Horse Show Day 2

Wow, am I ever tired!

Day two started with me being a nervous wreck. No idea why I was so nervous, but I think I was mostly worried my mushy brain would let me down again today.

I didn't ride until 11ish, so I had time to walk Dexter, braid, have breakfast and take my time. This was not a good thing. To start with, I managed to loose Dexter's number while walking him (at a Gold show, horses can't leave their stall without their number) and then had to spend 10 minutes retracing our steps as I had him out grazing in some tall grass and weeds...only to find that someone had turned it in to the Stewards, which was of course the last place I checked. So then I got back to my stall to see a cryptic note on his bridle hook: "Both CDs scratch". It took me a while to figure out that this was referring to my freestyle CDs.

So I had to make the journey back to the show office to see what was up. In the office there was someone else there for the same reason, which made me feel better. The other lady was shocked her CD had sound problems as it had been professionally made, so the office lady got her CD out to let her listen to it...and it looked fancy in a profession case with a nice label. She then told me that my CDs both skipped in the same place on both of them. Well of course they do! I had to explain that this was due to a combo of my lack of editing skills and the fact that I use the skip to let me know when I should be at my last simple change as my canter music isn't distinctive enough for me to be able to track my progress.

This admission made the other freestyle rider double over laughing.

So then I had to hurry to get dressed and get Dexter ready for our class. The freestyle was in the CDI ring that was so frightening the day before. Today he wasn't spooking, but he was nervous...but then so was I. Aside from some tension and whinnying on Dexter's part, and a break into canter when he was supposed to be trotting, I thought it went better than the last show. It felt slower and more controlled, and the 10 meter figure 8 felt balanced.

I knew I would loose marks for the tension, but overall we did ok for the required movements where he was focused. We did not however do so well for "Difficulty", "Choreography" and such...only getting 5s...which was a blow as we got 6-7 for the same test last show. I guess the International judges have higher expectation and experience on what can be done in a Freestyle. We ended up 2nd.

I watched some of the Freestyle before me, and she definitely had some interesting combinations: lengthen from F to X, leg yield X to H, canter at H. Yikes! I think coming up with a new First level freestyle will be my fall project, and then Rob can help me come up with better music.

So after that test I put Dexter in his stall, so I could watch Amanda's ride. Amanda and Ri had a nice test in the other outdoor ring, and other than breaking at the canter, he was nice and consistent.

Then I had to hurry back to get Dexter for our second test...only to find he had rolled in his stall, so I had to pick shavings out of his mane and tail! I tacked him up, and opted to just to a light warm up. This may have been a mistake. We got into the indoor ring and the test started well, with decent leg yields, and what felt like some big extensions. But then we got to the free walk and I could feel him tense and get hurried so I couldn't relax into the freewalk and he got more and more rushed, so I picked up the reins a bit and he started to prance as we were supposed to be doing a medium walk...and then he reared! No idea where that came from as it is not like him at all! The next move was cantering a circle. That went well. But then we had to lengthen. He felt like he could explode any moment so I wasn't sure how much to let him go so I only lightly softened my arms...and he took that to mean he was free to run! As the end of the ring approached I began to worry...fortunately we made the turn, and that seemed to help him slow down, and we muddled through the counter canter, but it took all I had to do the next simple change, and the other canter lead was just as strong...made worse by the fact the lengthen was towards the outgate. Getting him to come back to the trot was not easy or pretty...and our "Stretch" circle was manic...he was lengthening the moment I would soften so we didn't get much stretch.

I have no idea what set him off; Christine and Amanda thought it was due to the tractor that started up as we started our free walk, but I wonder if he was perhaps tired and didn't want to be there... Or maybe put off by the people on the sides and in the corner watching. Usually the ring is pretty empty when we show.

I am sure we scored low once he had his tantrum, but I wanted to know how the trot work was scored as that part felt great...but they couldn't find my test!

Amanda then had her test indoors. Ri started off nicely...and then big spook at the flowers at E. Then another spook at the loud annoying people at the concession who kept carrying on laughing and talking despite the signs to keep it down. The parts of her test that weren't at E where nice though. He was moving quite well and had nice transitions. We have no idea how she scored though, as that class was huge, and Amanda was home before it ended.

Hellion child was moderately more contained today, although the steward did have to yell at him to get out of the warm up ring, and I got sick of him biking up and down the barn so I stepped in front of him in the barn, stopping his bike and telling him "the barn is not a playground, the bike upsets my horse, so stop riding it up and down the barn". Again later I stopped him again as he rocked his bike impatiently back and forth right behind a big gelding while his owner was getting ready to mount just outside the barn door...she likely had no idea the kid was there...if she asked her horse to back up kid would have been in trouble. The kid later said hi to me though...so apparently he didn't resent my attempt at parenting.

Tomorrow will start early for me, with both my classes in the morning. I am inside for both my classes, so hopefully Dexter and I can work through whatever upset him today. Amanda rides late though with her last class. Hopefully the weather holds for us!

Karen