Cody's First Dressage Lesson

I really need to get the camera or video camera out to the barn soon. This week was Cody's first "dressage" lesson. I suppose technically it wasn't a dressage lesson, it was just a lesson. But the same could go for Axel. We're just trying to teach them to carry themselves correctly and in the end I'd like to do a Dressage Show with Axel. In any case, I decided for the next few weeks I would ride Cody because so far we haven't had much luck together. I had Tricia ride Axel during the lesson so he doesn't get out of shape.

First things first, I could just pay Tricia to ride Axel and watch. He looked so good I could not believe it. He looked like a pro! It was awesome!

Item number two: I am way too timid/wishy-washy. After being told under no certain circumstances (which was still probably too wishy-washy) was he to act like an idiot, Cody shaped up really nicely.

We had our first discussion right out of the gate when he didn't want to go down to the end of the pasture where we intended to ride. But after we got over that he was really well behaved. Stephanie was using my extra D-Ring on Kiko and Kalani so I found a big O-Ring with a curved mouth piece and some small copper inlays. That seemed to work out well for Cody so we might stick with that one for a while. We did the basic walk and trot stuff. Trying to stay on the rail and bend around my leg. Cody's a bit more responsive than Axel but he still needed quite a bit of leg to figure out what it was I wanted him to do. Things were a little more difficult on his left side since his shoulder is sore. I've got to get my fiances in order and see if I have enough to get the chiropractor out for him next month. Unlike Axel in the beginning, Cody will trot around the "arena" almost as many times as you want without having to be prodded to keep going. His trot is a lot smoother and easier to sit though it does pick up a bit when he gets going. We had one very minor issue in the middle of the lesson when he wanted to head back to the barn but it was very minor and we worked through it. The rest of the time he was darn well behaved. I think riding him for several weeks in a row is really going to help. Mostly I think it'll just help me figure out what cues I need to be giving Cody to keep him paying attention. It won't hurt him to get a little exercise and face time with me either.