On Friday I lunged Galahad again – this time whilst my sister was riding Cookster in the school as well. That was mainly because we were aiming to enter a pairs dressage test on Sunday and we wanted the ponies to get some practice at working independently in the school. It wouldn’t really make for a good test if we couldn’t get them apart!
They actually worked very well. We even ran through the test with me leading Galahad and although it wasn’t a great performance it showed that they could work well separately. Cookster wasn’t too keen on my running about near him but that wouldn’t be an issue in the real test!
On Saturday evening I was allowed to ride Galahad for the first time in a week and he felt really good. The back treatment had definitely improved his way of going.
We ran through our individual test which was nice and forward. I decided to stick to the walk and trot test as he had just had the week off and it felt like it rode pretty well.
We also practised the pairs test. We had thought the parts of the test where we separated would be the hardest but those bits went fairly well. When we had to actually ride as a pair though we really struggled to keep them close enough together. It did improve with practice but there was still a long way to go. Still, it was fun and we hopefully won’t disgrace ourselves in the competition!
On a side note, Galahad has been wearing a rug since his back treatment to keep his damaged muscles warm and it is amazing how shiny his coat is now. Even his tail lies flat!
