Changes

Due to a combination of events, which I am not going to get into here, I have given notice at my current boarding situation and am waiting for the end of the month to move to a new boarding facility. In the meantime, we hauled over to the new place yesterday to take a lesson with Amanda.

Ashke seemed excited and intrigued by the new barn and although he hollered a couple of times, he was actually more relaxed and less spooky than he is in his current arena. The new place is. HUGE. We did the lesson in the last 1/4 of the arena and it was still a larger space than where we are now. The best thing about the new place is that there is a trail to explore at the end of the drive way.

Anyway, J was with me and took a couple of videos.

Canter Half Pass

You can hear Amanda talking to me via her headset

What you can’t hear is my responses

Stepping up and under with the right hind still isn’t as smooth as it could be, but we are getting there

Working on movements from the test

We are going to use my cones and a couple of poles to set a dressage court up, so I can really practice the movements within the confines of the court

The other direction is harder for him

His medium trot is getting better

I didn’t get it on video, but we finished up with the medium canter to collected canter circles. He is really showing a difference in the two gaits, which we have been working on. I have to ride it really well, but we are doing so much better in my opinion. That was one of the areas where we lost points in the show.  If we can improve from a four to a six or six and a half, that should push us into the lower sixties for our dressage score.

After our ride, we turned Ashke and Kat out into the small turnout paddock for fifteen minutes. This small paddock is attached to a ten acre field that at some point we will use, but L and I didn’t want to spend our afternoon chasing horses around the large field in the rain.

Relaxed