I harnessed Summer up tonight and hooked her to her cart. She and I, and June and Little Bit were going to practice our driven dressage. I took Summer out on the arena and she was SPOOKY, jumpy, and WOULD NOT maintain a trot. So, we just drove the arena and tooted around. June went in and did her test. This size of an arena is the large one, which is much larger than the standard mini arena. And Little Bit is a 28" miniature horse. So she can only make one pass and it was pretty good. At least I thought, but I am just learning this too. So to me, just remembering the test and getting your horse to maintain gait is an accomplishment.
After June and Bit finished, Summer and I entered again and she had settled enough that she did a wonderful second round. She maintained a trot, and being a Walker is hard cause she does have a tendancy to switch to another gait (running walk, pace, etc...). Then I had to bring her to a walk for a small part of the test and then bring her back to a trot (which is part of Training Level Test 1). I calmed myself, lifted my hands slightly and on a loose rein, asked her to trot her last leg of the test, and was wonderfully happy that she did it. We trotted back to "X", saluted to the invisable judge and exited the arena. If she can do this on the 17th, I will be happy. As long as I don't forget the test and she maintains the proper gaits for dressage, I will be so happy to accomplish those two things. I know her maintaining her gait is part my job too, so I will try not to let her down. We just need to make each other look as good as a green team can be without any formal training.
Once we exited the arena, we were done. I didn't work her anymore, finish on a good note.
I am really proud of this mare. No matter how silly she can be, spooky she can be, or down right awnry she can be, she can, in the blink of an eye, remind me why I love her.
TTFN
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