One of the nice things of buying a horse from a friend, is that they have tack that fits the horse that I don't! I borrowed Connie's dressage saddle today for Bud. He's hard to fit; he's pretty wide and has a callous on his left shoulder from years of people getting on from the ground. It's only noticeable when you stand behind him, but it plays havoc with saddle fitting.
He was a little slow to warm up, but was pretty good. We had some decent leg yields and shoulder in. Our canter was ok. It's hard for me to keep my seat in the saddle when cantering, especially in the dressage saddle. I have a bad habit of perching in the cater, and need to remember to sit down and bring my shoulders back. The dressage saddle is great at reminding me of this; you get seriously out of balance if you try to perch in it. We did some trot-canter-trot transitions, working on keeping him in front of my leg in the downward transitions, but not going into a running trot.
My friend texted me today and we have an appointment for Tuesday for Buddy to get his massage. He needs it; he's been a little grumpy when I've tacked up the past few days.
Looking forward to reading more about you and your training. My daughter and I have a Paint, Pippi, and she competes in H/J. Please check out or blogs:
ReplyDeleteipickcrazy.blogspot.com and hard2handle.blogspot.com.