Show Recap

I know this isn't the best picture, but look at his cute little face!!

It was HOT! Like almost 100 degrees HOT.  We did the minimum of everything in order to not die, but I am so glad I went.  The numbers will not look awesome: a 38 in dressage and a 4 fault jump round, but Uno tired so hard for me!

AND WE CANTERED RIGHT!!

We warmed up for dressage and he was really great.  I was still losing his left shoulder going right and the busier the warm up got the harder he was to ride softly. So we called it a day.  

Which ended up being a good thing, because I wrote down the wrong start time.  This meant that I ended up right on time at the dressage ring.

More of this please!

Uno will never be a world beater in dressage, but the first 1/2 of the test was SO good. All 6.5s and 7s.  At this point Uno still has a hard NO point in his dressage work and we hit that after the first canter.  It was hot, holding himself up is hard, and Uno felt he had done enough... and then a horse fly started stalking us around the ring.  Needless to say the rest of the scores were lower... 5.5s. 

Look at his engagement and balance!!

 His right canter transition was prompt and clean. The circle was drifty and bucky.  I was just proud that we held the lead for the full circle and down the long side.  After we down shifted, and the fly left, Uno found a bit more energy and we ended on a 7 for our trot down the center line.  All in all, I was thrilled with the improvement!


Then we had to rush to get ready to jump.  And by that I mean walk the course.  Magic Trainer wanted me to focus on straight lines and an even tempo.  I wanted to look and the jumps and keep my leg on to the base.  I succeeded at one of these.

Amazing pony is amazing.

The first jump was the biggest and had two hula skirts hanging off the side.  There was enough of a breeze to make them spookey and when I trotted past he was very worried about it.  When the bell rang and we headed for it he did not even look at it.  The first 2 jumps went well, just wiggley.  Coming around to the 3rd, I blanked on where I was supposed to go for jump 4 and I took my eye off the jump in front of me.  Which caused more wiggling and a pole down.

So fun!

We then wiggled our way through the rest.  Some with good distances, some with bad.  However, despite being worried about the move up height as I got ready, Uno was so solid.  The wiggling had nothing to do with jumps and more to do with my crap riding.  As we work and adding more lateral work to his dressage, he is getting hyper sensitive to my weight and leg.  Which means when ride like a fool, he responds to cues that are not there... or relies on having support I did not give.

Keep your shoulders UP!! Geeze!

The big thing is that there was not one scary thing all weekend. I am so proud of this silly little pony.  The 4th place ribbon didn't hurt either.