The day didn't go quite as planned, but we managed. First off, my mom got the stomach flu, so my photographers/grooms did not come out to the Derby! I was disappointed, but it wasn't the end of the world. I needed to stop by work quick that morning, and what I thought would be a quick 30 minutes to dash through my to-do list of emergencies was complicated by the fact that two of the partners were in! So a few extra resquests later, and one comment on my "Marty McFly" vest (a very nice Ariat vest that I was wearing to the show since it was sunny, but had a chilly wind). Hey, at least I put jeans on to go in, I was expecting a deserted office, and almost wore my breeches!
So with a late start and lacking help, my anxiety was rising. I also had been crazy busy the day before, so I hadn't cleaned tack, I at least had a reasonably clean horse, but was just feeling scattered and like I hadn't prepared correctly, which leaves me anxious. We made it there in good time, and got moving on getting ready.
I had packed my coat, white breeches and everything, but realized that with out a photography, my walk-trot test hardly justified such formal clothing. Since I was planning on wearing a polo for jumping, I just put that on. Then realized that my comfy, trusted, full seat schooling breeches were in the truck, and decided to dump the pretty white breeches for what I'm most comfortable in!
We got tacked up and went to the specified round pen to lunge, only to find someone else in there! I continued on to the other round pens, and found horses turned out! Ugh... After alerting ring stewards that I was REALLY late warming up and NEEDED a place to lunge someone moved a horse. Lola hardly needed to be lunged, but it gives me a chance to assess how she's moving, feeling, etc. We had a kick-ass lesson the day before, and she's always quiet, relaxed, and cooperative after those. So we literally had a 7 minute lunge session, and the I was ready to get on... except I had left everything at the trailer (helmet, reins, boots) thinking I was using the round pen right there within feet of the parking. So I checked in with the ring steward who said they were about 20 minutes behind, so I should be fine.
Thinking I had time, I took a longer route back to the trailer to walk her through the jump field since tons of people had taken their horses out to walk the course. I knew that she would look twice at the tire jump, it wasn't something we would be jumping, but we were going passing it on our direct route to another fence and if she spooked sideways I knew we'd miss our fence. As expected she got bug-eyed and scooted past it the first time, we mad a couple circles and continued back to the trailer.
I quickly gathered my things, threw my number on, and scurried back to the warm up arena. Upon checking in I learned that the rider in before me was in the ring already. Great! Not so behind as she had told me! The rider after me was ready to go, so she went first, and I had 5 minutes to warm up! NOT the best way to show!
We actually had a really decent test. Lola is always better worked daily, and, like I said, she is really willing and relaxed after good lesson days. We were doing the walk trot Into Test A, the one for 2011 is actually easier than the one from 2010! We had exactly what I expected. She bends better to the right than the left, she lowers her head well for the free walk, but doesn't really overstep and swing through her back. We got dinged for drifting, which was probably my nerves more than anything. And of course, she just needs to be more consistent in the contact. Here's the test:
The test was great! Respectable scores, and jumping to follow. More on that later... off to see the little red mare!
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