Labor Day Weekend recap pt 1

On Saturday, we had our lesson with the dressage instructor.  I was actually pretty excited about it (well, not the OMFG that is expensive! part) because the only other time I saw her, it was not long after being in PA and both Mia and I were not actually fit enough for a great lesson.  Mia also still had a long way to go to be okay with accepting the fact she was not retired.  With her now being in full work, and with Mia has been doing very well lately with our stretch down routine, I was excited to hear her opinion.

The lesson went very well.  She was very impressed with how far Mia and I have come in the 3.5 months since we saw her last.  She liked Mia stretching down and said when I was able to keep her there, she did a great job of staying engaged and round.  We worked on getting Mia to lift her withers more by having me sit BACK and really lifting my shoulders up.  And, of course, it did a good job and I could feel a difference.  Sheesh.

We also worked on getting Mia a little more accountable, again, on carrying us and the difference it brought when I asked her to really step under versus when she was toodling along.  The best thing she said though, was that I had college educated legs.  She said my lower legs and thighs are fantastic and are correct and I shouldn't worry about them at all.  YAY!!!  I need to fix my shoulders and back a little to match, since I work at a computer all day, I lean forward to "think" and apparently I do the same in the saddle.  When I am riding, I sit upright.  If I am working on something and am thinking hard while riding, I tend to slouch my shoulders forward.  Boooo.

On Sunday I loaded up and headed out with MC for our show.  It takes almost 2 hours to get there so I had to leave the house at the ripe ol time of 630a.  Overall, not too bad, it could have been worse.  Mia loaded right onto MC's trailer which was nice.  Last weekend she loaded well enough but MC's trailer has a ramp and it had really made Mia pause.

Little bit of sass/inconsistancy.  For honesty.

I immediately walked the XC course when we got there (SHORT COURSE!!) and then helped MC with her horse.  She was doing only dressage and needed some help.  I ended up videoing her first test and then called out her second test before literally running back to the trailer as I had 20 mins before my ride.  Ugh!

Who can start to look uphill in the canter?  Mia?!

Mia was a champ though, she took it all in stride.  We walked to warmup and Mia gave very little fight in the warmup.  She was forward, she was stretching down, but then she started being inconsistent and heavy in the bridle.  She was willing to do everything and did everything well but didn't want to hold contact.

As I came around a bend, I happened to glance at her bridle.  ARGH!  She was wearing the HSS loose ring on instead of her copper mouth eggbutt.  Mia still doesn't like the loose ring and apparently I had used this bridle for App last.  Ugh!  MC offered to grab my jumping bridle but we were on deck and I just said I would suck it up.  I worked as hard as I could on keeping consistency and while the test went quite well, it wasn't as good as I had hoped.

I think we were generous in getting a 33.75, hey schooling shows AMIRITE?!  Mia was quite inconsistent in contact and a little wiggly at times but she stayed stretched down more than half of the time and she listened to my half halts, lifted her withers and didn't swap her canter leads a single time.  Progress indeed!

Roundy round

We put her back at the trailer and I went to find/walk the stadium course and grab something for lunch.  Next up was XC and we had nothing to lose!