Dressage Day

We've finally had our run of nice weather here - days in the mid to upper 70's. It got a little warm fast, but I'll take it over the gray raw days we've had.

Tim wanted to play soccer this spring, so I convinced Tom and that this was a "boy" thing and that he should be responsible for taking Tim for the next 7 Saturdays (I was NOT going to be schlepping to soccer on Saturdays - I do it all week and am done by the weekends). However, this has given me an opportunity to take Molly to ride without having to drag Tim along so off we went.

Now, I was not riding when I was 8. I didn't start until I was like 11 or 12 and I got my first when I was 14, but I do remember wanting to jump like ALL the time. Fortunately, my trainer (yes, the very one I took Molly to a few weeks ago) was very disciplined with flatwork and made it VERY clear that it was not good for the horse to jump every time I rode - I needed to work on my flatwork more. As I think about it now, it is a lot like to guys who spend their time at the driving range - how many times do you need your driver on a golf course? 18 - and sometimes not even that many (I used to play 75% of my game with a 5 iron). The game of golf is really played in the short game with the irons and putter - The same with riding - if your flatwork is correct, the fences should fall into place.

With flatwork in mind (and an incentive to make it interesting) I decided that Molly should start practicing her dressage tests. Because we are at a Hunter/Jumper barn, there is really no clear flat place to practice tests. Our ring is full of jumps and our indoor now has 2 temp stalls in the middle (making "down center line" and impossibility). I rode my horse on a nice grassy area next to the barn - there is no fencing or boundaries, but for me it's not an issue. I wasn't sure what Treenie would think of this though - she can clearly see her paddock and her "mares". Since this area is adjacent to the parking area, it is raised and has about a 2 foot retaining wall. I did have a little reservation of Treenie just jumping down to the gravel and taking off to the paddock. Molly is really riding well on the flat and taking off never even occurred to Treenie. She did look really good, but I kept telling Molly to keep her bent to the inside so she had to pay attention to Molly and not the mares - that seemed to work.

Walking and trotting turned out to be a non issue and I was glad for Molly to learn that she could ride in yet another place trouble free. I hopped down and got our dressage markers from the truck and set them up. Molly did a few dressage shows last year on my horse - it was VERY cute because it looked like a peanut on an elephant. Unfortunately, she didn't seem to retain much over the winter. So, I had to go over again, all the little "dressage do's and don'ts"

1. Do ride around the outside of the ring until the judge rings the bell

2. Do Not go into the ring until the judge rings the bell

(In an 8 year old mind, these two are mutually exclusive so you MUST say both)

3. Down Center line means "straight" down center line, not meandering left and right.

4. Salute is with your right hand

5. Go into ALL of your corners!

6. ETC

Some things were better than others, and frankly, for the first try this year it wasn't too bad - EXCEPT for the attitude! Miss Molly has never done this on Treenie - Miss Molly had forgotten how to make nice straight lines and even circles but, when I would tell her that a line was too crooked or a circle not correctly shaped and to do it again, she says "NO, it's fine". I was dumbfounded! I NEVER told my trainer "no". (Okay, I did recently, but I'm in my 40's!) It is the first time in a very long time that Know it All Molly has been outright defiant. Needless to say, I made her stop immediately and explained exactly how things work when Mom is paying all the bills. Plus, I'm a dressage rider! I've been riding for over 30 years! I think I know what I'm doing (and when to ask for help!). She wasn't too happy, but finally decided to see thing my way. We ran through the test again and called it a day - she stripped Treenie's saddle and rode her bareback for a while.

So that was our Saturday. My horse is 1/2 leased to a wonderful girl who has great dressage goals this year. I'm hoping that both Molly and Michelle will go to some dressage shows together - watch out for the M & M's!

Oh, and I thought this was really cute - Tim actually asked to ride this week...