Great dressage lesson!

Oh what a great day! These are the days that I think I’m probably selling the horse that I should keep and compete on. I hauled Lola out for a dressage lesson and we had just the best ride ever.

Basically I got from the lesson that I need to stop riding her like a young horse I’m breaking and start riding her like a dressage horse and it will all come together! She is still figuring out what contact is, but as long as I rode her with a light, but persistent, contact, she would eventually relax on to the bit and lift her back. She doesn’t hold it very long, but we’ll get there.

I have been trying to regulate her pace with my body, and the trainer picked up right away on some of my issues in my position that are not helping me or Lola. I need to really use my abs to sit up tall when she starts to take hold of the bit and pull down. I need to keep my lower legs wrapped around her a little more and create the rhythm there, while holding and regulating her from quickening with my seat and posting.

She also worked with me on creating more of a rhythm at the walk. Lola’s walk is nice and forward with a purpose, so now we are trying to keep an engaged walk but slow the tempo down so that she can relax through her back and be able to eventually leg yield and all that! We did some good work on bending to the inside.

We ended with some canter work. We focused on the canter depart and the idea of “lifting” her into the canter from the trot. She did really well. I need some work! ;)

I was totally engrossed in what I was doing at it seems that Lola follow suit because she didn’t even think about looking around out in the pasture of horses by the arena. Just a fantastic feeling.

The trainer also thinks that Lola is a fabulous little mare with a lot of potential for dressage. So she is living up to all that I dreamed she could be when I first saw her scruffy mud covered self living free in a big pasture. Now the question is, do I have the time to get her to that potential?

I’ll think about that later. I’m just going to keep reliving our dreamy trot!