dressage media

As a quick update on yesterday’s post from the CT at Thornridge, I got my hands on the higher resolution dressage video — yay!!

this dressage court is without a doubt one of the prettiest places to ride a test

Obvi it’s still a cell phone video from which I screen-grabbed a bunch of zoomed in action shots. So… it’s “higher resolution” but still, ya know, a little grainy lol.

i went in a little early so the video video missed our entry and first trot circle. 

nbd, it starts up during the first canter

But that’s never stopped me before haha, and what else is there to say other than I am mild-to-moderately obsessed with documenting media from our various adventures for posterity.

doozy looks relaxed!

And this was definitely a good one! Not perfect, never perfect. But good <3 

it wasn’t our most expressive free walk but i love the ho-hum vibes!

And actually, there’s a direct comparison bc the 2026 BN-B test is identical to the 2022 version, which we also rode at Thornridge in May, a year ago. 

no picture is perfect but i’m happier with how i’m sitting at times

Now sure sure, that day in May was… not Doozy’s finest moment. Recall she melted down into a full blown violent psychopath upon unexpectedly seeing her field mates also existing in this strange parallel horse show universe… 

my favorite pictures have the giant blossoming tree in the background tho <3

But the meltdown hadn’t quite begun yet during the test. Sure, she was distracted, but that’s also… not unusual for her. So it’s still a relatively good comparison to this weekend’s test.

for real tho, it’s legit the prettiest tree

Aaaaaand ya know. In the grand scheme of things, the picture now isn’t hugely different. All the roughness around the edges — the iffy connection, occasionally shuffle-y transitions, oblong geometry… Ya know. It’s still there, still the same rider LOL.

pretty mare too <3 <3

But maybe I’m biased, but I see a more pleasant overall picture. The horse is steadier in her own carriage and way of going. Looking a lot less frazzled and hectic (although obvi y’all saw her just a few days prior at Loch Moy, so we all know the tension thing is still a bit “one day at a time”). 

“maybe this game isn’t so bad!” — doozy, figuring it out step by step

It just seemed like for whatever reason, on this day at Thornridge, Doozy was more relaxed and better able to just kinda go through the steps of the test, no muss no fuss!

emma, 100% cheesin

Which, as far as I’m concerned, is an enormous part of the whole overall goal. First and foremost: be pleasant and fun! We can always keep refining from there, obvi it’s not like we’re gonna run out of “things that need work” any time soon. 

not a bad way to spend the morning!

But having Doozy feel basically pleasant, present and willing in a test environment feels like a huge win.

It’s been a slow road with this silly little mare, but she seems to be pretty happily settling into the “go everywhere, do everything” role I’d hoped for her!