dressage show

Belle's getting the day off from trailer training today, as I have much to do to prepare for this weekend's double header at Sunland Park Race Track (nope, not racing, going to a dressage show) near El Paso, sponsored by the Paso del Norte Dressage Society.

Yet suddenly, out of the blue, B doesn't want to pick up the left lead canter. When he is cantering left (after much shouldering-in and whip tapping) he feels dead and almost like he's going to just plunk out. I know I am locking my left hip and working too hard at asking for both the transition and the ten meter canter circles, overdoing everything. I'm probably so tense about it he's just like, well, forget it.

Horses and wind don't match. I'm up at Katy's today having a lesson (the first in a long while), and the wind is blowing 30 mph and the horses next door are frolicking, and to add to the wildness, the TV series Wildfire is in full production right on the other side of the barn, so there are booms going up and four-wheelers flying by and cameramen shouting. Yikes. I would have "called in sick" but we've got the first show of the season coming up and I really need Katy to yell at me about missing my letters and so forth.

So all is well and we're going to work on single flying changes. I'm leg yielding at the canter from left to right (the bad side) and I can feel that the big bad B (the fat one in the snow in the photo pages) is anticipating... he's gonna...he's gonna...he's gonna BUCK CHANGE BUCK CHANGE BACK. dang.