New opportunities

I saw a post on one of my Facebook groups from a dressage instructor looking to do lessons at different barns.  Reasonable price, has her Gold, worth taking a look at.  I checked her record and it's impressive, lots of good scores up to Grand Prix in 2018.  She also has riders up to Third posting about how happy they are with her instruction.  Cool, cool.

And then I figured out where I knew her name.  She's a student of Mary Howard and works at Mary's farm.  Oh, you don't say?  I can have one of Mary's students come teach me rather than trying to juggle my work schedule so that I can trailer out to Mary?  This is worth a shot!

He looks excited for more serious business dressage

I sent a message, got a response, and I have my first lesson on Friday at 5pm.  Woohoo!

I talked to Trainer A and she agreed to having another instructor on site.  This new instructor is based over an hour away, there's no real risk of her losing clients.  And frankly, I can't imagine anyone but me will want to ride with a very focused dressage instructor.  I'll pay Trainer A a ring use fee to keep things fair.  I asked if she wants to pick up some lessons as well and she's thinking about it.  I think it would be a great opportunity for her.

I had a good ride on Theo today so I don't think I'll be in too much trouble.  I definitely need some more structure for my training and an update on where we need to work.  After yet another week of mostly other riders, I spent half of my ride reminding Theo that downtown is a thing and that his back should stretch and come up.  He's so good at convincing people to accept that false frame so he can drop his back.  Once it was up?  Much better.  And that canter is so nice and light to ride now.  Watching that right lead, though, felt something in that today.  Almost stabby.  That's his weak hip so it does tend to lag and he pushed through it, but it's the kind of thing I really watch.

And then the busy ring and crazy wind we were having started to fry his brain so I brought the energy levels back down.  I didn't want to cause an incident with the four school horses working away.  Snow storm this afternoon so he's got to take a little break.

Can you tell I'm saddle shopping again?  All of my targeted ads look like this right now

I feel bad that I have another trainer coming in, but it's too good of an opportunity to miss.  I need someone that knows what Second level takes and has coached others through the process.  I do not want a repeat of 2017.  My record has taken enough of a beating, lets put some better scores out there.  I want to be hitting upper 60's consistently at First, not having the occasional good day.