Sunday

First off, I want to thank Laura (Courtney's mom) for making Amanda and I some horse show snacks, and a ready made dinner for Rob and I! It was great not to have to think about what to make for dinner Saturday and Sunday night!

So Sunday was SUPPOSED to be sunny and mild....instead I awoke to find it was raining here...and arrived at the show to encounter snow pellets blowing sideways in the wind. As much as being pelted with snow was cold and slightly painful, it was better than rain!

I didn't ride until mid morning, but Amanda's classes were early, so I got there in time to check on Tango and then watch her 8:18 class. She was in the middle ring, and as the 3rd horse in, the footing was still pretty good as it seemed to manage to dry a bit overnight, and they had harrowed it smooth. The wind and driving snow was a bit annoying though. My hands froze taking pictures! Amanda and Edgar looked good though, and the wind didn't seem to phase them; Edgar actually seemed to lean into the wind and trot all the better! That class was Amanda's high score, with them receiving a 70!

Amanda had her Training level class next, but this class was in the far ring...and the far ring was WET! They again had some lovely trot work (getting 7s for their trot loops!), but Edgar wasn't convinced he could canter through the muck that had developed at center line, and broke into a trot a few times. Still a good effort for the two of them.

Then it was time to get on Tango. Still blowing and snowing, but I felt the footing was holding up enough that I would give it a try. Tango was a little more comfortable in the mud and I was able to do a little warm up. Still not in the actual warm up ring, but in the lunging ring which had less deep footing. She didn't really want to canter, but I figure she may be trying to protect herself and her tendons, so hard to really want to push her past her comfort level.

I had a moment of panic when I looked into the ring I thought I was to go in, and saw the rider before me doing test 3 rather than 4....fortunately Amanda and Joan were there to double check for me and I realized I was in the far/mucky ring to start with. Tango dealt with it reasonably....didn't really want to lengthen, but she listened reasonably well, and dealt well with the snow blowing in her face, but did blow a counter canter and was a little hollow, so our score wasn't as great as i would have liked to finish up, but I guess the other horses struggled too, as we ended with a second.

Next I had my 2nd level debut in the middle ring. I had wondered if it was worth going in the class as I wasn't able to warm her up enough to really get her using her back, and 2nd level is done in collection, but I figured as I was there, I may as well give it a shot...and I am glad I did! Tango tried pretty hard! We struggles with the canter/walk transitions, and the medium gaits were still a struggle as she didn't trust the footing, but we got a score in the low 60s, with some very promising comments!

So we were done! But we couldn't go yet...I had to wait until 12:30 to get the marks from my first class which ran for two and a half hours...and we had to wait to collect Amanda's walk/trot overall CHAMPION ribbon and cooler, and Tango's reserve champion! Go team Hillside!

It makes it easier to take showing in the rain, snow and cold if the horses are good!

Fortunately the rain/snow stopped and we could load up in relative comfort, and I had picked a good parking spot so we weren't one of the many rigs that had to be pulled out by Gerald and his big green tractor!

Good to be home...even if it was raining when we got here!

Karen

(in occurs to me that some of you may not know how dressage scoring works, so here is a simple explanation: The tests are made up of specific commands/movements, that are each scored separate. Some movements are worth double. As well, there are "collective" marks for things like Rider, Gaits, Submission, that are worth extra. In a freestyle, the collectives are for originality, difficulty, music and such... Scores for each movement are from 0-10. A score of 5 means that the movement was done with no major errors, but nor was it anything special...just barely adequate. Below 5 means there was some sort of error or disobedience was seen. Above 5 means that the horse showed something better than just adequate; so was on the bridle, moving well and overall quite correct. A score below 55 means that either your horse had a tantrum or two, or that you likely shouldn't be competing at that level. A score of 55-65 is pretty good, and over 65 is quite good, and likely means you should be considering moving up a level!)