Just Can't Dressage.

I'd like to say I've been working hard on what C told me to practise following our lesson on Friday, but I haven't. I did, however, clean my bridles so I'll pick up brownie points there.

I rode Oscar around the racecourse block bareback with E and her pony on Saturday, which was lovely, and then tried to continue with the flexion and straightness stuff on Monday but with little success. 

Maybe it's the fact that I'm trying to un-potato myself in the saddle, whilst simultaneously trying to teach both me and my horse how to execute all this fancy flexion stuff on a circle. Most everything we learn is a first for the both of us, since Oscar was fresh broke when I bought him and I was just a happy hacker growing up as a child. I didn't do the pony club thing or lessons until I was 17 so feel like I'm a bit behind all my friends in that regard, but the main issue is that I just can't do two things at once.. or so it seems. 

Our one and only 'proper' ride following the lesson was just a bit of a fight between Oscar and I. 

It was raining and there were horses running around in the big turnout paddock besides the arena. Oscar was distracted by them and I was too, with one half of me trying to figure out what my rogue left side was doing and the other half trying to get Oscar to just show some submission goddammit. Why must you always look at #allofthethings?! He did eventually soften, and I was feeling like my left hip was crunching a bit and had a bit of tightness in my left shoulder, so there was something productive coming out of the ride. 

Aside from the obvious distractions, Oscar just seemed to find the exercises a little more difficult that day. He usually just flicks up his nose to snatch the reins when he struggles, but this time he was genuinely trying to say no and would suck right back behind my leg, and shuffle along that way.  

Usually we're on a 3-weekly lesson cycle with C, but she's house-sitting closer to the stables and I'm on holidays so I thought I'd make the most of it and book in weekly. Whilst the 3 week thing usually works really well for me - giving me plenty of time to work on what we've been learning - I'm grateful that we'll be seeing her again so soon. Following a lesson I always feel like I know exactly what I need to be doing, but this new suck-behind-the-leg party trick of Oscar's is out of character and more than likely the way I'm asking him to do things is messy and confusing for him. So we can't really practise what we learnt last time.

I haven't schooled since that ride. Oscar's had a couple days off, most in part due to the weather. 

We've had a lot of rain. The ground is wet. 

Proof:

 L would be hella pissed if he knew I blogged that. He was waving furiously at me from the driver's seat as I took this photo, mouthing something along the lines of "Stop it! Rangers don't get stuck!"
But you can actually see surface water on the grass so I can't understand why he drove into it in the first place, ha.

We had to get the other grazer to tow us out backwards from the driveway, and again it made me realise how great it is to have an arena. Just last year I'd have to be riding on that ground, slipping and sliding all over the show.

Even though it feels like we haven't made much progress this past week, I do need to remember that we are crawling along at some pace, and especially when I consider what we were doing the past four winters (i.e.. nothing, thanks to the grounds!) then we are definitely still making progress. It's just not always in leaps and bounds as I'd like.