Dressage in the dark

So it seems the key to a well behaved, forward going pony is schooling in the dark.

I'm very lucky that there is a floodlit school at the yard as Magic seems to go best when the fields are so dark that he can no longer see what's going on.

After a quite frustrating half hour last week where all he wanted to do was canter at speed and scary angles around corners it was nice to have a calm pony. I rode in spurs for the first time in almost a year (apart from 5 minutes when we first moved home where he clearly wasn't happy with them that day) and he accepted that I was wearing them and after a few swishes of his tail listened to exactly what I was saying.

I asked for lots of rein back, turn on the forehand and leg yield as a warm up again and then asked him to work round almost straight away. If I let him have his head to start with he thinks he can go the whole half hour with his head in the air. We had some lovely trot work and probably the best medium we've had in the school so far. He's usually not thinking forward enough or using himself enough so it's something we've been working on while hacking where he's naturally forward going. Sometimes his transition to medium is so powerful I momentarily get left behind.

After lots of rein back his canter tends to improve a fair bit and slows down enough that he's not motorbiking around corners in the school. He's still better on his left rein than his right but that's understandable as he went months not being able to canter on the right lead due to tight muscle in his back. He's still a lot weaker that side which also shows up as not being able to hold himself on the left rein while bending so his nose pokes a little but he's improving all the time.

I've also been working a lot on our canter while hacking and We've been making the most of the softer ground and having lots of long canters around the outside of big fields. There are a couple within ten minutes ride from the yard and they are doing wonders for Magic's fitness.

I have noticed that I'm going to need to give him his third clip in as many months by about mid November. He was very very sweaty by the time we got back to the yard and he hasn't even regrown much of his full clip yet!