Growing up!!

 Oh my goodness! What a great day!

 

Funny and I showed at High Points Combined Test today. We showed in the Novice CT and then did a Training 3 test. I didn't get there quite as early as I had wanted but it worked out pretty well for our warm up. She was really quite good and she settled quickly. She wasn't rushed and her balance felt so much better. However she was a bit stiff and distracted. I did all the things Liz had taught me and she got much better in the warm up. We leg yielded and did serpentines and circles and spiraled and even did our T-3 test manuevers to warm up. And then it was our turn. I was able to ride a little bit in the top third of the arena which I think helped a lot. So we did our test. And she was sooooo good! She was soft and quiet and slow(ish) and more balanced. The only thing we lacked was a more steady connection and she was a little distracted and was looking around. But I was so proud. And our stretchy work was great. Her walk was even lovely.. not lateral! YAY! We ended up scoring a 31.3!!! Our best score yet! AND.. she got a TEN ON HER STRETCHY TROT!!! Whoo hooo!! 

We had a little break before our next test so we watched a few of our friends and she snacked on the clover. She was pretty chill and relaxed! Then we got tacked up to jump. We warmed up in the dressage arena again and she got a little fired up with the cantering. I did get two changes on command across the diagonal as we were warming up. :) Probably not dressage changes, but still. They didn't have any warm up jumps, so once they got the jumps set up for me, they let me in and I got to jump the two jumps on course that were the designated warm up jumps. She jumped them both nicely, so .... we just decided we were fine to do our course. And she was great! Quick, but very good. Except we took out a stride in the last line coming home and instead of balancing her, I sort of sent her and she took down the rail. Cindy was the jump judge and told me that my hands were too high. DANGIT! I forgot about that. It's been too long since I have had a lesson. Oh well. I was proud of her! Jessica told me that she was a better jumper than Dan. I know! But... shhhh, don't be talking smack about Dan! Ha! So we ended up winning our division, as we were the only ones in it ;) But I did get my ribbon, "So we could go home, because if you're not first you're last!" ha ha. I texted Mike our ribbon photo and my ETA when we headed home and he replied "I see blue, good, you can come home"! Ha ha... 

So then I had more time than I thought before our final test, but I also figured she might be riled up after jumping. I was sort of thinking it would help me out, but in retrospect, it didn't. She was amped and then she was expecting XC. BUT... she did settle better than I expected in warm up. Much better. And Liz and Grace showed up! YAY!!! She helped me a bit and then we headed down to the arena. Unfortunately I couldn't warm up because it was full sized and I didn't realize that the girl before me hadn't even started her test. So we just stood there and chilled. Which... didn't work in my favor. Once we went in, she was fired up and threatening to canter and getting all tense and balled up. I tried to do all the things. She was spooking at the rails on the side of the arena too. I managed to get her somewhat settled but certainly no where near where I wanted her. Sadly the judge rang the bell and we had to start. Ugh. Oh well. I tried to make the best of it. And, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. There were moments that were naughty but they were only moments. She tried hard! She came back to me a few times and settled much quicker after each tense/tight/rowdy moment. And we had some nice work too. Our stretchy trot was not nearly as good this time. I let her out too quick and then brought her back too late. But we still scored an 8. I was disappointed, because... I wanted to show off how nicely we had gotten our serpentines in our lesson and warm up. Just.. because she's nice. And she deserves to have people know she's nice. But Liz reminded me that there was still a lot to be proud of. And that she had womaned up because she was struggling with those things yet she tried and did well. And she's not wrong! I just got greedy. And got focused more on the score and performance instead of the progress. Liz videoed and we watched it together and it actually was a pretty decent test afterall. And, turns out... we ended up with a 65% which put us 2nd of 4. Well... that's not shabby at all. :) 

She hung out patiently and then we loaded up to go home. Poor girl still won't drink out of the buckets. Maybe I need to try a bigger bucket. She did drink a good bit when we got home. Oh, and she was so sweet when a friend came up to see her. She was snuggling with her. And then when I came back from walking away for something, she nickered at me. Awwww, I love you too baby girl. Although, she was making faces in warm up when it got too busy, just like Dan. Ha ha. Well, not just like Dan. She wasn't as nearly as bad as him. No shenanigans, just... snarky faces at some of the horses. Hee hee. 

 

I'm so proud of her. She's really acting so grown up. She gets the job. She's trying. She's doing well. And we're having fun!!! But I think she was tired! When I went to grab Dan for a ride about 1 hr after we got home, she was standing in the shade under the tree just resting. Sleep well tonight baby girl!