Mia's clinic pt 2 (pics!)

The never ending onslaught of busy has temporarily broke. This, in combination with suddenly having 20 (!!!) followers gave me the time and motivation to blog. Thanks so much for reading!!

After a yummy lunch, SO went home and RB4 and I got Mia tacked up. She was much, much calmer and quieter after the dressage lesson. She only bellowed a couple of times which was a significant improvement. Mia did, however, seem really confused when I hopped back on her, wasn't she done?? Oh poor mare, not when you are to be a show pony! We walked around and hopped over some stadium fences to warm up and she was moving well. She didn't strech and GOOOO over the jumps like she did when we came to school so that was an improvement. We were going over the small oxer when I saw the clinician arrive, it's showtime!

No stretch and go?  Alright!

Mia's thinking cap is on!

This clinician just came back from Ocala, apparently she is riding 2* levels. Cool! She also seemed to like Mia and thankfully, Mia didn't seem to want to take off when I cantered her with the other horse. Win! I said I wanted to go over starter and BN jumps but to work up to it and I think the clinician was very accommodating. We started over a small log and then a small bench.

Jump!

Small bench?  No problem!

We made our way around the course and jumped all of the starter jumps without Mia even looking at them. Yay! I pointed to a BN hanging log I wanted to try and while Mia was a bit crooked to it, she jumped it without a problem AND didn't take off on landing.

Awesome!

Natural

We circled around and jumped a starter jump and pointed to a BN coop, I applied leg and over she went, I think she really likes to jump. We jumped several more BN jumps before I pointed her over a novice level bench. Hmm, would she do it? Novice sized? Not only did she jump it, she didn't seem to care that she did it!

We don't care 'bout no ditches!

Canter into water?  No probs!

After the second novice fence we called it a day, Mia was excellent. She rode well with other horses, she didn't freak when the other horse left us, she didn't freak when we left the other horse, she didn't take off, she didn't have a (serious) refusal and she did everything I asked. I am very happy with my mare!!

Banks aren't a problem

Down a bank?  Easy peasy

I was also happy with the cross country instruction, she wants me to sit up and back more and allow myself to be left behind if needed.  She also wants my hands to be wider to help funnel the horse where I want it. Uh, I had been doing that and had JUST changed my tactics, go figure.  While I often feel babysat with H, I felt this was an honest lesson which I really enjoyed.  Enough about Mia though, the next day was for TWH.