Our first schooling show!
I did a sneaky little thing, I took Rose to a schooling show today and didn't tell anyone about it. After telling friends and family about next week's show, I started getting a bit nervous about all the non-horsey on lookers and the fan fair. I didn't want the pressure of worrying about if something went wrong, and then explaining to my non-horsey friends that that's normal for a baby. So when I found out there was a little local show today I signed us up, kept my mouth shut and at 6:30am this morning hauled her out to her first show.
SHE WAS AMAZING!
All I wanted was a low pressure positive experience and for her to stay inside the white arena boards. None of which she'd ever seen before and in an arena at a barn she'd never been to before. She calmly walked off the trailer, into her stall for the day, and we tacked her up. Then, she quietly followed me to the arena and let me hand walk her around, then I hopped up and got to business. I gave myself an hour to "warm her up", although she was so calm about everything I had to ask my friend JM, who came to help me for the morning, to give me my spurs. We had a lot of standing and socializing going on during our warm up, so it was a pretty laid back warm-up. She was a little lookie at a pile of spare pipe fencing in the warm up arena, but other than that she didn't care about anything. Not the big white letter cones with flowers sitting on top, or the applause, or the bleachers, or the judge, or the other horses. She just took it all in stride like a seasoned pro.
When our ride time came, she acted like she'd done it a million times before. We did the USDF Intro Test B and ended up with a score of 72.5%, placing second in our class, and wining reserve champion for our division! That's far more than I ever expected and I'll happily take it any day. I just couldn't be more happy with my calm, sweet, 3.5-year old mare. She is truly something special. Now I think it is time we start working on those Training Level tests.
Here's the video. Enjoy!
BTW this was my first actual dressage show too (I did a couple combined training tests back in 2000, but that's it). I need to work on those slouchy shoulders but I think I'm getting the hang of this dressage thing.
Happy trails and swooshing tails!
SHE WAS AMAZING!
All I wanted was a low pressure positive experience and for her to stay inside the white arena boards. None of which she'd ever seen before and in an arena at a barn she'd never been to before. She calmly walked off the trailer, into her stall for the day, and we tacked her up. Then, she quietly followed me to the arena and let me hand walk her around, then I hopped up and got to business. I gave myself an hour to "warm her up", although she was so calm about everything I had to ask my friend JM, who came to help me for the morning, to give me my spurs. We had a lot of standing and socializing going on during our warm up, so it was a pretty laid back warm-up. She was a little lookie at a pile of spare pipe fencing in the warm up arena, but other than that she didn't care about anything. Not the big white letter cones with flowers sitting on top, or the applause, or the bleachers, or the judge, or the other horses. She just took it all in stride like a seasoned pro.When our ride time came, she acted like she'd done it a million times before. We did the USDF Intro Test B and ended up with a score of 72.5%, placing second in our class, and wining reserve champion for our division! That's far more than I ever expected and I'll happily take it any day. I just couldn't be more happy with my calm, sweet, 3.5-year old mare. She is truly something special. Now I think it is time we start working on those Training Level tests.
Here's the video. Enjoy!
BTW this was my first actual dressage show too (I did a couple combined training tests back in 2000, but that's it). I need to work on those slouchy shoulders but I think I'm getting the hang of this dressage thing.
Happy trails and swooshing tails!
She looks AWESOME! Great job. I am very impressed.
ReplyDeleteI don't know the first thing about dressage, but I thought you two looked good. Reserve Champion is nothing to sneeze at. It's also good that you have video, to help identify what you need to work on.
ReplyDeleteI was going to ask if you were at Donida, but I didn't recognize the arena in the video, although I've only been in the outdoor arena.
Rose did wonderful, but you did wonderful too, taking her to a Schooling Show so she could get an idea of what it's all about. Wonderful Post, thanks for sharing!! :)
ReplyDeleteI love your little smile for Rose after the end of the test!
ReplyDeleteNICE job and congrats!!
ReplyDeleteAwesome! Congrats! And good luck next week :)
ReplyDeleteShe looks great! Hope next week goes even better.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! You did awesome.
ReplyDeleteI am curious if you went alone who read the test for you??
RR: I did tell one person about the show. My friend JM is an experienced dressage person who knew that this was Rose's first show, so there was no anxiety for me having her come. Anyway, she met us there, helped me in the warm up arena, and read for me. My husband was on video duty...and I think he did a great job with his first horse show video!
ReplyDeleteWell done very good score for first time out! One little picky thing I saw you should work on her walk and get her tracking up a little but a part from that it was AMAZING for first time out!
ReplyDeleteIHG: Good eye! The judge commented that our walk needed more "march". We also need to pick up the bend before our turns and get deeper into the corners. Otherwise though, she said "Nice Test". :)
ReplyDelete