Magic!

Tonight's dressage training was such an amazing experience and exactly what I needed right now. I got a feeling which practically made me high on happiness, the whole lesson included such a flow in our movements and transitions. Usually I drop the feeling if we get any troubles in a leg-yielding for example, which sometimes make me ride a lot worse then I usually do. The same thing can happen after a bad canter exercise, often because Scarto haven't been strong enough and become tired really quick in the canter. But tonight we had that flow where you just go from one exercise or movement to the other with such a great feeling where "everything´s possible". Our canter work was without any question the highlight of my life - we had that amazing flow with us and he had power and softness in each step.

In the morning I took a trip to another stable in the nearby to watch when a friend of mine participated at another training which gave me such an inspiration. The trainer (who I have ridden for a couple of years ago) talked a lot about the difference in training a horse which are already schooled compared to a green horse. His talk reminded me to take it cool and breathe, lately I´ve felt a bit of a rush in our training for no reason. I don´t know why I'm suddenly in such a rush to move forward to more difficult things, I guess it´s since things have gone really great lately. Then it´s easy to forget that you ride a young horse which needs time to built strength and to become comfortable in the movements.

My philosophy is to se to the individual of each horse, they need different amounts of time before they´re ready. As a rider it´s important for you to be reminded that all the hard work you put down now you´re gonna have use of in the future. But at the time it sometimes feels a bit boring to just repeat, repeat and repeat the basics and to be sharp in your own riding when it comes to plan which way to ride. I mean most of us can ride a 20 meter circle, but are your circle actually really 20 meters, are it really round, are your position correct and to benefit for your horse? The trainer I watched today is a real perfectionist, you always have to work hard on the basics and he means that´s where your future problems eventually will pop up.

So what I brought from this lesson was to stay cool and don´t rush, to lower my expectations (after all he's a young horse without experience) and to enjoy the small things we achieve. Maybe that´s why it worked so well today, no pressure of myself or the horse and I cleared the air with mom (she´s also my trainer) last training so we where at the same page today. I´m gonna tell you more about having your parent as an instructor another time.

Tonight´s magical feeling from our canter is something I´m gonna remember forever, that´s one of thoose moments you live for as a rider!