Welcome welcome

First things first.  Here's the back story.

My name is Roe, and I ride horses.  A lot of people say that... "I ride, too!" but in this case, it's not just a trail ride here and there, or the occasional jump-on-someones-backyard-pet.  I RIDE.  Lots.  Like, most of the time, 4 days a week.  My horse is an off track thoroughbred (otherwise known as an "OTTB"), who is quite tall, energetic, and moves fairly well.  We're not talking Olympic potential or anything, but can be competitive up to a certain level.  Up until a few years ago, I was a competitive jumper - again, not talking Olympic level by any means, but I was showing at least once a month.
That being said, you'd think that I'd be a fairly decent rider.  I actually considered myself a fairly decent rider, better than most but worse than many, to be honest... until the day I decided to start 3 Day Eventing (LOTS of jumping in Eventing, by the way).  Well, on that fateful day - making the switch from charging around a jumper course, basically kicking and hanging on for dear life to actually controlling a horse with minute muscle movements... I found that despite all my years of riding... I suck at dressage.

I am... Doing Dressage Badly.

This blog is going to be my chronicle, from point A to point X (all you dressage/eventing people will get that and for the ones who don't, I'm sure I'll explain later), starting from today until my first USEA rated 3 Day Event, which will hopefully take place sometime next year around Mother's Day.

Bear in mind, I've been riding for over 15 years.  But up until this point, it's been jumping and foxhunting and that sort of nonsense.  I've had dressage lessons in the past and am taking them now, but this is my year to be serious - it's "shit or get off the pot" time.

And here we have the photo... This is me and my horse Moe - notice the horrible, upward pointing ankles, the pinching of the knee... the shoulders and hands falling forward into my poor horses' neck.  We're talking ground zero here.  Also notice how out of shape poor Moe is.

Yes, my friends... we have a long LONG way to go.