A Little Demonstration, Shall We?

Ahhh.... it's been over a week since the show. I had a weekend at home.

Nice and relaxing, right?

Well... No. Not really.

Entrepreneurial me decided that the best way to jump start Dressage (yes, with a capital 'D') is to hold a demonstration to dispell all myths that Dressage is full of middle aged snobs who only trot on circles with their trainers yelling in German on their big imported warmbloods.
Dressage Queens, amiright?

Make a note: need another post about Dressage Queens

  Anyway, so I made a date, sent out flyers and spread the word. Of course, the 4-H is the original group that asked for a demonstration, so they generously offered to provide the food. Ironically, none of the 4H-ers came. None.

When I was in the 5th grade, I hosted (ok, my parents hosted; I just invited) a Halloween party. Everyone was going to come in costume, play silly games and eat candy before trick-or-treating as a group. I was really excited; I made 'official' invitations, set up games and dressed up in what was undoubtedly an awesome costume (sorry, can't remember what it was).
No one came.

That's kind of the feeling that I was trying to avoid with this demo.

Fortunately my angst about the attendance of my demo was all for not. People came! People actually enjoyed it! I might have even started to convert a few people to the wonders of Dressage...

Me and my Demo Riders

 On the horse front... I had some really good rides on Tilly recently. Today, for instance, I even asked for - and received-  some shoulder in at the canter! Since our weakest point at the last show was the balance in the canter when moving from 20m circles to straight, that's what I am going to dramatically improve. I do not want to be last in my class again. *shudder*

Delight, my 15.2hh pony...

Delight is starting to come around. For whatever reason, she was incredibly stiff last week but today she warmed up beautifully. I'm trying hard to get her lengthenings to be even half as nice as Tilly's. Delight can sit and carry all day... so the lengthenings are her weakness at the moment. Normally I wouldn't worry, but I am going to try to qualify (again) at first level with Delight in July... so the clock is ticking. Unfortunately, I think the real answer is that I have to work her more than I have been. It's just so hard to get everything done in a day, isn't it?