That's what we've managed to squeeze in since our last catch up!

Our second lesson with Jody Hartstone was just as fantastic as the first one last month! We worked on getting Tech lighter for me and lifting up through the shoulder more, and activating that often-lazy-behind of his, and wow... I had some amazing walk steps in there that felt absolutely brilliant! We also worked on our free walk and our halts too so we covered quite a lot in our 20 minute session. Then Taya hopped up and worked on the same thing at trot but Tech, being the stubborn little toad he can be sometimes, wasn't making life easy for her. There were glimpses of very nice work but he was pulling quite hard, so Jody got on and showed him exactly how he was supposed to do it. I don't think he expected that haha!! After some fine tuning with Jody, Taya hopped back on and took advantage of Tech's new 'Ok I'll do it!' attitude and got some good work out of him, which I'm pleased to say is now continuing at home with a much more obliging attitude! Awesome work team!

The next day we had a visit from Savvy Steve who gave Tech a fab Savvy Touch session. It's fair to say Tech loved it as always! :) It's really great to watch Steve at work and see Tech react, and how much his eye softens and his whole body relaxes by the end of the session. He's always totally chilled out and at ease after his Savvy Touch session and I know he's all ready for work again with no sore spots. Thanks so much Steve! :) We also stocked up on our Mango Butter Sunshade, Cooling gel, and 2 in 1 Shampoo while the "Savvy Truck" was here, so we're all savvied up and ready to go hard again!

The following week we had a day of "firsts". I've never traveled further than our local dressage group here in Tauranga for a one-day show, so driving to and from Rotorua and competing there in the same day was quite daunting task for me. Add that to the fact I only had a 'small' crew of 3 when I was riding in a 60m arena (which is a very big space for 3 pairs of legs to cover if I get into trouble during my test and need help!), and I feel quite proud of myself and my crew that we got through the day quite successfully! Thanks heaps to my fab crew, and to Rotorua Dressage for having us and making it such a good day! :)

The next week I had a couple of fittings for my new Ridir Clothing show jacket. I gave Porscha a pretty big challenge of making me 'look good' with my bulky, awkward-shaped body protector underneath my jacket. There were some very odd curves and angles to deal with, as well as giving me a more feminine shape, and even a waist... but Porscha has done a totally fabulous job and I'm absolutely stoked with the end result! It feels so comfortable, it's stretchy so doesn't restrict my already tricky movement, it fits in all the right places, gives me a great shape and is so flattering and elegant. I LOVE IT!! I picked it up two days before the Tauranga Dressage Show and was very proud to wear it for the first time there. Thank you so much to Porscha and Ridir Clothing. If you need any riding clothing - whether it's for show or home use - you need to talk to Ridir!

So next up was the Tauranga Dressage Summer Show and what a HOT day that was! We were riding just after midday so had the heat to contend with - but that wasn't going to stop me wearing my new jacked haha!! ;) Taya had Tech warmed up well and working really nicely, but he's suffering with his allergies a bit at the moment so she warned me he was quite snorty. But being the awesome cow pony he is, Tech tried his best for me despite having a constantly running nose that was obviously driving him mad throughout the whole test. In our team test we have two free walks near the start of the test, so I made a quick decision (as I was letting out the reins!) to let Tech have a big snort on the first one to hopefully try and clear himself out. I would usually try and hold him together and stop him throwing his head around but under the circumstances, I thought I would give this a try. Needless to say our first free walk was pretty awful with giraffe-esque hops through the middle as Tech threw his head up as high as he could and then blew out pretty fiercely! I was prepared for this though, so held on tight to my handlebar and locked my core in as much as I could. But my poor crew around the outside had no idea this was ok, so were poised ready to jump in and help as it must have looked like I'd lost all control!! But it turned out to be a pretty good plan, and Tech seemed to settle a bit and managed to hold himself together pretty well for the rest of the test. We scored a 7 for our second free walk and a 7.5 for our final halt, which I think is the highest marks we've ever had for those two moves, so the work we've been doing with Jody and at home and on our free walk and halts is paying off, yay! It definitely wasn't our best test, but it was a good experience for me to have to think on my feet and salvage the test from what started out feeling like a bit of a disaster. It was also another big confidence booster to be able to get through all of that in a test environment. Thanks so much to my fab crew for the day - you guys are awesome! And big thanks to Tauranga Dressage for having us as always :)

The next few weeks we'll spend consolidating everything we've been working on and everything we've learned over the last few months, and get us all ready for the trip to HOY. We've got a lesson with Manu in a couple of weeks too (can't wait!) which will be fab, and I've managed to squeeze in one final lesson with Jody the week before we leave too. I'm sure we'll be making more huge progress with those two amazing minds working with us over the next few weeks... Bring it on!!