Saturday, May 1, 2010

the sound I had to follow

Lovely show. Lovely ride. Lovely horse. Lovely day.

Yeah, sure, we got busted by the judge for a number of things and only scored a 54 point something and placed fourth out of five. It was still good. And some of the things we got busted on can be improved by improving fitness. And some can be improved by improving riding. And some of those things are just who that horse is as a 21 year old retired broodmare who has had a lot of babies in her life (I know personally five of those babies).

I wish we had done better. I wish I could score 70! Laughing, but, sure, wouldn't that be grand.

But I also think we did really well. She *was* much more forward, the transitions weren't bad (except that last canter was sticky), and while her head is unsteady, it was much better than the last show. And while we've cantered better, we got it and we held it and that was our goal. Our walk was not good but our transition into it was very good. The judge was pretty critical in her comments, a tough cookie as it were. In watching the video I think there were lots of positive things she didn't happen to mention. And I think she was judging on the horse's raw talent a lot.

Of course, the whole show is a lot more of an experience than just the ride. Barry showed up, and took me to dinner. That was especially nice. Rowan stayed with me all day and helped whenever needed. Leafy won two duels at Yu-Gi-Oh. I had so much help all day in running the barn and getting ready and having fun. And Rolinette was extraordinary. The Moody Blues' "Wildest Dreams" played on the ipod as I pulled into the barn, my number was 21 (also the age of my horse), and a great blue heron flew low over as we watched the early part of the show.

Barry made a comment to husband as I rode my test: "She's really at home in the saddle." Husband countered: "The saddle is the only place she is at home." And that one has me thinking.

Skipping back to the ride, when we decided to ride T2 and I thought about what score was likely, I thought that 55 would probably be good for us at this point. That's what we scored. The winner of the class scored 61 and the next three were within a point of 55.

1 comment:

clairesgarden said...

good score, good for you getting out there and trying and competing against others.