CDCT Dressage in Wine Country

I can't even begin to express the number of times I thought about scratching this show. As I was warming up in our only real ride last week--the day before the show no less--I was planning on scratching. And then my horse popped over quietly and cleanly when I asked for a change and I was like, "Fuck it. Let's just do it."

midget horse out there doing it

Last week just kept piling shit on in a never ending shit cascade which included Opie's clearly equally herd-bound BFF injuring himself pretty dramatically while the two of them were having a meltdown over me not being able to magically poof them into their paddock at the same time because I am only one person. I have a lot of feelings and opinions on that whole situation and not a single one is kind, so we'll skip that. Opie got moved to a small solo turnout with a herd of Haffies across the lane and he seems perfectly content chilling out there during the day. We'll see where that goes. 

On top of all that, and all sorts of other things like my custom saddle not being made correctly and my phone being stolen, it was also god fucking awful hot and humid to the point where riding was futile. We did fifteen minutes of walk on Wednesday before going to play in the pond. The worst of the soul-sucking heat broke Friday so I was finally able to put in a real schooling ride. 

He started off very stiff and gross which made me question why the fuck I thought this horse was ready to try Third let alone try yet again to get his elusive 60% at 2-3. But I kept going through the motions and progressing through the warm up, and he ended up giving me everything I asked for without fuss. 

Ready? Well, ready enough I guess.

that tail needed three washes on friday to become white again

I kept Opie on the trailer until I was dressed and ready to throw tack on and head right down since we were quite far from stabling and fairly isolated. Fortunately he was totally chill hanging out up there all afternoon, either on the trailer or tied to it. No friends and a double dose of Ulcergard ftw. 

I knew he was going to be tense though because for whatever reason he hates this facility so I gave us a lot of time to just go walk around warm up until his back loosened up. He needed all of it, and I threw in every trick I knew to get him to soften.

Second Level Test 3

Hot damn, the forty minutes of "Let's be zen" worked and he put in his most relaxed Second test to date. The trot work is what it is at this point, I've got to figure out how to get him to unlock those giant shoulders (starting with targeted PEMF this week because it worked to unlock his hind end!). We got a 6 on the first TOH though, and a 5 on the second ("against outside leg, hairpin"), 7s on all the walk and for the canter transitions and medium canters and 6.5s for the counter canter serpentines. I felt his back lift up in those medium canters--especially the second one--and I knew I was finally riding to this horse's ability. 

This judge is tough and was scoring tough all morning. What a fucking time to deliver, Opie. We ended up with a 61.786% which won our big class! That was such a giant relief and victory, one which I didn't even celebrate until after our Third test because they take so long to score at this show. 

We had three hours between tests so we went down and watched our PEMF lady also do her Third debut on her OTTB. We both had the same goal--55% or bust lol. Her trainer told us to temper our expectations with how the judges were scoring and be prepared to be happy over our rides and not the scores. 

just opie being opie

I gave us half an hour warm up for this test. We ended up using about half of that because it was so hot that both of us were pretty cooked. I rushed through the actual warming up to ask the real questions: half pass and changes. Half pass was in place, the changes were back to their usual rodeo of "I don't wanna." But I worked through that and got one clean so I left it there knowing they were going to be what they were going to be anyway. 

Third Level Test 1

going up center line for our first third test!!

I handed my phone off to a mom but it didn't want to cooperate so she videoed it on her phone. I'll see if I can get her to send it to either my phone or Hubby's this week. 

Opie was EXHAUSTED for this whole test. I've never had to straight up pony club kick him in the middle of a test before, and it was inconvenient timing to need to do it in a test with so much collection and sideways where the footing was already super deep and wet in the corners. I don't think we ended up doing a single step of real SI.

Turns out these long, shallow half passes are actually insanely hard. I'm not sure how to ride them tbh because our half passes are used to being much steeper. I was ready to hit the rail two letters before I needed to and kept having to stuff in straight steps because M and H would not come fast enough. 

The trot work all scored accordingly (badly, that is), 6.5 for his extended walk that he slept through, 7s for the canter transitions and medium and extended canter, a 6 and a 7 for the 10m circles, and 7s for the center lines. 

he looks sane, i don't lol

I was worried we weren't going to be able to contain ourselves long enough to cross the center line for the changes, but he was so tired he carried on just fine until I cued for them. Now I thought he popped right over R-L (which is, of course, the direction he never wants to give me), but apparently not cleanly enough because we got a 4 for being late. The other direction he bounced up for a couple strides before switching and another 4.  Totally fine because both were quiet and uneventful and I knew going in it was going to be pure luck if I got them in the test. 

We ended up with a 54+% for 5th which was just shy of our goal, but I'm glad we ended up going out and doing it anyway. I was able to see spots that I need to work on in an actual test ride (the half pass), and got good feedback on spots where the judge can give me more points (not ducking behind the vertical in the rein back). 

can't be ruining these gorgeous halts, sir

Overall I'm pleasantly surprised with the outcome. For a show that's historically been a complete clusterfuck for us for one reason or another, it exceeded expectations. I was able to get my 60%+ to close out my Second level rider award and now qualify for the recognized year end award for my GMO. Hopefully we can repeat that one more time in two weeks at our last schooling show and wrap that up. 

This season, which essentially got compacted into the month of August, has been mentally and physically taxing. I'm proud of us for (almost there!) closing it out on such a high note. This is technically only Opie's third show season after four years off the track and at only eight years old. Not too shabby all things considering.