Day-to-Day Reality

In the interest of being honest and not appearing to talk a bigger game than I play, here's a recap of my latest ride:

I did 20m circles at the walk, trot, and canter.

My dressage court, complete with barrels of course

Yes, I was working on getting proper bend, keeping the circles round, maintaining slow tempo and even rhythm. I was also working on my position, and I was trying to keep Kachina's focus through the sounds of hail and wind and cats bounding around the end of the arena. But the reality is, all I did was simple 20m circles at walk, trot, and canter.

It's sometimes hard to admit that this is where I'm at after so many years of riding, but that's the truth of horses, progress is rarely linear. I was truly very happy with Kachina and today's ride. The beauty and the curse of dressage is that so much work can go into something that outwardly looks so simple.