Another catch up

 

My wonderful trainer had an old Custom saddle she wasn't using and offered it to me on a lifetime loan.  It is a bit wide for Uno, but we stuck 2 1/2 pads and he loved it.  I am going to keep playing round with pads at home and see if we can get it down to one.  The top shows how even his sweat marks are.  He seems to really like this saddle and it gives me MUCH more control over his body.

Spring is here and the Bradford pears are in bloom, and stinky.

We headed out for our 2nd try at First level and although the socres were lower we fixed a lot of the issues we had with being underpowered or on the forehand.  We just swung too far in the other direction.  Most of my media is blurry because my husband was having phone issues, but you can see our body posture in them.

These first two I call "happily elevated."

I call these two "Oh Fuck" because at the top that is what I was saying and on the bottom that is what Uno was thinking.  I am happy with how poll high and sitting he is - even if he is not happy about it.  Our biggest take away is that now that he has found his reach and power we need to figure out how to dial it back down and relax without splatting.  

This is a series called Uno finds some reach.  A big part of the reason I am not in a hurry to get this saddle adjusted is that with the wider tree he is MUCH free-er in the shoulders.  We will plan on going to see if we can reflock or adjust in a minor way at some point this year, but I kinda want to see if his body changes again with this new range of motion.  I also need a bit to re-learn how to ride in a dressage saddle.

My Dad is fostering these puppies... AHHH too cute.

My favorite man and the return of the sunshine.  I am soaking up every moment of joy and vit D that I can.  This farm is just so beautiful and every day it becomes more of a dream.