the oxer grid. Same thing, Tillie just was spot on.
Then we did the whole exercise together except we came in the centerline grid the opposite way to make sure they were paying attention - I messed up here and Tillie sailed through the rest of the line no problem but was sure to tell me I was wrong after the fact (unfortunately the sass was not caught on video)
My face after messing up...laughing, Tillie staying focused.
P did make me run through that line on more time and we called it a day. All in all it was another confidence boosting lesson. The more repetition I get over fences the less I tense and the more I can start playing with trusting myself and Tillie enough to work on some other things.
The horses were great after the lesson and just too cute all matching.
Tillie and I had our third lesson with trainer P Saturday and it was a lesson filled with many things that have flooded my brain to process. So this will be my best attempt at processing...
Hey uphill trot...where have you been all my life
Tillie hacked out to the ring this time like an old pro. No jigging or dancing around at all even with a giant group in the ring doing some fun Christmas thing. It was utter chaos with bows, bells, shiny garlands and christmas decor on ponies that were running around, jumping etc.
Tillie took it all in just fine until they started to leave and a neighbor was driving around a remote car in the field next to the ring. This to Tillie was just the scariest thing ever. So our warm up was a bit tense with some pretty hard spooks I am not used to riding. P just consoled me and said act like no big deal and dont make a fight out of it.
Isnt she just so cute?
Left bend struggles:
She felt a bit flat at the trot and not very supple, especially to the left...I hate to say heavy because she really wasnt but she felt a bit like a lug. Usually I can have her like a rubber band and she just feels easy to manipulate.
I struggle with her left bend because she'll start to bend at her neck not the poll or her whole body and then throw her right outside shoulder off the path so shes no longer straight, but she isnt properly using her body either.
Homework: P prescribed homework of lots of transitions, getting her straight in the warm up, lots of turn on haunches and/or turn on the forehand and some other lateral movements in the walk to really be sure I can move all parts of her body.
Finishing the flat warm up: Usually when she trots around like a lug her canter is a mess and she bogs down on me, but for whatever reason her canter was just lovely! Because of Tillie's tendencies to get flat and recent XC outings, I have asked P about bit options (and have been toying with them for a while) and she suggested trying a Pelham.
P had me switch bits to try the pelham with bit converters on it so it would be a softer adjustment for both myself and Tillie and I wouldnt have to worry about two sets of reins just yet:
I went back out and did a quick w/t/c set both directions with it on to see what Tillie thought. Right away P reminded me to just ride softer and the amazing thing was, I felt like I could. I barely needed to touch the reins and Tillie seemed much happier to respond off my seat half halt after she felt the bit a bit more.
So on to jumping we went.
The first warm up fence was just a trot in to a vertical to see how this bit would go. I really had to focus on soft hands and letting her take the reins with this bit so our rhythm up to the fence did change a bit, which P didnt seem to mind:
P then sent us through the same grid as last week, again really having me focus on leaving her alone and staying out of her way through the grid.
Some the other horses in our lesson were having drifting problems (which we had our first lesson with P lol) so she set the grid with a ton more poles to help promote straightness. The conversation here got missed, but I believe the landing here is where P discussed with me about owning Tillies outside shoulder and getting her straighter to balance her when circling. We will see more of this issue in a later video.
After that it was on to warming up over some other fences before we would do the whole the course. This moment, by far, was the shining moment for me in this lesson. I got the hugest adrenaline rush from this one fence because we both just felt so in tune and like we really nailed it.
P had us keep going to come right back and do the whole line. It could be a 4 but we did it in a 5, but what was nice it was a fairly even 5.
We took a bit of a moment here to talk about what was good and bad and the course we would be doing. I LOVED hearing from P that I was doing a better job releasing and letting her stretch, so Tillie was jumping better because of it. WOOO!!
Stretch Tillie Stretch!
So on to trying the entire thing, and while some of it was nice, others were not. The grid was fine and quiet, but really apparent that I am collapsing my right side and dropping left which is why Tillie isnt landing on the left lead even though we discussed trying to do this in the lesson.
Uh...rogue right hand apparently goes along with that.
But Tillie lands and does a change for me, but we lose the outside shoulder again like I mentioned earlier, so decided to circle before attempting the next part of the course. Basically I need to use more right thigh!!!
The line rode fine in a 4!! It felt like we came in a bit long and I think you can hear me sort of squeal in surprise, but it was fine and we rode out fine.
WEEEEEEEEE!!!
Then came time to use the half halt and I tend to be a bit dormant and not quick enough / dont get the timing right which makes us biff the next fence. Plus side is Tillie rode out of it like ok so what...whats next?
The outside line rode very nicely again for us and that was that!
So of course P had us try again...and some things got better while others regressed. At this point I could tell Tillie was tired from the last two days of lessons as she was a bit more backed off to fences then usual this last go. P had me think HALT after the grid portion to better balance her for the first line which got us a much better approach.
Just because this fence and line worked out so nicely each time for us.
Unfortunately the striding to the second fence didnt really work out BUT we landed and Tillie wanted to build, I was able to use a clearer half halt to get a nice ride to the oddly angled fence. This moment is when I fell in love with the pelham because I half halted fairly lightly, but could give it back! And Tillie listened! WOOOO!!
Then we ended with the final line again which we came in a bit tight so Tillie sorta questioned the last fence (you can see her sorta dodge left right before).
All in all it was another good solid lesson and another page in Tillie's book for learning. I am desperate to get back to C for a long overdue dressage lesson to get our trot back on track, back the fact her trot is now erring on the side of flat and slow is a step in the right direction from the rushed million miles an hour trot.
Tillie got a much deserved day off Sunday...which good thing, because mare came in not 100% for breakfast and really only picked at her food. Luckily, she seemed fine otherwise and was eating hay, pooing and peeing, drinking, normal gums and temp so we just kept a close eye on her and she seemed to work out of it. Nothing like stressing mommy out after a few good rides!
Friday was my last lesson of the season with my trainer D since the migration to Aiken for the local eventers has started. It was a challenging one, but really appropriate one to leave us with since the lesson left many things to be desired but also many things to appreciate.
See you next season! Hopefully 2016 will be just as awesome for growth, but maybe a little less painful...
Our lesson was all about grids. Grids are so wonderful for so many reasons from educating the horse, to fixing rider form, to confidence issues...but it also happens to feel like a human blender. So I am really happy Emma made it out to help video because it certainly appeared better then it felt.
We spent very little time discussing flatwork this time (Hopefully that means it was just that much better?!) but D did have us work a bit at the canter to get her more through and scolded me a bit for letting my inside rein go before she really gives. So basically the idea is correct, but I need to work on feeling it better otherwise it doesnt achieve anything.
Well duh...
So we warmed up over a part of the grid to start and Tillie did not understand bounces and that adding an extra stride means its no longer a bounce. But we finally figured it out.
Then the fun part and D goes, well ok now the whole thing...
It just was a blooper shoot from the first fence and for the first time really messing up in a D lesson, rather then getting too much in my head about it, I laughed it off.
Thank god Tillie kept her head up and acted as an air bag...
Sometimes all you can do is laugh.
I was prepared the next time through though and, while it wasnt perfect, we completed the entire grid without wobbling, teetering or having airbags deploy.
So we came through again to try to smooth things out:
You can tell by now Tillie is starting to understand the exercise and starts to carry herself through more without needing me to push for forward. While I can sit here and rip my own equitation to shreds, I will not and just console myself with it will get better the more I do these grids.
So D then put the oxer up and widened it finally adding a pole diagonally across which to me seemed to read more like a table or xc fence. I have seen him use this before at home jump schooling, so was neat to see it put to use here.
Then we changed direction and came through the entire thing the other way towards the gate "home" so I knew she would be more willing to move forward through the exercise. Can we also just pause here to take a minute to laugh at that statement...wanting more forward from my horse, who normally, is tearing the reins from my hands because she doesnt want to slow down.
Anyway, here is the first attempt the new direction:
At one point we really missed the distance coming in and it involved some hairy moments...it wasnt caught on video sadly, but Emma commented on how I let the reins slip out, sat taller and let Tillie ride out the exercise to figure it out. Basically I rode less and did everything D is begging me to do every other time haha. Hey at least its in there!
So we came through at the trot one more time where she caught one fence pretty hard with her hind legs...but at this point she was pretty sweaty with how abnormally hot it was so didnt fault her too hard there...and because her trot right before this time through looked fancy as all get out.
To be sure she really understood, D had us try it at the canter so here is the first attempt where we had a nice forward canter but because D had me "let go" of my reins earlier, I could feel myself tense and you can see Tillie went through this much quicker then some of the other attempts:
So of course we had to do it again with the same energy just a bit more relaxed which has to be one of my more favorite "win" moments captured from this lesson.
At this point you can see Tillie getting a bit flatter over the fences as she was getting pretty tired...she wasnt blowing or anything, but as I mentioned earlier, it was really warm out so she was hot and sweaty. She hasnt had any issues sweating with her winter coat until this lesson so I havent clipped her, but will watch that with the next few days and see if it continues when the weather gets cold in the next few days.
But in true D fashion, it isnt over until you do it right both ways or off both canter leads so he had us go through one more time off the right lead canter. I was really trying hard to nail it the first time through for Tillie's sake, and I am so glad we did!
So all in all it was a positive learning experience...some interesting moments and some pretty glaring form issues on my part, BUT I had a controlled horse that didnt lose it even though she started off a bit heavy on me. In the past when she gets like that we would have lessons where I would want to cry every time D would want to send us back through lol.
So big hugs to Tillie :) And she got started on her ulcer treatment today so should hopefully get her bit less grumpy about tacking up.
