So, last night Maggie and I had a lesson. We were outfitted with the running martingale, which is working well, although it got adjusted a bit tighter. Beauty of the running, it only engages when you need it and it doesn't help you actually ride your horse or get it round. It also takes away Maggie's favourite game of throwing her head in the air and doing whatever the hell she really wants to do... always a bonus.

So, we warmed up and then out comes the longe whip. Now we're both pretty used to this, as we did quite a bit of longe work over last winter. Didn't take long for little Maggie to figure out that she actually needed to move her butt... down. And flex those hocks. And oh my gosh, carry herself and really move. Move she did. She was overtracking nicely at the trot and really using herself. There were a couple of 'attitude' moments, but mostly she was just hoofing it like a real dressage horse.

At 17hh, she's fairly long, but her frame shortened as she travelled with more impulsion and lowering her croup. She is quite a nice mover, came right over her back to a nice contact, light and lively. And of course once she got moving, there was less for my trainer to do, encouragement wise. Mags isn't what one would call ... energetic. She's not really sure why we need to work anyway, but this was excellent work and she's come a long way from a horse who would barely scramble herself in a canter down the long side. And holy crap, there's nothing like sitting on 17hh of very powerful warmblood, who is using herself properly!

Since we've been with this trainer at the end of April, she's been slowly putting the pieces in place. Fix the hands. Fix the leg. Fix the seat. Fix the suppling of the hands. Now, fix the forward, and off we go! It was so important to go systematically and not try to fix it all at once. It's a talent unto itself for a trainer to pick the most important thing to fix. Then the next, and the next... Too many can't get to the root and build from there. I am very lucky to have fallen into having this trainer. As they say, 'when the student is ready, the teacher will come'. Thank goodness!