Yesterday we went over to a small local farm, they put on a little schooling CT and as we need (about a bazillion) more miles in the dressage ring, me and Solo headed over.  Because my dressage trainer is awesome, she volunteered to come and coach for us for free and was oh so helpful assisting us in putting together a more effective warmup (the warmup area was narrow and hard and yucky, so we had to make do).  I got kind of annoyed at the dressage judge -- once the person in front of us finished, I put Solo in a trot around the outside of the ring and he went BEAUTIFULLY, all round and soft and moving great.  For some reason, the judge was very slow to be ready and we ended up having to trot around four times -- and by that point I was thinking "hey, I only have so much round horse here and I am using it up!"  Once we finally got in to do the test, it started ok, but then I lost some rein (it appears you are actually supposed to hold on to those things, not let them slip through your fingers) and once we changed directions, we lost our connection somewhat.  But our goal was to do better than our last test, which we did, and I was very happy with Solo's (mostly) obedience.  I am also excited that I am slowly beginning to slightly less resemble a hunter rider perched in a dressage saddle and finally starting to sit the heck up!

In warmup, being goofy

He was going around like THIS outside the ring, sigh, I was so happy!

Then we entered and lost a bit, but still did ok.

He LOVES to stretch, LOL

And this pic cracks me up:  "look, mom, I can bow too!"

Heading out to the jump field

Their jump course was very small and quite simple, it was supposed to be 2'6" but not a thing out there was over 2'3" if it was even that, so Solo was a bit disdainful, LOL.  All the suppling work on our dressage lessons has begun to pay off though and we had a lovely easy ride around the course, he is really becoming much more adjustable and better at balancing and staying soft, yippee!

A teeny combination

 All in all we had fun, had great friends who came out and supported us and made great strides in dressage test improvement.  Trainer wants us to do a recognized dressage show -- I must break it to her that I can't afford the entry fees to those things!!!  But we will continue to work this summer on our dressage and there are a few more schooling shows coming up in July we are aiming for.  We'll beat this thing yet!  On a funny note, after we finished our dressage test, the judge says to us "dressage just isn't his thing, is it?"  Gee Solo, thanks for making your opinion obvious....

Great job and you can certainly see the improvements in the dressage ring, I think if you have the warm up going as good as it did, then the arena will certainly come, lots and lots of practice as you know!! Solo has such great form in SJ, even on little jumps! Congrats!! (great pics as usual!)

Solo is too much of a macho kinda guy to be messing around with that fancy schmancy dressage stuff. Maybe some day when he grows up, he'll take it serious. LOL. In the mean time, good luck with that. LOL.

He looks wonderful and congrats on doing so well. BTW, what was your score???

Ok, you gonna make us give away our score?  Well, it was a 42, but no jump penalties.  If we were lucky that would stick us middle of the pack at an HT.  On the plus side, it was an improvement over our last test, which was a 44.  I want to get it down at least to the mid-30's to be competitive.

ETA -- on a HUGE plus side, we did not recieve any "counterbent" comments this time, which in the past have been in almost every box.  Most of our comments yesterday were "inconsistent connection to bridle" which is what we have been working on.  So big yay there as at least now we have correct bend and straightness, woop!

You guys look fantastic, as always. It's always so nice to see your hard work shine through. Congrats on your improvement in dressage. Your jumping photos always inspire me to do better at our jumping. You both look amazing.

You guys look great, as usual!  Congrats on the improvement!

Congrats, you guys look great! Are my eyes deceiving me or did you get a new saddle? Oh, and I love the blue ear-net/saddle-pad, very stylish. And, haha, I cracked up at the pic of Solo bowing, too - nice touch!

 Thanks everyone!  And yes, Frizzle, you spotted it, horseloverz had a 50% off sale on Wintecs so we finally picked up a dressage saddle.  So that makes us real eventers now, right, cause we have two saddles, LOL!  I refuse to do the black and white thing for dressage unless they hold me down and make me, I just think white is a really dumb colour to put on horses when they are trotting around in the dirt -- it only stays white for about 4 seconds!  I confess though, I do have one white saddle pad for full HTs -- but it has blue trim!

Solo,

Is Solo showing off for the camera??? LOL!!! Congrats on the improvements.

frank

I THOUGHT that was a new saddle!  Very official!  :)

Congrats on the improvement!!!!  I am not an eventer so maybe things are different there but I don't think the horse is supposed to bow and salute at the end of the test.  LOL, I love that pic.

 Great job!  I see lots of improvement - Solo is much more consistant and your leg is much more relaxed and "flowing" around him - just look at that canter picture!  And who says the horse can't bow?  The description is "X, halt and salute".  It doesn't state WHO is supposed to do the saluting.  After all, the horse (and rider) did all the other movements, too.....

How cool that your dressage coach was there to help you.  She's a keeper!  Yeah, the warmup thing.  Once get more experience (hint, hint), you'll know how much Solo can handle and if the judge is taking too much time, you can drop back to the walk and be able to get the nice, round horse again when it's time to go.

Do you tend to slip your reins more at the trot?  Your canter picture looks great, with your elbows tucked nicely at your waist, while at the trot, your arms are straighter.  It looks like it's more of an issue of keeping your arms bent than slipping your reins. 

As always, Solo looks great O/F.  He's making them bigger, just cuz he looks better!

Keep up the great work and thanks for sharing the wonderful photos!

 Thanks you guys!  And yes, Frank, Solo is a total camera poser!!

 Thanks for your (as always) thoughtful post, rem!!  I am working VERY hard on my leg and sitting up, since both are a battle to deal with after so many hunter lessons!

On the reins, I was supposed to be keeping relatively shorter reins since we knew that Solo was not able to stay consistently on the bit yet, so I was under orders to keep my hands out in front of me a bit so I could keep "talking" to his mouth more subtly to try and keep him softer and rounder.  I tend to lose my reins a bit long at the canter, so after the first canter, they got a bit long and I never got them back.  Trainer says she is going to wrap some tape around the reins next time to give me a marker.  Maybe I will even remember to look at the  marker in the ring, since I apparently go incredibly stupid as soon as I ride through the in-gate!

Oh, I'm so happy! The almighty (:P) Solaris has the same problem I do! I often let my reins slip through my fingers. My trainer is always telling me to take a firmer grip on the reins.

Anyway, congrats on your great day! And the pictures are, as usual, very lovely.