2 days of classical dressage aside :)

Well I have had two days of classical dressage aside and I am exhausted but happy :)

We have a trainer that comes down here every 6 to 8 weeks and she does 3 days of lessons. I had emailed beforehand and asked if I could ride sidesaddle and she was willing to give it a go. This trainer had spent some years in Europe with Egon von Neindorff  (now deceased) and also clinics with Philippe Karl when he is in Australia. I had devoured PK's book "Twisted Truths" but lack the practical knowledge to apply it. I had also struggled to find a local trainer who used classical principles, let alone knew who PK was... *sigh* then I found this trainer by chance  :) There is also a good dose of Baucher flexions thrown in, with work in hand to mobilise the jaw before we even move off.

Day 1 we spent mostly in walk, using flexion and counter-flexion to work on straightness (our nemesis at the moment) and also really trying to get Molly to relax, do little walk/trot and getting her to extend her neck. I was so conscious of trying to keep my weight to the right that I think I overdid it and started hitching my left hip. By the time I got home I had quite a nagging tightness/pain in the small of my back on the left side.

Day 2 started off with a bang, literally unfortunately. Just as I was walking Molly to the mounting block a child on a small motor cross bike appeared and proceeded to zoom in and out of the trees alongside the arena. If there is one thing in this world that Molly is terrified of, it is kids on small motorbikes! She leapt into the air and was a quivering mess, with diarrohea... :(

It took for 15 minutes to calm her down enough to get on. I explained to the trainer and said we would just have to see how it went, as I suspected I would have to bail before Molly hit the eject button. Fortunately the kid didn't last long and zoomed off 10 minutes into my lesson, but it took at least another 20 to get her adrenaline down. I was disappointed, but these things happen. We did get some nice trot work at times, and just at the end she had a brief look at our canter, so it wasn't a total waste of time. We obviously have HEAPS to learn and improve upon. I really like this approach, although it is slower it just feels right for us. It is quiet but insistent and doesn't compromise my joints by expecting me to enter into a tug of war with Molly.

One other thing I really like about this trainer is at the end of the clinic she gave me a homework sheet, with notes she wrote up for us to work on and gave us both short and long term goals to work on until we see her again.

So I will certainly be back when she is next down, and she said that she is looking forward to seeing us again. I guess a mad sidesaddle DQ livens things up a bit! lol