The last day of the clinic dawned bright and early again at 6:30 in the morning. At least I had a better night's sleep!
My lesson time was at 8:00 again, but today it was actually kind of cold out.
I got Jetta ready, I was super glad that I had brought two sets of white polo wraps because after a couple rides they start getting really gross, lol. I should have brought two white saddle pads though, because just the one gets really dirty. Anyways, I got Jetta tacked up and lunged her. I was thinking that it was going to be a super good ride because Jetta was actually acting lazy on the lunge line. Ha. I think she was just still half asleep.
I went to the arena where we were riding for the day. One good thing about this clinic was that we changed arenas every day, so it was really good exposure for Jetta.
Our warm-up sucked. I was trying to work on what we had done the other day, but Jetta was still rushing with me. It was a little frustrating. Meredith showed up and we started right into our lesson with trotting a stretchy circle. Jetta started really rushing again and didn't want to stretch at all into contact. Sigh. Frustrating again because Jetta's actually really good about stretching down on the circle while trotting. Eventually though, it was like a switch went off and she started stretching. Meredith had me ask for the stretch by exaggerating the bend to the inside, pushing her into the outside rein with my inside leg and asking her to follow the contact down.
Meredith wanted Jetta to stretch down only a little bit, enough for her to lift her back and you could notice Jetta doing just that when the hollow in front of her withers filled. Once we had the stretch well-established, we went out around the arena and whenever Jetta sped up or braced, I asked her to stretch, especially in the corners. It helped so much! She wasn't trying to run away with me and was no longer bracing against my hand.
We worked on it in both directions. After a short break I used the stretch in trot-canter transitions. I tried to maintain the stretch in both the upward transitions and downward transitions. It was so awesome!!
After that Jetta was bathed and I put her cooler on because it was actually a little cold out (weird summer weather). My friends and I ended up going to the morning lecture so that we could leave early, nothing else too interesting, it was on Barnby notes and learning styles again. No surprise there, I learn best through reading/writing.
After that, it was back to home!
I really enjoyed the lessons and it was worth it just because of them and meeting new people. Meredith was one of the only instructors who didn't compete on the JR/YR circuit, but instead she did Intercollegiate Dressage (IDA). I'm trying to form a team for this next year so she said that I could contact her if I needed any help or if I had any training questions. It was really neat to meet her and make these connections so that if I have questions I know someone to ask.
In relation to the other riders and horses, I think about half were little kids and half were 14 or older. There were about half warmbloods/sporthorse/sportponies and the others were your average horse, nothing fancy. There were only a couple kids all decked out in fancy tack and clothing, so at least I didn't feel outclassed :) I saw one horse that looked like a thoroughbred, but he couldn't possibly be because of his amazing extended gaits. Only one girl rode in a double bridle, and I don't really think she was ready. Her collected gaits didn't give the impression of being powerfully collected, but instead appeared too compressed and broken - his gaits were short and choppy and I think his hindquarters weren't under himself enough. I really enjoyed seeing the different horses and riders - how they rode, what kind of horses, what kind of tack/clothing, etc. Very interesting!
Overall, a good clinic :)
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