A number of firsts

No, not our places in the competitions, but close! Pipped at the post into second in P13, but with a score of more than 68% I wasn't worrying about that much :-)

It has to be said that the judge did not like our first test, although it felt good to me, and scored it only at just over 60%. My friend, on a horse who does not move nearly as well, scored 66% and won  the class. That really upset me, but my first "first" of the day is that I managed to put that behind me and get on with warming up for the second test.

The time had been over an hour and a half between the two tests, so for the first time ever we had untacked him and put him back on the lorry to wait. When he came off the lorry, he was most disgruntled and made it quite clear that he had expected to be driven home, not to have to work again. As a result I had to send him forwards and make him work, which I managed to do without losing my cool. Another first.

I had watched a couple of tests that the judge scored well, and realised that she was marking "forward", which for her  included "speed", more generously than she was marking balance, accuracy or cadence. So I sent him on slightly faster than I normally would, which also covered up the fact that he did not really want to work at all and was looking for things to spook at. It worked, and got us a string of 7's and 8's and some 6's.

Another two first - both tests completed without throwing a wobbler at any of the canter transitions, and a biggie - the first time he has actually trotted straight on straight lines. Normally he tries to shoulder in slightly on the track and he wobbles all over the place up the centre line. Not today.

So, I think he is ready to try a Novice next time, but I'll just check how hard the scheduled Novice is first. Some of them are almost Elementary level.

I am so pleased with him. He's so easy to manage and to ride that it's just a joy to take him any where. I'm looking forward to next week already.

C


I don't know if you can see from this picture how much bigger and stronger he is getting every day now. But you can see why we need to start  moving up the grades. He is developing his father's thick, short neck and his father's high head and neck carriage and he is never going to be able go in a prelim outline again. He is already carrying his neck at elementary level, just because of the way it's set onto his shoulders. It's very interesting to compare him with my friend's horse who bea tme in the first test, because her horse's neck is set on much lower, and he did a "perfect" prelim head carriage. The trouble is, if she ever gets to go higher, he's going to have much, much more trouble than Ace is producing the higher level neck shape.

And to prove it is entirely natural and I am not holding him there, this is a give and retake that we scored 8 for. He hardly changed shape at all when I gave him the reins.