This weekend was great as my horsey bestie Katie came to visit from Essex and she hadn’t ridden since the last time she has visited which was the end of May beginning of June? Either way we managed to get Jack for three days worth of riding which was very exciting, she had even signed herself up to Dressage4All in the hope of getting a test done so we could compete against each other on Jack!

So on Friday the weather had been a little all over the place and I was half expecting for us to be soaking wet when riding this evening, thankfully the weather held out for us and we were able to get most of our session in before it started to pour. Jack seemed to remember Katie from last time and did not seem impressed, I then got on to try and warm him up but we had forgotten to bring a whip which made it hard to get Jack to stop pretending he was old and lazy and show us the energy he really has! I used the reins as a whip to get him going but after about 20 minutes I was pooped! Although I hadn’t ridden for a while and I had done was hack I managed to make myself saddle sore, but decided again to work on my sitting trot to strengthen my thigh muscles and engage with the seat. This being the second time I had properly tried it it was easier, and I felt more comfortable in the seat and not as though I was going to fall off! Then Katie got on and began to work him a little more as I had only done trot on him really, Jack was then rather cheeky and began to buck in the canter, so she did lots of circles and transitions to keep him energetic.

Then on Saturday we learned the prelim 2 dressage test as that was the next competition for Dressage4All. Katie warmed him up today which was a bit of a struggle as given that we did bring a whip this time he still began to buck whenever you used it. However the threat of the whip and it being there seemed enough to give Jack that extra energy boost that I needed on Friday. Then Katie began to work her way through the test whilst I stood and filmed. It was a bit of a role reversal as I have never filmed for anyone before, usually they are filming for me! Watching Katie go through the test Jack seemed to lack power and she really had to push him to get into the canter. After the free walk movement he didn’t really seem interested in carrying on doing any more work, so when Katie asked for canter he bucked and then dropped back into trot halfway around the circle. It was so annoying as they were only a few moments away from finishing the test, but that is the beauty of online dressage as you can film your test as many times as you like before picking the one to submit! So Katie gave him a whirl round in the canter to prove he could keep it, then we began filming the test again. He seemed much better on this second go around and he extended his neck long and low in the free walk which always increases marks. Then coming to the same canter movement Jack bucked again and again dropped the canter, Katie managed to get him back into canter again but he carried on dropping it after a few strides. It was clear that today just wasn’t Jack’s day for a dressage test, and although we were in the mood for one he certainly wasn’t. After this it was clear he was just going to get worse and worse if we carried on trying to keep filming and get him through, for even if we did it would not be a high scoring test. After this I got on and simply carried on with my no stirrup work. I was pretty saddle sore after yesterday but found that after my muscles had warmed up I was feeling better, although Jack’s saddle isn’t very comfortable and my seat bones were killing! I then began to work his head a little bit seeing as I was confident in my seat, but Jack was super worn out already so we decided to give walk him around for a while whilst I did some leg exercises.

Monday was a really really hot day. I didn’t fully notice it seeing as it was quite windy but it wasn’t a cool wind. We shared the arena with a girl from the yard called Emma on her horse Carling, who was looking much prettier than Jack. I think Jack was just off from the start seeing as it was so humid, I trotted him around and began to try and work him and get him going forward without the whip using lots of changes of direction and transitions. I found that he starts the transition with plenty of energy but then his problem is maintaining that energy throughout the gait. He was puffing quite badly after we had trotted around a little and some some small canter circles, he was also really hard to get into canter as he really didn’t want to do it. With this I decided to take it up a notch with my no stirrup work and increased his trotting speed and gave it a go in the canter. I was a bit wobbly at first but it was easy enough to get in the correct position, the only tricky bit was going back to trot as that was pretty sore! Then Katie did some lighter work on him as there was no chance we were doing the test today which was a shame, but it really was too hot and he had worked hard given the heat. Katie also showed me how to encourage the horse to lengthen his neck and work over the back, for instead of placing the head in the position of the outline and keep it there, by keeping the neck as long as possible this is more difficult for them to maintain yet produces great results and could be pretty handy for the full neck extension wanted in free walk.

With these past couple of riding sessions I have decided to try and ride Jack more than I have been doing for the rest of the summer and to work on my no stirrup work. Given this, by the time it gets to September I shall be a pro in getting the correct riding position and my muscles shall be stronger making me a better rider. Working on myself then doesn’t add the pressure of making sure Jack looks perfect for the test every time, however as I increase my confidence and stability in the seat, I can then begin to focus on other things than not falling off from bouncing around!