I know it's been, like, a very long time since this actually happened, but it was one of the coolest horse experiences ever with my clever dragonbeast.
After our successful ride on Friday, I worked late and then slept great. I rode at about ten o'clock on Saturday so we arrived around eight to get Arwen ready. To my delight, she had an excellent night. She had neighbours across the aisle, which definitely helped, and she ate, drank, and pooped like a champ. Best of all, she was covered in straw---she clearly lay down to sleep on Friday night. It was a big win in my mind.
We hand-walked a little, groomed the sweat-sticky beast, and headed for the warmup arena at a brisk trot to mitigate the horrors of the empty parking space. She felt even more settled than the day before and I had a whole support crew of family and friends watching as we warmed up, including my precious stepmom-in-law, who'd never seen me ride before. Though still quite rushy in trot, she was better in the bridle and much less worried in general, and I was ready to relax and enjoy our very first championship class together (as much as one can be relaxed when riding a lit dragon).
When my ride time arrived and I headed out of the warmup, I found that DH had hurried off to make sure other relatives found their way to the arena in time to watch my test. He had (brilliantly) left my stepmom-in-law to look after me. She was an absolute pro at helping me into my jacket and stock, handing me some water, and giving me a brief pep talk. 10/10 horse show supporter. After announcing that Arwen was the cutest horse at the whole show, she straightened my stock and sent us in.
We had two different and notoriously strict judges for this test, so I was mildly dismayed when things did not start well. We trotted in and halted nicely, then something slightly spooked Arwen to her left, so she turned ninety degrees, halted square to look at it, and turned back again, halting square a third time. Although I'm sure she would argue that three square halts are better than one, we still garnered a 5.0 and 6.0, "unsteady halt". I rode the medium trot fairly conservatively to avoid any over-enthusiasm and we lost some of the medium-ness at the end, earning 6.0 "some interesting steps shown, not maintained" and 6.0, "slightly hurried."
The first shoulder-in was still a bit rushed, another 6.0 "little hurried, more stepping" and 5.5, "too much angle." I scraped things together a bit for the half circles to get more communication about where I wanted her to put her body, but half-halted a bit too much for 6.0 "little more fluent" and 6.0 "more forward". One judge liked the half-pass for 6.0 "more crossing", but the other said 5.0, "more crossing and reach". Her extended trot was as polarising as ever. It felt like pure magic to me, and got 8.0 from one judge "bold" (truer words were never spoken), but the other gave it a 6.0, "hurried". She was so obedient in the transitions, though, that both judges gave her 7.0.
Her halt and rein-back were prompter than necessary for 6.5 "little hurried" and 7.0 "rein-back a little tense." She was more settled for the next shoulder-in and half circles, though, getting 6.0 "more fluent" and 6.5 "more fluent" for the shoulder-in and 6.0 from both judges with one remarking how big I made my half circles. Nothing like making accuracy mistakes in Third Level, womp womp.
She felt a bit tight in the half-pass for 5.5, "slight loss of regularity" and 6.5, "more reach", and then came the turns on the haunches. The first one was 6.0 from both judges, "little loss of bend, but correct". She really wanted to jog, but I stayed soft in my hands and communicated with my seat instead, so we kept it nicely together for 6.5 and 6.5 for the next TOH and 6.5 and 7.0 for the medium walk, "more overtrack" and "fairly good." That was a big triumph for us.
We'd broken in both extended walks on Friday and Saturday, so I was really quiet in my body as we turned down the short diagonal and slipped the reins. She flipped her nose once, but stayed in a steady walk for 6.0 "shorter left hind" and 6.5 "fairly good overtrack, unsteady head." Her left hind is a strength issue, not a soreness thing, and contributes to the dodgy half-passes right as well. To my delight, she was really obedient as we headed for the canter transition. I felt a jog building and stopped it, taking a few extra walk steps after K, but it paid off for 6.5 "more uphill" and 6.0 "not quite at K."
Surprisingly, her marks took an upswing in the canter work, normally not the case for us. We had 6.0 "more self carriage" and 6.5 "little behind vertical, corrected" for the half-pass left, then 6.0 and 6.5 for a bouncy but through flying change, "jumped through hand." This is our harder direction, so I was really pleased with that. The next half-pass was 6.5 and "more fluent" from one judge but 5.0 "jumped through hand, not through" from the other (who, in hindsight, was maybe not focusing on which movement they marked). The next change was another 6.0 from both judges, "flat" and "tending to become deep." I was aware of the deepness and trying very hard to change it, but Madam Dragon knew there was an extended canter coming up and was turning into a freight train.
I felt we had a bit more control than we did on Friday, which is to say that I could redirect the energy slightly more forward than upward, but she was still pulling like a train for 6.0, "hurried, more ground cover" and 6.5, "bolt and straight, more uphill." We got a 6.0 and 6.5 for the transitions because it was once again something of a debate whether or not we could slow down at M. She was happy to go to collected trot at the end, though, for 7.0 "fairly well balanced" and 6.0 "more forward". I was actively trying for less forward, so that was on me.
I thought we had a super halt, which one judge rewarded with 8.0 "good halt"; the other was a 6.0 with no comment. Though our marks had worsened after Friday, I was over the moon as I patted her. She felt much more settled and though she was challenging to ride, I felt like we kept all our marbles together admirably.
Our collectives were 6.0 and 6.0 for paces, 6.0 and 6.5 for impulsion, 6.5 and 6.0 for submission, 7.0 and 6.5 for rider position, and 6.5 and 6.5 for aids. The judge at C said "A willing and active horse, but needs more elasticity and suppleness," and gave us 62.875%. The judge at B's comments were "A steady test, accurately ridden, scribblescribblescribble" and our mark there was 62.09%.
I was pretty happy with that---I felt our test was better even if the marks were not, and it was still a grading point---and delighted when I found out that we'd placed 10th of 25 horses in our level's championship. Not shabby at all for our mutual first big show like this, especially since I was one of only two riders in the whole class who'd never ridden higher than Third Level before.
She relaxed in the stable for a few hours while we all went out to lunch at Prison Break Market (100/10, amazing place) and I came back that evening to school her briefly before our freestyle, including the counter changes of hand, which I absolutely could not ride before her other tests because she would have ad-libbed them throughout. She was once again a bit spicy, but listening much better, and much less rushy in her trot work. I didn't ride for long and tucked her away with her bandaged legs for the night.
Arwen slept great on Saturday night, too, waking up on Sunday morning covered in straw and looking deeply content. My ride time was mid-morning on Sunday, so I didn't bother with a pre-ride this time. We just watched a few of the fancier freestyles, then got ready one more time---my poor white leggings looking a bit sad by this point even though my precious hubby had hand-washed them in the tub for me on Friday night---and returned to the warmup. Arwen felt entirely herself by this point. She was relaxed and stretching, standing still on a loose rein, and generally behaving perfectly. Riding her was fun and easy for the first time all show.
K showed up to watch, which was sweet, as did another batch of relatives from the Hyde side of the family. We finished our warmup early and relaxed in the shade for a few minutes as the rider before us finished their super nice Sound of Music-themed test. Then we headed in, did a quick sound check, and started our music.
After the train wreck that was our freestyle at Champagne Tour the month before, I'd redone our entire freestyle to make it more difficult. At the same time, we'd had much less time to practice our freestyle (and let's be honest, my choreography skills leave much to be desired). Still, it felt amazing to canter down centreline to our Moana music, even if we weren't technically supposed to enter in canter (oops).
Our first halt was solid, contributing to a 6.5 and 7.0 overall for our halts, "more balance" though it was a bit "abrupt" from canter (I was merely relieved that we had brakes at all in canter). We proceeded to our shoulder-ins separated by two half-circles, garnering 6.5 for both from both judges, "clear rhythm, scribblescribble, tight in neck, more supple over back". We did a little half-pass from the long side to X and back again, earning 6.0 for the left one from both judges and 6.5 for the right one from one judge, "too much inside bend, more position and parallel, more fluency."
I had then planned to do either another set of half-passes or a medium trot loop but my brain froze and decided we didn't have time, so we merrily trotted down the long side, very boring, and reached the corner right on time for our extended trot. Arwen knows and enjoys the trot music and I rode it carefully to avoid breaking, but our extension didn't quite have the chaotic energy it had had all week, so it got 6.5 from both judges, "too much right rein, wide behind, more over back". That led us to the walk work. She was tired and well-behaved for this so we strolled along calmly in a medium walk and free walk across the diagonal, getting 6.0 and 6.5 for the medium ("more energy") and 6.5 and 6.5 for the extended ("clear rhythm, more shoulder freedom.")
She was obedient again into canter and we did two counter changes of hand, allowing us ample opportunity for lots of flying changes. The half-pass right was 6.0 and 6.5, the left 6.0 from both judges, "more fluency, position, and bend." She got tense for the changes but actually gave most of them much more cleanly than before, albeit she did offer half a change in our last half-pass. Her bad change was a bit hollow on one occasion and got 5.0 from one judge but 7.0 from the other; the other change was a 6.5 and 7.0.
We did our extended canter on the diagonal for 6.5 from both judges, who both wanted to see more uphill and noted that she dipped behind vertical toward the end (there was a certain amount of "whoa dangit".) She gave me a nice change at the corner and an obedient downward to trot, which ended with a well-behaved halt at the end.
The test was nice enough but our artistic marks lost us several places. We got 6.0 for rhythm and 6.5 for harmony, but only 6.5 and 6.0 for choreography and 6.5 and 6.5 for degree of difficulty. Our music and interpretation were 6.5s for both. "Walk music little heavy for horse," one judge commented.
The judge at C said "Arwen could work more over back with softer frame," while the judge at B thought "Obedient horse, test could be more inventive, more off track, and less test movements. Increase degree of difficulty by joining movements together. More forward and supple." I thought her comments were extremely helpful and hit the nail on the head considering how much time I spent piddling around on the track; the whole thing was rather boring and conservative. All the same, we got 63.500 and 63.000, a mark that I was totally happy with even though it was a bummer to drop to 9th place out of 12 when we'd done so well the day before.
We finished with giving Arwen a short break in her stable while I devoured the most amazing chicken strips I've ever eaten (and now regularly crave, thanks Kyalami Park for the great new caterers). My sister helped us load everything up, and Arwen happily hopped in the box for the journey home.
It was an epic experience and made all the better by all the friends and family who came out to support us. Everything with this man by my side feels like pure magic to me.
God is good.
Congratulations! I loved how you just kept your head and worked through it.
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