Exceeding Expectations

I wasn't expecting yesterday's ride to be anything special. Whilst we've been plodding along in our fitness scheme (no pun intended), we've not had any rides that have made me go "OH MY GOODNESS". Honey's been awesome, I've been working hard, we've been steady from starting out. Her sourness to her tie up area is disappearing and her tempo is improving. But apart from me having little breakthroughs in my own position/riding, nothing has made me grin so much as yesterday did.

The reason? My friend Sophie. She came to me over her upcoming dressage test that she couldn't figure a couple of moves out. So I wrote it out, and when I went to ride Honey, I was asked by my friend Leslie who takes my photos, what a certain move was as I mentioned I'm going to help Soph with it. So, I went, let me show you what I remember from the test. I'd only looked at it once and remembered 80% of it, so that wasn't so bad. We did it all at the walk and it was Honey's first dressage test ever. Bless her she got a little confused, but I exaggerated everything so it wouldn't impact her shoulder on the circle work. We got from the start to the end with no troubles and I was so pleased! Honey seemed quite happy with herself too, she seemed to have a bounce in her step after all the praise I gave her.

Tomorrow I'm riding again and will hopefully be able to get a video of the dressage test. I'm going to take it out with us and do it correctly this time haha!

And to finish this blog off, here's some pics - all work was done on a loose rein and me using my legs - woohoo!