I have no lesson video this week. I had a conversation about the video Belinda had taken in my lesson. The conversation went like this.
Belinda:”You won’t like your video. But there were good moments in between. “
Me: “But you didn’t get those moments, the good moments, on the video?”
Belinda: “No , I didn’t, but what was good was that you were able to fix what was wrong in five meters and you used to take about twenty meters. .
So that is what I have to focus on. I could fix what was wrong in just five meters.
I tell you all this just so you know that my progress in dressage is not exponentially upwards. Sometimes I feel like I am going several steps backwards. This lesson was one of those. I had decided that I needed to have my lesson in the outdoor arena as it is the prescribed size for dressage tests: 20m by 60m. Also I needed to ride some test patterns. Why? It’s all very well to ride and have Biasini in the perfect frame and carrying that through all three gaits while going around the outside of the arena or in large circles. But riding test patterns is another matter.
So….I was right I do need to do more work on riding test patterns. I do need to ride when the weather permits in the outdoor 20×60 because that size exerts a discipline.
What were the good moments? The half pass in trot was one. I can now add more hindquarters or less as needed. I can ask for more trot or less as needed .
Let’s face it, this may not have been the worst riding nor was it the best but something was learned and that is what it’s all about . Isn’t it.
And that is why there is no lesson video this week. The photo below was taken by Susan Stickle at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival in March 2018. The day before I had a ghastly ride and was not happy at all with it. Then, on the day this photo was taken, I came determined to do better. And we did do better.
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