Spooktacular

We actually had a not-so-bad show this last weekend! We even managed to canter in a test! I don't know what I was thinking because these past two weeks have been the worst weeks of vet school thus far but what better way to end an absolutely awful week of no sleep than with a horse show??

We signed up for a dressage suitability class, Intro B and Intro C. I briefly toyed with entering Training 1 since the flow of the test is better, especially in terms of canter. Having less than a whole 20-meter circle to pick up the canter and get back down to the trot makes it pretty tight. But, overall I feel like it was better to enter Intro because a horse that can't canter very well at Intro is kinda cute and baby-ish, but if they can't canter well at Training then you probably need to go back to Intro. That was my thinking anyways.

He warmed up beautifully - if only he could be that way in the show ring, he'd be so nice!

I was glad we entered the dressage suitability since it gave him an opportunity to get used to the arena (again, he's been here several times but they had all sorts of Halloween decorations out) and get him used to the judges booth with it's scary flashing lights and canopy. He was really good in there though we couldn't canter past the judges booth on the right lead, but the judge liked him so he got a blue ribbon! Probably the only blue I'm ever going to get on him, and it was just because he's cute lol.

He's pretty adorable

 

Intro B did not go quite as well. We went immediately from Dressage Suitability to our test, so we stayed in the arena while his new "friends" left which made him very unhappy. Our test started out well, but we went to do our first circle at B and he went sideways and there was some rearing involved. I got him back on track and the rest of the test went well.

I was surprised to find we got a 66%! Even with rearing! I swear if this horse ever figures his stuff out, he's going to be amazing.

Intro C went much better. He was not as good in the warm-up arena and kept screaming back and forth with his buddies from the barn which was obnoxious. Luckily when we went back in the arena, we had a moment to school our circle in the middle of the arena and after a few antics he figured out that it was much easier to just do his circle.

This test went better than the last one, though there was still tension and he could not manage to pick up the right lead. Usually he's very good about getting it the second time after I bring him back down from his unsuccessful first try, but he just couldn't figure it out. Kind of a bummer that there are two marks for the canter, so that was a bummer, but he still pulled off a 62.5%

I was pretty happy with him! It was definitely an improvement over the last show, so I'll take it!