Berney test ride, day two.

Due to my unexpected whiplash on Monday I was in a great deal of pain yesterday. A visit with the chiropractor was in order. I was all out of whack and I had one of the most painful adjustments that I can remember. I'm feeling greatly improved only a few days later and I was feeling stable enough to ride last night. Emily and I thought it would be fun to set up a mini combined test so I marked out a rudimentary dressage arena while she warmed up her lovely mare Prima. She was also test riding my new saddle on Prima as she runs a bit wide too. Emily thought the saddle was really nice! She ran through her test and I set some jumps for and then I got Riley ready for his ride. I opted to ride in a thinline pad to see what kind of difference that would make with the saddle. Unfortunately, Riley managed to scrape himself all along his ribs and was quite sensitive to the touch so I hoped it wouldn't pay into my thought process on the saddle fit.

Our event next week is pretty low key. From what I can gather from their previous evening event, there should be about 10 xc obstacles, 6 stadium jumps and my test is USDF Intro A. We practiced the test a few times and Riley felt pretty great... except I forgot just how hard it is to ride in a 20 meter x 40 meter rectangle! I won't bother trying to post the video because it's pretty boring, but he was bending really nicely, kept a pretty consistent contact and was lovely and cadenced. It felt rushed to me, but watching the video it looked very fluid. I am going to work on our transitions quite a bit between now and then as he has a tendency to come above the bit during them. Our free walk needs a lot of help too... the walk itself is nice and forward, but he's giraffe-ing around instead of reaching down into the contact and really stretching his neck.

Centerline!

Looking cute as a button. I sit up so much straighter in this saddle!

Bending nicely and stepping under himself beautifully.

The big takeaway from the ride was that he really understands proper contact now, and I'm starting to think the Dr. Bristol is a bit much on the flat for him. I'm going to try him in something slightly milder to see if he will stay at the vertical. He's not curling to evade contact (if that makes sense) but he also is forward enough that bumping him into the contact doesn't prove to be very useful. I have been giving him little half-halts to sort of pick him up so he doesn't get too deep.

We set up a little course with a few tricky bending lines, one related distance (four strides), total of 6 jumps with the option to jump a few twice if I wanted. I'm still struggling with my overall balance, but he did realize that he's just barely trying over these crossrails and that doesn't help me in the slightest. When he really jumps (and respects the fences, I ride a lot better). My position is a major work in progress but this saddle keeps my leg rock solid and I couldn't be happier about that.

Actually jumping for once. Not sure why my toe is so turned out (that's never been an issue), but in the video my leg stays in perfect harmony with him. I have got to learn how to crouch more over the fences though -- I'm getting there!

Grrrr, it won't let me upload the other video. Stupid jerk blogger!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tomorrow he gets a trainer ride (a little dressaging, a little jumping) and Staurday we do trot and canter sets on the hills.

Also, he's not spoiled or anything:

Fresh from the garden at the farm.