New tail coat
My test didn’t go as well as I had hoped for this past Friday. Vitall felt great in the warm-up, everything felt really good, he was soft and supple and all the exercises were going smoothly. But as I rode down centre line, I could feel him just freeze up. He continued being tense and frozen for the entire test. We all have our good and bad days – horses are just like people. I was disappointed, but it happens. That’s the fun part of showing and we all know it’s the facts of dressage! It’s up and it’s down. But never mind, we have come up with a new plan.
Anky has planned that Vitall and I, along with another student whose horse does the same, will all ride the test two times a week. Wednesdays and Saturdays are our new mock show days. At the moment, at the jumping stable behind our stables, they have a dressage ring set up, so the plan is we warm-up at home, walk over and go into the ring. This way, we have the feeling its’ a “show”. I’m going to be braiding him and dressing up – the entire works! Fingers crossed this helps get rid of the Jitter Bugs! On another note, I wore my new tail coat which I love! The colors are a bit different and they match Vitall’s colouring.
We have also sprung into winter already here 🙁 No more summer. The horses already have light sheets on and I even wore my winter jacket the other morning. I hope this doesn’t mean we are in for a cold winter! The only bonus of winter is the new Anky winter collection has great colours, so I can sport some new jackets.The sample sale is coming up next week!
Other than riding, I have stepped up my own personal training at the gym with my trainer. I’m feeling really great from it – much more balanced through my body and we work a lot on coordination and neuromuscular responses. This helping me a lot with riding. I’m noticing I’m becoming quicker in my aids and not so tight through my body. The best advice I can give if you want to feel more balanced and coordinated and overall feeling good about yourself is or hit the gym! Or if you’re not a gym person, go for pilates!
