Dressage, dressage, dressage

The title says it all. We've been doing dressage... dressage... and more dressage over these past three days. I had a lesson on Tuesday, which went pretty well, and a lesson on Wednesday, which went a lot better. We finally made it back out into the outdoor - YAY! - but then of course, yesterday it POURED ALL THE LIVELONG DAY, so we ended up having to head back inside. Interestingly enough, yesterday, my indoor-not-lesson ride was THE BEST out of all three of them. That's exactly how I like to end a dressage spree - with an amazing ride!
It didn't start out amazing. She stretched fairly well from the get-go but was having nothing to do with coming back up. She was essentially giving me the big middle hoof, if you know what I mean. I asked nicely, I asked not nicely, I waited, I refused to wait any longer, I waited even after I refused to wait any longer... still nothing. She stayed locked at the withers, gnashing her teeth, and that was the end of that. 40 minutes into the ride, I still had nothing... and then something changed. I have no idea what it was. I don't think did anything particularly different. But she transformed from tense and locked to supple, loose, relaxed, forward, and steady. She stretched into the contact and took every correction I made properly, and without tension in her neck or back. She lengthened more dramatically than ever before. She crossed so far underneath himself in our leg yields that I could hardly believe it when I saw it in the mirror. And we had collection - real collection - in the canter, which I could completely maintain with my seat alone. In front, she stayed light and connected. It was amazing, light, smooth, connected, and beautiful work. I dismounted with a big stupid grin on my face. If we have a ride remotely like that at Groton House, we'll win. Of course, I say that now... Gogo is very good at keeping me humble at the shows that matter the most!! But I'm delighted with how she's been working. Groton House is right around the corner and we're ready, ready, ready. I can't wait!!!

But then of course, things like today happen too. The plan has been to start gallops on Friday instead of Thursday, but it's been raining - torrentially, I might add - for the past, oh I dunno, three weeks. Yesterday it rained so hard that the horses didn't even get turned out at all, so obviously today, seeing as everything was drenched, there was no galloping surface to be had. Today I spent the morning and early afternoon at the Mystic Aquarium, and then was going to come home and hack Gogo to the Dunkin Donuts again. Of course, I got home and went into my room to change, and found that the ENTIRE SURFACE OF MY FLOOR WAS COVERED IN TWO INCHES OF STANDING WATER. A pipe burst in my closet... the pipe that the handyman already fixed yesterday night. AWESOME. So, instead of riding, I've been making a very sad attempt to throw out all my ruined stuff, move furniture, soak up the worst of the water, and run the Shop Vac/dehumidifier/three fans in a sad effort to make a LITTLE of the water dry up. Seriously though, everything is soaked. It's awful.

So no riding today. Gogo had today off instead of Sunday, which works just fine, seeing as she'll have next Thursday off. SIGH! But, some good things happened today: I got an additional award in from the Mystic show (more on that later), and I found that RNS Media is running a video special for the Groton House trials, so I might get to have a professional video made!!

Speaking of which, a few of you have mentioned that you'll be around at Groton House and wanted to come cheer us on. If that's you, leave a comment or e-mail me at deathstarbattlestar@yahoo.com, and I'll pass along my cell number.





I have one more interesting and exciting bit of news for you. They've just announced the location for the 2010-2012 AECs: Chattahoochee Hills, outside of Atlanta, GA. That's right by the Georgia Aquarium ya'll. Where they have WHALE SHARKS. That's one HELL of a long roadtrip to Atlanta, but oh my god, is that not going to be FUN AS? I'm ALREADY excited!