Moore July Lessons

July 13th.
I had a group flat lesson with Brooke and her horse Boo. We started off in the outdoor sand arena that is fenced in and that we usually ride in. In here Carino was very relaxed and quite lazy. When Erin came out to teach she had us ride in the grass field that had dressage letters set up for a large arena since Erin had to practice her test for her one star. This arena had no fence or chain and was in the middle of the xc field. This got Carino a little tense and spooky. Te beginning of the lesson was a struggle. The true connection just wasn't there. However, after we did some leg yield work like leg yield to the center line then back, then leg yield across the whole diagonal and then leg yield three strides one way straighten leg yield three strides the other way.. I finally had a horse underneath me. We then went to the canter work and Carino was very up hill because of the leg yields. But when we began to leg yield in on the circle at the canter it showed how difficult muscle wise it was for him and also how tired he was. Despite the rocky start the lesson ended great and was productive.

July 22nd.
I had a group lesson with Jenn. We did a little warm up on the flat in the big sand outdoor ring but all the stadium jumps were set up in a way where you couldn't even do a 20 meter circle..so it was very difficult to get a nice dressage canter out of him when all Carino thought about was the jumps. When we did start jumping Carino was real jazzed up. We trotted the first fence a few times at 2' and 2'6 just to try to get him relaxed. He became more relaxed but once we started courses he became jazzed again. He was very bold and game but way to energetic. I had to really get him back not just with my body but with a good deal of rein since he would jump a fence and then drop his front end and try to buck out of pure excitement. He was just a little to quick and revved up ..which is good since he now has the confidence but our next step is relaxation. Towards the end he was pulling rails which is VERY unlike him because but shows he got too confident with the jumping. But it was a good lesson because Erin and I saw his confidence and I learned to handle this energy and we now know our plan of action=relaxation.

July 27th
I had a flat group lesson with Sam. We rode in the indoor because it was so hot and we haven't had rain so all the sand arenas are dust bowls. We warmed up outside and Carino was perfect and when we went inside he was still great. This lesson was really one of our best dressage lessons. The true connection stayed consistent with him really pushing from behind and relaxing his top line. We worked on leg yields which he was great at. We did lengthening and collecting and a lot of sitting trot. All this the best we have ever done. We then worked on our canter down transitions since the hind end falls out and Carino slams on the brakes instead of bringing the hind end underneath him. We had some very nice transitions but it still needs to become more consistent. It was such a great lesson and I think this will began to raise the bar for him and I