The Beasts

I've been super busy and haven't had much free time to post lately. Ironically, the more time I spend riding, the more I have to write about, and all that much less of an opportunity to write about it. Go figure.

Both Winn and Indy are doing well and I'm having a ton of fun with them!

Cooling out.

Indy isn't always the most rewarding horse to ride. It often feels we are on the edge of things coming together enough that we can start to advance more, but it just doesn't quite happen. Don't get me wrong, she is understanding what I want from her fairly well. We are slowly making progress. She's intelligent. I don't mind mistakes or behavioral issues due to the lack of experience that will bring her more confidence eventually. What I feel is really holding us back right now is her temper. The horse is not afraid to let me know when she's pissed. We have an owner (race horses) that always jokes about how I wouldn't know what to do if he didn't send us project horses. Apparently that's translated over to the dressage horses also because Indy can be quite the challenge at times.

Her neck is starting to fill out a little.

It's all worth it though. I'm even beginning to enjoy those tougher rides on her. When she is trying and willing, I can feel the potential in there and know that the patience and hard work will pay off in the long run. Indy has probably taught me more than all of the other young/green horses I've ridden combined. The difficulties aren't that bad because she is getting better in general. Plus, I do love the little brat no matter what she does wrong.

We just had a quick and easy ride tonight. I try to keep the rides short and positive when she starts off good from the beginning. Plus, she slipped when I turned her out yesterday and was a little stiff in the hind end tonight. The saddle fitter is coming in a couple of days, then I will have Lisa come out to fix Indy again. Nothing but the best for the Princess...also, I just propped my phone up to get a little video. I was nice enough to only leave a few seconds of video and cut out all of the parts with nothing but the arena in the picture. You're welcome.

In the meantime, it is ABSOLUTLEY wonderful to have Winn to ride. Not that he's a schoolmaster, but he's trained to second level, which is a treat after riding a hard-headed greenie. Winn is super sensitive to my weight, so he makes it pretty obvious if I'm sitting crooked. It's like I taught him for all of those years and now he's teaching me (thank you JL for the training you put into him) or at least getting me closer to being back where I was before I hurt my neck. I'll try to get video in the next day or two.

The other day, I was talking to an owner about wanting to sell Winn and The Fiancé piped in that I will NEVER sell that horse. I probably should sell him, but my SO might be spot on. I mean only having one dressage horse isn't enough. Right? I guess that I'll just wait and see how things go before making a decision.