Thursday and Friday

I got out of work early on Thursday because they were remodeling our workspace, it was nice to got out to the barn early. I was not able to ride outside however, the guys were working on the footing in the outdoor ring. Our outdoor is a sand rubber mix and we have been having issues with it being over crowned since it was built. The guys used the compactor on the ring and then watered it heavily, and it needed to wait until Friday to be dragged. I worked inside and Werther was very good. The right lead canter is getting much better, I only had one swap and it was because I made a bad turn. I memorized training level test 2 and I ran though both 1 and 2 once, which I will be riding at Mason City. It went well, I think the canter trot transition and the quick turn on to the final center line in test two will be a challenge. I rode in the outdoor on Friday, the footing felt pretty good, although it was much firmer out there than I am used to. It was a little chilly, so Werther was really moving nicely foreword. Again, I just had one swap, this time when I was shortening my reins, it must have caused my position to go out of wack. I still wasn't quite confident that I had the tests down, so I ran through them one last time. Werther started to anticipate a little bit, so I will have to take a break from practicing the tests for awhile. It was odd doing the tests in the outdoor which is much larger than a regulation size dressage ring, I felt like I was going around for miles. At one point I miss judged the size of canter circle I needed to make to get him back on the rail and ended up at about the quarter line. I just asked him to move over like I would in a leg yield and he took some really nice lateral steps, which was a cool bonus for my ride.