Poor, poor Buddy

Not only did I ignore him for a couple days while I brought Phoenix back, but then he goes right into show prep for next weekend.  I had a good lesson yesterday, and then today we have a dressage clinic at our barn.  I originally wasn't going to ride, (its a clinic put on for OSU's dressage team) but one of the girls had to back out so there was an empty spot. The clinic is with Dr. Tina Steward, who has ridden and trained thru Grand Prix (and rode hunters as a kid) and who also happens to be a fully licensed/certified DVM who specialised in chiropractics. She's been our chiropractor for years, and this is the 4th (I think) clinic she's had at our barn.

Our lesson last night was really pretty good.  Buddy was back to his normal tricks of over bending on our approach to the fences, then falling in on the landing side.  Jen had me pick up and hold a counter bend to fence, and while he wasn't perfectly straight, it helped a lot.  I'm hoping Tina can give me some pointers today to help with that. 

Jen had put a couple of the fences up to 2'9" and Buddy jumped really big over them.  He tends to have a flatter jump, because A) he's lazy and B) confirmationaly he's not designed to have a lot of scope.  It took me by surprise a couple times how round he jumped last night.  At one point we were doing a 5 stride bending line and he jumped really big over the first fence.  I lost my reins, cantered two strides, picked one back up and somehow managed to steer him to the second fence.  We jumped the second fence one handed and the distance was actually pretty nice; and on the off side he gave me a flying change!  Seriously, I couldn't ask for a better pony!

Thursday the horse in the stall next to Bud moved out, so I was able to move Phoenix into it.  The boys sniffed noses, then promptly ignored each other.