A look at the week

My horse will be taking a min-vacation this week. Not because he's lame or anything, but just because of my schedule, my trainer's schedule, and the vet's schedule. Here is the week in a nutshell (warning - heavy on the dressage terminology) -

Monday - I wasn't going to ride, but ended up out at the barn and watching my trainer ride Kaswyn. He needed a little bit of convincing to get in front of her leg and stay there, but other than that he worked well.

Tuesday - We had a great ride. Especially his half-passes at both the trot and canter. I hadn't relaized just how much I had been letting him do more of a half-drag instead of half-pass, but now I'm insisting he takes big, slow, powerful, reaching strides in the half-passes. And I'm getting a great response from him and fantastic results. We also schooled three lines of flying changes, with me insisting that he stay in a slightly-more-than-usual collected canter. He did three perfect lines - 5 changes every 4th stride, then 5 changes every 3rd stride, and again back to 5 changes every 4th stride. They were simply wonderful! To top it all off I did three diagonal lines of medium/extended trot. I've had a bit of an epiphany that I really don't need to pull on my horse's mouth to get the down transition at the end of the diagonal - he's trained enough that I can now just half-halt with my seat only and he sits and collects. I can almost hear him saying "Gee, thanks for finally realizing that you don't have to grab my face every time you want something. I'm very proud of you."

Wednesday - Day off for Kaswyn

Thursday - Was going to be my lesson but the vet got suddenly scheduled to come out and give fall shots. That means both Thursday and Friday are out for serious training.

Friday - My mother-in-law is coming into town, so I won't be going to the barn. I was going to have my trainer school Kaswyn, but becasue of the shots she's just going to get on him and flex his neck and loosen him up. He tends to get big reactions from his shots now, and even with some Banamine he gets sore and swollen in his neck. So at least he'll get out Friday.

Saturday - Day off

Sunday - I'm going to try and get out to ride, but my mother-in-law will be heading home at some point and then Craig has afternoon plans. Hopefully I can get out to ride at some point.

I hate having my horse take so much time off when we are going along so well! I'm making progress, he's making progress, and I have high hopes for showing next year. Just because I'm not writing about it here doesn't mean I'm not thinking about it. And making plans. And getting really really excited.

Cause he feels fantastic.