Schooling Show: Success

In summary: we rode Training 1 (68.9%), Training 2 (71.5%), and Training 3 (68.6%).

In practice: our haunches consistently swing left in the halt, leaving us with two 6.5's and a 7 despite what otherwise feel like really good centerlines to me - straight, forward, and prompt halts. The judge later told me to work on doing my halts through the walk in order to better control the hindquarters. (Duh, it's training level.)

Lesson learned.

My geometry was pretty solid, earning us 8's all over the place and even an 8.5, but the score I'm most excited about?

A 9.0 for a transition from trot to walk.

Our collectives were fine but nothing spectacular, 7.0's and several 6.5's for various issues. I did get a 7.5 for rider position and seat on training 2.

We had fun and it was really nice to see how Kat's energy played out, how she handled the show environment, but besides deciding I'll just have a longer walking warm up I can't say I learned all THAT much.

I learned more about myself and test riding from Elrond, but it's also true that at this point I've ridden these training tests a lot on other horses too, so perhaps it's about eradicating those 5.5's (I'm looking at you, 'working canter right lead' [the judge's comment: exuberant.])

I'm going to practice my halts a bit since over the three tests I think I threw a LOT of points away.

Tracey will continue to help me with the transitions.

After the test we got some coffee and fuel for the truck and headed home for a mercilessly traffic-free commute.