^^^ +1
You are doing great. Keep at it.
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Thank you guys all so much for taking the time to respond, I really appreciate it and have learned a lot. I originally created this post because I was feeling hesitant about my bit choice before the judge’s comment. Surprise, surprise, I was in the hunter world before transitioning to eventing and was a junior rider the last time I had to buy a bit (15 years ago!) - aka my trainer told my mom what to buy and she did it? I can’t even remember the process but it left me with a somewhat thin/severe looking single jointed D ring and some sort of myler D ring with a bar. The eventing horses I leased either had an elevator bit or a full cheek snaffle. So, when I went into Dover as a brand new horse mom, I just grabbed what seemed like the fairest bit I could to start with. I tried to research it but there is information overload out there! I was worried that if I started going more and more toward the comfort bits that I wouldn’t know i didn’t have enough control until I really needed it.
Everyone has mentioned things that I have heard before from my trainer or a dressage judge (we have had two tests now). I’ve been working on preparing transitions before asking for them and it has already started to completely change things. Ironically, a change of saddle has also helped matters - he moves more comfortably and my balance/position is better, which has been helping him as well. He is actually finishing lessons with a long and low trot which was a hilarious ask in our first month. Our second dressage test went much better in terms of transitions and willingness but quite a bit worse with the score with the main comment being…needs to work on geometry. I was cutting my corners because i thought he might jump out of the ring!! Every outing is a great lesson for me but he was already much more calm.
Connection will I’m sure be a long and arduous struggle for me. Loose fingers and straight elbows are my nemesis and I work on it daily! But thank you all for your feedback, and to all of you who commented that you like my horse - he is amazing! I am so so happy to have found him and thank you for your kind words! @bornfreenowexpensive , thank you for sharing your test! It is so helpful to see how others deal with their babies.
Hopefully I’ll have better tests to share in the future. It’s always a work in progress!
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