Mo' Progress

Soonie and I had our second dressage lesson on Wednesday evening, and he was excellent.  Still have issues with him unlocking his jaw and softening through the poll tracking right, but progress is being made.  He's getting better about it each time out, and working on the shorter rein/outline is getting a little easier with each ride.  I'm still spending a good bit of the schooling sessions in stretch, but bringing him up for longer periods and trying to be way more proactive about him giving through the poll with proper energy from behind.  Getting there!

We had a funny moment today when we strolled out to the jump field to do a flat school.  All the jumps had been pulled and stacked on the side of the field in preparation for the farm's upcoming show.  Soonie is damn near unflappable - seriously, cars have flown by us at 45 mph, horns honking, and he just looked like this:

But the Stack 'O Jumps got him.  We weren't even near it when he locked on, snorted ("NOPE!"), and did the Sit 'n Spin and tried to leave.  I was somewhere between growling and laughing hysterically, because you have to admit it's funny when Mr. 99% Bombproof completely loses his shit.

We did not throw ourselves off a mountain in reality

That episode lasted all of about 20 seconds, and after some growling, then coaxing, and lots of patting, he marched over to the jump supplies and tried to crawl on them (King of the Mountain?).  Yep, he was over it and gave me some lovely trot stretch work out in the field like nothing had happened.  He really felt great today, and it was fun getting back in the field after the week layup and some rainy weather kept us away.

<3

I also found this little gem from EventionTV (Schramm Eventing) and had to share.  Holy shit...yes.