First Ride By Kaylin Medlin

Finally! I get to ride today. It's dressage day for me. I'm very excited and nervous at the same time. Waiting just makes me more anxious and ready to just get my ride done. I'm the only one in our group just riding dressage today. Just listening to everyone else talk about cross country makes me want to go and JUMP the course myself.

I've been pretty busy most of the day. Harley decided he really wanted to be dirty this morning, so I had to give him a quick bath as soon as he was done eating. I can't let him be seen with poop stains all over his body! I've also been pitching in and helping my trainer Susan Beebee get all of her stuff done for her two rides today on Wolf. Their dressage test looked great. I didn't get to see Rebecca ride any of her tests today, but she's in good spirits and said she had good rides.

Waiting till the end of the day to ride dressage has been no fun. I was actually kind of happy to start braiding because I knew that meant I was within an hour of getting on and heading down for my warm-up. Harley was very frisky in his stall. He hates to have his mane braided!

Heading down to warm-up I kept thinking about the things I needed to accomplish in warm-up so that he was set up well for the actual test. I was nervous in warm-up and it was kind of messing up my ride a little, but after the first twenty minutes I was just fine.

My dressage test was fantastic!! I'm quite pleased with our ride. I feel like I was really able to get him put together and I know we put in a great showing. It was definitely a little weird for me riding for two judges, but I just put that out of my mind as soon as I came down centerline.

Everyone is having a great time. Everyone I've spoken to likes Chattahoochee Hills and says they'll come back again. This is a great place for the AEC's to be held for two more years. I love it here!!

Tomorrow is cross country day for me. I'm looking forward to it because that's mine and Harley's favorite. The rides I saw today on cross country looked great. I can't wait to see some of the advanced rides on Saturday.

For now, I'm headed back to the hotel for dinner and a shower. I think I'll go to bed early tonight!

~ Kaylin

Photo courtesy of the USEA