From Halt to Salute

Sorry for the hiatus - spring break and the new school quarter made things a little bit hectic again!

Monty has been very good lately, although a little tired I think. There is a supplement called DMG that is supposed to help them recover faster and up their energy a little bit and I think I might give that a try. The research says that it is quite useful in racehorses and eventing, so I can’t see why it couldn’t help our dressage horses recover!

The tempi changes are coming along quite nicely, although I do need to work on the pirouettes more. Rebecca will be here next weekend, and I am very excited to show her our progress and have her help us step up and go big! I am enjoying this journey so much and I’m crossing my fingers that everything goes as planned and that this summer is a success!

I have all the music picked out for my freestyle and I have my choreography done, but now I need to get into a regulation sized arena and video tape my ride. I need to have the video tape so that I can set my music up with my freestyle. Hopefully I will be able to get that done this month so that we can start practicing!

I have also been neglecting something else….introducing the double bridle. This isn’t to say that Monty hasn’t had it on before - he has. He actually goes fairly well in it, the 3 times he has had it in. However, I don’t love it. At all. I love my snaffle with its drop noseband: simple, elegant and clean. And guess what the best part is? Only one set of reins. Having two sets of reins on the double is just a bit disconcerting for me. I actually don’t have a problem using the reins, I just feel like there is so much between me and Monty (which really is a rather silly thought, but I digress) that I have been ignoring the fact that I have to use it in Young Riders. 

Personally? I would love to use a snaffle, although the double does look nice in photos…

I think on Wednesday I will put the double on and hack around and see how it goes, he could use some deep, stretching days anyway! 

Oh, and one last fun fact? On Saturday, for no other reason than I wanted to try, I asked Monty to do some two tempis. And guess what? He did them! I’m not saying they were perfect, but he did them, and he did them on the aids and they were clean. It was all in good fun and I won’t be asking for them again for quite a while, but it was nice to know what he has in there. 

Tip of the day: To try and get your horse connected and your seat bones plugged into them, imagine that your horse’s hind legs are like pistons reaching underneath you in a metronome. The power should come from the impulsion up from the ground, into their hind legs and up through you into their poll. Be the connector and recycle the energy.