After apparently not posting my last post, here are the updates since then. The video hubby shot made me go from a high of "We are doing awesome!" to a low of "How the hell do we suck so badly". I doubled down and decided Mia is fit enough, I am fit enough, we are doing fricken serious dressage work even if it kills us. *note, it did not kill us*
Ugh. Downhill much?!
I thought this felt good. Blah
Not bad, but not good
Last week I had MR (the lady who rides at night, who is the one who fell off) video our dressage. I wanted to see if there was actual improvement. Success! I was left feeling not so much of a train wreck and hopeful of our upcoming show. Hubby was traveling for work for a full week, Fri to Fri and our show was that upcoming Sunday. The plan was serious boot camp and we would be 100% ready for the show. And then the weather stepped in and was all "Oh, you silly people, no, no, no." And then the show changed the date to be April 22nd instead. Blah! More time to prepare I guess?
This is better
Despite the weather being horrible (40's and rain ALL DAY), I almost wish the show had been last weekend because Mia was on FIRE. Our dressage was so good, I can only hope it carries through to this weekend.
This is much better!
Hubby was gone all last week and I have been out to the barn almost every day since. Focusing on SERIOUS dressage work. And guys, I am actually optimistic of our chances at the show now. Like, seriously optimistic! Mia has stepped up to the plate and has agreed to the dressage work. Our canter guys, the uphill is redeveloping and the haunches. Man, those errant haunches. They are staying out!!!!!! Riding shoulder in all of the time is working and it makes me so damn excited of our possibilities.
Our rides lately have actually been rather short, closer to 30 mins, as Mia has been so good. We still have our disagreements, like her insistence that my right leg doesn't have a say in the matter and what not, but it is coming together.
This is 3'6", looking easy
We have also been jumping and Mia has been fabulous about it, I totally think we are ready for our show! When I ride like an educated rider, we meet our distances and jump everything without her even trying hard. Height does not phase her at all OMG.
Our show is on Sunday and our dressage isn't perfect, however I am pretty confident in our ability. I am going to ride with a whip during the test, something I haven't done since I showed App, to help remind Mia to keep her haunches out in the canter but now I need to really, really, really focus and remember to change my whip hand. Blah!
That is a 5ft standard. That Mia's knee is ABOVE.
After our show, we have a short week as I am then packing up and headed to K3DE. I am super excited to go even though everyone I was going with backed out. Hubby and I are going to have a fabulous time and HOPEFULLY have great weather. Is anyone else going to K3DE? Want to meet up??
**edit** I've had this written up for 2 weeks. TWO WEEKS. The issue? Apparently I forgot to hit post. Dumbass here. I have a lot of updates since this too, so stay tuned
----------------------------------------------
I am coming out of these last 2 weeks with some really positive feels. Mia is developing real muscle, I am developing some real muscle, Mia is actually starting to do real dressage again, pole work has gone well, we jumped and App is shedding like crazy. I intended on riding on Monday but when I got to the barn, App was exploding with hair so he got a good long grooming session with the shedding blade. When one touched him afterward, he didn't shoot hair off of his body. Win! Not to say it won't be the same tonight, but at least for 24 hours he wasn't that bad. Ha!
You know that time when you are super excited about a dressage ride and you finally have someone to video you and you know it isn't great but it is better than it has been?! And then you watch the video and cringe? Yeah, that was me. Hubby came out and I threw my phone at him and said "MEDIA!" So he obliged and took some video, so all I have is video screen shots. Because seriously, how are we still this bad? I thought Mia was collecting and loading her hocks. I am sure she is more than she was, but she is so far downhill. I thought she was sitting in her canter and starting to come up, but the video doesn't show it. Blah. Though I am not letting it tear down the positive feels, I think we still have made tremendous progress so we are going to keep working at it.
Mia went on her first trail ride of the spring and she was a rock star. No spooking, no going fast, just was her superstar self and showed the 2 other horses how it was supposed to be done. Ha! It makes me so happy that the wiggly weirdo I started with has become such a solid citizen. I remember barely being able to go down the road because ROCK! STICK!! TREE!! With lots of random transportations that left us 5-10 feet from where we had been moments prior. I think when I finally get out to do some real fitness and cross country, we will really make some serious progress.
Mia and I have been doing cavaletti for a while now, working on striding and my position. I finally had access to some standards and a (single) pole so a small course was set up. A simple set of 3 jumps, 1 stride apart. 2 cavaletti at the ends and the actual jump in the middle. My original intention was to just go to 2'9" and call it a night since we haven't jumped any height since last year. Except Mia wasn't trying. She was a little rushy over the poles and she was cantering over the 2' height of the middle jump. Not even jumping, just putting in a big stride. Alright then.
I bumped it up to 2'6" and she was simply stepping over it. There was no real effort being given, just ho hum, whatever. After doing that a half dozen times, I bumped it up again to 3'. Mia finally started jumping it, but it was so easy. She was jumping like it was a 2'6" jump. Barely putting any effort into it and not loading her hocks before the jump. Dude, like this is a 3' jump. Can we put a little more effort into it?
I have lots of media but need to find time to upload so it may be it's own post. We have a show on the 13th so we are coming down to crunch time!
