Midsummer Night's Dream

I'm back with a show update! I have a few weeks off of clinics this summer, so I decided I might as well squeeze some showing in and this is usually one of my favorite shows to go to all year.

It was quite the ordeal getting things figured out for this show - my truck is still broken and I thought it would be fixed by now, I was going to borrow my dad's truck but then he accidentally took the keys with him when he drove over the mountains for the weekend, so I had to find a truck the day before the show. My 3 local options were all out - one friend had her truck currently in Canada for an externship, another was half disassembled because they're putting a flat bed on it, and the other didn't respond to my text because they're in one of the most insane rotations at school. Luckily the BF's parents have multiple trucks and said I could borrow one, not ideal since it was an hour and a half drive to get the truck (one way), but it was worth it!

The morning started off fairly excitingly when I went to load Jetta in the trailer, only to open the door and find a HUGE wasp nest in the trailer. I ran back inside and luckily another lady was at the barn and had it covered. I call her the "barn mom" for a reason. She grabbed some wasp spray and a broom and went out and sprayed it all down, killed all the bees and swept all of the nests out for me! It was awesome - I'm not allergic to bees but I am a chicken about them and I will run away from them, most likely screaming.

Partially destroyed but it was HUGE!

We did First-1 and First-2 at this show. I decided to suck it up and do both First level tests since I really feel like we have Training level down and we need to get it together to do First level. Typically I try to keep my expectations low for a show because I'm super competitive and I don't want to get bummed out if I don't do well. My usual goals are - don't fall off and stay inside the dressage ring! But for this show, my goals were to remember my tests (last show I had a reader for first level) and I really, really wanted a 65% on at least one test.

Jetta has been SO good all week. All of a sudden her canter has turned around and started feeling good instead of the weird funk we were in. She started being steady in the contact, listening to half-halts, and for the most part was carrying herself nicely. I was really looking forward to the show!

She warmed up pretty hot and wanting to either run or fall on her forehand. I got on pretty early to school her and thought we worked through things fairly well. She decided she no longer wanted to bend right, which I have no idea where that came from, and couldn't get her to change her mind about only bending left. We got in the arena and immediately the bell was rang for us to start, so I was bummed that Jetta didn't get to look around (she's never been to this barn) because the arena has 6 big openings around the sides so it's pretty weird for horses who aren't used to it to see people's heads strolling by or horses and cars all around.

Our test was tense, Jetta wanted to run through my aids, and half halts were forgotten. It was not helped by the fact that some sort of party was happening at the entrance of the arena where there is a sitting area for spectators - everyone was cheering, excitedly and loudly talking, wine bottles were popped, and paper bags were being rustled. Not the ideal environment for a hot spooky horse in a dressage test.

I was pretty bummed with how the test went. Unfortunately we didn't have time after to school more because I had to go right back in after one rider went. I had a couple minutes to memorize the next test, and then we were on.

This time I immediately trotted and did several trot-halt-trot transitions before the bell rang to try to get Jetta thinking and not pulling. I definitely think it helped a bit. For First-2 I didn't let Jetta get as forward in our lengthening trot and canters because she was pulling too much on me in the first test, so I tried to keep her soft but at least show a little bit of difference. I came out of the test feeling much better about that ride than the other one.

It's funny how every time I think a test went awful and the other one was better, the judge thinks the opposite.

We scored a 64.8% on the First-1 test. An improvement from our last show, both in score (we got a 64.2%) and how it felt to ride. We got a 7 for both halts, a 7.5 for one of the 10-meter half circles, a 7 on our trot-walk transition, an 8 on our free walk, and crazily enough, a 7.5 on our last canter-trot transition. Our comments were mostly how Jetta's gaits were "choppy" and that I needed to sit up (Jetta was yanking me out of the tack the majority of the ride - I'm disappointed in myself for not just giving her a big half-halt and sitting up).

Hanging out after our tests

First-2, also disappointing, got a 61.56%. I really thought this one would have scored better, but oh well. I was extremely bummed out about this test because this is a judge that consistently gives ridiculously high scores... I can't imagine how low it wouldv'e been with a judge that scored more normally. I thought our leg yields were attentive and accurate but she didn't like them - one of them was "crooked" and the other "leads with haunch all of the way". I wish we had a mirror at our barn because they really did feel straight to me! We did get a 7.7 for our walk, and an 8.0 for our free walk again. One of the lengthened canters, one 15 meter canter circle, and our final halt all got a 7. Jetta was not interested at all in doing a stretchy trot circle so we got dinged on that too. Final remarks were: "Capable pair! A bit too much in jumper position, with dressage position, she will be more supple, cadenced, and have more suspension". I wish!

Overall, this show made me unsure about my plan to do a recognized show. If we can't even get mid-60's at a league show (with a really lenient judge), I really think it would be a waste of money to do a recognized show when I'm trying to get scores for my bronze medal. I was pretty bummed with this show, we still have a ton of work to do at home obviously and so far the work we are putting in just hasn't shown yet.

The good stuff - I'm happy that I was able to memorize both tests! For some reason, maybe just being out of practice, it's been hard for me to memorize the First level tests. Jetta didn't canter in any of our trot lengthenings, or trot in our free walk. While she was spooky about the cars, and horses walking past the arena windows, and the noisy people, she didn't leap out of the arena or bolt. I was happy(ish) with our second test's geometry and all but one of the downward transitions. We still have a long way to go, but at least the work at home is getting better!

Congrats if you made it this far and sorry for the mostly picture-less post! I didn't know anyone well enough to pester them into taking pictures and there were no photographers at this show. Hopefully next time!