Ashland Show

So... the Ashland show got postponed because of bad weather. They changed the judge to Susanne. She's not known to be a generous judge. :) ha.... But I figured it was good practice before the schooling show champs and we already had all of our scores, so... worse case scenario... we didn't like our score. Best case scenario... We'd get a good score and could improve our average for GDCTA year ends. Either way it was good practice. So we went. :) And it was good practice. She may not be the most generous of judges but she was correct. And she wasn't mean to me. 

We had two decent tests. He warmed up a bit spazzy... I just was distracted I think. And then this appaloosa mule showed up and I was soooo distracted. You can see it being naughty in our video. Ha ha.. Anyways.. it wasn't our best two tests, but they weren't bad. But it was nice because it helped me really pick on some things to fix. And we still scored decently. Two 63's. We also got a 7 on both the right and left counter canter serpentine loop! YAY!!! But yep.. definitely need to work on the trot leg yield zig zag... keeping him round through the canter transitions. (At this point, sadly... I'm still stressing about getting the correct lead from him... but I need to focus on keeping the connection too and honestly, if we can't get the correct lead... what they heck are we doing showing 1st level?!?!). We also need to make our canter lengthen more definite and more obvious between the transitions. We need to make our trot lengthen from the get go, not build. And our walk needs to be much more active. So yep.. things to work on. Hopefully we'll improve on them before the schooling show champs. :) And then.. it's on to recognized eventing shows and maybe... maybe a recognized dressage show in February. (But I still don't want to show until we are ready for 2nd level... which means... lots and lots of hard work in the meantime!). 

Test 1-3

Of course after our test, I pulled his saddle off and pulled off my boots and we headed out to the lake to chill. We ran into some friends schooling XC too so we chatted a bit. And.. I couldn't help myself so we may or may not have hopped over two or three XC fences bareback and in socks. :)