The show in detail

 So our rides leading up to this show ever not ideal.  We had a lot of stops and a lot of messy riding.  I know that I have my home course set more at a Maiden height, and that there are no combinations at GAG, but we have been so confident the last few months that this was really a kick in the pants.

Where did this go???

I made a few quick changes - welcome back waterford that sits SUPER LOW in Uno's mouth and basically gave myself permission to scratch if anything felt icky. On Sat I tried to jump a little course and got super in my head about it.  So we went for a hack.  At the end of the hack, I jumped 3 jumps and the last felt perfect.  So that is what we took with us on Sunday.

Uno warmed up for dressage like a champ and scored several 8s.  We spent a lot of time stretching down and working on slow and elastic movement in our flat schools, and I feel like he is finally starting to let go in his back.  If I had any idea of how big a 20 m circle is we would have been in the top 3.  I am going to set up an arena at home so I can practice this test about 1000 times before Novemeber.

The cross country was interesting - the course was not exactly what I saw the App, but all the jumps were super friendly.  However, the terrain was a THING.  The are using the side of the Horse Park that has some great hills, but running the course in reverse to how they usually do meant a lot of downhill sections.  The course also boarded the Training Level course in a few places, which ended up being interesting.

As usual I do not walk show jumping - I know this is a bad habit, but at this level they all ride as single fences and I hate it, so I skip walking it.  I knew that warm up would tell me what Uno was feeling that day, and he was AWESOME!!!  I kept the warm up short then just waiting at the in gate for my turn.  I wish I had gotten him more forward going in, as you can see in the video before he was SLOW and had no impulsion.

Then it was on to XC.  Because he was so sleepy in SJ I popped over to the XC warm up and jumped a log.  As soon as he realized what we were about he LIT UP.  So we went over to wait for our turn.  I tried a new starting pattern and it worked perfectly, we trotted through the start box right as she called time and picked up a canter to jump 1.  He was a little behind the leg for jump 1 then wanted to run off, so I re-established the rules, and had a awkward jump 2.  Jump 3 on was foot perfect.  He was forward but controlable.  I would sit up and he would look up.  As soon as those little ears were pricked I just let him go up to the base of the jump and he popped over.  It was the best XC feeling of our LIVES!!

Even the training level horse galloping out of the woods at him only wavered his focus for 2 strides then he was back at it.  I am so in love with my little guy I have no words.  He made me feel safe and I smiled and laughed the whole way around the course.

He is just the best!