Tales from inside the ring...

So on Tues night I got on my pony and she was *spun*. Not bad -- no bucking, no spinning, nothing particularly exciting, just ADD and wanting to run. And as a racehorse, she's reasonably good at that *g*. So she wanted gallop and I wanted trot and we compromised in a nice (read incredibly powerful, but marginally contained) canter. And it was quite an impressive canter, I will give her that :) So we started this shortly after the beginner kid I was riding around got on, and were *still* cantering when her lesson was over and she got off. On the plus side, it turns out both Sienna and I are reasonably fit. On the down side . . . really??? Seriously was that actually necessary? My originally plan of "w/u, jump outdoor course, entire ride done in <40mins" was entirely shot as two HOURS later I had a horse I could actually ride. Sheesh. The strange thing is, she it wasn't like she lost it (as TBs are wont to do) -- I've been there w/ her before and at that point you get off and try again a few hours later cause she won't come down from that. But she never switched off mentally, she just wanted to go. And go. And go.

Anyways so Wed night we have a dr lesson and I'm thinking she'll either be tired but perfect, or lose it entirely. So get there n hop on to warm up and she's perfect. Relaxed, quiet, all good :) Even somewhat connected *g* All good. Start to work, still pretty good. Then try to canter. This was less than successful. *sigh* That whole 3rd gait has been an issue lately and I figure really she had enough of it on Tues *g*. Fortunately for all involved my rather awesome coach has a good sense of when to push and when to back off and changed the subject before both horse and rider had a meltdown. hahaha Even better was that when both brains had been reinstalled she brought it up again for another try -- so it wasn't just give up for the day but repeat it when there's a chance it might actually work.

Comment of the night: "you can't cheat on this horse." hahahaha those of you who knew my DQ superstar pony Zel will understand the difference; those of you who don't know Zel, realize that the average sack of potatoes could take that horse into the dressage ring and still score 8s and 9s. So yes, I've been spoiled. Apparently riding one who can't do it naturally is going to make me a much better rider. This is what I'm going to keep telling myself anyways >;-P

So in the end was it good? Not particularly. Was it better? Absolutely. And the plus -- the trot got way better :) hahaha so we can nail that walk-trot test next month!