June 30 2010

  Addie was definitely the Big Red Mare today. I didn't ride yesterday, but dang she acted like I hadnt ridden her in three! She was definitely in La La Land today. I had to do lots of counter bending at the trot to get her head screwed back on, to remind her she knows how to be round and not bend like a 2x4. Maresy was madly swishing her tail during warm up at the walk, and bouncing like bees were attacking her. She finally she agreed with me that there wasn't anything bothering her.
 Today there were two other horses in the arena as well. That was very exciting for her, because she believed she had a reason to scream at them a few times while their riders looked at me like "cant you just shut her up?!". To say the least The Mare has a mind of her own and will scream until hell freezes over no matter how many times you "tell" her to shut up. Hopefully she wont ever do it in a dressage test.
 On the up side her canter work was pretty good, and she had some nice walk to canter transitions as well. Her canter to trot down transitions were another story. You would have never guessed we had just spent a whole ride on them the day before last, which were very nice if I may say so. Oh well. We did some free walking to cool her down which was wonderful, we then ended it on some turns on the forehand (which she apparently forgot how to do, but finally remembered) that were pretty nice as well.

  I thought I had figured out my saddle fitting issues, but they sprung up again today, so that didnt help my riding whatsoever. The pommel was really tipping forward. I switched from a SaddleRight pad I was borrowing from a friend to my Mattes Quilted Correction pad. That had helped for quite a while, but now I probably need to go a smaller gullet for my saddle (I have a crappy Collegiate Convertible Diploma I am trying to replace with a Stubben). Right now I have a X-Wide Gullet in it, so I'll have to get the next size down and see if that helps at all. When I go down to Meggan's on the 11th I am going to have her do a fitting to see what size she really is.