Pursuit of Perfection

I'm sitting here watching the test that Ingrid Klimke just put in on FRH Butts Abraxxas (you can watch it here!!), leaving them the current leader at Burghley, and I see her perform a collected trot shoulder in from the corner toan  8m circle at B to a half-pass to centerline to a transition to extended walk at C... whew! She did it beautifully and I can't help but lament my lack of a horse capable of doing those movements, back when I had Pie I could do those things! And it was SO MUCH FUN.

I think that's a lot of my problem with Cash... I want so bad for him to be like that, to listen to my leg, and bend, and move sideways when I ask, and do a shoulder-in and move off my aids, and give me a consistent contact, and, and, and....

AND, I keep forgetting that he doesn't know how to do that! 

Yet.


So, getting into an argument with him over that is pointless, fruitless, and only results in major frustration for me and for him.

That's why it's SO SO SO important with green beans to focus on what they can do and build on it.  And what Cash can do is stretch (he's looooves his stretchy walk/trot), he can walk/trot/canter (albeit not always prettily), he can go over trot poles and little jumps, he can doing simple lateral work like shallow leg yields, some steps of side pass, turns on the forehand, and pretty decent turns on the haunches (granted the circle described by the hind end is still pretty big). 

I really need to get back to doing poles/jumps more often, he does soooo much better when he has something like that to think about.  He is not going to be a straight dressage horse that's for sure... bummer, cuz I love dressage.

In other news....

Last Saturday I went and jump judged for a nearby One-Day Event.  It was a good way to spend the afternoon, the volunteer effort and the radio communication from control amongst the jump judges on cross country was not quite the best, I was often left wondering what happened to a particular rider when all of a sudden rider numbers started skipping around. 

Regardless, I enjoyed myself and was pleasantly surprised to find such a neat cross country course less than half an hour away from me! YAY for schooling location!

It was also the first time I've witnessed an Intro level at a recognized event... THAT was VERY entertaining!! There were some experienced riders piloting around very very green horses for their first XC outing... but mostly it was very inexperienced riders being taken advantage of by bratty school horses.... A couple near run-a-ways, several lost riders (they'd jump a jump and just, keep, going..... ), quite a few skipped fences, and one snotty barnsour pony with a very brave and determined little girl who was going to get that pony over those jumps if it was the last thing she would ever do.  I wanted to stand up and applaud for her!

I always enjoy jump judging, it never fails to give me a kick in the pants to get my butt in gear with riding. Inspiration for the win!  Now, finding time in my schedule is another thing.

Cheers!
Emily