Thought I ought to share these with you guys :)
Dressage at AEC's 2009
Stadium Round at AEC's 2009
Val is currently a very happy pony- he gets to go out to the pasture on days when it's not drizzling rain, and when it is, he gets to stay inside and munch on hay. He's not had much work recently, pretty much exclusively on weekends. What rides we have had, we've been working on dressage. The jumping we did was fun, but now that I know I'm not going to forget how to jump, it's more important for us to focus on dressage. :)
I am anxiously awaiting our "Halloween break" next week- we get Weds. and Thurs. off for teacher conferences! 4-day weekend for absolutely no reason, huzzah! Then we have Thanksgiving waiting in the wings, then Christmas. The next semester will be here before you know it, and I'll be able to devote more time to Val. Things will be back to normal at last.
A New Name For A New Life
2 years ago
Don't you just love teacher conference breaks? We don't get one for Halloween though :(
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear Mister Valerius is doing splendorous!
I loved y'all's dressage test. He carries himself so nicely. It looked like you were holding him back a lot though, both videos. Maybe that's just me?
I was definitely holding him back in the dressage test. To some degree, we had the problems we've had in the past: we got through the white gate, I got instantly tight; Val thinks, "Oh, you mean canter?" and I say, "No!" and the result is that I hold him back the whole test. He breaks to a canter twice in the video, but the whole time he really, really wanted to. Hehe, we've cantered center-line before! Now that was a fun test! If I'd just relaxed, I wouldn't have had to keep telling him to not canter, because he wouldn't have thought I was asking him to. It's a nasty cycle.
ReplyDeleteThe jumping, I definitely was holding him back, especially before the first jump. He can get really excited and want to increase speed as he approaches, especially the first jump, and this leads to deep distances that result in dropped rails. I held him to a consistent pace to the jump, and in between other jumps, I was continuing to hold him to a consistent pace and getting him round for the jumps. So, it probably qualifies as "holding back," but to some degree, I was supposed to. In an ideal world, Val would be trained enough that he would maintain consistency and roundness all on his own, but that's a long ways away.
So it definitely wasn't just you! :)
I am very jealous that you got to go to the AEC's! But you and Val look just darling together, happy eventing! And thanks for dropping by Flying Solo! :-)
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