Fun Lesson With Cheryl

I had a fun lesson with Cheryl this morning. Hmmm, or maybe I should say we had fun drinking coffee and Baileys AFTER the lesson :) We had a great gab about dressage - lots of laughs.

The lesson went well. Rogo was taking a better contact this morning and bending better than he has in a while. Also, it really helped to see all the riding at the show on the weekend. I know what I have to do as far as getting him bending, but to see some of the riders doing it well and to be immersed in riding culture all weekend makes it sink in more. 

Rogo's best work this morning was at the canter - he did a great canter out of a left circle, part way up the long side, then across the diagonal, a few trot steps and right into a right lead canter around the end and down the long side again (it took several attempts to get this though). The long side canters were great - big, lofty strides - I was in heaven! Being my first warm blood, this is very different from the canters I'm used to, but I love it!!! It felt like we were hanging in the air for seconds at a time before touching down for a split second and lifting off again.

He also did a very nice trot after our leg yield schooling. I think the work on leg yielding (he really doesn't get it yet) had him so bored that the chance to go forward was a welcome relief and he went for it.

I'm going to take him in a couple of more walk trot classes this season and start showing at training level next summer. I don't enjoy showing when I don't feel the work is solid, so there's no point trying to fudge a training level this year. I'm happy with getting him acclimatized to show environments, learning a good warm up routine (timing, etc.) and competing in walk trot to get him started.

I have to get Doug his gold license. He wants to do some gold shows as well. Yeah!