A good start!

So we made it through our first show of the season!  The show was at Fields and Fences in Gurnee, Illinois and we showed tests 1-2 and 1-3 on Saturday and Sunday.  J and I have never been to Fields and Fences, so it was a new place for the both of us.  We trailered in on Friday afternoon and J settled right into his stall with a flake of hay.  Keith and I set up the tack stall and then got J all tacked up.  The facility has two separate arenas, connected by a breezeway, so warm-up is totally separate from the show ring.  The facility is heated and the warm-up ring has a large heater mounted to the ceiling in the back corner of the warm-up ring, placed above the round pen that is used for lunging.  I decided to lunge J first, just to make sure he was not going to have any tantrums.  He lunged great, so I didn't do too much and took him to the show ring and mounted up.  He was a little cautious of the flowers that were placed along the seating area, but otherwise was very comfortable in the show ring and we had a really good schooling session.  He settled back in his stall for the night with his Back on Track leg wraps on and a big pile of hay in front of him.

On Saturday, J was mellow as could be in his stall and slept the entire time that I was braiding him.  I assumed that this meant that he was going to be mellow during the ride, however I was very wrong!  J decided that the heater in the warm-up ring was a torture device for horses and was going to eat him alive.  During our first warm-up, J did just about everything that did NOT represent dressage including spinning, running off, kicking out and planting his feet and refusing to move.  Despite all of that, I managed to keep calm and ride him through it.  I was really proud of myself for not getting frazzled and feeding into his hysteria!  He finally calmed down enough where I could actually steer him (somewhat) and do a few transitions, but soon it was our turn to get into the show ring.  As soon as the person in front of my saluted, I took him around the show arena, doing leg yields and canter/trot transitions, and he was back to his old self.  He's such a goofy horse!  We had some mistakes in the test, J was not as soft or supple as he needed to be and his tightness allowed for him to want to break to the canter several times throughout the test.  But I was relieved that J was able to keep it together during the test and not act like a maniac like he did in the warm-up arena!

So for my second ride, J was better in the warm-up arena, but when a horse acted up in the round pen (who was being lunged) J heard a commotion and decided to split- I lost my stirrup in the process, but stayed balanced in the saddle and got him back under control.  We then went back to work.  This test was 1-3 and J was more supple and honest, but we still had mistakes, mostly him breaking to the canter in the corners or anticipating a transition.  I must say that his stretch work in the trot and his free walk were both pretty decent, he is definitely improving in those areas.  But because of the mistakes, we did not get a qualifying score, but did get some good feedback from the Judge as to how to correct some of these mistakes.

On Sunday we showed test 1-3 first and J warmed-up pretty well.  He was still cautious towards the back of the warm-up arena, but at least not having total meltdowns.  I decided to post the trot in this test, as he felt a little tired and behind my leg.  Overall, he had a better test, although there were still some mistakes.  The Judge commented that this test was better than yesterday and I got some good scores on my collective marks.   Unfortunately I missed a qualifying score by less than 1% point.  That was a disappointment, but we did make too many mistakes, so understandable.  For the last test, 1-2, J was really tired and not wanting to put out as much energy as he needed.  I posted the trot in the test and while I thought it had gone better then the previous tests, as in not so many mistakes, the Judge did not agree as much.  According to my comments on my test, I threw the reins away throughout most of my test, which may have been true as he was tired and I was trying to get him to be more forward.  I did score quite a bit of 7's throughout the test, but unfortunately my coefficient scores and collectives were low, so that brought my test down. 

In the end, we ended up 1st in all our classes except the last class, where we came in second.  We also won High Point Champion on Saturday, so that was really nice!  I did not get a qualifying score for 1st level, which was a disappointment.  But I was happy with the way I rode J.  I felt that I was an active rider, not a passenger and I corrected mistakes instead of letting him get away with them, afraid to make a scene in the show ring.  I was proud of handling his meltdowns in the warm-up ring and pushing on to the show ring, in the past I probably would have scratched after such a terrible warm-up, or at least let the warm-up negatively effect my test.  I have definitely obtained the confidence to know that I can handle whatever he throws at me and my seat is going to stay in the saddle!  So all in all, it was a good start to the show season. 

Unfortunately I recently received news that I have to have laparascopic surgery.  The doctor is predicting that I will be off from riding for 2 weeks.  So I have already made arrangements for Shelley to ride J while I am "off" and I am still hoping to show at the next Fields and Fences show in March, but that will all depend on how fast I can heal.  The surgery is scheduled for February 10th, so I have some time to ride and work on some of the stuff from the show before then. 



J's blue ribbons from Saturday



J settled back home with his blue ribbons and high point ribbon!