Squee!

K has prevailed upon us to go dressidging to a venue which is new to us. What the hell, why not, I have to come out of my comfort zone at some point and it'll make a rider of me. I know Wilson will back right off and I'll have to ride him with a lot more gumption and commitment.

We're doing N25 and N28. We've never done N25 before so we had a run-through this morning. Wils had been amazingly good up till then: he'd been more forward and although MT is still a distant dream, he is definitely trying.

The moment we started the test he relapsed into his safe, comfy trot that invariably earns the comment "Could be more forward." Anyway the test wasn't as bad to ride as it looked although we lost our bearings slightly in one of the canter G&Rs, lol.

However, the last canter, on our better (left) rein, was quite extraordinary. Wilson came into an "n" shape: he was all compact and tucked in and not so much forwards as upwards. He has done this before but this was the best yet and he maintained it for the whole canter including the G&R, the change of rein on the long diagonal and into the downwards transition.

He did look pretty pleased with himself afterwards and he said some lovely things to me although I don't quite know what they were.