Adding to the account - and getting a lesson in how it should be done

At the same time I walked into the arena yesterday two of Judy's new clients showed up with their rather 'lively moving' Andalusians. Great - hand me my parachute, please!

Judy looked at me and gave me the option to scratch my lesson, which I appreciated. However, I decided it was time to pull up the big girl pants and get on with it. Remy started immediately to swivel his ears around and tried to crane his neck to check out the newcomers. Lateral work to the rescue. I was able to keep his focus on me and my focus on him, and we had a good lesson. It helped that the two other riders were nice enough to keep their distance. It's good preparation for the shows, although there people are often less considerate and way more erratic. One step at a time we are chipping away at our anxieties. I look at it like putting deposits in our savings account. We will have to make withdrawals from time to time, but the goal is to always have enough in petto to never run into an overdraft situation. Currently the account is very healthy, yay!

Today I was able to observe Judy riding Remy. I had asked her about it because I am a visual person, so I need to see to have the imagine in mind of what I need to create. It's very educationl to observe the right professional at work, but also a bit humiliating. With Judy, it's like Remy immediately stands tall and at attention, she has his ears (and the rest) right away. With me it's more like "maybe, perhaps, if I feel like it" until I get more demanding. Judy -of course- showed me how it's done: Clean 4s (tempi changes every four strides) and WOW canter pirouettes. Well, now that I have the pictures in my head, I "only" have to recreate them, right??

What Judy's ride showed the right level of submission (which incidentally I find is not a good translation of the German word Durchlaessigkeit). I was very happy when I saw a posting from Manolo Mendez Dressage on the definition of submission (and yes, it's based on German guidelines):

Submission does not mean subordination, but an obedience revealing its presence by a constant attention, willingness and confidence in the whole behaviour of the horse as well as by the harmony, lightness and ease he is displaying in the execution of the different movements.  The degree of submission is also manifested by the way the horse accepts the bridle with a light and soft contact and a supple poll, or with resistance to or evasion of the rider's hand being either "above the bit" or "behind the bit" respectively.

Dressage guidelines 1912, article 416