Good boys are good

Last week we went to a Wednesday show run by a wonderful little barn about 2 hours away.  We entered the Green as Grass division since we had not been on a cross country course since last October.  If you saw the spoiler post you know it went well.  This is a brief breakdown of the day and my thoughts.

When we got there we took a walk and checked in.  Everything was nicely socially distant and most people were obeying the rules and wearing masks.  Uno settled in nicely and I left him at the trailer while I went to walk my courses.  My Dad went with me and proceded to make all the jumps look tiny.  Which they were, but my Dad is 6'5" and went around calming stepping over everything.  

The course was little but had a few things we had never seen.  Like a triple combo at fence 5. And a skinny with two very tight trees at 9.  The rest were all nicely laid out and marked well.  Walking the course I really wished I was in the level up, I thought the lines were a bit nicer, but it all seemed pretty straight forward and positive.

We went and warmed up for dressage and felt on top of the world until I watched another person go and realized I learned the wrong test.  A trainer there for someone else brought me a test to look at right as the bell rang, so I looked where my circles and free walk were and decided to wing it. 

I think that my nerves made me boot Uno forward a bit because he was actually nicely in front of my leg the whole time, minus the moment he tripped and went nose-first into the dirt...

The test went REALLY well and we scored a lot of 7s and 7.5s.  Except that the judge thought Uno was a bit off after tripping and wanted me to check it out.

Cue panic.

I had Dad jog him and he looked fine.  I rode in front of the organizer and another trainer and he felt fine.  They thought he was a touch asymmetrical in front, which is something we have noted in the past, likely due to scar tissue in his shoulder limiting his reach, and not actual pain.  They thought we were good to go, so we went ahead a moved on to jumping.

You already know Uno was awesome, but I actually wished for bigger fences for the first time EVER.  It was really hard to keep him contained when he was treating the jumps like ground poles.

I two pointed my way around show jumping and just tried to be smooth and soft.  I used the turns to slow him down and tried not to pick at his mouth.  

We then took the long walk out to XC where he spooked at EVERYTHING and got really ramped up.  So I checked in with the in-gate, jumped one warm-up log, and rolled through the start box.

As you can see in the pictures he was straight as a die and fairly balanced.  He got VERY STRONG though (we are jumping in a waterford instead of his old kimberwick because he has been much better about the balance)  and you can see even in the trot picture when I would try and rate him he would curl and ignore or shake his head.  This is where I really wish I was jumping Maiden or Beginner Novice (I know! Who am I?!) because I think having jumps that he has to plant and actually jump over instead of all the little speed bumps that he canters across would have helped keep he steadier.

The good news is that his balance has gotten so much better he doesn't actually need to be held together by me so much.

It is pretty clear that his balance and self-control have come so far in the canter.  It is also pretty clear that he doesn't find these jumps to be particularly impressive or worrisome.  This all adds up to a much smoother round.

I am super proud that I stayed in two-point for all of stadium and most of XC and I was barely out of breath and did not get tired before the finish line.

All in all I could not have been more pleased with Uno.  I think we are finally coming into ourselves as a team and having fun together.

This weekend we are off for more dressage, and I am excited to see how it turns out!