I am one of those people that uses my show prep time as a time to get myself feeling prepared, motivated, and competent. May and I will be facing our first recognized horse trial this Sunday at Kent School in CT. To be honest, this really shouldn’t be a significant step up from our last event, as the omnibus is listed as such:
“All courses: Inviting, for horses with some experience at each levels or as a first event at a move up level.”
And I have heard from a variety of sources that this holds true. That being said, I didn’t get to do all the things I wanted to between the last show and this one. Namely – I didn’t get to go XC schooling to tackle our water issues. However, there were a lot of things I did do.
We put some pretty serious work into our canter transitions and our bending, and I have to say they have made great improvements. We have also found a lot of balance when jumping that should help us approach stadium and XC in a more confident manner. It’s even becoming very consistent! I even have proof!
The goal of my lesson last night was to warm up over only the far outside line and then put a full course together without piecing it together. We were then going to go back and correct the tricky parts. The problem with that plan? Our first attempt ended up being strong enough that both my trainer and I thought those should be our last jumps before the show! So without further ado, show goals:
Dressage: Score in the low 30s. I know I know, I scored a 30.3 last time out and I said we were improving. I did and we are, but this is our first recognized event and I would rather put in a relaxed, consistent test than try to push and end up with a tense test. Without pushing May, we likely won’t score in the 20s.
Show Jumping: Jump a clear round. Notice what you didn’t see above? You didn’t see any poles come down or any super close distances. May has been jumping better and rounder than ever before, and I just don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t ride to go clear.
Cross Country: I want to go clear. It doesn’t need to be perfect or smooth or inside the time, but I would like to ride every jump for a clear.
Attitude: Stay positive! This has been the biggest influence on my riding recently. I have implemented visualizing my courses, and I keep running through them until my mind doesn’t picture any mishaps. I have more than enough time for this on Sunday.
I’ll be at Kent too! Here’s hoping that the rain holds off! Kent is a lovely course – very open and inviting with fair questions. I’ve ridden there a number of times. There is no flagged water on the course, but there is a natural water crossing. It really depends on how much rain we have gotten to how deep it is. Dressage and stadium will be on grass. There have been years in the past where they’ve put Stadium in one of the dirt rings, but I’m pretty sure I heard that it was back on the grass this year. If I see you, I’ll come say hi! I know I’m not an official follower but I have your blog saved and I love following along 🙂
Awesome! Thanks for the info. I don’t think May will care about grass… She’s not one to really care about anything haha. I hope I get to see you! (At least we’re easy to spot)
Do you make the pretty browbands on that etsy store?
If we get a lot of rain Saturday/Saturday night or Sunday, the grass can get a little slick, especially in the dressage warm-up. But it hasn’t been crazy wet the last 2 weeks, so it will hopefully hold up ok!
I do! I own Dark Jewel Designs Browbands. You’ll be able to spot my horse by his sparkles 😛 I have a page on FB too and quite a few bloggers have done reviews on them.
You guys look GREAT in that video!! Have a blast at your show 🙂
Thanks! Our show was Sunday so stay tuned for a recap! I hope your weekend went well
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