Test Riding Preparations

Last Friday I signed up for TC's next and possibly last show of this year. I put us in for Training 2 and First 1 both days, with us hauling in both days from home. I figured it'd be a good next step to see how he handled two days in a row. The show is only about an hour to an hour and a half drive away, so I didn't sign up for a stall. I will see if they have any availability if I have to show real early on Sunday, but I, as everyone, am hoping to have rides between 11am and 1pm each day.

As I've mentioned, I'm a little bit nervous about moving TC up to First. TC is more than ready at home, but the last show at Training didn't go so so well in the canter work. Things have changed a lot since that show, but I haven't had a lesson in that time, so I'm concerned that I might have accidentally wandered off the path I was on. But at my last lesson, Tracey said that I was ready to move up whenever I wanted. And we have a lesson this weekend.

In the mean time, I've decided that I'm going to just test ride the hell out of this test to see when and if mistakes will happen. And so on Monday I started my test riding craziness.

And on Tuesday afternoon he got a bath because he was gross

Warm up went well, though I probably would school a lengthening or two in the show warm up to make sure we had brakes and weren't SO EXCITED to be finally allowed to go VERY FAST.

The centerline rode well, though I do need to ride about 10,000 more before the show. He just stutters slightly off of his line in the halt and when he does that, we lose a point. Why should I lose points on such an easy movement? I shouldn't. The one thing I am really glad about is that he marches right off of his halt now.

At Training and Intro, you are allowed to halt through the walk, and trot through the walk leaving the halt. You shouldn't have any walk steps starting at First level. That doesn't stop a lot of people, but I'm becoming more of a stickler for making sure that my horse is not only capable of doing the hard stuff at the level, but the simpler stuff that is easy to ignore. There's a reason why a First level horse is expected to go from trot to halt and halt to trot without walk steps.

The half circles are good, though to me they feel a little bit like 3/4 of a circle rather than a half circle, I need to straighten him more coming out of it. Both rode equally as well and he seamlessly changed bend and went nicely into his corners.

I miss that green grass, but not the rain that it requires

The stretch circle is perfect. The end. Well, I mean obviously it can always be better, but he's really figuring it out and is confident in it. No reason to fuck with a good thing.

On Monday the first lengthening rode well. I'm concerned that he's leaving his hind legs out behind him a bit too much, but it's just a lengthening. We'd get dinged in a medium for not being engaged enough. But it's a lengthening. He's powerful but needs me to slow down the front legs to keep him connected. If I just toss him across the diagonal and kick, he's likely to either get strung out, break to canter, or come off the bit. He's still learning!

The walk work rode okay. I knew by introducing half steps that I'd improve our walk to trot transitions (picture perfect) but be at risk of making our medium walk kind of slow. Sure enough, any leg at the medium walk meant he'd offer half steps. So I have to be careful. The free walk also rode badly because I had to get after him in the medium walk for jigging that I just sort of ignored the free walk. Definitely doing a lot of that in our upcoming rides.

The free walk to medium walk to working trot to working canter to lengthened canter rode SUPER well. I am the queen of randomly taking a break during my rides to check my phone, talk to someone, try to remember a test, take off a jacket, tell a cat that it's cute, or anything else. So he's used to wandering around aimlessly and suddenly having to go back to work. I love that he's happy to do that. It makes this movement ride super easy.

Heading back here this weekend I think

He did, however, squeal as we started the lengthening. I mean, I guess I like that I have a horse who adores his job. But like... please. It took all my bravery to let him keep going and risk the bolt. He honestly needs to learn that he can't bolt in the lengthenings, which means that I need to bait them and then punish them when they happen. He didn't bolt, but it did feel possible. I love that the lengthening ends in a circle, the first half of the circle was... uh... not the most in control, but after that he settled and we headed across the diagonal.

The transitions rode well, he's definitely not so great at trotting out of the canter, that comes from him breaking from canter and me telling him that he CAN NOT break from canter. Now he doesn't believe me that I want him to trot so I sometimes have to pull on him to get him to trot, which causes him to toss his head up a bit. But these transitions rode better than they usually do.

The next lengthening rode just like the first but with no squeal. He settled on the circle sooner and I wasn't as concerned that he'd take off. So that was nice! The trot lengthening rode super well as well, he's really figuring that shit out. And then we headed up centerline to halt.

I can't believe he used to be so small

Overall I was super pleased. It was one of the best tests he's put in at First level and there were just some minor places that I wanted things to be better - the halts, his confidence in the trot lengthenings, and my confidence in the canter lengthenings.

I'm sure at our lesson this weekend, Tracey will have some good constructive criticism for us. Hopefully I can convince her to watch my test and help me with that. Really looking forward to our first lesson in two months! Less looking forward to the show, but hopefully it goes well. I'm trying to focus more on getting our Training level certificate than the move up to First! And either way, by then we'll know the results of All Breeds!!