Show prep and a lesson scheduled. Yes, a LESSON!

With our show on Sunday, it is crunch time to get Mia in tip top shape.  As well as me.  Sunday we rode in dressage and the ride actually went very well until the end.  I worked on getting Mia stretched DOWN in the bridle and it was a pretty good success.  Her walk/trot went quite nicely and the canter started off well before going downhill.  She reverted to her super heavy pulling on the reins, not listening to my leg and being a giraffe.  Ugh.  It required several stop/pull back sessions as well as lots of transitions to get her off of my damn hands.

GET OFF OF MY HANDS!!!  Mia says NO!!

She can go from butter soft to carrying 20lbs in my hands and it is so frustrating.  Especially when I am riding in the snaffle and not the pelham to remind her to get off of my hand.  We were able to end on a good note.  Finally.

Coming nicely!

On Monday we did dressage again and it went better.  Not great, but better.  Except at the end where she saw deer and could not Horse if she was headed straight to them.  At an angle?  Fine.  Away from them?  Fine.  Trot straight in their direction?  Full 4 leg stop and bolt attempts.  SMH.  Not like she lives outside 24x7 and sees deer on a daily basis in the pastures.  While her new stretched trot is coming along nicely, the canter really is where her wheels are falling off the bus at this point.  We had really good walk/trot work before adding in the canter and then it got rough.  Better than Sunday, but still rough.  Thankfully we didn't have any lead swapping nor any gait dropping, so maybe be thankful for the little things?  She has reverted to not being steady in the bridle with this new stretched trot though.  Unfortunately, only time will fix that and we don't have a lot of time before the show.  Baby steps.

Trit trots

We had a jump school the next night and she did well,  I set up a tarp over a 2'6" jump and she didn't bat an eye over it. Woohoo!  She did pretty well at staying collected in the canter over the jumps, which is progress, and the only issue she had was height.  I had 1 vertical at 3'3" and a Swedish oxer at 3' and she kept bringing both of them down despite being set up for them properly.  She kept knocking them with her front, she certainly wasn't jumping high enough over them.  When I would set her back off of the fence, she would MASSIVELY overjump and at one point I was considering the fact I may hit the ground.  Eventually I knocked the vertical to 3' and the Swedish oxer to a 2'6" oxer with a 3'6" spread and was able to go around without knocking anything.  I think I need to bring my tape measure out and lay out some grid work when I work on height.  But for the show, she is ready to go!

Jumps!

Last night I ran late and didn't get to the barn until 715p.  If I didn't have a show I wouldn't have ridden but I did so I grabbed Mia, threw her stuff on and thankfully she was awesome.  I was able to do a short, 25 minute ride without any hysterics or pulling.  Success!  We did a short w/t/c warmup and then rode through the dressage test and called it a night.  Such a difference from the last dressage ride!  For this ride, I can say the only issues to work on are the steadiness in the bridle, keeping her stretched down the entire time and keeping her forward in the canter.  Now if that maintains itself until this weekend, we will be golden.

Some good stuff!

Thankfully I have dressage lesson on Saturday, the first dressage lesson since May 14th.  I want some last minute tune-ups and I want Mia to be worked pretty hard so that Sunday she will be picture perfect.  I am surprisingly unstressed about this show, an oddity for me.  Hopefully I don't suddenly get stressed over it, but I am not chasing points and I am not able to prepare any better than I have considering the circumstances I have been given.  Keep your fingers crossed, show on Sunday!

If we can get this for the show, we are golden!