Day Five

I had a delightful ride this morning starting out at 9:30 am for over an hour. The weather was picture perfect with blue sky and a light breeze. Dawna Lisa was relaxed and supple and we had no problems with the halt that I did several times out on the trails. I felt like DL and I were really moving forward. We came back to the dressage arena and I walked the test with her including all the halts and rein back. I was relaxed and felt good.
About 11am I went over to the show office and picked up our packet and Larry’s numbers. I started cleaning off the harness and went back to the office area at 11:30 to wait for the farrier. Dave (the new farrier) arrived a little before noon and we went back to the barn. He shoes hot and did a very nice job of resetting her shoes. DL was a good girl as she always is about these things. Dave did a very nice job and I am pleased.
The advanced horses had their vet check at 3pm and I watched most of them and went back to the barn with Bob (showing a nice New Forest pony training level) about 4pm. At 4:30pm the group of us went back for the briefing. After the briefing, I opted not to go on the course walk but go back and drive DL. Pat Hastings said I could walk the course with her tomorrow. We are both doing preliminary pony but she is pairs. Terri Bruno (training pair horses) and I were working with Larry. While Terri did her test, I worked DL on the trails for about 15 minutes and came back to the other dressage ring and walked the test with DL. We did a couple of halts that weren’t terrible but…
When Terri was through, I went over to the hated dressage arena. We trotted in and tried the halt which was worse than the other halts BUT had a good test with all transitions nice. We came down the diagonal with a nice lengthening trot, came back to the working trot down the center line and did a halt at X which was kind of a halt but there was little backing and she leapt into the walk on. The second halt which should have had a salute was not more than a momentary pause before a large leap. I brought her back to the walk took her up to Larry. BOTH of us are frustrated. She is so obedient about everything but the halt. Larry said we had a great test BUT for the halts. We went to the other dressage arena and the halts got worse. Larry said he would drive her for a bit. I was getting worried that it was ME. It wasn’t because DL was piggy with Larry too. I guess this made me feel slightly better but the big issue is not solved. After numerous times, Larry got a couple of good halts. We decided to leave it on a good note.
When I got back to the barn, Larry headed for me. Larry spent some time long lining her with many halts which seems to have helped. I have very closely watched Larry and noted several things. He say “Walk up.” And I say “Walk on.” Since I have used “Walk on.” All my life, I am not sure IF I can remember UP instead. I will try it out tomorrow. Our game plan is the work her hard in the morning and afternoon. I will redo the long lining thing at least twice. The riding thing DID not work…. I am not going to lose my patience. As I said before, I need to out smart this clever mare. She is not dangerous just being VERY stubborn. Nothing in life comes easy and I would be a fool IF I thought this was going to be easy. Dawna Lisa is a great mare and I can’t think of an equine that I would rather drive. WE just need to get past this minor speed bump in our driving career together. Yours, Claudia