There was no rest for the wicked, immediately after the Young Rider Graduate Program I had to kick my preparations for the GCDA Opener Festival CPEDI3* into high gear. My first priority was the FEI jog. Para equestrians have to follow the same FEI rules that able bodied dressage riders do, so my preparations actually spanned back months, making sure vaccinations and all my clean sport information was up to date. We did have some concern going into the first horse show, Carino had a small cut on his leg about 10 days before the first show that had abscessed. He never was unsound, and it was healing, but it was clear that there was a blemish there, which was a cause for concern. Thankfully down here I worked Dr. John Lockamy, a vet who really understood the demands of the FEI clean sport rules, and we were able to develop an appropriate treatment plan. Pam Goodrich's staff, Shauna, Sarah Jane, and Ali were indispensable without their efforts really keeping on top of Carino's treatment plan things might not have gone as smoothly.
The jog was on Wednesday and we brought Carino and Dale's horse Erik over to the Jim Brandon Equestrian Center. After we set up the stalls, we had a limited amount of time to school in covered arena where we would ride our freestyles. I am a grade III and under FEI rules I am the only one who can ride my horse, unlike the grade II and lower riders, who can have their trainers on their horses for a limited amount of time. Since Dale is a Grade II Roz got on Erik and I got on Carino and we went over to the covered arena to school. Stepping back into all the pomp and circumstance of the FEI classes is enough to still get my nerves going but Carino being the good guy that he is, really rose to the occasion which helped me get focused on the task at hand. We had a good school, we just did enough to supple up me and Carino and check all the responses. Then we headed back to the barn for the in barn inspection by the FEI vet. At the inspection we informed the vet about the cut, he wasn't concerned about it which was a great relief to me. Then we went over to the jog, they jogged the countries in alphabetical order and then the horses by rider number and Carino happened to be last. Shauna had practiced jogging him at home and he had been quite good, but being the very last horse in a long jog had taken its toll on Carino's patience and Carino was a bit strong in the jog and he had to jog through twice so he would settle. We were accepted, and with that the horses were put to bed and we would get down to the business of showing the next day.
Thursday we had the team test. The warm up had felt pretty good, so all that was left was to head down centerline. Where he had been pretty sensitive in the warm up, he got a little slow in the arena. The test did have some nice moments, but the mistakes I did have were costly. He stuck in the first turn on the haunches, and the mediums could have been bigger. The biggest mistake was a swap in the first counter canter, again he got a bit behind my leg. While I would have liked it to be a better test, I ended up with a 57.531%. I was disappointed in myself that I had made mistakes, but I felt that the score indicated it wasn't an atrociously bad test and if I didn't have any careless errors I could see myself reaching my goal.
Thursday gave us a lot of good information, and on Friday we had an off day so we schooled and focused on getting him more sensitive to the leg aids as he had been a little dull to them the day before. The plan for the next days warm up also included a very short but intense warm up, so as not to waste our energy before we even made it down centerline.
Saturday was the Individual test day. The warm up felt good and I felt confident in my test.I could have had more in my medium gaits and the turn on the haunches could have been better, but I thought it really was a step up from Thursday so I was happy about that. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed when my score came in, a 59.556%, I was so close, yet so far from reaching that magic 60% I needed for my qualifying score.
Sunday was the freestyle. It was a relief to have one day where I still got to show, but was not under the pressure of having a qualifying score. Looking at the judges feedback from my two other tests that week I decided I was really going to go for the mediums, if I could just fix one more thing I could end my week on a happy note, forgive the pun. Sunday we were back in the covered arena where had not schooled since the day of the jog, but horses had been handwalked inside. I entered the arena, they rang the bell, cued the music, and I was feeling good about my plan.
After the halt, I turn left at "C" and out of the corner I do my first medium trot across the diagonal. I was bound and determined to stick to plan and in my enthusiasm gave a strong leg aid to get the medium out and going. Carino, bless his heart, misinterpreted this as "Mom means business, she must want me to do an extended canter across the diagonal". Luckily I was able to stick with him bring him and proceed with the test. In a way, it was not such a bad thing to have happen because I made a mistake and the world didn't end. I was able to get back with my music and finish the rest of my test without incident. I didn't get a good score, 54.333% because of the error, but it really was a game changer for my confidence. I was happy to finish out the week, hopefully getting all the major mistakes out of the way, and instead of feeling defeated because I didn't do my best, just looking forward to the next opportunity to prove myself.
Saturday was the Individual test day. The warm up felt good and I felt confident in my test.I could have had more in my medium gaits and the turn on the haunches could have been better, but I thought it really was a step up from Thursday so I was happy about that. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed when my score came in, a 59.556%, I was so close, yet so far from reaching that magic 60% I needed for my qualifying score.
Sunday was the freestyle. It was a relief to have one day where I still got to show, but was not under the pressure of having a qualifying score. Looking at the judges feedback from my two other tests that week I decided I was really going to go for the mediums, if I could just fix one more thing I could end my week on a happy note, forgive the pun. Sunday we were back in the covered arena where had not schooled since the day of the jog, but horses had been handwalked inside. I entered the arena, they rang the bell, cued the music, and I was feeling good about my plan.
After the halt, I turn left at "C" and out of the corner I do my first medium trot across the diagonal. I was bound and determined to stick to plan and in my enthusiasm gave a strong leg aid to get the medium out and going. Carino, bless his heart, misinterpreted this as "Mom means business, she must want me to do an extended canter across the diagonal". Luckily I was able to stick with him bring him and proceed with the test. In a way, it was not such a bad thing to have happen because I made a mistake and the world didn't end. I was able to get back with my music and finish the rest of my test without incident. I didn't get a good score, 54.333% because of the error, but it really was a game changer for my confidence. I was happy to finish out the week, hopefully getting all the major mistakes out of the way, and instead of feeling defeated because I didn't do my best, just looking forward to the next opportunity to prove myself.
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