Show Recap: Heartland (2-3)

Friday afternoon, the night before the show, my only goal was to run through 2-3 in the full court at the showgrounds. This show allows you to school in the show rings the night before, which was awesome, since I've never ridden 2-3 in a proper court before.

This giant raven was sitting on Connor's gate when I went to get him. I joked it was a poor omen, but L. Williams said she believes they're good luck, so I'm rolling with that

Aaaaaaand my schooling ride was absolutely horrible. Almost from the moment I picked the reins up, he got his tongue over the bit - something that, all of a sudden, he's started doing a lot. As soon as I blocked him from running through my right side, boom, it's over.

Ended up parking the World's Tiniest Horse Trailer next to my old (and JenJ's old) KieferBuilt, which is still owned and loved by the same adult amateur and her Pony Club daughter that bought it from me

 

After getting off to raise his bit a hole and tighten his drop a hole, we managed to stumble through 2-3, but the whole thing didn't inspire a whole lot of confidence, and I messaged several friends saying I was considering retiring Connor from Dressage (Not really but...the thought was tempting in the moment).

Dinner Friday night, lol

The next morning, I had to feed and turnout at home, and didn't end up leaving myself enough time to braid. I always braid, even though braiding wasn't required for this show, but something in me just said F it, spend the time relaxing and mentally riding your test instead. So that's what I did. It's the first time we've shown unbraided since 2014.

"This beats being tied to the wall for an hour while you pull my hair." - Connor

 

I went into the warmup with a game plan: I was going to prioritize relaxation and stretching into the contact above all else, and I was going to ride as if my reins were a weapon of last resort. If I felt myself trying to get against him, I threw in a turn on the forehand, turn on the haunches, shoulder in or haunches in rather than grabbing at him.

And you know what? It worked! We went into the ring and laid down a GREAT test for our first attempt at 2-3. We had one big error in the second canter serpentine where he broke and it caught me off guard, because those canter serpentines always ride really easily for us, and I couldn't remember which lead he was supposed to be on, but that's exactly why we do it at a schooling show first. Now I know.

New purple show coat gets an A+ against Connor's shade of chestnut. It has three buttons, so sue me, Dressage coat makers need to catch up to my fashion sense!

Was it perfect outside of that? No. The simple changes had trot steps, the left SI is just difficult, and the judge wanted "more difference" in my mediums - meanwhile I'm sitting on him like "WOW that's the biggest difference we've ever shown in the medium gaits!" 

That was pretty much my attitude about the whole test - amazement and gratitude. I can't believe we're showing 2-3, I can't believe he has mediums, I can't believe I've learned what it means to use my body to move between collected and medium gaits, I can't believe I'm remembering to half halt, I can't believe how smooth this test rides, I can't believe he feels so good in the contact and didn't get his tongue over. I'm just so happy to be here showing and progressing and doing what I'm doing. And then when I got the scores back and found we'd scored a 62.619% for first out of two, that was just the icing on the cake.

Had to change out of my breeches for this photo because I STARTED MY PERIOD IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TEST WHILE WEARING WHITE BREECHES what the f*** body! Three days early, I might add.

This horse is hard to ride, and he demands I improve, and even if that's occasionally VERY frustrating, I love him for it. And for the first time EVER, the judge didn't write something about needing more half halts or more collection one single time.

I ended up scratching our second test, partly because I inexplicably entered him for 2-2 (which is a horrible test for Connor and we'll probably never do it) and then also because that ride time was six hours after the first. Nope, pass, we'll make our one hard thing today 2-3 and add a second hard thing (riding two tests in one day) at our next show in May.

Show season has begun!