We are very lucky that one of our Canadian team selectors also happens to be show organizer extraordinaire at the Florida Horse Park. (and that’s just one of the many full time jobs Jen Holling seems to have!)
Today all 8 of us took a 30 minute road trip down to the park for a dressage schooling show, where we were sort of last minute entries. Thank you very much to everybody involved there for letting us be a part of it! There were about 75 horses in attendance for the warm and humid day of riding, so it wasn’t exactly the kind of electric atmosphere we’re going to be dealing with in 12 or 13 days (!!!!) but it was a change of pace from our quiet little life at Meredyth South. If you read yesterday’s entry, you will know that our horses all galloped yesterday, and if you are an event rider, you know how much fun it is to try to do dressage on the post gallop day….
That being said, I think everyone behaved fairly well. Gin & Juice was a little bit jacked up from yesterdays change of pace, and the grass warm up area probably made it feel a little bit like a cross country day, but I think she kept a lid on it for the most part. The others, though, were feeling maybe just a little tired? I got on Ollie for 15 minutes at about 9:15, and then got on him again at 10:15 for a 10:35 ride time, and then after I did my first test, Jessie did her first test, and I got to go in the ring again. So it was kind of a big morning of dressage, and I don’t really blame him for feeling a little tired in the canter work of his second test.
Overall, I’m pretty happy with how today went. Every time I ride through this test, I make some sort of stupid mistake. Like, at the AEC’s I blew my extended trot (my horse’s best movement) and my first test today I did a step of canter in my first trot half pass, and the second test today he did his halt/immobility with his hind legs trailing quite far behind because I didn’t ride the walk enough… So I’m kind of frustrated, because I can do each movement pretty well, it just seems like I can’t really get my act together for the entire test… but I still have some time left to practice and work on my level of focus. I feel very in tune and focused when I ride, but I probably need to spend more time throughout the day going through it all in my head.
So, if you ever wonder what I do during the day when I’m not riding, you can bet for the next 12 days, I’m off wandering around with my IPod on, visualizing my dressage test…. Fun times.. !
~Stephanie
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