Yay for good days!

Honestly, I was starting to feel the despair of the dressage rider. Bemoaning the lack of rides that make you smile. BUT, today was a wonderful day. I arrived at the barn earlier than normal, as I went and held my mom's horse for the farrier this morning. So I was tacked up and ready to ride around noon. Today there were no lessons being given in the indoor, and only one other person working horses. TBM and had the arena to ourselves for most of the time. In addition, it looked like the footing had been very recently groomed, and it was great!

We did a bunch of lunging, and added sidereins today. I really worked on trot/canter/trot transitions, asking for forward and attentive. We started out slow and sluggish to the aids, and then really progressed to crisp. I was very pleased with TBM. Also, he looked very fluid. The joint supplements are working their magic - YAY!

After lunging in both directions (first without sidereins, and then with), I hopped on. At this point in time, we had the arena to ourselves. I was able to work the track with a BIG swinging walk. Yay, I thought we had lost that walk, but it is back!!! Then I picked him up ever so carefully (wonderfully soft in the hand, a perfect handshake) and into the trot we went. He was not grinchy, he was forward and active. Worked whole arena, added some 15 meter circles, got to work a lot of changes of direction, worked NICE canter transitions from the seat. I was pleased as punch.

We ended the session with a good roll in the sand, then used the blow dryer to clean him up a bit. It was lovely outside, and we spend a bit of time standing in the sun, and him licking snow. He's such a silly boy about that!