Lesson with Sandy Savage

Saturday Lucy and I had a lesson with Sandy Savage; our first lesson since last July.  I was hoping that Lucy and I would be able to show Sandy work that was representative of what we are doing at home.  Lucy had been very sluggish during the week so I was a bit concerned.

Lucy trailered well down to Sandy's barn in Wilton, south of Sacramento.  It was in the low 70s at home -- and in the low 80s down in the lowlands of Wilton.  Lucy stood quietly (for Lucy) at the trailer while I groomed and tacked her up for our lesson.

We discussed our game plan.

She allowed me to brush her face.  Lucy does not like to have her face fussed with; she does, however, enjoy my uber soft face brush.

And she doesn't like having her mane brushed, much less pulled.  I cut her mane instead of pulling when it needs a trim and I try to be very gentle when I brush it.  You can see by her ears she isn't thrilled.

Then it was off to the covered arena which was nice and cool -- and crowded.  Lucy was a tad looky.
Do I know you?  You look familiar.  I used to live here, you know.

Hey!  Stay outta my bubble.

Ack!  A mirror!

Sandy suggested going outside to the dressage court which was quiet.  I readily agreed.  Brett and Sandy sat in chairs in the judge's booth so they were in the shade.  Lucy and I, not so much.  It was warm but Lucy settled into a good representation of the Lucy I work with at home.  I was pleased.

We started out with trot, encouraging Lucy to stretch into a long rein.  Last year, we often spent an entire lesson on this because Lucy wasn't able to maintain the stretch.  Ever since her massage in December, she's been much happier to stretch.  While she stretched, I worked on my hand position and not getting in the way.  Brett took video and, since he was sitting right next to Sandy, you can hear all her commentary.  So, I won't bore you with it here.  This first segment is our warm up.

The second segment is our trot work with a focus on connection and transitions.  We did a lot of walk-trot-walk transitions.  I learned to barely tense my ring finger for a transition.

The third segment is more trot and transitions -- and more work on my softness through the elbows, arms and shoulders.  Leg position, hand position... So much room for improvement.

The last segment is our canter work.  Lucy was pretty hot and tired by this time and didn't want to canter.  She did though; she's a trooper.

Then we were done; hot and sweaty and happy.