The show went great!
My warm up for dressage felt and probably was very short. Our test felt nice besides him being slightly distracted and not always pusing into the bridle consitstantly. Our score, marks and comments were our best ever though! We got a 27% which is our best score yet and we got all 7's and 8's besides one 6 on my last halt because I halted a little before G instead of at G...opps! We got great comments from the judge and were the only negative feedback was drift of outside shoulder and needs to improve quality of walk which I know since those are our most difficult issues we have been continueing to work on at home. We placed first after dressage which was great to see we finally got our dressage back.
XC was great as well. Warm up he was a little tight and trying to have me hold him up to balance but our last few fences were great. Carino got his nice canter right out of the box and jumped the first 7 perfect..we ran into a little trouble after I pushed him for the distance over the ditch at 7 and then we just never got the canter back through the corner and then the brush fence came and he just wasnt balanced or knew he was jumping. We had a refusal but my fault for not getting/keeping the canter. I represented him and no issue. We then had a stop at 8 which was the down bank but I was very happy about this actually. Yes, I was HAPPY about a refusal! He never said no and he didn't just leap off and then take off to try to get away from it. He trotted up said wait, I can do this just give me time to process and then politley jumped off. I was very happy he did this. He has never jumped off a bank in a show and has only jumped off the banks at home. He was very brave and rememberd what we worked on at our last xc school at didn't leap but steped/jumped off. This was a sign to me that he is getting it and really learning. Very proud moment for me. The rest of the course was great.
By the time it was SJ Carino was so relaxed. He walked right into warmup in the indoor and despite the crazyiness of many horses and horses refusing he was totally calm. He walk, trot and cnaterd great and by the time we were ready to jump the indoor pretty much cleared. We hopped over the verical and oxer both twice and he was great so we went to the ring. The course was great and clear. He got a little unblanced and 'hoppy' between fences due to some cross cantering but the fences were good. I was very happy since the course had a lot of new and big solid things to look at that he has never seen before.
Too bad about the 4o points. Oh, well, I came into the show with the mindset I was just going for a school and thats what I did. I pushed him on through the wiggles in dressage and got the big bolg trot and with a score to proove. I pushed him in xc with some questions that he tends to find big and challenging and he took them great. He was bold in stadium and could tell he was enjoying himself. Overall it was a very successful show. And it served it's purpose as a way to get him ready for championsips. He was pushed but not over faced and he really impressed me.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Friday, July 1, 2011
Scarlet Hill XC schooling show
A large group from Valinor attended the Scarlet Hill XC schooling show. I was looking forward to get Carino on an off farm xc course. When I walked the course nothing really seemed to jump out as an issue..but thought he might take a look at the half ditch since he might not understand wether it is a ditch or a bank. But I wasn't really worried about the course. Our warm up started a little tense with many horses and in a large indoor with all the big doors open, LOTS TO LOOK AT! However, he settled down quite nice and we got some nice jumps in. The times however were moving quite slow, a few of us hacked around a little but still there was a long wait. We waited about 20 min before I finally was able to go.
He refused fence one, once or twice but I believe it was he jsut thought he was done from standing there so long and just chilling out watching all the other horses. We had a stop at the half ditch but he did a little launch over it the second of aproach and was fine. We then had to go in the woods and we had to trot since when we walked the course early that morning we already saw that some horses took some bad slides. He trotted into the woods great, over a log great however when we were heading out of the woods the footing turned into a huge black muck hole and then you could see the super bright field. Carino stopped dead in his tracks and shut down just like he did at the Mystic Water crossing. I used all my strength and the same tactics I knew but he was just shut down. Eventually Dana and Boo came and just stood in front of the opening and Carino went OH? It really isn't a mud monster trying to eat me and jumped right out of the woods. We then had a spot on rest of the course which was another 8 fences.
I am happy and frustrated with the ride. The good parts were so great that they almost over come the bad and I was happy he just got off property and saw some new things. Also, I talked a lot about these little mental things Carino has with Erin in my lesson the following day and it really helped and was looked as more of a learning expierence and a lesson about how my horse thinks and how I need to think to respond.
He refused fence one, once or twice but I believe it was he jsut thought he was done from standing there so long and just chilling out watching all the other horses. We had a stop at the half ditch but he did a little launch over it the second of aproach and was fine. We then had to go in the woods and we had to trot since when we walked the course early that morning we already saw that some horses took some bad slides. He trotted into the woods great, over a log great however when we were heading out of the woods the footing turned into a huge black muck hole and then you could see the super bright field. Carino stopped dead in his tracks and shut down just like he did at the Mystic Water crossing. I used all my strength and the same tactics I knew but he was just shut down. Eventually Dana and Boo came and just stood in front of the opening and Carino went OH? It really isn't a mud monster trying to eat me and jumped right out of the woods. We then had a spot on rest of the course which was another 8 fences.
I am happy and frustrated with the ride. The good parts were so great that they almost over come the bad and I was happy he just got off property and saw some new things. Also, I talked a lot about these little mental things Carino has with Erin in my lesson the following day and it really helped and was looked as more of a learning expierence and a lesson about how my horse thinks and how I need to think to respond.
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