Second Level Debut

Thank you all for the kind comments about our musical ride. Carmen also says thank you for the compliments on her writing. I haven't forgotten about my promise to do a draw for one of my sponsors. I plan to do that this weekend.

hello fans, do any of you have a carrot?

I can honestly say that I have never had so much at a show before. Part of it is because it's always been a life goal to do a musical freestyle. It did not disappoint- I loved it. Now I want to do more. 

I also used this show to try riding a second level test to see how it felt. I know that Carmen needs to be carrying more behind at this level and our mediums are not yet confirmed (at least in a show situation). On the other hand our shoulder/haunches in are pretty good and we can get a medium trot schooling at home. So I figured a fun show was the perfect place to try. 

You may recall that the show arena is one that Carmen has a history of being really spooky. 

Saturday night in my ride she was a bit of a handful. She got away from me a few times and I couldn't get her to stop. But once we were finished rehearsing I began to work on our transitions down being quite insistent when she did not listen. 

Sunday morning I took her to the warm up ring a few times to lunge and do groundwork. I think that really helped because when I got on for my warm up she was actually pretty good. Also helpful was that Karen coached me through it to make sure that I stayed focussed and didn't join in any melt down.

Here's the video of my test:

I will say that this is the best I've done staying focussed and not flustered riding a test. Our first SI she needed a some persuasion to not counter flex and look to the outside but we scrounged up a 6.5. For our second one she tried to evade and run away but I managed to correct her and get her back on track. That got us a 4.5 but the comment was awesome: 'disobedient. Good recovery'.

We picked up the wrong lead on the first transition- because she was trying to look outside and I wasn't preparing her soon enough. The medium was non-existent, mostly because I was working on keeping her straight. But our 10 metre circle was nice. And her counter canter was okay.

In terms of the ride overall, it was 'okay' in terms of the judge. For me though, it felt like a huge thing that we stayed on task and rode it through. I didn't get super tight and just kept schooling.  Our final score was 60.68 which was higher than I expected. And I got the comment 'good riding' so I'll take it.

Even more so, at the end of our ride Karen said something along the lines of 'you must be so proud of yourself with that ride'. And I was. Our bobbles would have been the same if we showed first level because they are more about her in the ring than with the movements. In some ways second level kept her busier and less able to find time to act up.

I love that we ended up with two pretty blue ribbons and were reserve champ in second level (of course there were only two of us showing that level but I will take it).

these ribbons are so pretty. I love them. 

Carmen tired and wanting to know
 if there are treats in that bag.