November 20, 2009

A-Trialin' We Will Go

So tomorrow morning we will pack up and ship out for our big event.

Ride times are up!
Dressage: 11:24 am
Stadium: 12:54 pm
XC: 1:09 pm

The plan is to arrive down at CHP (Carolina Horse Park) Saturday afternoon, give the horses a nice ride, stable up, sleep, then get up Sunday and compete. Of COURSE, it's supposed to be just gorgeous tomorrow. And rainy and cold on Sunday. Yay.

I decided four days in a row of dressage might very well fry Solo's brain, so since we had a nice school last night, I just put the jump saddle on and decided to stay light. We did some walk/trot warmup, a little work on leg yielding out and some quasi-shoulder-ins. Then I sat down, collected from the core and I'll be if Solo didn't give me a much better canter transition. Don't get me wrong, we won't be bringing home any 8's on that one, but even though he couldn't stay round, it was soft and he stepped under himself. I just got off his back, did a few canter poles till he fit them into his stride nicely and called it quits with a pat. I hope to be able to just let him hack around tomorrow and then have him primed for Sunday.

I don't like to work a horse the day before show. I think it irritates Solo to be over-schooled and I prefer to let him relax in mind and body with a trail ride or hack so he is bright and fresh and happy come show day. I figure he's not going to learn much the day before and I will probably try too hard in some mis-guided attempt to take my horse from Beginner Novice to Prelim dressage in one ride and the tension will only do us in. I do just fine doing myself in at the show itself, I don't really need any further contributions to that!!!

So cross your hooves, do a "no rain" dance for us, and think round, bendy thoughts!

8 comments:

  1. I'm jealous! Good luck and have FUN! Of course, we expect a full report (with pics) as soon as you've recovered. I'm sending Gumby vibes (or perchance Mr. Pokey would be more appropriate) Solo's way, lol.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good luck! I'll think fancy red dressage horse thoughts for you!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Woohoo! Good luck!!! I'm sure you'll have a blast. I'll have Mosco channel some round, bendy dressage horse thoughts to Solo (not that he's particularly round/bendy right now AT ALL but the boy does love doing dressage!). Lots of pics please!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Off topic, but a while back did you say you know someone who makes bridles? For Christmas this year, I'm asking my husband for a new bridle for Mosco that will actually fit him. He's a TB, but he wears draft/WB size in everything because someone forgot to tell him that TBs are delicately proportioned & slender. Sooo I'm on the hunt for a reasonably priced bridle that can fit Mr. Giant Horse. Thanks!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sadly, Jen, she quit making them, sorry!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oooooo, I just saw that you guys are doing a Sporthorse Versatility show! Awesome! I wish we had something like that down here (yes, I am a broken record, lol).

    ReplyDelete
  7. That one's a big maybe Frizz. I'm going to have to do some careful budget calculations to see if it will be worthwhile!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I hope all went well. Looking forward to your report on the show happenings.

    ReplyDelete