No, this photo isn't of Bardo, but it reminds me of him and the great spectacle I was able to watch while I shared the arena with Melissa while she rode him today. I've always been in awe of Melissa since I started riding at Barnabee 15+ years ago. At that point Melissa owned a huge Hanoverian gelding named Tang, who looked very similar to Wakana, the horse in this photo. He was magnificent to watch under saddle or even just pacing in his stall run. Melissa now owns Bardo who is 8 years old and she's had him since he was 18 months old. She's done all of his training and is quite the accomplished rider. I love to watch her when she rides. She makes everything look so easy and effortless, which is the key in dressage. She's totally relaxed and stretches long in her body. Her horse in turn has a great reach in his stride and his lateral movements are free flowing.
When I got to Barnabee today, Melissa was about 2/3 of the way into her ride and said it was okay for me to join her in the arena. Sometimes she prefers to work alone depending on Bardo's temperament that day and what exercises she is working on. I was glad I was able to join her in the arena since it was raining pretty hard and we were soaking wet from having walked 1.5 miles to get there. While she finished her ride I warmed up Ben and just tried to keep out of her way, but at the same time I couldn't keep my eyes off her.
It's funny riding with such an experienced rider, I feel like I need to sit taller, stretch my leg lower and try harder at what I'm doing to try to impress her. But I highly doubt she even looked over at me since she was so focused on what she was doing. There was even another boarder at the barn, Colleen who owns Ivan, who came down to watch her while she rode. Someday I hope that my riding has that sort of presence for people. Maybe I'm just too self-conscious, but I always feel like people are criticising me when I'm riding rather than complementing me in their minds. That's probably because Ben always seems to be fidgeting or messing around and not paying 100% attention on me.
It's hard riding dressage since everything is so detailed and you aim for perfection. It requires a lot of patience and you really have to have the right horse to succeed, at least in the judges eye. I am making progress in Ben's training though. Today after Bardo left he seemed to really be focused and luckily he didn't have any freak out moments while we were together. I don't think Melissa would have been too happy about that!! Here's hoping that someday when I'm in my 50s like Melissa I will be as talented as she is and own an equally talented horse.
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