Valentines Dressage Schooling Show

We had our first little dressage schooling show of the season at our home barn this weekend, and omg it was so fun!! 

Mikey could snuggle literally anywhere -- but obvi my nice clean + DIY-decorated show pad was the best choice <3

The weather was glorious, plus everyone in the barn decided to really make a day out of the event -- replete with snacks, baked goods, and beverages of all (adult) varieties! Even better -- a couple friends were able to join in the fun and come meet Charlie, shout out Susan and Lynn!!  

cute, right? 

The show started around midday and I was among the first up, meaning we rode during the nicest weather, and got done with the "hard part" early to enjoy the rest of the afternoon haha. 

cute pony too! 

And honestly, it went reasonably well. I probably wasn't serious enough about preparation in the days leading up to the show -- we thought we'd go to a jumper show this weekend too, so I'd spent more time focusing on jumping (like that grids session last week). That plan fell through tho, and I ended up feeling like we squandered a few quarters along the way. 

pictured: me going off course in our free walk

Oh well, Charlie warmed up well enough anyway. He was definitely a bit distracted and on edge about all the buzzing activity at home, and things being a little "different." Luckily there weren't too many people in the outdoor dressage court when we warmed up, tho, and he felt more or less good enough, if a bit stiff and tense. 

pictured: i still kinda suck at cantering this horse

We rode Novice Test A first, and it was ok enough. Charlie felt like he was kinda in the twilight zone, with his familiar arena being... Different. Meanwhile, I was maybe a little passive with obvi too-long reins... 

had a choice between a frame milliseconds before this where my posture looked marginally better, and charlie's marginally worse.... but i chose this one instead, where homeboy looks quite good imo even if i'm all scrunched up. whatevskis, i'd rather see him look max handsome <3

I think I like the test tho. We had some bumpy moments just by nature of it being the first time we put it all together, so theoretically repetition should help. I went off course in the free walk by going F-X-M instead of F-E-M, whoops. Tho... Frankly I like my way better LOL. 

silently beseeching the judge to please not hurt our feelings lol

Charlie also pretty heavily anticipated cantering when we were supposed to do our second 2-loop serpentine. So that whole movement was fussy and against my hand. Again, tho, I think that's just a practice + preparation thing. You can judge for yourself tho!

link to video of Test A -- fully annotated with directives, scores and commentary

Anyway, we had something like 25ish minutes before our next test, so I opted to hop off and give Charlie a grass break while I endeavored to learn Test B. Idk what it is about this test, but I kept getting like half way through reading it before sorta just.... losing the thread lol. 

next up -- Test B, wherein omg we turn *right* at C, crazy

I think it's because it has so many strings of 3-4 letters? Like the B-F-A-K, that's literally just one end of the ring lol, or the K-B-M or H-B-F dog leg turns... Idk, the movements make perfect sense to me, but for some reason my brain couldn't process remembering it all lol. 

Simple solution, tho -- my friend offered to read, to which the judge had no argument. 

i think the heart looks cute <3

Once actually going in the test, it rode better than I expected. Well, I don't mean *I* rode better than expected -- but rather the movements seemed to flow nicely. I also kinda liked the feeling I got from Charlie better in this test too -- like he had taken a deep breath and remembered that he knows what this game is all about. 

charlie's side eye here cracks me up, like he really doesn't understand the point of all this lol

Again, tho, just by nature of being our first time through the pattern, some areas ended up a bit rough. I'd practiced the 4-6 steps of walk dealio in our schooling sessions and again as we waited for the bell... But it was still a bit braced and against the hand. 

our tests weren't particularly consistent or our best, but there were nice enough moments to be found!

I also felt like I kinda let Charlie get away with feeling a little "fragile," rather than pushing him to get more up into the bridle. This is most notable in some of our trotting changes of direction, where we really could have been quite a bit nicer imo. 

good boy, sir! 

Also, lol, in our free walk, Charlie sorta just like.... put his head down to the ground and slowed to a snail's pace, but in that fragile sorta way where he was basically like, "touch me with that spur, lady, I dare you" -- like my options were slugging along the diagonal or shooting off into space. I did sacrifice a little trot step just to get him going more, since ya know, that's why we're here lol... But it was kinda funny. 

link to video of Test B -- fully annotated with directives, scores and commentary

Last thing I didn't quite like about this test was just how much walking there was, and that we walked the center line turn, before trotting and halting. This movement alone makes me question how much the test will actually get used at shows.... We'll see tho! 

click to embiggen; scores + comments are notated in the videos too

Also of note -- my prediction of the new collective marks came true on both these tests, haha. You might remember, I wrote back in November that, "I expect we'll probably score a 6.5 here, more or less always haha ¯\_(ツ)_/¯." And, sure enough lol.... first 6.5s are on the books! 

love this photo of me just cheesin with my perfect horse, thanks for the shot Lynn!! and thanks for your expert grooming touch, Susan, in making sure Charlie looked his best! 

For real, tho, it was honestly just a super fun day. Esp with the warm weather, everybody came early and stayed late, enjoyed the snacks and drinks, and cheered each other on. 

and since i somehow managed to fail at getting ANY pictures of the epic party spread everyone brought, here's a representative shot of Goose impersonating me indulging on the sangria omg 

Obvi any sort of early-season show is gonna be more about shaking off the rust than anything else. But for some competitors, this was their first test on a new horse, or first show ever -- and it was so cool to make such a memorable great day out of it. To me, that's what really matters. 

And now, it's just a couple more weeks til our next go 'round!