Dressage Day

Finished dressage! Lynx tried so hard and was so confused.... I had bridle tag numbers on the sides of his browband, as is appropriate for dressage tests, but he thought they were odd blinkers and so defaulted to the old correct answer of "pace". I did eventually get him into the trot during the second half of the tests, so I count it as a victory. 

Between tests we hacked around the show grounds in an effort to help him understand the job here is like the job at home, trot only. Once we'd walked all over and then returned to the arena he realized trot was the right answer. Our second test was similar, he didn't get the trot until the second half. He had it beautiful in the warmup, so he DID do all I asked of him this morning. What a good guy.

This halt photo makes me laugh...  the look on Lynx's face says "well what the heck was THAT?!" A surprisingly common reaction horses have to their first official dressage test.  He's an awfully good sport!

Back at the stall afterwards Lynx has been super chill.  He does look for me when I leave the stall, but had been happily eating and drinking.