Champagne Tour 2024

With that tailcoat so close I can taste it, longsuffering hubby has consented to spending many weekends this winter watching me go around in slightly fancier circles than before. He is doing incredibly well lately---praise God!---and so it was no big deal to enter a show last Saturday and go pick up a few grading points.

We have provincial championships around the corner and so I took the opportunity to get Arwen ready for our mutual first freestyle. I'm not sure how I've managed to do this sport for nearly ten years without ever riding a single freestyle, but here we are. I had somebody (Dressage Freestyles by Anrike) do the music for me and I 100000% recommend her, she was incredible throughout the process and so inexpensive. Our freestyles are all the same as America's now and (like most South Africans) her English is very fluent, so if anyone across the pond wants great music for their freestyle for like $25, hit me up for her details.

The idea of doing our first freestyle made me nervous. I rode through it a dozen times in the week leading up to the show, trying to make sure I hit all the musical cues, but I was worried that it wouldn't work out in a show arena. Our arena is 20mx60m but has a fence around it for riding school kiddies and feral youngsters, so sometimes it feels smaller than a show arena. I was worried it would ride smaller too and that I'd be left without enough music for my movements at the show.

Usually, I try not to ride Arwen's tests too much because she learns them by the second run-through and anticipates more than ever. Spoiler alert: I should definitely not have ridden my freestyle this many times.

We managed to fit in a lesson the day before the show, which was fantastic. J helped us to find a much smoother flying change that was far more through. Because she's hot I often think she's responsive when she's actually just reactive, so we worked on getting her truly off my leg laterally, and the pieces really started to come together. Part of this involved playing with her first three-tempis, which she figured out instantly because she's considerably smarter than I am, and she hugely enjoyed them. Maybe a little too much.

Thunder's prep went really well, too. I devoted a lot of time over the past two weeks to get him a bit stronger laterally, so we did plenty of canter travers on a circle and steep half-passes in all three gaits, as well as J's favorite TOH exercise---walk half-pass on the short diagonal, walk pirouette 360 degrees on the centerline, continue in walk half-pass to the wall. 

When J came for our lesson, our lateral work was much more easy and consistent off my leg. We did beautiful, near-perfect walk pirouettes in our lesson and worked on increasing activity and cadence in the collected canter without increasing speed. It became of primary importance that my inside leg in collected canter says activity and the outside leg says push. This is far too delicate for my tiny brain, but Thunder figured it out fast. We had several of those moments when you taste pure magic and your horse's feet don't quite seem to touch the ground.

Our ride times were spread out but leisurely this time. We loaded up in nice sunshine and with no fuss whatsoever, and DH, groom M, and I set off for the show venue. I was trying not to be nervous for the freestyle and failing a bit.

shout-out to my gorgeous new QHP Sashas for breaking in super easily

Both horses were chill once we unloaded, though Arwen's neck and shoulders were quite sweaty. She needs to be clipped again and it was pretty hot, so I wasn't surprised. They settled down to tuck into their haynets at once despite this being a new venue to Thunder (Arwen had been there once about four years ago). I got most of the dirt off Arwen---it was way too cold to bath her beforehand---and fussed around a bit. I had too much time and it was not a good thing.

As an aside, it was really cool to see Shy Boy and his lovely new owner at this show. They parked next to us and Shy Boy had his freestyle right after Arwen. He came second and looked amazing and kind as ever.

Finally, I hopped on Arwen and headed for the warmup. M followed with Thunder, who was good again and happy to hang out at the warmup. Arwen paid him no attention at all. She marched into the warmup like she owned it and maintained more attitude than necessary. From the moment we picked up our first canter, this girl had those three-tempis on her mind. She tossed changes in everywhere, bucked through her walk to canter, and forcibly insisted that changes in the middle of her half-passes were a great idea.

You wanted this yesterday, woman, she snorted when I chided her. You're getting them today, too. Deal with it.

I was too busy worrying about the newness of riding a freestyle to effectively correct this, though I genuinely did try, albeit I tried by riding the movement as it appears in the test instead of doing a bunch of counter-canter like I usually do when she gets like this. In hindsight, that would have been an amazing idea.

My worry mounted as the time ticked past. I knew there was a rider before me, but her ride time came and went. My ride time approached. I waited for her, but eventually went looking for her in the warmups and realized she wasn't around. Nor was there any sign whatsoever of a gate marshall. Nor did anyone make any kind of announcements. Ten minutes after my ride time, I headed to the judge, who proceeded to yell at me for being late. This was fair---I should have simply shown up on my ride time. A gate marshall or even just an efficient announcer would have been really great, though, and my people pleaser side badly wanted my brains to melt out of my ears and dribble onto the floor.

A year ago, I would have gotten stuck right there and become a mess. Instead, I reminded myself that this was not the end of the universe, but I did have to make a conscious effort not to let the judge's words replay absurdly in my head the way us people-pleasing overthinkers would like to do. I didn't panic but I had to make an effort not to, which left fewer brain cells free for dressage.

another shout-out to both horses for being absolute superstars about standing tied to the box

Arwen reacted as she always does. Aw girlfriend, you're only bringing 50% today? Don't worry. I got this. So she brought about 600%, which was much more than we really needed for a Third Level freestyle, and when she heard her music things did not get better. She grabbed the bit and told me to hang on and let her do her thing.

This is my jam, sweetheart. Stay out of my way, she ordered.

The resultant freestyle had many hurried moments, almost removed my arms from their sockets, and contained several interpretive dance moves. I'd kept the choreography simple in a bid to make it manageable. We had 6.0s for our shoulder-ins and the trot half-pass left, but 6.5 for the trot half-pass right, which was nice because that's been our harder direction. Her extended trot was as fabulous as ever for 7.0. Despite her dragoning, her walk was really relaxed and rhythmic, and we got 6.0 for it with comment "more ground cover" for the extended walk.

The canter work was where the wheels fell off the bus a bit. She knew exactly when the music was going to change for her canter and bounced wildly through the transition to celebrate, and our extended canter was heavy in front for 4.0, "resisting, on forehand." We moved straight into her canter half-pass left for 6.0, but she changed messily from left to right as we got to the wall instead of waiting on my aid for 5.0, "not straight." It was through, though, so that's a huge win for us after working so hard on it. 

Our next canter half-pass was another 6.0 with another squiggly change for 5.0, "jumped together behind". We repeated the dodgy left to right change and, on the video, it was actually the most through it's ever been---less close behind than at the last show, but definitely still a bit close. 

Our final halt was absolutely straight and square but she moved a step after I saluted for 6.5, "moved in halt."

photo by Denford Studios

The collectives were the part that really nailed us: 5.5 for rhythm "(hurried)", 5.8 for harmony ("on rider's hand"), 6.0 for choreography, 5.8 for degree of difficulty, 6.0 for music, and 5.5 for interpretation ("hurried"). Our final comment was "Horse needs to show more self carriage and a more ground-covering stride." That gave us a bummer of a final mark, 57.975%.

The mark was disappointing, but it was mostly my own fault for being late. Arwen only rushed because I rushed. The main thing is that our beautiful music from Moana worked unbelievably well. In terms of timing the test rode just like it rides at home, so that gives me plenty of confidence with choreographing future freestyles knowing that they'll work out just fine in the show ring. What's more, I didn't actually come to pieces the way I did in the Supremes at HOY. I was just a little tense and using more brainpower than usual to make the butterflies go in formation. Plus Arwen's changes were better even if they were at random points in the test instead of where I wanted them lol.

We spent several hours lounging around, doing Thunder's hair, getting lunch, and generally killing time before I finally saddled him up and got ready for 3-3, the same test as we did last time. He was tense as we went into the warmup and looking for something to spook at, but he didn't try to nap this time. In fact, he was a bit quick off my leg rather than lazy. I had to pull myself together before getting on because I kind of wanted to get it over with and go home after the bad mark for Arwen's test, but with a bit of self-discipline, the Spirit's work, and hubby's pep talk, I climbed on determined to actually ride properly and not let something silly mess up a perfectly gorgeous day with the people and horses I love.

"he's getting fat" - J

I spent a lot of time stretching him and lengthening his neck---originally staying on the side of the arena nearest where M stood with Arwen to help him relax---and it paid off. Once we had done loads of stretchy walk and trot, we headed into canter and he was supple, listening, and cadenced. He wanted to cheekily fall into my inside leg in the corners at times but I tickled him with my spur occasionally and he swiftly cut it out. He listened to my leg and made no attempt to give me lazy changes, and though I reminded him once or twice to keep stepping off my leg in the canter half-pass right, he actually felt pretty superb. For my part, I was so disciplined about keeping my hands in the right place (J had only said "hands on the hairline" about 60 times in my lesson) that my knuckles rubbed out one of his plaits. Overcorrecting? Probably, but at least I was paying attention.

We walked down to another arena for our test. The show was nearly done, but on another level lower than this arena, a few horses were still busy with their tests. Thunder wasn't sure why there were other random horses down there and wanted to be spooky, but I kept him busy with a bunch of shoulder-in left and right to keep his feet moving and his neck supple, and he was an incredibly good boy. Of course, I showed up to the wrong ring, not being sure which was which, but this time the judge was unbelievably nice and pointed me in the right direction so I was calm and collected when I showed up at the correct arena this time (and with three minutes to spare, having learned my lesson).

It was the same judge as at the last show. We went to say hello and then headed right in. He stepped a tiny bit to the left with his shoulder in halt but kept his attention with me for 8.0, "halt straight and square, a little abrupt into halt, straight after X". I kept my body forward and didn't push the medium much for 6.5. Then he flowed effortlessly through all of his trot lateral work, supple as a noodle and absolutely obedient. We had 7.0 for the shoulder-in right, 7.5 for the two half circles ("fairly good bend"), and 7.5 for the half-pass left ("correct"). Our extended trot was another mystifying 7.0 but he did actually throw his toes a little bit for me, so that was cute. He had 7.0 for the transitions as well.

The halt and rein-back was a 6.5, "not square behind in halt". He almost stepped out at A but did give me good rein-back steps. Mindful that this judge wanted fewer steps last time, I felt that the first step was not quite diagonal but only asked for three steps more, so she didn't comment on that. His shoulder-in left and half-circles were two more 7.0s. In his half-pass right he was soft and lovely but starting to fall against my left leg. Knowing this boded poorly for the canter work, I did elect to give him a sharp tap, and he squiggled across for a couple of strides that earned us a 7.0, "slight loss of rhythm".

Heading into the walk tour, I girded up my loins and ordered myself not to bugger up the turns on the haunches, and we more or less succeeded. They were both 6.0: "could be more fluent, not keeping rhythm behind, pick up both legs evenly behind". On the video, he skipped one step with each TOH, both times interestingly with the outside hind. I've always been focused on avoiding pivoting with the inside hind. Either way, they were much, much better than before and I'm happy with how they went. His medium walk was lovely and earned a well-deserved 7.0. I pushed him for more overtrack in the extended walk and we got another 7.0, then followed it with a third 7.0 as we picked up a very nice, soft transition to canter.

The canter work was again not as good as the trot work. Our half-pass left was 6.5, "a little more supple", and I freely admit that I messed up his changes. Since he was still a bit tight and spooky I didn't rev him up for the change like I should have. It took several aids to get him to change left to right and we had a well-deserved 5.0, "kicking up, not on aid, very untidy". His half-pass right was tight but well-aligned so we got a 6.0, "more suppleness and bend". I ordered him to change properly this time but he was still a little lazy through the change for 5.5, "together behind."

The big difference came in his extended canter. I didn't have to chase him, I just closed my leg and we got a 7.0, "fairly bold", with another 7.0 for the transitions. He was super obedient into the collected trot for another 7.0. I thought his halt was nice but it was not quite square for 6.5, "straight, almost square".

My collectives came up a lot compared with last time. He had 7 for paces, 6 for impulsion with engagement underlined, 6.5 for submission with lightness of the forehand underlined, and both my rider marks were 7.0. Our comment was "accurately ridden, fairy good 2-track," and our final mark was 66.375%.

I was over the moon with him as we headed out. I knew I'd messed up the changes, but that's just a matter of getting to know his feeling in the show ring again, no big deal. A tiny tweak in the way I ride them will make them 7s again. Overall, though, he felt amazing. He was obedient, focused, and delightful in the connection. Though his canter half-passes were a little stiff, they were accurate and perfectly positioned. His trot half-passes were super. I was really, really happy with him.

Of course, I was even happier when I found out we'd once again come second in some very good company. That was the cherry on top of what had really been a nice day.

They both hopped in and traveled mostly well on the way home, barring Arwen nipping Thunder's nose once to irritate him. It was another super day out with my precious hubby---who only seems to be getting more and more passionate about my riding---and two of the nicest horses I've ever had the privilege to know.

God is good.

June 2024 Terrouges

Professional photos by NC Phillips

Long time, no post. We spent April and May tucked away at home, putting in the reps and giving DH time to heal and adjust as he returned to work five months post-op. He's doing super great, but we'll be on this recovery journey for a little while. In the face of having my sweet husband by my side, horse shows on the back burner was barely even an inconvenience.

We took advantage of the time off from test riding to do loads of strengthening exercises. Coach J came out twice and got us stuck into endless canter travers circles, then endless canter half-passes, flying changes on the wall, and medium-collected-medium canter transitions. We cantered until both horses had big round bums and I had legs of steel.

Thunder was originally not into all the cantering

Things came together for us to do another horse show last weekend. Of course, since I had picked a much further show venue than usual, I also drew the first ride time of the day. I dragged my poor, long-suffering husband out of bed at 4am on Sunday morning to load the two beasties in the box. Love is patient and kind indeed, even when your crazy little spouse wants to run around outside in the dark when it's -1C (30F).

We were alone with loading the two critters and I don't really want DH to hold horses who might yank him around yet, so I made a master plan. While DH hooked up the box and sorted out lighting, I got Arwen and Thunder dressed, then brought Thunder---the less chaotic one---to the box. He walked right in, we shut his chain, and I dashed down the hill to grab Arwen.

To Thunder's credit, he was really good. He called a few times but didn't stomp around even though he had no other horses in sight. DH stood by the box door and chatted to him while I attempted to wrangle Arwen, who had been totally chill until she heard the velcro on her travel boots and knew that she was Going on a Quest. She was galloping around the small paddock where she'd spent the night, tail flagging, snorting, and as I always do, I wondered if she was afraid to load in the box.

Nothing could be further from the truth. When I got to the paddock gate, she ran up to me and shoved me so hard with her nose she nearly knocked me over. I leashed the beast and she physically dragged me to the horsebox---not back to her home field, in the other direction---and then trotted into the box with me flapping behind like a kite's tail.

You're not leaving me behind, she snorted on a cloud of steam.

not even kidding about the steam

Thunder looked mildly concerned by her chaotic presence, but she booped him with her nose and then settled in to eat hay with great violence. Despite the cold, I travelled her only in her day sheet to see if we could mitigate her sweating. Thunder had his fleece on and I left all the windows open.

We stopped once to check on them when we picked up BarnRat at her house down the road, and both were eating contentedly, so we set off without further ado. The drive took nearly two hours, but the horses barely moved, and when we arrived to a frigid sunrise just before 7am we were right on time.

We unloaded the horses and BarnRat wrangled Thunder while I tied Arwen to the horsebox and got to work. She was much quieter than she'd been at Easter Fest, and stood chowing her hay while I ran a brush over her and saddled her up. For once, she'd also barely sweated in the box, only a couple of spots on her shoulders and pectorals. I hadn't put a tail bandage on---she hates them---and I think that may have contributed to her stress level being lower, but also, honestly, I think she gets really hot in the box more than actually stressing that much.

Either way, it was nice to have a cool, dry dragon to saddle up. She stood tied like a champ while I quickly got Thunder beautified. Then I squeezed myself into my brand spanking new long boots---I know, I know---and we headed to the warmup.

BarnRat used Thunder as a hot water bottle

Terrouges is a new-to-us venue but felt safe and homey because my bestie Erin stables her horses there. With BarnRat bringing Thunder along to keep everyone chill, Arwen and I headed into a beautiful mirrored indoor for warmup. Arwen hasn't been indoors much, but she didn't miss a beat.

What's up, sexy? she asked the pretty grey horse in the mirror, then went straight to work.

We had a chill, uneventful warmup with a ton of stretching. She felt like she does at home, totally unbothered, but I spent more time stretching her out than usual and thought it was a mistake when the ring marshall called me down before I'd done any collected trot work. We did have time for plenty of lateral walk and canter work, lots of stretchy trot, and a bunch of changes, though, so I wasn't too worried. Arwen's trot work is usually on the money from the word go.

Thunder dragged BarnRat around a bit as we headed down to the arena. DH assumed his position to take video. I walked past the judge and said a quick hello without the awkward introduction rigmarole and then the bell rang and we were off to ride Third 3 for the first time.

We marched down centreline and had a steady, straight, square halt, but as soon as her feet stopped moving, Arwen threw her head up to gape at guys watering the arena next door, so that garnered a 7.0: "straight halt and square, inattentive, more balance." To her credit, she set off boldly as soon as I asked and didn't look at the guy again, although she was a little unbalanced in the C-H corner throughout the test so I think she was still eyeing them a bit.

Our medium trot was a 6.5; it felt rhythmic, obedient, and steady, but maybe a bit conservative. We headed into the shoulder-in right for a 7.0 and got another 7.0 for the two half circles. Our half-pass left felt solid to me, but got a 6.5, "showing bend, more fluent." Fair, she can be a little hurried in the half-passes.

Her extended trot felt absolutely incredible. She was on the aid, balanced, and throwing those toes as high as they can go. Honestly, watching the video and seeing the pictures, I'm pretty surprised she didn't get a better mark for it. It was outstanding. We got a 7.0 for the extension and the transitions.

🔥

The halt at A was good, but we both botched the rein-back a little bit, losing rhythm. I felt one step was not fully diagonal so I asked for another. That was a 6.5, "square halt, willing rein-back, one step too many". I'll take it. The rest of the trot work dipped a little in the marks, with 6.5s for the shoulder-in and half circles with the comment "hurried" (it was a bit), and another 6.5 for the half-pass left, our more difficult way, comment "keep bend".

We proceeded into the turns on the haunches, which I ride every single day at home because I know I'm not great at them. They were solid at home. In the test, I completely ruined them. I get in my head about this one specific movement and reliably destroy them at shows. We got a 5.0, "stuck one step", and a 6.0, "more fluent", which was more than I expected. She jogged a little into the first one which earned us a 5.0 for the medium walk, "more rhythm". I felt that was pretty fair.

Our extended walk was conservative in the interests of maintaining the rhythm, so we got a 6.5, "more overtrack, correct rhythm". We found a small triumph in the canter transition at K, which was a 7.0, "obedient". I've historically destroyed those in tests, too, so I was pleased with that.

dragon magic

The canter half-pass felt a bit mediocre and clearly was; 6.0, "showing bend to [illegible], keep parallel". She kept it together nicely into our harder change, left to right, where she can sometimes jump or prop a bit. Her change felt close behind but very obedient and I was a little annoyed by the mark, 4.0, "late behind". It was close behind, not late.

Our half-pass right was another 6.0, "more suppleness", but her easier change was really good and got a 7.0. She charged gloriously through her extended canter for a pleasant 7.5: "bold, slightly hurried". We haven't had great marks on the extended canter, so I was chuffed with that. Somehow, our transitions were a 6.0, "show more".

She was a little abrupt into the collected trot for 6.5, but our final halt was super for 7.5, "almost straight."

I was over the moon with the test as we walked out. She was infinitely rideable, so obedient, so focused, and so energetic. I loved every second. Although I botched the TOH, I was also really content with how I'd ridden most of the test. I'm starting to feel a lot more comfortable in the show ring and it shows in quiet, effective riding that's more like what I can do at home.

Our collectives were fairly solid: 7 for paces, 6.5 for impulsion with suppleness underlined, 7 for submission, 6.5 for rider position, and 7 for aids. The judge's comment was "Accurate and obedient test, slightly hurried in extensions. Keeping steady frame and fairly good bend."

Our final mark was 63.8% and fourth out of five. I think there were a few movements that she deserved a bit more and that we could have gotten less for our TOH, but overall, I was chuffed with the mark---a new personal best for Arwen.

4th... out of 5 lol

There was little time to reflect on the test. I bounced off Arwen, switched numnah and bridle number to Thunder, and bounced onto him. (We definitely need another white numnah and bridle number for future shows, which would have made this so much quicker and easier). BarnRat was greatly relieved to be rid of the Thunder menace, and I had to quell some nerves as we headed to the warmup. The last few times I rode Thunder off-property were abundantly crappy. We had spooky, naughty lessons at the Friesian stud, a generally tense and spooky experience at J's (my bad, nobody else's), and a really naughty and spooky last show at Easter Fest 2023.

He got a round of ulcer treatment before coming home from J's, though, and I think a lot of that spooking was linked to his tummy. A lot of it was also linked to the way I rode him back then. I haven't been good about being clear and consistent with him, leading him to do more or less whatever he wants, which includes spooking at everything when he senses inconsistency in the one who's supposed to know what she's doing (me).

He wanted to spin around as we approached the indoor when Arwen was out of sight, but there were plenty of other horses around, so I put my leg on and ordered him to get his butt in there and stop being ridiculous. He swiftly responded by putting his head down and going straight to work. Though BarnRat did stand by the warmup with Arwen, he didn't try to nap towards her the way he's done with friends at shows in the past. In fact, he almost completely ignored her, and we got to work with a minimum of looking around at things.

I was really proud of the fact that he was so chill and rideable, but our warmup was far from satisfactory. While he wasn't naughty or spooky, he felt like the pre-training Thunder---the one whose response to all of my aids tends to be half-arsed. Not outright rebellious, but not obedient and willing either. He was only sort of on my aids, and this manifested in downright lazy, late changes.

We went down to the arena having achieved the bare minimum, and then found that we had five more minutes. I dithered for a second. My show nerves wanted to hang by the arena to get him used to the area more, but I knew we could do better, so I turned him around and marched back to the warmup with the purpose of getting him on my aids. I tuned him up with some lateral work, being uncompromising about moving off my leg, and tapped him through a couple of cleaner changes, and we made it back to the show arena with him feeling a bit surprised that I'd brought my big girl pants.

He was really fabulous about entering the arena. It's not particularly spooky, but there are definitely things to look at, and Thunder just... didn't. He was all business. We headed down the long side with shoulder ins changing direction every few strides to get him off my leg. Then the bell rang, and we boldly headed down centreline.

He wiggled into his first halt and was a bit inattentive and cheeky, but we got a 6.5, "straight entry, quarters right in halt." Our medium trot was unbelievably bad, which it always is, and garnered a well-deserved 6.0, "go with horse's trot; against movement." Yeah, first I need to make the medium sittable, then I can sit on it.

His trot lateral work was absolutely phenomenal. Although he was trying to fall behind my leg and go above the bit where he could, he finds this work really easy, and I didn't have much difficulty keeping him flowing. A long string of sevens followed: the shoulder-in, the half circles, and the half-pass.

His extended trot is fairly horrible as well---it's barely a medium trot, to be honest---but somehow he had a 7.0 for that and a 7.0 for the transitions. I know I'm not a judge, but I seriously question those marks compared to Arwen's. She deserved so much better if Thunder got sevens for that movement. In fact, as we flopped through the second transition, I whispered to Thunder, "Wow, that was hateful" and he twitched an ear in agreement.

Anyway, we floated into a really nice half and rein-back at A. Again, I felt not all our steps were diagonal so I took an extra one: 7.0, "halt square, good rein-back, one extra step. Pity." His shoulder-in and half circles were sevens again, but he was starting to get behind my leg into the half-pass right and got a 6.5, "more position."

As we plodded into the walk, I knew I was going to have to ride the living daylights out of this test if we weren't going to bomb spectacularly. He felt as flat as a pancake. Not tired---he hadn't yet broken a sweat or gotten out of breath---but decidedly against my leg. I pulled myself together a bit in the TOH, managing a 6.5, "more active for one stride", and a 6.0, "slight swivel." I can do better, but it was an improvement.  His walk was a well deserved 7.0.

Our extended walk was another 7.0; I think he can do better, but I was struggling to keep him in front of my leg and relaxed, and the extended was not the place to make that correction. We still got the comment "fairly relaxed, more overtrack." Our canter transition was another little triumph. Despite being a bit against my leg, Thunder is nothing if not instantly obedient to the buttons, and I didn't override it, so we got another 7.0 for that.

Things fell to pieces a bit in our canter work but it was not for lack of trying. He can turn into a completely unmanuevrable boat in the canter and he did it at this show. I got after him about it as much as I could, but still ended up carrying him through most of the movements. We had a 7.0 for the half pass, "more position", and a 6.0 for the first change, "through but a little high behind." That was a kick at the whip, which I used to remind him not to be late. He wasn't late, so we achieved that objective. I really dragged him through the next half-pass for 5.5, "more bend and position", but boldly rode the next change for 7.0.

"OK, OK, I'm through, I'm through"

He got a 6.5 for the extended canter, which I kicked him all the way through; I thought that was a bit generous of the judge. It barely extended at all. We collapsed around the short side for 6.5, then had an excellent transition down for 7.0. Our final halt was absolutely super but not entirely square behind for 8.0.

The judge liked him better than me: he got 7 for all three collectives, and I got 6.5s for mine, with comment "more position in half-pass."

Still, our overall comment was "Well ridden test on willing horse," and our final mark was the best I've ever had beyond novice - 67%.

I patted him as we came out, exhausted from dragging him through the test, but unbelievably happy with how well-behaved he'd been. I'd expected him to be a bit tense, spooky, and separation anxious. While he did appreciate having Arwen around (who doesn't like a friend's support?), he didn't look around at her, call during his test, or nap toward her. He was a superstar in that department.

The fact that he ignores my aids and parks behind my leg is a training thing. We've addressed every possible physical cause, and he doesn't do it with J on his back---or with me, if I'm consistent about it. We seldom have behind-the-leg days at home anymore, but I used to be floppier and less effective than ever at shows, and I think he was expecting me to be ineffective. Who can blame him?

My show confidence, however, is at a real high point right now. Arwen's responsible for that, as well as just a ton of personal growth and God's work in me. When one has walked in the valley of the shadow, the dressage arena no longer holds anything all that scary.

DH and I headed back to the horsebox, unsaddled, and spent a pleasant afternoon helping Erin and Jamaica's kid with their tests. Arwen and Thunder spent the whole time tied to the box, eating, drinking, and not putting a foot wrong. The cherry on top was when they traveled perfectly all the way home even though we got a flat tyre (which hubby fixed in minutes, because he's Superman).

It was a truly perfect day with my two dancing horses, my BarnRat kiddo, my bestie, and the man who's always in my corner. Forever grateful for every moment with him.

God is good.

this husband of mine, you guys 💜