USDF/USEF Recognized Show Outing on 6/8/14

This past weekend I packed up Mikey and my husband and we drove a couple hours to the recognized dressage show closest to us. We've been planning and working hard to be ready to get our second level scores at this show. The show is actually 2 different shows, one Saturday and one Sunday. Same location, same judges, just two different shows... two office fees, two drug fees...... The weather on Saturday was beautiful. It's too bad I didn't show on Saturday and chose to show Sunday only. Not that I could afford to do both show days, not after a second hotel stay. Mother nature decided Sunday would be stormy, but we at least had a nice morning.

Mikey and I had a good school on Saturday after we arrived. I checked in and checked with the TD about my spurs. I like my pair of smooth rowel spurs- I get my point across with minimal effort. Those however, were quite illegal at my level. I have a pair of roller ball spurs, and they work as well but I couldn't find anything in the rules for them, so better to ask first and not be disqualified later. The TD approved my roller spurs, and here's a tip to everyone: check in with the TD if you have questions, she really appreciated me coming up and asking before riding. I got to talk to her again that weekend and we had a super nice chat.

Anyway, our first test Sunday morning was Second 2, and using the tips I got last week, we had a super super warm up, and a super test. Our medium trots leave something to be desired, and one turn on the haunches was sticky and he planted the inside hind, which earned us a 5. Our only five on the test. Everything else was between 6 and 7.5, so a very solid test! We ended up with a 64.211%!

And now some pics from the test, courtesy of my amazing husband who spends his weekends with me at horse shows without complaining. It helps he likes photography and horse shows have ample opportunities for that.

Haunches In

Medium Canter

Medium canter, I love this picture!

Medium-ish trot

About an hour or two after our test, mother nature decided to dump water on us. A lot of water. The nice dry farm became a very wet soggy place. The rain broke for my warm up and second test, which was 5 hours after my first test........... Anyway, I misjudged how fast the show was moving and ended up over-warmed up. I was ready to go 1.5 rides before I was set to go, which amounts to about 10 min early, which is fatal for Mikey and me. He lost whatever softness he was able to get, and gets tense and bit chompy. We had an alright test and it turned out a lot better than it felt, 62.024%! He needed to be more through and not brace. Since it was the adult amateur section of Second Level Test 3, and the test works well for Mikey's strengths, I had hoped to give a good try at winning the Dover Medal, but I was third. I was only 2% behind first place, and I know the test was not our best, so maybe next time we'll get that medal! :-) But what really matters to me is that I got the second level scores I needed for my Bronze Medal. Only two scores left!

A couple pics from that test:

Free walk through the puddles.

Up center line in canter.

One of the low spots at the farm has become a swamp.

I did have the videographer take video of my two tests. 2nd-3 looked a lot better than it felt, and I couldn't believe how far we've come in 2nd-2!! If I can figure out how to get it off the DVD, I'll share.


And now we're going to move on to third level. We'll school the poop out of our flying changes between now and July. My trainer is holding a ride-a-test at a nearby farm on the Saturday of one of the two day shows, and I'm going to ride there then immediately leave for the show and ride in Sunday's recognized show. Hopefully I'll get a score. I'm not hopeful for 2 scores, but I'll live with one!