Dressagin'

I had some really wonderful dressage rides with Gatsby last weekend. I have only been able to ride on weekends lately which has been a major bummer but when our rides are great I don't mind so much:)

Saturday he went straight into a stretchy trot after our walk work which completely surprised me, he NEVER does that! We did two sets of stretching trot and then some light dressage work. He had one nutso moment when the golf cart came by but over all really well-behaved. Even stood quietly while I chatted with a friend! Super pony!!!

Sunday was even better. We did our walk work and a bit of stretching and went straight to work. At first he was a bit resistant to working and spooking at every little thing so I had to put my big girl pants on and make him work. He is a very funny horse to ride because 50% of the time I need to give him a very sensitive ride or else he gets all flustered and won't do anything I ask but then the other 50% of the time he responds really well to a more forceful ride. Sunday was definitely the latter. I decided to throw my position to the dogs and just get him to do some nice work. I had my outside hand low and to the side and my inside elevated and slightly across his neck and some serious LEG ON! And what do you know, he responded amazingly! We ended our ride with some, if not the best trot work I have ever done on him!!!! He definitely seems to be coming back from his injury stronger which is super exciting.

After that hard workout he got some liniment rubs and ice boots and lots of treats and kisses.

It is scheduled to rain this weekend so my plan was to ride Tues/Weds in the morning but I somehow tweaked my neck and now cannot turn my head to the right so I figured probably safest not to ride. Hoping it stays dry for at least long enough for me to do some hacks this weekend.