One blue ribbon in dressage and a 61.5%, and a clear round of jumping! I consider this show a resounding success. This is the first time we’ve competed in dressage doing a walk-trot-canter test, and the first time we’ve competed in jumping. I set the goal of doing the w-t-c test and jumping back in August, and we achieved it!
The morning started a 3-day's drive from perfect. Surya was agitated and excited by the activity at the barn and grounds, and trotted even when walking in-hand. She did not stand for mounting, and I ended up doing a flying leap onto her back and then adjusted my stirrups and reins jockey style. She is normally a very calm horse. While not pokey, she does not try to run away. This morning, though, she put on an OTTB attitude and charged around. She bore down on the reins in the trot and flashed her black legs as fast as they could go. When I asked for the canter, she decided I was Mel Brooks shouting “Ludicrous speed! Go!” and leapt into a gallop straight toward the show photographer (who subsequently leapt into a gallop in the opposite direction). That made me mad (I really like our photographer- she rides at the barn, and is ridiculously talented at her art), so I shortened my right rein, dragged Surya’s head around to her side, and made her trot in tiny circles until she started letting my legs and hands dictate speed and direction.
By the time it was our turn in the ring, I had control of her, but she was still locking her jaw against the bit when I asked for contact with her mouth. I went into the arena nervous that she would explode at the judge’s box, or whistle, or lettering. However, I was determined, and rode in with purpose. We achieved a lovely halt at X, and I breathed a little easier. The rest of the test went well, but I spent the time forcing her to maintain a slow, steady pace and perform the correct geometry. She tried to spook a few times, but I caught her with my legs before she had the opportunity and put her back to work. She bent off my leg, and kept reaching for contact, but did not maintain it. I did get both canter transitions, at A, on the correct lead! The transition back to trot was also good from both directions, though we were a bit late to the right. By the end of the test, my calves and thighs were trembling from the effort of containing Surya and implementing the required movements. I gritted my teeth as we trotted up the centerline and willed her to a slightly crooked (but still square!) halt. I still grinned in triumph. The judge told me, “great impulsion, work on maintaining contact with the bit and suppling.” Yeah.
When I exited the ring with a giant grin on my face, my ARF told me, “that was a great test! You did an awesome job, but Surya didn’t help at all…that was all you. [laugh] You looked like you were riding for country.” So we got a 61.5% on our first walk-trot-canter test, in the Starter Horse Division. My goal for the next show is to get at least a 70%. We have until March to practice.
After dressage, I untacked Surya and stuck her in her stall to relax for a few minutes while I went to scope out the jumping situation. My trainer told me to walk the course, and then jump the warm-up a few times before going to the ring. “Ok.” Then I stood in front of the arena while my head exploded. My ARF came up behind me. “What do I do?” She looked at me weird and said “Walk the course?” Sad to say, I then shouted at her, “I don’t know what I am doing! I haven’t been doing this since I was 12! How do I walk a course?!” Because she is my ARF, and by definition awesome, she stayed calm and showed me how to walk the course. It’s really not that hard.
I tacked up Surya in her jumping gear and we headed to the warmup. My ARF stayed to coach me through trotting and cantering over the little jumps. With one reminder to land in my heels, I was off. As soon as I entered the ring, I wasn’t nervous. The plan was to trot everything, but canter the combinations if things were going well. We trotted the first jump and cantered away on the correct lead. Even though Surya was excited by the show and very hot, she came right back to the trot and put her business face on. We jumped the second jump neatly, cantered five strides, and jumped the third. We came back to the trot and approached a vertical with a bending line to another vertical. We jumped the first one well, and went to the second at a canter from a slight angle. Back to the trot, and we headed toward a two-stride. Because we didn’t have quite enough impulsion going into the two-stride, Surya landed the first jump, took two small strides, realized she couldn’t jump from that distance, bulged slightly on the right, added a short third, and then jumped perfectly over the rails. We trotted the last vertical, then the plank, and we were done with a clear round! While the dressage might have been all me, the jumping was all her. She is just absolutely brilliant. I don’t know what I’m doing, so I sit up, give direction, and she figures out the rest. She is so incredibly smart.
The whole barn clapped for us at the end. A woman from another barn asked what breed of horse she is, and where I got her. Justified, because she’s special!
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