School That Dressage

Playing the waiting game.

Hello everyone! I am still here. That jumper show took a lot more out of me than I thought it was going to. I may have over dosed a bit on my inhaler when trying to prevent an asthma attack. The minute I sat down after all was said and done that weekend, I felt so so terrible. It has been almost two weeks now, and I still feel like garbage. I could barely walk yesterday morning because I was in so much pain. So, naturally, I went to a dressage schooling show later that afternoon.

Quick warm up before we enter.

Thank goodness for adrenaline, right?

I apologize for the video stills. I wanted video more than pictures.

I finally caved and took some drugs to help me through the day. Bacon thought it might help me if she rolled in the swamp irrigation water during turnout too. No Bacon. No, it does not. My husband gave me worried eyes when he got home, so I did my best to convince him that I was totally fine. He agreed to tag along with my and Lindsey to avoid playing bingo. He may change his mind next time because this was just about the slowest dressage show we have ever been too.

She sure can look fancy sometimes.

But, it was super quiet and easy going. Not an actual show, but a test of choice night. You pick any test and get judged and get your test back. No ribbons. Good for me and my nerves and for Bacon. We can use any time in a dressage ring that we can get. She came out of the trailer quite calmly and stood still for tacking up. Warm up was the calmest she has ever been and we did a simple walk, trot and canter. No drilling, easy peazy. And then we stood. And stood. And stood some more.

My toes love to point out.

Finally it was our turn to go. We made a lap each way around the ring, as there is a water complex and some fun jumps and things to look at on the left side. Bacon gave them a nice look too, but that was it. We entered a bit crookedly and had a wonkey corner and circle. When I went to cross the diagnol, a got a bell ring. The judge thought I was doing the beg novice test when I was actually doing novice test A. So, we restarted.

Medium walking...not sure what my elbows are doing.

We had a much straighter entrance and a slightly better corner. Our first circle was alright, we had some inconsistent bend and sometimes she would leave her haunches trailed out for a second. But our circle was pretty round. Across the diagonal, we broke contact for a bit as she got a little fussy and our second circle was not so round. Our downward transitions were miles better than our other attempts during a test and our upwards weren't terrible. We did get the wrong lead in the left canter circle, but I am not surprised. She has been having some difficulty with that lead so I suspect some body work is in order. We had some of our best corners and some better straightness. All in all, I was pretty happy with our ride. Especially because I didn't completely lose my cool, and neither did my horse.

Freeeee walk

Back to fancy trot.

Once we got the correct lead...

I gave her a pat, handed her to the husband to graze and went to grab my test. Much to my surprise, we got a 34 on our test. That is 10 points better than we have ever done before. It would have been even better had we gotten the correct lead in our left canter circle! We even got a 7 on our free walk (usually we get 4's). We even had a comment on the test that said "good bend in corners". Good bend. That's a first! I was very happy with this outing. It made dressaging a tad bit funner.

Now back to the other side. Because this is dressage and we must be symmetric.

Canter right lead. Zipper undone...whoops.

Square salute!