FRVPCHT: BN Dressage Test

I seriously could not have asked for more anything for our Dressage test today - he was focused and on my aids when he needed to be, and the result was a test I am very proud of:

Very proud!

And the WHOLE THING is on video!  It's at the end of the post.

We had a lovely relaxed warmup in which he completely tuned the chaos around him out and listened to me.

And when he gave me some of the best leg yields of his life when we were going around the outside of the ring:

I knew he was in that perfect focused frame of mind, and truly on my aids.  I actually got some beautiful but accidental canter as we went around the outside of the ring, because I was too firm with my aids for that frame of mind he was in.

Some test photos:

Austen Gage:  dem braids.

The judge scored us a very awesome 30.5 to put us in 4th place in a large, competitive division (uh, this show is on a scale of wealth I am NOT used to!  There are Fernhill horses here!).  I was thrilled with the comments.  She wrote "Lovely overall effort.  Some very good moments.  Keep rebalancing often and ride for accuracy."  7's across the board, with a 6 for our entrance and right canter, and an 8 for our final trot, which I performed sitting for reasons I can't fully explain.  Our sitting trot is really good right now, so it was a good decision I guess.

And my mom got the entire thing on video.  I'm thrilled to finally see what I have been feeling these past few months.  So proud of him!!

We tiny.