Jhana F. in high school. She was my ever so gracious model over 10 years ago. Photograph was taken with a Nikon N50, 75-300mm lens, no clue anymore about any camera settings.. Cleaned up in photoshop: removed dust & scratches.
I spent a good 2 hours last night at the Rideau Raceway again. Mucked about with manual settings, adjusting the light settings and the what not as the sun set and the sort. I took about 400 photos, and I’ve narrowed it down to about 80 to work on, and I’ll probably get about 20 out of that, which are good to put up in the Gallery. So have a look for those in the upcoming days. I still have my Byward Market photos to do, as well as Sarah’s wedding photos.
This past week I finally dropped my stirrups down and started working on a proper dressage seat. Flame, bless his heart worked mighty fine.l It’s a hard thing to do, getting him back on track while trying to get yourself working right. It’s been a long time for him to start working proper, it’s been even longer than that for me. I haven’t ridden in a dressage seat for coming close to 6 years, even though I rode in a dressage saddle. That hunter/jumper seat is a hard thing to ditch. But we plowed on, and had a couple good rides this week. Good solid 10 minutes before tacking up, working on moving forward.. i am aiming for a trot where he’s up tracking but not rushing (for you non horsie peeps, that’s having the hindfoot step into the footprint made by the front foot). After lunging I spent a good 10 minutes working on ground manners; lots of stepping off with me at a trot inhand, turns, stops, bowing, kneeling. That really gets his mind focused. Then I lunged him for another 10 minutes in tack.
I lowered the side reins to go where they rest at the base of his shoulder. usually I hook the sidereins up to the girth straps so they don’t slide down, but having them lower makes him lower his polline line and work the back muscles more. I have to build his back up, so all the lunging in tack is now like this for a while. Poor thing, was exhausted by the time I actualy decided to ride. Then we worked on lots of the same lowered polline frame. Had a nice swinging stride at the trot, and I worked on my own position while doing big circles and serpentines. He was quite light in the mouth and carrying himself for once, bending and changing direction of flextion in the curves. I posted in the trot for about 15-20 minutes, then I decided to sit because I had such a lovely trot coming out of him. Did that for 20 minutes.. and HOly crap I’m still feeling it a few days later. But as the old saying goes, no pain no gain right?