Dressage diva

This morning I was loaded up into the box on wheels again for a long journey to an unknown destination. An hour later we arrived at a very over crowded car park, with no one around to help direct where we were going to park, which didn't put Mum in a good mood to start with. Eventually we squeezed between a super big posh lorry and another trailer. Mum disappeared to get the low down on where everything was while I looked about and ate my hay. 

Mum returned to make herself look smart before tacking me up and leading me to see where we needed to be to warm up. We had less than 20 minutes to warm up in an indoor school, I was running at full speed ahead and I didn't give Mum a chance to take control, I was on a charge (well what does she expect if she gives me a big dinner and a big breakfast - I have energy to burn!). Before we had a chance to settle down we were re-directed to the other end of the facilities to start my exam. 

We started with Prelim 7, Mum was struggling with the brakes but I was working to ensure we had good impulsion. We made a good straight entry and kicked off our scoring with an 8. I'm good at trot so secured lots of 7.5's for the first part of our test including my RIGHT hand canter (so got that mastered!). 

I kept a good smart walk to get an 8 for my medium walk before dropping to 6.5 for my left canter transition before regaining a 7.5 for the rest of my canter. 

The stretchy walk was only across the short diagonal and I was too tense to stretch down so only got 6.5 before halting for a 7. Mum was thrilled as she didn't think we had done very well and couldn't believe we came 2nd with a massive score of 71.5% (think that is my first over 70% score). 

Video footage of my Prelim 7 exam can be found at http://youtu.be/UhSBTukc9fs

Next back to the outdoor arena to keep warming up for my next exam Prelim 18. Mum was riding me around in circles while desperately trying to learn the directions. She's not very good at learning two exams in a row. Then we did LOADS of walk trot transitions as well as practising some canter transitions before a few diagonal stretch walks, within 15 minutes of warming up we were in for our next exam. Another positive very straight entry to get another 8!  There is a lot of trot to start this test and I was so excited and full of beans that at every bend I kept offering Mum canter, I'm not sure how the judge didn't see it, but I managed to score a whole stream of 7's even so!

My working canter right wasn't so hot, Mum was convinced I was on the wrong leg, but I wasn't, so we scored 6's, she should have just left me to it, I know what I'm doing. Mums steering then went downhill and we ended up right of the centre line to finish our halt. 

We ended up with a score of 67.9% which is still pretty good, Mum thought the scores were very generous considering all my naughty canter offerings. Though we were thrilled to score our first ever 7 for my stretchy walk, which Mum thought was probably our best effort to date, so she agreed with the score. All in all a good day, though I'm not sure Mum rated the venue. 

Video footage of our Prelim 18 can be found at http://youtu.be/JzZz94tBXWY

Me sporty my blue rosette after I had completed all my exams. Back home for another big tea????