Dressage.

Well, it's about time Berky and I started seeing what we had to work with dressage-wise, and today seemed like a good day to figure out his buttons. (The jumping ring flooded again...) We're going a little bit backwards, but oh well.

Started off nice and easy with just some 20m circles. He was definitely testing me out- speeding up at the fenceline, throwing his butt to the side. After he realised we weren't going anywhere until he calmed down, he started working well and tracking straighter. He had some real issues at K because it is closest to the barn, but he worked through it.

I had been trying alternating between the 'key in the ignition' inside rein thing that Jane Savoie advocated and riding with my inside rein out by my hip. It's hard to push him into my outside hand without needing to correct his haunches, which, if I'm not careful, he interprets as a canter cue. Definitely need some refinement there. So basically, today wasn't very pretty.

We did some leg yielding down the long diagonal and an awkward shoulder-in volte and that was about the extent of our challenging stuff.

He worked up a nice sweat, however, and he started reaching into my contact by the time we were finished. Most of the ride was spent in regulated, slow trot work for stamina and to take his mind off the six inch fenceline. I think he had a good workout overall.