Lesson with Laurie

After spending part of the morning with Lefty and his indoctrination into a curb bit at my sisters' arena, I got to go along with Laurie and Mani to a dressage lesson. 

We drove from the Colburn Ranch to North Center Valley Road, up in a forested area where dressage aficionado Gail Redinger has a couple of arenas, and several stalls filled with dressage horses. 

Besides competing at high levels herself, Gail also teaches the refined equine sport of intense discipline---for both horse and rider. 

Yesterday marked the first lesson in two years for Laurie and Mani as family events of the past year and a discovery this spring that Mani has Cushings disease have slowed down Laurie's competition in dressage. 

Cushings, which is incurable but manageable, causes horses to be more susceptible to other health problems. Plus, those affected with this disease often grow long coats, which don't shed normally.  

So, when Laurie body clipped Mani the other day, she liked what she saw:  the old Mani, lookin' pretty good.  

With continued care and a vet's guidance, Mani is good to go for riding and competing. So, yesterday the two worked out some cobwebs under Gail's tutelage. It was a good workout and Laurie has homework to do before her lesson next week.

While we were there, Gail pulled out and rode a young horse born in Holland, which she recently bought and will gradually work into higher levels of dressage. 

It was a fun and productive outing, and I just enjoyed sitting back, watching beautiful horses and riders, and, of course, taking pictures all the time. 

When we returned to the Colburn farm, the Monarch butterfly put on a nice performance on Barbara and Laurie's syringa bush, which has just burst out with thousands of gorgeous blossoms.  

While I was busy snapping photos of Mani and Laurie, she pointed out that I needed to change directions and take a picture of the doe in the trees next to the arena.  The deer ran off before I could take her picture.