Making friends with my horse again

It's sometimes hard to understand the difference between total commitment to a goal and overworking it.

My aim this year, as a dressage rider who bred and trained her own horse, was to move up from First to Second Level. In pursuit of that I forgot that Cruz Bay, who is the beautiful boy in the photo with me, and the son of the most wonderful mare in the universe, is a horse. He's not a machine, he used to event with me and enjoyed it. He's asking why he only gets to go into the riding arena every day instead of going on trail rides and jumping sometimes, too.

We had one good show out of three this season, when he finally got to warm up on grass. He even gave a little buck of joy! We won that class with high marks, but bombed at the next one.

I went home with my tail between my legs. Then I asked myself why we'd done so well two years ago, winning every show we went to. The answer seemed simple. That amazingly successful year, Cruz and I had been through a lot, but included in his daily routine was lots of jumping and trail riding. Fun stuff.

I also used to ride him in a happy mouth, which I'd changed for a double-jointed French snaffle for more leverage. My spurs were now longer with rowels, too.

Now I've put the happy mouth back in, and am wearing the short spurs. Cruz and I have a jumping session once a week, and go on weekly trail rides. We're working hard at that dressage, too. But I'm back to having fun with my horse again, and being friends with him.

My riding seems to have improved. I'm more relaxed now, and quieter in the saddle.

I have a show on 20th September. Let's see whether we do better this time.

If anyone has had similar experiences with their horses I'd love to hear about it!