durk, standing like a dork, but it's our only still pic from the day...
(he kind of reminds me of a brontosaurus in this photo :)
well... this morning, despite the rain and being totally and 100% wiped out from work, i got up and headed to zillah for a schooling show at will and teresa's place... i hadn't ridden at all in the last two weeks (since our last show) so i was not incredibly optimistic about our impending ride. durk looked fantastic, i now swear by "quick black" shampoo (for those of you who care :) and his braid stayed in for about half the day, which was as good as i could have hoped for. we warmed up, didn't buck (which was a bit of a surprise) and headed in confidently for our first test. then things got wacky... the dressage arena was set up in the "scary" corner of the arena (according to durk, who swears there are monsters lurking in the trees) so as soon as we entered the arena, he was totally focused on his corner, not me. he wouldn't go near it, shied away from it, refused to canter, spooked... it was ugly. we talked to the judge and since it was a "ride a test" format, we got a second chance. the second ride was better, although we did take off at a gallop at one point. we came out of that class (5 riders) with 2nd place and a score of 63.478%, which was a big surprise to me. i was happy because we stayed pretty consistent with our score from the show a couple of weeks ago. after lunch we got ready for take two of training level test 4. i was smarter this time around and did lots of stretching and bending before our test and i have to say, it felt A LOT better than the earlier ride... no spooking, he listened (for the most part) and our second ride was actually an improvment. it felt really good... and i was thrilled to earn a 72.40%!!! that's almost a 10% improvment from our last show!! this was my first time getting 8's and i was totally excited :) it was fun and even though i'm totally pooped, it was well worth it. now i really can't wait until summer so i can ride all the time and get lots more practice!
here are some video's from our rides today... enjoy!
our first attempt at test 4 (the first half...)
the second half of our first attempt of test 4...
first half of our second attempt at test 4...
second half of our second attemp at test 4...
Nice second go round on the test. You both looked much calmer, collected and like you were a team.....as versus him fighting his damndest against you on the first one. Congrats you your score jump; you two will be Grand Prix in the Olympics before you know it. :-)
ReplyDeletelove becca