[Monthly Review] May 2015

Blink & It's Gone!
That's how I feel that this year is going! I can't believe that we're already in June! 

May was a pretty good month, though it ended not so well! Pea had the first week off whilst I was on holiday (cannot believe it was only a month ago - feels like it was months ago now!) but he came back working so well! His canter has improved no end and we're now working on increasing his stamina and getting him fitter for it which will hopefully help him be able to use himself better as he tends to get a bit tired easily and then goes flat and leans. 

Bending and flexing is one of those where some days he's great and others it's more entertaining being a giraffe... Luckily the days he's being a giraffe, I do still get some decent work from him. It's just learning that on those days it's best to work on something else like doing lateral work or pole work and not focussing so much time and energy into getting him to soften as that results in an argument. 

As he had been going so well, I decided to take him out to a local dressage test. If you've read my post that I wrote on it then you will be aware it didn't quite go to plan! We just did an Intro and Prelim as he hadn't been out for nearly a year so I thought it would be best to do an Intro for a warm-up. He was a bit spooky down one side of the arena to begin with and wasn't quite as forward and soft as I would have liked so I didn't think we had done so well, yet somehow he came second though we only scored 58%.. (I've actually just looked at the results sheet and he was 2nd out of 3 in the open section - always forget to put restricted though we wouldn't have done well at all if we had!). In the Prelim, he decided to just deposit me on the floor...It was third time lucky for him in his attempts as he'd already tried to do so once in the warm-up and once in the first canter before successfully dumping me in the second canter! I have since done little with him as it has killed my knee a bit but he's down for the physio in a couple of weeks and he's been lunging well. 

So not quite the ending of the month I envisioned but at least we're in one piece and can learn from it. I'm going to do a couple more e-dressage tests and see if my yard have any on. I might also try and see if they have any competitions on to ride him round in the warm-up as he really needs to get used to working with lots of others horses around and I need to get braver at cantering him with other horses around! 

Thanks for reading,
Laura xx