Selena Ride 47; Wizard Session 117: DQ?

Thursday, 11/12/09

Dressage Queen:

B: Yeah. She’s a total DQ. (Dressage Queen)

As a result of my trip to the Breeders’ Cup, Selena and Wizard had exactly two weeks off. When I started riding Selena, she had far more time off than that, but now she is fit, physically and mentally. When I mounted up, I could feel that she was ready to go. The horses had spent two days indoors due to all the rain we had in the area and they were all pretty fresh under saddle.

In the arena were more horses and riders than we usually encounter. I took the “herd” as a challenge and began my ride, starting with a very long walking warmup, followed by some simple trotting.

One of the boarders walked in and out of the ring a few times. The last time she left the arena, she accidentally S-L-A-M-M-E-D the gate really loudly. I’m not sure if the horse was more startled or if I was, but we both jumped. In an extremely uncharacteristic moment, I made a sarcastic and slightly snappy comment to the door-slammer. Immediately after I said it, I felt terrible and apologized. I took the encounter as a note to myself NOT to become a Dressage Queen. First of all, I prefer jumping and secondly, I cannot react negatively every time something startles me out of my riding moment.

I spent the rest of the ride working on rhythm and relaxation. It was not a very productive ride, but we’ll get back to where we were soon.

Wizard’s session, on the other hand, was very productive. I turned him loose in the arena and let him play for a few minutes before we worked. Then I saddled him up and we did just about three rotations on the longe line in each direction at the trot. i don’t want to stress Wizard’s joints but I do think it is important to continue our groundwork.

After we longed, I fastened my long lines to his bit and we did a little long line work. It was more like short lines, though, since I stood next to the saddle with my arm over the center. I held each long line like reins and did a little experimenting in each direction. We worked at the walk, doing figure 8s and serpentines in each direction. Interestingly, Wizard was far more tense to the right than he was to the left. I stood on both rides and he was a different horse when I was on his left. On his right, he was tense and mouthy with the bit. On the left, he was reasonably relaxed. The plot thickens :^)