Well we did it - Our first dressage test

Again Reilly has knocked my socks off with his amazing mind. He soaked everything up today like a big brown hairy sponge and never put a foot wrong. It's true that we have a very long way to go before we are ready for registered competition but, for a horse that has been under saddle for a month, quite frankly I think he is amazing.

The test was quite wobbly and my riding was abysmal but we still scored a perfectly respectable 61% with encouraging remarks from the judge. The photos are taken from a video so apolgies for the quality. The video is not for public consumption just yet as I am still trying to get over the state of my riding and the size of my thighs!!!

Our first dressage lesson

Gawd I am knackered!!! We had our lesson with Jo today, my first real dressage lesson in YEARS! What a work out for Reilly and for me (an hour). Jo has 5 horses and of course they are all mares so Reilly chose today to realise he has balls, lol! The silly dufus fell in love with the very pretty weanling (he's a cradle snatcher!) filly in the paddock next to the arena. Not only was she a baby but her dam is by Light Spirits as is Reilly's dam 'What a Lark' so she is his cousin as well. He sang out merrily to her through the first half of the lesson and grew about a hand every time he had to trot past her, eejit! We also had a microlight go up in the paddock right next to the arena! - I mean what are the freakin odds?! Fortunately I was more worried about the microlight than Reilly was (he was too busy chatting up the new love of his life to care) and I was sure it was about to buzz us and was just preparing to bail out, hehe! Really happy with the boy though as once I had his focus, he tried really hard for me and even when he was distracted, he was not dirty, just focussed elsewhere rather than on me.

He was quite unsteady in his head during the lesson. I had my suspiscions that the saddle was pinching and unfortunately it appears that it was so, the GP is out and the dressage saddle, in

First dressage start tomorrow - Am pretty much pooping in my pants but I am sure he will look after me ...

Photos below and a video at the bottom:

Learning to jump (on the lunge)

I think it is safe to say that Reilly and I won't be rocking over to the UK any time soon for a crack at Badders or Burghley! Today, in an effort to get some 'lift off' I popped Reilly on the lunge and showed him some small jumps. He's certainly all heart but not too much 'ping' in the pony yet. He clearly wants to please but the idea of organising ones impulsion and ones legs all together so that one may pop over some poles is quite challenging for this wee chap. He may not have shown star quality today but he sure got an A for effort. Not once did he even look like he was going to refuse, bless him. Perhaps the jumps need to go up a metre for him to get the right idea?