SF, that comparison pic is great! Tesla has matured a lot, she looks amazing.
Ponichiwa, great photo!!
Mountaineer, love reading your progress. Photo definitely shows you are both doing well. LOL my partner gets roped into videoing too, and he starts saying stuff a bit too loud "that horse looks on the forehand" or "that one is lazy behind".. I'm like shhhhhhhh
Exvet, thanks for sharing test vids. Always good to watch.
Demi, I'm so sorry you lost Rik. I'm glad you are doing the cool stuff with Besa though, the higher level stuff is so fun to do!
I am reading everyone's posts, I love these threads.
Chisamba, it's an interesting discussion. So many times I've thought of tapping out with my horses. The little horse not having enough oomph to do things, and the big horse poorly conformed and struggling to collect. BUT, I think they are just humps that you have to take the time to get over. I've given up the thought of being competitive in dressage though. I can't get the expression and gaits that the better horses can get, and I make my horses unhappy if I push for it. I still would love to do a GP test and i'm practising bits of it, but the pressure off to be competitive amongst the professionals and WBs is making it really fun.
Time off for horses is not a bad thing while you recover after your hip surgery, especially if you are at a hump. I reckon back off your expectations but dont tap out.
If you think there's something medically wrong, get a good vet check from a sports med vet done. I've been told my big horse is likely to have kissing spines, hock issues and an old T1 fracture. He is struggling with piaffe and trans out of piaffe. So,I need to take him to the vets (about 3hrs drive away) and get a good assessment on him and I only play with these movements. If it's a good day and he feels ok, I'll do some. If it's a day he's objecting, I leave it alone.
edited to add: Also, here's a little vid of Ding doing 1x changes. I thought many times of stopping his training because I didn't think he could do it. Now, the problem with sharing achievements like this, is comparing it to perfect. Especially following social media stuff. Like, they are not going to score high marks and they are far from perfect. But OMG my little horse is doing 1x changes!!! I showed a friend this vid and she said "oh he gets so bouncy". Nice way of saying they suck. But the more you train, the more you realise how friggen hard this is and have a lot more empathy for others that are trying.
https://youtu.be/BAvbLzl7eWAI'm enjoying doing working eq because they have to be trained well, collect and have impulsion but they don't need the expression.
Saying that, my little black horse is not brave. So, he does struggle when I go to different comps and the gate squeaks and the environment is different. I have thought of quitting because of that reason (I often get eliminated because he's too scared) but I'll keep chipping away. I'm moving up to the next level where it's all one-handed riding. Two hands doesn't stop us getting eliminated, so may as well push on!
Here's some vid of Ding at our last competition. All 3 phases are there so feel free to skip along. It was really wet, Ding hates it if he doesn't feel secure and you can see how worried he is about some of the obstacles. But we made it through.
https://youtu.be/WTTwi3SkZJgAnd a short clip of Norsey training at home. He's probably too big for working eq, but who cares he can do it! I've just had to teach him to go slow and not speed up.
https://youtu.be/_zkPbjiTzOoAs a goal for me, I just have to stop eating!! I'm not sure if it's an age thing where I dont care enough? Or my metabolism isn't what it used to be but I can't seem to diet. I've never been this big, and it's getting alarming.