Dressaging it Up

So I have entered into the world of dressage. And it's not so scary! Murphy needs to develop his topline... a lot. It's not so much that he didn't use his back properly before. It's just that he never used his back. Which is definitely mostly my fault.

It's funny though. Our canter is pretty much the ugliest thing ever right now, but his trot work has been very impressive. As in, we're actually going somewhere. Forward motion probably shouldn't be so shocking.

Look at the fancy pony!

All is well except for when Murphy got a wee bit tired. He stopped. Dead stopped. No amount of spur or crop was convincing him that forward was a good idea. He wasn't even bucking! Which, albeit, is a mighty improvement on past behavior.

So stressful. It took effort to get him to move, but I couldn't let him just get away with that behavior. Altering the aids helped but I ended up having to circle him and push him out of that into a long-legged, hysterical trot like thing. It was as if he was a poorly coordinated pacer. Ew. But, we worked through it and he is slowly understanding that he doesn't decide when we are done.

Strangely enough, the thing that helps him the best is his new Dressage saddle. After searching for a reasonably priced (read as: I am super poor) I came across an older model used Wintec 500 17" with a medium tree. And it fit him almost perfectly! Not that his CC hunter saddle didn't fit him. It fits alright, but it seems as if the extra space free around his shoulder encourages him to move out and not pretend he is a Western Pleasure pony. Jogging up to a fence is not conducive to the dressage or jumping experience.

Quick! Distract the Murphy with something he enjoys!

Not me riding him.

He gets so happy when he's jumping. Unless he has to work at it; hence the incredibly tall jump here. Which is why we're not giving up on it! I'm kind of going for a Cross-Training vibe. We'll see if anything comes of it, but for now we are going (once again) back to basics - Dressage style!