Trucking along

Today was dressage day again. Cindy was nice and didn't make me use the "e-cube" with Dan but she did keep reminding me of it. Today was an odd day with Dan. He was quite good but I was having troubles. Our right lead canter was a disaster again. And he kept breaking, even in the left lead too. (OOOOHHHHH, that's why she was yelling at me for my right leg. It was Dan that it kept creeping forward on. Well, on Fleck too, but Dan tattled on me!. Aha!). But we did have some good work too. It was hard but I tried to ride with my arms in the better position. And I got it some. But when it starting going south, I reverted. 

We did get a very nice forward trot. Cindy said now that we have forward we need to work on upwards and more action in the knees. So I basically just thought about riding him more energetically up, sitting a bit more upright and lifting a bit with my crotch and chest, and she said "YES, like that!"!. :) So yay. We had some nice downwards too. Then we worked on the canter. Ugh. It was rough, but we got some lovely work. We tried a shallow serpentine to the right and he broke. Then we tried it to the left and he kept it and it was LOVELY, right up until he spooked in the corner. Twit! He was spooking at a leaf blower I think, but supposedly it had been there all along. I didn't notice it earlier though. But yep, it was lovely until then. I was focusing very hard on riding that left lead canter with my seat and body. But I was also riding him a bit more connected and upwards so I think that helped too. I was hoping to try to the right again but we quit with the left. Which was probably good as I would have blown the right again and that wasn't fair to Dan. 

So we'll keep playing with that right lead canter and my departure aids and maintaining aids. And I will keep my outside leg from clamping on too tight, as well as my outside rein from restricting, but will also keep my outside leg from getting too far forward on the right side. 

I'm super excited about the clinic in two weeks! I can't wait! I told Cindy I promised that Dan would be clean. Because he was soooo filthy! But he's sweaty and when I brush him all I'm doing is smearing the dirt around. Seriously, he is sooo gross. She laughed and said "you hope anyways"! Doh. Maybe I should have paid for a stall, so he would stay clean.

I'm sort of dreading having to braid and wrap and be all nice and clean. We're both such pigpens. :)