Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Loch Moy - Dressage

With the day being so packed with awesomeness, I will be breaking down the three phases of Loch Moy in different posts...I hope the anticipation isn't too much to handle!

The morning of the show was an early one since fellow trailer mate, Brita, had a dressage time before 8am. Luckily for me, I was so beat after CHA and lessons and keeping myself busy, I came home and crashed early so waking up at 4 wasn't so bad. More importantly I didn't have any time to get in my head and get nervous.

Brita put in nice test with her boy and we quickly ran off to get a cart for Emma to walk our XC course. Fellow blogger, Austen, also joined us! She was such an amazing help and event lent me her belt (opps!) for the day.

Thanks Austen for this picture! 
Well right after our course walk, we rushed back and I got myself ready. I thought I had given myself enough time, but I didnt plan on Tillie coming off the trailer a nervous ball of tension. They were running ahead of schedule and I should have declined and opted to do a few minutes longer...so I only got about 20 minutes.

Luckily, Tillie JUST started to settle and while she didnt feel that great, it was good enough. Re-watching the video the first few times, I focused on Tillie and agreed it looked better then it felt. BUT when I watched it and focused on me, I was appalled at how noisy of a rider I appeared to be. **Sigh** I guess the quiet ride all around will come with time.

I am grateful I had such a strong support system which included a bonus of Emma yelling profanities at me to get me to look up not down at my horses neck....I never want to show again without them!

Anywhere here is the video:



So yea....that happened. In the moment, it happened so fast I was shocked. But I went back in and asked to finish. We did, and silly mare tried to pull the same trick again. Not really sure what gremlin was lurking on the inside of the right entrance, but Tillie thought there was one for sure.

The moment I knew I botched royally
It ended up taking a lot of the pressure off and you could even see her relax that much more since I did. I was severely disappointed and it was my first Elimination in dressage ever - but I guess there is a first time for everything right? I was even more disappointed that, despite the judge allowing me to finish, didnt score the remainder of my test...with it being a starter trial, we all assumed they would to at least give my something to go off of.

If only we had a test to score the lovely parts! 

I was really ready to cry. I felt tears stinging and kept trying to tell myself it happens, but it still just sucks. At least this event still allowed me to jump (which I was really not feeling up to at first and felt maybe this test was a bad omen). But Emma convinced me to and insisted I would regret it if I didnt.

Oh haaaaaay fancy pants.


So lesson learned: I need to prep for a longer warm up and I need to not forget to steer. 

14 comments:

  1. I don't know if this is any help at all but I would bet that the reason the remainder of your test was not scored was to help out the people who do the scoring. It sucks but at least you still got to jump. Can't wait to hear about that.

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    1. I am sure it was...even my one trainer was surprised they didnt finish scoring it though. Up until that I had all 7's and one 6.5 on my first trot circle...I REALLY wanted to know what my canter transitions were! We had some bucking the last time we rode this test in the transition lol

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    2. You made EN eventer problems #40!!!! Sorry I might have been a little excited when I recognized the picture :)

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    3. OMG I AM A CELEBRITY! bahahah thanks for pointing that out, totally made my day!

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  2. i'm super annoyed they didn't finish scoring your test too - it's a starter show, and what else did they have to do?!? oh well. it was a lovely test and the scores you *did* get showed that you were on the right track. and as Austen said - they only times a horse will step out of the ring are when the rider absolutely does not see it coming. now we know, i guess...

    seriously tho - it was disappointing to say the least, but you've got so much to be proud of in that test!

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    1. thank you and yea i really would have felt a smidge better if I got some scoring to go off of. But I guess it just means we have a lot of work to do at BN next year!

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  3. You're welcome! :)

    I thought the mare was super cute out there. She has some nice potential in both the dressage and jumping rings!!

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    1. Thank you! I hope to see you around more...and I wasnt kidding when I said Id love to have you come hop on her and have someone who knows what they are doing on her. Emma couldnt say enough about you with Izzy!

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  4. That does seem odd that they wouldn't continue scoring at a schooling trial. What a bummer. She does look really lovely when she's in the ring!

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    1. Thank you! I was so disappointed. I should try to find the test they left because it had a HUGE x through it which was like salt in the wound. But hey, we win some and lose some and now I know I need to own her right shoulder more!

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  5. Oh that's tough!! Naughty mare for leaving... but you guys looked great still.

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    1. She certainly keeps me on my toes! but Thank you!

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  6. Sounds like you have a great support team :) Lots of fancy dressagey moments too! Next time you'll be ready for her ring exit. :P

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    1. I hope so! She tried again the second time around...sneaky Tillie.

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