Saturday

Finally sunshine at Amberlea! It was too little too late for the warmup ring and for the middle ring, but it was far better than the rain we had been having, and the nice breeze helped to keep the mosquitoes at bay.

The morning started with Brie in the CDI ring. The warm up ring was way to muddy for me to even want to risk walking her in, so we walked up and down the center alley until the steward gave me the ok to walk in the CDI warm up. I am getting better at walking warm ups! The CDI ring was quite wet still, and poor Brie had trouble getting to X; we were going side to side trying to find some secure footing! Other than the center line though, the footing was manageable (otherwise I would have excused myself). We struggled a bit with the lengthenings, and my brain was on vacation so I asked her to trot WAAAAY too soon. Not impressed with myself and I earned us a 4rth. Poor Brie was sick of mud and water by the end of that class and didn't even want to walk through the puddles heading back to the barn. I was glad she was done for a while.

Then Tango was in the middle ring. I considered scratching, but decided to give it a go...I could always stop part way through. Again I felt the warm up ring was too slippery, so we walked back and forth to warm up. The test was second level, so asking a fair bit to go in without warm up, but Tango is a trooper. Test started ok, with just some minor slipping and muck avoidance...but then I seriously messed up and forgot the halt rein-back! Judge whistled me out, and I had to redo it (with a -2 for going off test). At this precise moment Tango seemingly had something go in her ear...so she started shaking her head like mad, and continued to do so for the freewalk, which went from M to X, then back to F. She went from head shaking to a full body shake at X. never had a horse do that before!

Judges comment..."You need to wake that horse up for your walks!"

We placed 4th. Tango deserved higher, but I sure didn't. I was disappointed in myself for messing up a test again!

So got the horses put away, then home for a nap. I think it took me 5mins to fall asleep...which is a record for me!

At 4, Rob, Shinaya and I headed back to the show for the Freestyles. I got off at the show office to do a new sound check for the music as they had moved the freestyles indoors and I learned from last time that what sounds good outside, is LOUD inside! Both CDs checked out ok.

The grounds had dried up considerably and we had the CDI warm up ring to school in, so I had a nice warm up on Brie. We were first in for our freestyle and I was happy with how it went. She is still a little nervous about the open door and the concession area, but no major issues and we won the 1st level freestyle and were Open Reserve Freestyle Champion. Quick horse change and then on to Tango 40 minutes later.

My warm up with Tango was brief. We both lacked the energy and so I decided to go in the place of the scratch rather than wait for my time.

Tango went into the indoor with much more confidence than in the past, and our test was going well...until part way through...when the music stopped! I had no idea if I should stop or keep going, so I kept going and the music restarted...then stopped...then restarted. AHHH! It would stop for seconds at a time, and then restart where it left off, completely throwing me off my timing. By the rules I could have stopped and had a redo, but Tango was being so good (we got ALL our counter canters and simple changes...both of which we had struggled with this show), so a redo seemed unfair to her and too much work for me, so we just continued on, adding an extra circle at the end to add some time.

Her score was still decent, and she was second at second level. She was only 0.3% behind Brie for reserve champion. The odd thing is though, that the judges scores were quite varied for Tango. For Brie they were all within 3% of each other. Tango's were 9% apart! Perhaps some were more forgiving of the music issues, or perhaps it was the vantage point they were at? Regardless, I was very happy with my riding and both my lovely mares!

Thank you Shinaya for helping out, and Rob for videoing (and driving!).

Magnus was also very good today, and won his class with a very good 66%! He looked like a been there done that show horse and a vast improvement from yesterday! Clare is thrilled and she should be, Magnus is growing up to be one heck of a nice horse!

here is hoping the weather holds for tomorrow so we aren't loading up to come home in the rain!

Karen