Friday March 12

Conditions After work light enough that I was able to ride outside. Hack before and after ride

Tia Quick ride. She has not been worked outside since october/november. After my hack went to "woodchip" ring where the footing is really good. She settled right into work with rising trot and big figures 20m - 15m circles and 3 loop serpentines with me emphasing the straightness.

Quick walk break then picking up the reins for collected walk and she started to get "squirely" wanting to move haunches in and not listening to the correction. (I'm thinking that the haunches in to prepare for the walk and canter pirouettes that Fran has been having me do in the lessons is contributing to this - its a new issue) i didn't need to do anything smarter than ride the walk rhythm with my seat and wait it out - quietly insisting that she march straight forward. once she was straight. canter transition then canter in both direction and focused on the straightness and the lines that I was riding.

She felt so good that I went right to the changes Left Right - right left - left right- right left. All absolutely perfect. Clean Straight, no change in rhythm or connection. Soft and from my seat. EASY. So I called it a night and went for a hack while it was still light enough out.

I swear Tia sits up in her stall at night thinking about our ride and what to do to make it better - then the next time I get on her - the problem from last session is solved. (maybe she has her own blog) She is such a great horse - I am very very lucky to have her

Caddy another day off. sometimes the work gods/indoor ring gods do not let me ride 2. I am thinking, I may have tried for too much last week, so I'm trying to feel good about giving him the night off.

There is a video on dressageclinic.com about massage and the dressage horse. since the massage session was so successful, I'm going to check this out and see if I can play around with this in a productive way (I am a doctor after all!)