Rocking Horse 3 Dressage Recap

Here's my dressage video from Rocking Horse 3. Honestly, straight off the bat I feel that it's the worst of my three Florida tests (I feel that Ocala was the best other than the momentary lead swapping). Of course, it scored the best by far.

Hello, Intermediate Rider division.

51-Maggie Deatrick-Divine Comedy-DR from CatchRide on Vimeo.

So first off the bat, I realize that my hands are much bouncier than they were. My elbows definitely need to be softer. I also need to think uphill with my own body.

Then we go into shoulder in/haunches in right. Helloooo, dropped right shoulder. Much worse than the previous weeks.

Definitely a momentary lack of rhythm over the center line in that weird squiggle medium trot. I'm still trying to find the line between pushing for an 8 and losing rhythm.

I got more angle on the haunches in left this time, the haunches in right still needs more angle. We're also still working on shoulder in left to be relaxed; for some reason I get very stiff and then so does he that direction.

Wow, do I look loose and sloppy at the sitting trot. My only excuse was that I had done no riding, and therefore no sitting trot in the previous three weeks, and only at Ocala in the two weeks before that. Bad excuse, but I do remember getting very tired very quickly. I'm thinking I'm mostly going to warm up at the rising trot for Poplar, because I am still not in shape, although hopefully better than I was at the point this video was made.

I did a better job of not leaning forward to get the reinback. Still stiff on his part, we've been working on that a bit.

I could actually see a difference in my medium canter to the left this time. I felt like I was galloping, and I still feel like I don't see THAT much of a difference. Amazing how that works. We'll keep working on that obviously.

My position at the canter seems much better, including my shoulders. Although I still need to get my hands out of my lap.

Wow, waay too many steps at the trot to the walk. I was trying to be careful to make sure we didn't accidentally halt instead and to make sure to pick up the correct right lead. He's been a little funny about that lately, feels like a strength thing. He's often just a bit sticky picking up the right lead on a straightaway, particularly if its after a simple change from the left lead. If I'm in a corner or on the circle, he has no problem.

I have to admit, my medium canter to the right doesn't appear any more conservative to me than the medium canter left. Oh well, I felt at the time that I couldn't push any more, so I'll push as hard as I feel I can and that's that for now.

I felt that the second simple change had much less trot steps. I definitely feel that he gets very four beat in the canter when I try to collect to prep for the simple change. I think it's a strength thing, it's pretty hard for him to drop his hind end enough. We'll keep trying to build his collection strength. He used to be very four beat in his normal canter and it took about a year of correct work to get it to be three beated. So we'll just keep at it and maybe this time next year it will be three beat!

Again, too much trot before the halt. Then he does his usual thing where he swings his hind end way off to the left. But the judge says his shoulder falls right. So that's pretty interesting and I will experiment with trying to control his shoulders more instead of worrying about his hind end at the halt.