Figuring out that our warmups need to be really long to get him in a place where he is relaxed and flexible. It will literally take a half an hour or more. And when I give him a break and pick him back up he is right where we started with his head again. But overall awesome riding. Super fun!

Dru is very awesome.

Really great ride this morning. Warmed up pretty well. His head was steady. Not perfect, but I've come to the realization that it's a work in progress and takes time. Even his owner has trouble with it and it's been 4 years for her. We went over some ground poles, and I find after I chase him around enough and loosen up his neck he is much better after. Forwardness is becoming less and less of an issue. I feel like we even rushed a few things today, which is an accomplishment. He gives me forward when I ask and is pretty good at extensions, but not so good at slowing down after. We need more contact. I give him some reign when he is accepting the bit, and the second I put any pressure on his mouth what we had is gone and his head shoots up in the air. We ran 1st 1 and it was ok, but s great warm up for the training test. He needs a lot of warm up to be loose and able to move his neck. And still at the end of our ride it was still tense. The chiro couldn't even do anything with it and was having trouble. But anyways then we walked down Harmon rd. With a driving horsey :) dru was really good and didn't spook once!

Same old, same old. Working on head down. It has gotten better but still way frustrating. He's never like oh I remember this, everyday it's a fight. After I warm up I've been working on sitting trot. It's gotten better. I don't know how to keep his head down consistently. I don't know how to make his back less hollow. And I don't understand this whole counting thing. When do I ask for the canter. I know it's his outside hind, but at what point do I ask for it? When it's touching the ground? He wouldn't respond fast enough, when it's up in the air? I don't know when that is. Knowing where his hind feet are by his ribs has gotten easier and I'm just more aware of it, but I don't understand why it matters why I know where his feet are. I'm not quick enough with it to be able to time anything with it yet.

Druyyy was such a good boy today! His head wasn't perfect, but much improvement. He was pretty great.

Showing is stressful! So much work for this five minute ride. Also so much fun. It was worth it in the end and I'm super excited for the next one! I was pretty calm until we pulled into the Hollis, and then I asked myself what I was doing there. I didn't have a lot of time to warm up, like 20 minutes. Without a good warmup we just aren't good. I need to flex his neck and relax him. We went in and did ok, I was a little nervous, but it was better than I expected. The second test I was even more behind. I walked him around for 5 min and then had a two minute warm up. We got third both times, so it all worked out. Need to be more prepared.

Yesterday was HOT!! My car said it was 100 degrees out! Just warmed him up, he was pretty good. Then we ran through our tests. They were okay... getting a little nervous for my first show! Ah!

Went to Hollis yesterday with Dru. I was amazed at how good he was there! He looked around and then went, Oh! I know this place. I could just walk around on a long reign and he was perfect. The warm up was great. Best ride I've ever had on him. His head was down, we were connected. We went into the ring, he kinda lost it, training one went pretty bad.. partly my fault. There were no letters, and the fencing wasn't up so I was really confused. We gave him a break and took him over some small jumps. Well my friend and I traded horses and she took him over a few. We had like an hour in between sense someone was having a driving lesson. He was pretty bad at jumping, it was really funny. Training 2 was a lot better than 1. Head down more, listening, and I actually knew what to do. Overall pretty good day. I'm so proud of him! Excited for the show Sunday and feeling more prepared.

Dru is getting better, slowly but surely. Not prepared for the show. Ahh running around with my head cut off. We shall see how this goes.