Bel Joeor

First things first: turned in my show entry for the barn's schooling show last night. Beginner Novice A and 2'0" jumps. Talked to T. last night and he said I should be concentrating on building from positive right now instead of challenging myself, which settled the decision in favor of 2' instead if 2'6". Which made sense to me, so: easier jumps it is!

Warmed up, and Tris was a bit snarky in the walk work, but settled into some really lovely trot. We worked on introducing even more roundness and collection, reallytruly getting him on the outside rein. Mixed success on that one; I still have a tendency to hang on the inside rein when Tris does his brick wall impression.

In the canter, my lower leg was MUCH better than it was in Sunday's jump clinic, so huzzah for that. (At least in the beginning of the lesson.) Consequently our canters were much better.

We ran the test, which went better than I had expected. I am falling into a tendency to wait on transitions until the exact right moment: there's something to be said for the requirements of nailing a transition at a letter, come hell or high water. I really quite like the test; it's a good one for Tris. Lots of kick-kick-kick and settle in, just truck along. It rewards good geometry and a workmanlike attitude, which is pretty much my niche. Tris, though dearly beloved, is not a horse to show really brilliant moments in dressage tests. He's much better at consistency and evenness.

T. mostly liked the test too, had a few pointers: I wasn't quite as accurate as I should have been, Tris's free walk didn't really click in until the second half, and my circles were a bit lopsided in the open part of the ring. But not bad at all other than that.

We walked for a bit after the test and Tris did NOT want to pick up and work again. We need to break a bit the pattern of warmup - walk - work - done. He's not amused when he gets two breaks, and usually the second work isn't great at all. It's important for both fitness and training though that he learn that he CAN and SHOULD come back on the bit even if he's a bit tired and has decided he's done.

I worked mostly on canter transitions, especially the trot 20m, canter 20m, down the long side piece that's in the test. Just a few minutes in holding the right lead canter got ugly, and I kept pushing him HARD, got a little more pissed off than I should've, but was still progressing, not regressing, even breaking multiple times. Once he gave me his neck and stretched out, I brought him back and we had a power trot on a long rein around a few times. Et voila.