In the Arena #54 - If he ain't reaching - you ain't driving

It's been a crazy week. In the good column, Val and I got three rides in, thanks to a string of beautiful days.

In the not-so-good column, my lab / pit mix Sweetpea needed an emergency vet visit to figure out why she suddenly wouldn't bear weight on one of her front legs. She was in severe pain, didn't want to venture off of the couch or head outside for walks, and most alarming of all wouldn't lift her head up to lick out the yogurt container. X-rays revealed no cancer - the worst case scenario - at least no cancer that could be detected yet. An arthritis / orthopedic issue is what we're treating her for, so she's temporarily on an assortment of meds - an anti-inflammatory + stomach easer + pain med + she gets to share Val's adequan. 48 hours later she is moving well with good energy, back to aggressively begging, and no more pitiful whimpering. Fingers crossed that I can keep her comfortable. She suffers from Cushing's which besides shortening her life span, complicates treating her for any other condition. Glad to have her back at home and back to normal. I love my Sweetest Pea :)

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Wednesday was a repeat of Monday - a really fun ride and another faulty video attempt. Things were going so well that I kind of forgot about the camera, and ended up with over ten minutes of trot work recorded. Ten minutes is t-o-o long. Too long to download, too long to upload, (too long to watch unless you're me)! It took about 45 minutes to get it loaded into the more modern photo program that came with my camera - with hopes that I could edit it down. Once in the program I failed to accomplish editing anyway... just didn't have the attention span for the poorly written manual, and not enough energy to pursue trial and error ;)

I learned a lot from watching the (excessive) footage. Still prone to off-to-the leftness, leg aids are far from subtle and we've got a long way to go in the energy department.  I know the solution: forward + half halts + soft even continuous elastic contact. What remains is to consistently put it into practice. On a positive note, we kept up a sustained trot with changes of rein through numerous school figures, smoothly, as well as some lovely loose rein stretchy trot. Having the camera going was much like having someone observe my ride. It was a very helpful tool to keep me focused on the details of my position - knowing I could see the results afterwords.

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It's Saturday morning now - and while I wait for youtube to finish uploading my video (hopefully), I'll finish up this post. Yesterday's ride was very productive, continuing our happy trend. After warming up, we did more trot work. I kept the focus on half halting to rebalance, and maintaining steady contact. I think it's time to take up more contact, and we'll explore that in our next ride. A few months ago I was getting a lot of head tossing/ protesting from Val, which generally meant too much contact for the amount of energy - and I needed to encourage him forward with my legs. Now that we've got the energy level increasing, I suspect I need to modify the contact to match - to give him a place to reach to.

Trot work will be the story of our lives for a while I think. As the footing has allowed, I have gradually increased the amount of time working at the trot hoping to improve Val's fitness and stamina. (Holy cow - I need to build stamina also - twenty minutes of non-stop posting had me sucking a bit of wind the other day!) When I got Val he was lacking topline and his haunches needed filling out, although his on-the-forehand way of going had kept his front end pretty beefy. Thoughtful dressage training will help Val fulfill his potential - beautifying his build and movement under saddle.

Yes - the video worked! Have a great weekend everyone :)