See, Dressage is NOT SCARY!

What a month! Parties and clinics, new horses, rain (at last!), new friends, new students, new staff, it's all happening.
 
Out of a month of highlights, it's hard to choose the best one, but our introduction to dressage clinic with Ysabelle Dean would have to come out tops.
 
On a less than ideal day (weather wise) a group of hardy souls gathered to hear Ysabelle talk about bitless riding, the work of the amazing Dr. Robert Cook, and the effectiveness of bitless bridles in all disciplines, but most notably, dressage.
 
During a break in the rain, we managed to get in over an hours instruction in the saddle, with Ysabelle showing us a couple of amazingly effective, yet easy to understand and execute exercises for developing our horses self carriage. 
 
We even made Marcus the gaucho join in, and discovered that he and Diablo have quite an aptitude.  We may all have to work a little harder if we are going to stay ahead of him in this game!
 
Of course, it will be interesting to see how good he is when Ysabelle's not there to hold the reins for him...
 
We took a lovely long lunch break (we didn't MEAN to, but the rain made us) enjoying the delightful company of Ysabelle and her equally delightful and highly amusing partner Mike. Mike had kindly volunteered to pencil for Ysabelle who was judging the afternoon's competition. 
 
Then, it was hearts firmly in throats, as pre competition nerves nearly disabled just about everybody, despite Ysabelle's assurances that we were just going out for some fun. Yeah, that was ok for Ysabelle, she was the JUDGE!
 
Frantic mutterings of "Where do I enter", "what happens at C" and "Oh, no, I FORGOTTEN THE WHOLE TEST", were all proven to be of no concern, as NO ONE forgot their test, and everybody performed well beyond their expectations. Except Susan, who got beaten into second place by Natasha.  And still hasn't quite gotten over it. (Natasha, I thought you hadn't done this before? - Susan).
 
A truly marvellous day was had by all, some old passions for dressage were re-awakened and some new ones born.  A huge thanks from us all at Amanecer to Ysabelle and Mike for a truly amazing day. Can we get you to come back again? Please?