All's well that begins well....

Yes, I've been MIA for a couple of days. Oh well, I have a life too!

Der Greters:
Greta's fine, and she just seems to be feeling better and better every day! The little cougar's been hanging out with "Cupid" (the bay youngn' with the heart on his forehead) and a new bay horse - affectionately called "Bay Boy" - who looks like he's fairly young too, both maybe 6 or 7. Greta's 12. She's a cougar. Rrrrawr!

They thinned out the pasture board herd, so it went from 15 to nine in the past week. That plus steady rain means lots of green grass! The big Belgian Wilbur and the big black Percheron Beau have both been moved to stall board, and the herd seems to be more at peace with everyone and everything it seems. I've even caught Greta rolling in the dirt twice now! And it's always been right before I go to get her! Maybe she has, like, "ESPN" or something (Mean Girls reference). In the mornings, when it's cool, she'll hang out under the thick trees at the far end of the pasture (and apparently the pasture goes back much farther than I thought, just with trees, though not insanely far, and there's even a few riding trails behind the pasture!) with her little gelding gang, and then when it's hot the horses move out into the sun.... I'm still trying to figure that one out...........

Oh, and she gets her hoofies trimmed tomorrow. I'm so glad that we will still have the same farrier!

Der Riding:
Riding has been going super-duper well. She had most of the week off last week too because of rain, so that would equate to about three days in the week instead of five....? I don't know. We've been doing a lot of walk and trot exercises, trying to get some basics back down, and we just canter for fun really! Her trot has become very nice to sit and she getting on the bit much more nicely. I've felt the beginnings of her trying to round out her back, and she's gone all the way when I'm doing something right.... That I am also still trying to figure out!

And then I lounged her yesterday just as a warm up and also to see how she looks overall. Her walk was lazy (but that's because I wasn't on her, and I know her walk is good already) but her trot looked beautiful and her canter has become more collected. There is a longer moment of suspension between each stride. I'm very happy! She's thrusting aside the polo world and coming back to her dressage origins! Though she still gets very excited over white objects on the ground and tries to cut in front of other horses. Not bad though. She never tries to take over. I get a kick out of it more than anything haha!

I NEED TO TAKE PICTURES!!!

Der Lessons:
We will be starting lessons October 18th: two private to see where our niche is, then group lessons from there on. I'm so excited! I love all the riders and I love the instructor, and they all love Greta! She's hard not to love :D

Der Gogo:
Get well soon Gogo! From what I read you were feeling pretty cruddy today. It all pull through, don't worry!

Und als Schlußfolgerung, Das Morgan Dressage:
In conclusion, I was very excited to see a Morgan in the Dressage at Devon as featured on Behind the Bit. Very cute Morgan. It's not a warmblood! Oh, and has anyone heard of the A-mazing dressage Saddlebred (the first and perhaps the only Grand Prix level Saddlebred out there at the moment...) Harry Callahan? Yeah, go check him out :D

What I was not pleased with though was the opening picture to the blog: the horse was clearly not round in the back and was being pulled into the bit. Quite clearly. The first video: the canter was really good as were the tempi changes, and I loved the music (eternal Disney Tarzan fan!) As for the second video: Um... more being pulled into the bit, silly passages and piaffes and half passes and trot work in general. I cringed. But then again he was apparently quite spooky that night, so he might not have been listening all the way? He was still broken at the third vertebrae, no excuse for that. Way to go half-a$$, modern dressage!

But what do I know? I'm just a lowly first level.... :(
lol