Punky and I are looking forward to this new season. We have already had our first show. It was snowing and the winds were blowing; not exactly good weather for dressage. It didn’t help that I had to wake up early either. My trainer, Sue Berrill told me I needed to look just to the next point, no further, because I was looking too far ahead and not being accurate. She said it was good other than that. I did better in getting my hips moving in relation to Punky in the canter.  I did Beginner Novice A and B and got 4th and 6^th place ribbons.

My jumping is great most of the time, but there are a couple of issues here and there because, as my trainer Sue learned, Punky won’t go without a crop. Overall, he has been stellar at jumping. I’m working on his impulsion to the jump and keeping balanced.  One thing that aids this is having good hands and giving him a good approach to the jump. I tend to yank or cut corners on approach. After one strong reminder to Punky from Sue, the next time he saw Sue,  he ducked immediately behind Sean, (my mom’s horse), and tried to hide. When he did that, my trainer Sue, burst out laughing and so did my mom. Punky’s expression was, “I don’t see what is so funny. I am just trying to avoid her”.

All in all, there have been some improvements and some things I still need to work on.