Harley, dressage, rode the warm-up rather than longe him. Lots of bending walk, circles and direction changes. He settled in nicely. A bit of trot and canter on light contact before I got down to business.
It was a nice, focused ride. I didn't let him day dream or stare off at the trees, but instead, kept my legs on and my hands connected, forcing him to pay attention. A few spiral in/out at trot, and what felt like dozens of transitions. I've noticed that, when I think about "where I'm going", and don't pay close attention to the quality of the ride, then his head comes up, back hollows, and his trot drags on.
I didn't have my spurs. I didn't have the whip. I paid for this dearly. The longer the ride, the lazier he got, ending up needing vocal cues for the gaits. Ugh. Lazy Pony.
As I untacked him, he was a sweatin' mess. I looked to the sky, checked the forecast, gave him an iodine scrubby bath.. And body clipped him. All but his head and legs remain. I'll get that head done sometime this week, legs will stay furry. He stood pretty well, and I've realized my clipper blades need some serious sharpening. At the end, he got some heavy duty fly spray, and after a few hard shakes, he seemed to appreciate his new short coat.
Tonight, we'll try that dressage work again, and see if we can't get a bit longer ride in with less fuzz in the way.
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