5/6/2017: CDCTA Dressage Mania, Part 1

At attention! I love his ears.
Courtesy of Liz Stout

Several weekends ago we went on an adventure to the first recognized show of the year. First up was picking up Austen and Guinness! Austen insists Penn has grown since last year and that I should stick him again- his butt and Guinness' were the same height! He also filled out to match Guinness' butt width too. I don't have a pic of it, sorry! Guinness freaked out Husband by not being able to stand in the trailer when we turned right on our way to Morven Park. We got there in one piece though.

Ready for two horses! Except the second horse is 5 hours away, lol.
The rain that plagued us at home and on the drive down finally went away when we picked up Austen and Guinness.

We arrived in time to unpack and for me to scurry off to have a half hour lesson with GP Trainer (we stabled with her group of riders- which was a ton of fun!). We kept our lesson short and sweet- no reinventing the wheel, just a run through of all the gaits and test tricks. The first thing she said was, "Look at you sitting up! Someone has been working very hard on her homework!" She had me prepare a bit more for the across the school halts, and sit on the back of my butt more in downward transitions to help Penn keep his balance. I think we only worked for 15 min, because Penn was super on and we didn't want to tire him out. I got to test out my new warm up plan- work everything on the serpentine and then move off to canter.

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Saturday simply pissed down rain (though not as bad as the last time we were at Morven). All day. I think it stopped raining for my test at 3:36, but the rings were already quite wet by that time.

I got to meet Liz at this show too! She's so great, and was nice enough to take some really great pictures of us on Saturday (and edit them too!).

This was the first time I've ever had someone warm me up at a recognized show. I've had two trainers warm me up at shows, and by far I prefer GP Trainer's approach. She let me warm up at my speed (aka slow), and had comments and recommendations as we went along. Other trainers who have warmed me up always seemed to be rushing me along, and it always worked out (at least with my recent Event Trainer it did! Not so much with the one before her, but that's another story), but I stayed relaxed and focused this time. The biggest thing GP Trainer had me do was keep him rounder and more forward in the trot.

Splash!
Courtesy of Liz Stout

Off we went for our test! Enjoy a bunch of pictures of Penn looking positively beefy in this test!

Courtesy of Liz Stout

Courtesy of Liz Stout

Courtesy of Liz Stout

I was really happy with Penn's test. So much more solid than anything we've put forward this year, and steadier than last year. The trot work was definitely the weak point (along with me blowing the walk by asking for too much), but the canter was a strong part of the test. I was completely boggled that I missed the centerline on my leg yield and one loops. I got an 8 for rider position, and then a 6.5 for rider effectiveness with a comment about missing the centerlines. Such a stupid place to lose points!

Link to YouTube

I couldn't help but pull a pic from last year at Morven, because I found one that is the exact same pose as one from this year!

Courtesy of Liz Stout

5/21/2016

I think he's improved from last year! (well duh, he's much steadier) I don't think his stride length hasn't increased by much, but he's better muscled and more engaged now, and more on the vertical instead of hiding behind it. He still hides behind it, but not as much as he used to.

Penn whipped his tail around after our test. Oops.
Courtesy of Liz Stout

We ended up with a 66.324% and tied for 2nd place in a class of 7! The 66+% was also good enough to be our first qualifying score for this year's championships!

Blogger meet up (plus my husband) at the show's Kentucky Derby Party after the end of the show.
So much fun!