My Dressage Pony

So I was looking up local schooling shows in the area and came across one later in the month that will be doing (among others) the USDF intro tests A&B. This, we can do. We are nowhere near read to do a test with cantering (ahahahahaha). So I mentioned it to my instructor and she was like, "oh yes, we can do this, I'll print out the tests and we can look at them tonight!".

So we did!

She called out the movements and had us do them (only went through each test once or twice fully, other than that it was just practicing the individual movements.) Discovered a few things:

1. Not only do I have to make my aids stronger than I should, the fact that Kieran is white in the barrel area and my feet and legs are not makes it that much more obvious.

2. We need to do a lot of work on actually round circles (we were especially flat on one side of the circle going a particular direction. Not sure if it's something about the ring, something about his fitness, or I just wasn't using enough inside leg).

3. We need to work on free walk. Typically it isn't something I do when I ride, really. And right now I still have to have some contact to the reins to keep him from drifting inward (not sure if he'd still drift inward if the ring was empty. He might've only been doing it because Christina was standing in there).

Anyway, with school classes for me being over (yay! Can't wait for the shiny "you graduated!" piece of paper!) I have quite a bit more free time on the weeknights so I should be able to actually get up there more than once or twice a week (God willing.) which is what I had intended to do in the first place but...life happened.

Also, last week I bought the pony a Western saddle. Still deciding if it actually fits proper. People online seem to generally agree they think it's too tight. People in real life think I should ride in it some more first to really be able to tell (sweat marks).

Here's what it looks like: