Saturday the Dressage show!

After friday's lesson there was alot of work to do, Ms. Lat had to have her mane braided and she had to be washed. When we returned to the farm I got started and finished about 6:00 but "The Big Girl" looked good, tomorrow morning time to go to the dressage show. (I am very lucky she does not rub out her braids.)

We arrived at the show about an hour before my first ride. We warmed up and waited for the class. The test went Ok but because of the lesson the day before we had a very difficult time trotting our 20 meter circle, Ms. Lat wanted to canter. Each time I would ask her to pick up the pace we would transition into the canter. After finishing our last 20 meter circle, Ms. Lat's mother lost her mind, she looked at K and thought around past A and change rein at F, DUH, what was I thinking. I heard the whisle, off course, so we circled again and came up the center line and saluted. Even with her mother's mental blip we still came in 3rd out of 5, I was shocked.

Determined to do better in B we worked some more on 20 meter circles and bending and transitions and moving forward. When we entered the ring for Intro B all went well except it was difficult moving her forward without her transitioning into a canter but we finished the test with out having another mind blip.

I approached the judge to get her comments and she asked me what breed Ms. Lat was and I proudly answered "She is a STANDARDBRED." The judge then said "Really, who would have thought." The judge then went on to explain to me that she can generally knows which horses are standardbreds because "They have a glich in their trot", that was a first for me, I had never heard that before, apparently my horse is "GLICH" free because she did not know her breed. In this class we also came in third but first and second received unbelievable scores, 1st score was 74% and 2nd was 67%. Ms. Lat and her challenged mother received a 61%.

Over all I was pleased with our performance. This Sunday, July 12, 2009 the Standardbred Pleasure Horse Organization of New Jersey is doing a long demo at the Horse Park of New Jersey on the versatility of the Standardbreds. We will be starting at 12:30 with a Parade of Versatility and then individual demonstrations in Driving, Hunt Seat, In-Hand, Western Pleasure, Eventing and Dressage. We will also host 2 or 3 meet and greet, where the public can come to our stalls and talk with us about the horses. If you are free please come by, we will be in the indoor arena. Hope to see you there.