Operation Fitness - Part 1

I wrote the blog post before realizing I had so much to say, I am breaking it into 2 posts. I surprised even myself! So believe it or not,some posts are coming.

Time to do the thing.

As several bloggers live in the northern states can attest, these last 3 months have been fairly brutal to riding. Stretches of time where the temp doesn't get above the single digits, even longer stretches where it isn't above the teens? Constant freeze/snow/fake thaw has put lots of dampers on real riding, but not all was lost. Mia's dressage is better than it has ever been in her life. Really! And it is only March! If we can stay injury free, we should be able to put down some legit scores by the time summer gets here. It is really odd, people (the weirdos anyway) say that when the dressage "clicks", it can actually be kind of fun. I have been riding dressage for *cough* let's say over 10 years and I have never EVER found that it could be fun. Until lately. I wouldn't call it actual "fun", but we are legitimately not dreading our rides when dressage is up. So odd indeed.

Extended trot? Getting there

I am getting desperate for another dressage lesson, it is coming on 4 months since my last lesson and we make such great progress in lessons. Fingers crossed we can get the instructor here in April and I can get a solid tune up. Our homework from before was counter canter (check, we can do this fairly smoothly now in both directions), extended trot (check, Mia is understanding this MUCH better. Bigger does not always equal faster), canter/walk transitions (mostly there, still needs work), and lengthened canter (check, as long as we keep our bouncy canter, we have a difference in stride). All of this in the grips of icy cold? I am awfully damn happy with our progress.

Balanced canter? We have it!

We have even been playing with Training A and B tests. Last year I had them downloaded but they were a fair disaster when ridden. This year? They almost seem easy, I didn't think I'd ever say that! I have looked at the Prelim tests now and am all "NOPE" so I am definitely in the right spot lol. With our dressage in a good spot, I am starting to refocus on jumping. The issues with my barn are....numerous...and one issue is for whatever reason jumps can't stay out for more than a day when in the indoor. Anything more than a single cavalletti brings complaints so I haven't really bothered with serious jumping this winter. Yes, we have done a lot of work over the cavalletti. Yes, we have jumped the cavalletti ad-nauseam again to reinforce staying balanced over/after the jump, but that has been it. This is now changing.

Extended trot!!!

If I want to jump higher than 2'6", I really need to have a solid two point so I can rely on muscle memory and stamina. I have had....neither lol. Enter Operation Fitness, because we need to start jumping!