A Phenomenal Wrap To The 2018 Show Season!
Mobius Strip, the 10-year-old off the track TH began his show career debuting at first level this season. Not only have we worked hard on packing on the pounds and muscle, but we had a few behavioral kinks to work out as well. He was quite the distracted, spicy ride! Heart of the Valley was our first time getting his hooves wet, and for how silly this boy can be, having mid/low 60s% with no major airs above the ground was a total win. Since May, lots of developments have been made in his training. I have included a picture of him showing what a TH project he was in his early months of training. Well, this little project horse has proved he can shine in the dressage ring! 67.9%, 66%, and 68%! Janet could not be a more perfect owner/rider for him, and she could not be a more perfect student to have! It is my pleasure get to show this little cutie off in the show ring and teaching him how to be a dressage horse! Hope to see these two in the ring together in the years to come.
Charlie held his own as a senior citizen starting his dressage career later in life. 67%, 69.8%, 68.3%! This very cheeky boy was on his best behavior in the show ring, kept his cool in the show atmosphere, and trailering had minimum excitement and struggle. It is fun to see how much stronger he has gotten over the past several months. Jessica is my biggest rockstar for leading this little stinker through his meltdowns, tantrums, and shenanigans of intimidation. She has grown so much as a horsewoman, and I am thankful I get to show off how handsome and capable this boy can be in the show ring.
William and I had one of our better shows out at grand prix to date. Which is an interesting statement to make considering we had a full-blown meltdown during Friday's test that actually got us eliminated. During the meltdown in one of the piaffe/passage transitions, I saw two choices in front of me. These two choices are presented to every rider at some point in their show career. Choice number one: Lay off and fudge through the next several moves, which will most likely be sloppy. Choice number two: Address the issue, blowing the movement, or perhaps several movements, and/or risking elimination. It was time for me to choose the latter choice as I have ridden William through many tests with him getting away with murder. The situation was anything but subtle. Enough so that the judge sweetly rang the bell and encouraged me to try one more time - still a total fail but William got the message because the next two days I received two of the best score at GP to date. Though I wished to have gotten there in a less embarrassing fashion, I was proud of what I accomplished by the end of the weekend. It also helped to be able to have the same judge who eliminated me Friday, reward a well ridden, greatly improved test on Sunday with a 61.8%. A super end to the 2018 season. Look forward to having many more of my crew out there showing next season. And William and I hope to be dipping our toes into the freestyle classes. So excited!!
