Indy Dressage Classic Photos

Connor's breeder recently gave me her photos from my 66.618% scoring 1-3 in August.

I'm so glad I got to see these, because they point out a few things to me:

1. I am coming closer to being able to hold my new position through an entire test.

2. My torso can get behind the motion sometimes.

3. My reins are too long.

Way too long

But!  The most important takeaway, and the reason I'm not upset about my too-long reins, is that this is the first test EVER in which I can hardly find throatlatch tension in a single photo.  I did see evidence of it in one photo, and two strides later you can see in another photo I gave forward with my elbows and he relaxes into the contact.  Look at my elbows and his neck in the next two photos:

Relaxation had to come first.  Relaxation is a result of sitting well and not pulling.  Now that we've internalized everything that leads to relaxation well enough to do it at a show, we can start focusing on all the good things that will happen when I shorten my reins.